What is your Least favorite album by your Favorite band????

Never Say Die, and that includes the whole output.

Cold Lake was stoopid on purpose, and one of the most fun albums I ever heard. I loved it.

This is a tough one for me because, besides KISS, I don't know if there is a band, especially those that have been around a long time, that I've heard every album. There is usually an era where I lose interest, that includes my all-time favorite bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

Even my favorite hard rock/metal band KISS, I lost interest during Hot In The Shade through Carnival of Souls years, so I've only heard those albums a few times. I remember not liking Revenge or Hot In The Shade, but there were a couple songs off the latter ("Silver Spoon" and "Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell") I liked. I guess, to be different since Hot In The Shade has already gotten some votes, I'll say:

KISS--Revenge

Metallica - Reload
Megadeth - Risk
AC/DC - Blow up Your Video (Still pretty good)
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
Iron Maiden - No Prayer For The Dying
Judas Priest - Demolition
Manowar - Lord of Steel
Led Zeppelin - In Through the out Door
Kiss - Unmasked

Fat Freddy wrote:

Ramones - Pleasant Dreams

Wow, I think this is one of their best. It's hard for me to quantify or order their first seven, as I think they are all fantastic from end to end...but if I had to PD would probably be near the top.

I enjoy all of the Ramones albums, and I know that just because PD would be your least favorite doesn't mean you don't like it...but you really like it less than Too Tough to Die and Brain Drain, as examples?

Again, I like those records, but I'd probably put one of those as my least favorite by the band...even though they are still killer (and Too Tough has two of my favorite tracks by the band on it).

^^ I like all the Ramones stuff to some degree (I'm a fanboy) but Pleasant Dreams seems to be the album that gets the least play... Too Tough To Die is actually my favorite outside of the first four... Brain Drain is kinda weak tho, I have to agree with you there.

Fates Warning - Disconected and The Spectre Within
Disconeected being the most mechanical and "cold", have to be in the mood to listen to it, and the latter - John Arch tend to annoy the hell out of me with his voice on that one on some days.

Accept - Death Row. Doesn't need an explanation.

Can't think of any others, since most of my favorites have one or two releases at best or whole eras I'm not fond of.

I could throw in Fates Warning - Inside Out.....

Totally going to cheat and wander off the metal reservation. I'm sure I'll leave some out here, but let's see what I can list AND actually give some kind of reasoning behind.   

Rush - Caress of Steel

Ok, this one is probably not terribly controversial. Aside from Bastille Day, this is an album that shows they have higher amibitions and probably need to put the bong down for a few hours to actually write GOOD material that lives up to those ambitions. The big suites on this album are some of the few pieces of "prog" that actually make me cringe.


Savatage - Dead Winter Dead

It's not totally unsalvageable, but all of the worst excesses of the Zak Stevens era are on display here: all of the "OH TEH HUMANITY!" conceits, heavy concepts, vocals that sound about as invested as Phil Spector's defense team, etc. Considering how good the previous two albums with Zak were and how good the following two ended up being, this is a real disappointment even if you're not comparing it to the early stuff with Jon. Speaking of, this was my first exposure to Jon's voice many years ago and the songs were so forgettable (and the vocals so unmusical) that I wondered why anyone gave a crap about this guy as a singer. A total disservice, knowing what I know now. TSO-lite, which is saying something.


Pink Floyd - Ummagumma

Drudgery. Prog rock as homework assignment. Rather uninspired live sides combined with rather uninspired studio sides. "Grantchester Meadows" is probably the only good recording between both platters - even if the opening Mellotron riff in Sysiphus Part 1 slams.


Soundgarden - Down on the Upside

You can tell this is the sound of a band imploding. There are enough GREAT songs to have made a classic EP, but this album is schizophrenic as hell - not in a good way. Comes off like an uneven mix CD. (I'm leaving out the reunion CD because it's bad enough that I don't consider it "canon" in their discography  )


Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party

Yeah, I know this has all of their singles, but the album is BORING. Dry production, the sense that the 80s party anthem gimmick is ruling the day, and some songs that sounded way better on the live albums than they ever did on the record because the band sounded INVESTED on stage in a way they never did in these grooves. If someone had to pass on ONE Boingo album, this is they one they can give a pass.


Porcupine Tree - Everything after In Absentia

Ok, this is a stretch, but In Absentia was and is a masterpiece. Everything after felt like a really feeble attempt to check the right prog boxes by putting in tricky passages and weird time signatures and to check the right metal boxes by putting in chugga-chugga riffs and double bass drums. Where the hybrid worked before, it felt forced on everything I'd heard afterwards. Sad thing too, because it was a really neat intersection of sounds they'd crafted up to that point. Lightbulb Sun and Stupid Dream are also total classics and use the same formula, but had much tighter songwriting.

Megadeth - The World Needs a Hero
It's no wonder Dave split the band up, then reformed with intentions to do a solo career (what was supposed to be the true return to form, The System Has Failed). His bragging hard-headed self boasted this album was a return to form. With intense certainty, on top of that. Bullshit, Dave. Total f*cking bullshit.

Death Angel - The Art of Dying
Nothing truly offensive to the ears for me, but I really found nothing truly memorable here. All 11 songs are there, nothing to grab onto.

Deicide - Incineratehymn [tied with In Torment in Hell]
"Bible Basher." 'Nuff said.

Exodus - The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A
Words cannot describe how much I loathe this album. Modernizing their sound was eventual, there was no escaping this. But, man, I can't believe how much hype this album got. The final result are eight songs (not counting the one instrumental) that ring empty and hollow with their intense speed, propagated with song lengths that serve only to bloat and not fill.

Job for a Cowboy - Doom
The Doom EP, the famous, or infamous depending on who you're talking to, EP that catapulted this Arizona band to unheralded levels of fame practically overnight. They're also given credit for the creation of the highly polarizing genre of metal known as deathcore. Whether this band is that genre's forefathers or not, I hate this album. I grew to hate it as I got older when I heard their progression towards the modern death metal sound.

Lamb of God - Sacrament
I hated this album the moment I heard it. And it's truly sad because it has my favorite LoG song ever made, "Beating on Death's Door." This was the band getting an even heftier production job than they had on their last album with fans accusing the band of "selling out" or being "too modern" with their production and sound; when the fans themselves that Lamb of God have always been mainstream ever since they changed their name.

Lacuna Coil - Shallow Life
It was mostly the image that prevented me from giving this album an initial try. Well, after finally succumbing to pressures to give this album a shot and have an opinion all my own, I quickly learned it didn't matter what I thought because the critics were right... A further deviation from their roots with a stylistic change that didn't do anything for the band but homogenize them and make them just another band to pass on by.

Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
After enough listens of other Pantera albums before and after this one, I found this one to be their weakest and not at all my favorite. I even like Reinventing the Steel over this. It just gets REALLY stale over time.

Running Wild - Shadowmaker
I didn't listen to it all the way. Yes, forgive me, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I nearly wanted to cry when I heard what the mighty Running Wild had been reduced to. Yes, their heyday was far behind them, but even in their worst moments (The Brotherhood and Rogues En Vogue), there were still gems to be found. Not here and it infuriates me. Resilient is better, but not by miles.

My least favorite Pantera album is Reinventing the Steel, the band just sounded tired and worn out for the most part on that album.

Dave actually split up Megadeth briefly because he got a nerve injury n his arm that left him unable to play guitar.

I think you should definitely listen to Shadowmaker all the way through, it's really not fair to judge an album before you've heard the entire thing, it's not Running Wild's finest hour, but it's better then say Victory.

I think Shadow Life is a