Disappointing albums you've purchased...

S.D. wrote:

No Prayer For The Dying. I was a BIG fan of Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and was really disappointed by the huge step backward Maiden took on that album. I've tried several times over the years to revisit that record, but it still makes me angry after all these years. Maiden's batting average was perfect up until that record. It's just a very lazy record and feels slapped together with nowhere near the care of their earlier albums.

The b-sides from No Prayer are better than anything on the original album.

Man, I must be a Maiden fanboy-extreme. There's not a single Maiden album I've heard that I didn't like. (The only one I've never listened to is Virtual XI).

I actually thoroughly enjoy the majority of No Prayer, it's not classic by any means, but entertaining enough, imo.

No Prayer and Fear Of The Dark are both kind of "scattered" albums, they each have some good songs, but they don't hang together like a cohesive whole. Too much flailing around trying to deal with Adrian Smith's departure and also trying to stay relevant in a changing musical climate. Those two records sound rudderless.

S.D. wrote:

No Prayer For The Dying. I was a BIG fan of Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son and was really disappointed by the huge step backward Maiden took on that album. I've tried several times over the years to revisit that record, but it still makes me angry after all these years. Maiden's batting average was perfect up until that record. It's just a very lazy record and feels slapped together with nowhere near the care of their earlier albums.

The b-sides from No Prayer are better than anything on the original album.

I'm not familiar with the B-Sides, but I sort of have to agree with this. The only song I love on that album is "Fates Warning".

S.D. wrote:

No Prayer and Fear Of The Dark are both kind of "scattered" albums, they each have some good songs, but they don't hang together like a cohesive whole. Too much flailing around trying to deal with Adrian Smith's departure and also trying to stay relevant in a changing musical climate. Those two records sound rudderless.

The band aren't even fans of No Prayer! Bruce being the most vocal - he in fact said that he felt they didn't put enough effort into it and he hates the production! They used Rolling Stone Mobile and I think his comment was that it was out of date when Birch used it to record Machine Head!

That one was a bit of a let down to me. I liked it, but didn't feel it was anywhere near as good as the seven that proceed it. Personally, I think the best tracks from No Prayer and Fear would make a great album. Fear was a step in the right direction, but didn't do very well in the US - it did much better over seas.

The 90's albums are my least favorite Maiden albums. I think if the best tracks from X and XI were on one album, it would be a much stronger album. I'm still not a fan of Blaze in Maiden. As far as I am concerned, so far Maiden have released 11 classic studio albums and 4 average studio albums.

thejokeriv wrote:

That one was a bit of a let down to me. I liked it, but didn't feel it was anywhere near as good as the seven that proceed it. Personally, I think the best tracks from No Prayer and Fear would make a great album. Fear was a step in the right direction, but didn't do very well in the US - it did much better over seas.

The 90's albums are my least favorite Maiden albums. I think if the best tracks from X and XI were on one album, it would be a much stronger album. I'm still not a fan of Blaze in Maiden. As far as I am concerned, so far Maiden have released 11 classic studio albums and 4 average studio albums.

I agree with this 100%.

Raven - Stay Hard

After listening and REALLY loving Live At The Inferno(which was my introduction to Raven. I still LOVE that album!!!) they came out with this and it suffered the same fate as MC with Theater Of Shame and I never listened to another Raven album released after that!

I should probably revisit it......... It has been over 20years..........

"Fear of the Dark" is great album, right up on par with the rest of the classics, in my own books anyway.

I was quite disappointed when I bought the following albums, all of which were blind purchases as I've been fan of the bands up to that point:

TESTAMENT - The Ritual (replacing top-notch thrash metal for a 3-rd rate heavy metal snoozefest... ugh!)
CORONER - Grin (I was angry for months after hearing this piece-o-crap! Sellout with capital S)
OVERKILL - I Hear Black (I only heard junk...)
SWORD - Sweet Dreams (HUGE step down from the brilliant debut, felt like completely different band altogether)
RUNNING WILD - Shadowmaker (Rolf Kasparek, you have committed high treason and shall be keel-hauled, naked!)

Loudness - Heavy Metal Hippies

stormspell wrote:

TESTAMENT - The Ritual (replacing top-notch thrash metal for a 3-rd rate heavy metal snoozefest... ugh!)
CORONER - Grin (I was angry for months after hearing this piece-o-crap! Sellout with capital S)
OVERKILL - I Hear Black (I only heard junk...)

I like all three albums.

Grin is an amazing record that I can't understand why anyone other than a complete close-minded thrash snob would dislike. It's as far from a "sell-out" as you can possibly get, it's an intelligent and expertly played album that builds off the foundation of Mental Vortex. The guitar work is stunning on that album. This trio was expanding their sound into very unique areas yet it was still completely "un-commercial".

I Hear Black suffers from a rather flat production and a bad track order, but some EQ and switch the songs around and it comes alive.

stormspell wrote:

"Fear of the Dark" is great album, right up on par with the rest of the classics, in my own books anyway.

I was quite disappointed when I bought the following albums, all of which were blind purchases as I've been fan of the bands up to that point:

TESTAMENT - The Ritual (replacing top-notch thrash metal for a 3-rd rate heavy metal snoozefest... ugh!)

I dig "Fear Of the Dark" too, much much better than any of the post Blaze Bailey prog weird stuff that they have done, "No Prayer for the Dying" was inexcusably bad, I never liked even one song off that album

TESTAMENT's "The Ritual" imho is pretty solid and consistent, No complaints for that one

Yeah, "The Ritual" is one of my biggest let-downs of all-time.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Yeah, "The Ritual" is one of my biggest let-downs of all-time.

I thought Souls Of Black was an incredibly boring album that showed a band stuck in a creative rut they didn't know how to escape from. I liked The Ritual much more because it proved they were more than just a one-trick thrash pony.

Yep, "Souls of Black" sounded like a 'one-take' rushed album... Skolnick's playing was pale and robotic as if he lifted all of his solos from a guitar instructional book or something

glad he came back with a vengeance in "The Ritual" which I believe is his finest work to date

Obituary-Back From the Dead. Sounded very uninspired and stale.

I remember buying Megadeth's Risk and being absolutely disappointed with it. I had actually heard some hype about it, prior to it's original release date.

Exodus' Force of Habit was originally disappointing, but that one has grown on me over the years.

I actually enjoy Maiden's No Prayer for the Dying. Virtual XI was my big disappointment in Maiden's discography.

brokentulsa wrote:

Stryper...reborn
Ac/dc...black ice
Reckless love... animal attraction
Ozzy...bark at the moon
Ted Nugent...weekend warrior
Keel...streets of rock n roll

I agree with STRYPER and KEEL. I think STREETS OF ROCK N ROLL is not totaly a bad album (no modern influences at least on it) but some songs are not very good. About REBORN, it was just to modern. The last one is much better. I didnt buy yet the last RECKLESS LOVE album. Is ANIMAL ATTRACTION very different from their debut????. About BARK AT THE MOON, its one of my fave albums by OZZY and the AC/DC and TED NUGENT albums are not bad either imo of couse.

Temple of Blood wrote:

mc666 wrote:

Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction. had such high hopes for this after RIP.

I enjoyed it. "Youthanasia" is the one I really couldn't get into much.

+1

EmoElmo wrote:

Yep, "Souls of Black" sounded like a 'one-take' rushed album... Skolnick's playing was pale and robotic as if he lifted all of his solos from a guitar instructional book or something

glad he came back with a vengeance in "The Ritual" which I believe is his finest work to date

Souls of Black sounds like that because it was an album rushed out so the band could go on tour with Metallica. It sounds like an album of half baked ideas to me.

S.D. wrote:

stormspell wrote:

TESTAMENT - The Ritual (replacing top-notch thrash metal for a 3-rd rate heavy metal snoozefest... ugh!)
CORONER - Grin (I was angry for months after hearing this piece-o-crap! Sellout with capital S)
OVERKILL - I Hear Black (I only heard junk...)

I like all three albums.

Grin is an amazing record that I can't understand why anyone other than a complete close-minded thrash snob would dislike. It's as far from a "sell-out" as you can possibly get, it's an intelligent and expertly played album that builds off the foundation of Mental Vortex. The guitar work is stunning on that album. This trio was expanding their sound into very unique areas yet it was still completely "un-commercial".

I Hear Black suffers from a rather flat production and a bad track order, but some EQ and switch the songs around and it comes alive.

I am a big fan of I Hear Black and I also enjoy The Ritual. I am unfamiliar with Grin.

Witchfinder wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

Yep, "Souls of Black" sounded like a 'one-take' rushed album... Skolnick's playing was pale and robotic as if he lifted all of his solos from a guitar instructional book or something

glad he came back with a vengeance in "The Ritual" which I believe is his finest work to date

Souls of Black sounds like that because it was an album rushed out so the band could go on tour with Metallica. It sounds like an album of half baked ideas to me.

And yet for some reason, I really like Souls Of Black. It's not spectacular but still solid nonetheless,at least to me.

Souls of Black is decent, great title song and a couple others but it ranks low (ha!) in their catalog.

Witchfinder wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

Yep, "Souls of Black" sounded like a 'one-take' rushed album... Skolnick's playing was pale and robotic as if he lifted all of his solos from a guitar instructional book or something

glad he came back with a vengeance in "The Ritual" which I believe is his finest work to date

Souls of Black sounds like that because it was an album rushed out so the band could go on tour with Metallica. It sounds like an album of half baked ideas to me.

They went out with Judas Priest, not Metallica.

Leatherface wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

Yep, "Souls of Black" sounded like a 'one-take' rushed album... Skolnick's playing was pale and robotic as if he lifted all of his solos from a guitar instructional book or something

glad he came back with a vengeance in "The Ritual" which I believe is his finest work to date

Souls of Black sounds like that because it was an album rushed out so the band could go on tour with Metallica. It sounds like an album of half baked ideas to me.

They went out with Judas Priest, not Metallica.

i don't know why I thought Metallica but are you sure they toured with Priest? I know they were on the European leg of Clash of the Titans.

S.D. wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

Yeah, "The Ritual" is one of my biggest let-downs of all-time.

I thought Souls Of Black was an incredibly boring album that showed a band stuck in a creative rut they didn't know how to escape from. I liked The Ritual much more because it proved they were more than just a one-trick thrash pony.

Souls Of Black was the first Testament album that I had heard and if I had not heard "Practice" or "Formation" I probably would have written them off altogether. My impression was that they were trying really hard to be Metallica on that album. The other albums sound like Testament, but for some reason, Souls Of Black still sounds like a bad Metallica album.

Witchfinder wrote:

Leatherface wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

EmoElmo wrote:

Yep, "Souls of Black" sounded like a 'one-take' rushed album... Skolnick's playing was pale and robotic as if he lifted all of his solos from a guitar instructional book or something

glad he came back with a vengeance in "The Ritual" which I believe is his finest work to date

Souls of Black sounds like that because it was an album rushed out so the band could go on tour with Metallica. It sounds like an album of half baked ideas to me.

They went out with Judas Priest, not Metallica.

i don't know why I thought Metallica but are you sure they toured with Priest? I know they were on the European leg of Clash of the Titans.

They did tour with Judas Priest during that same tour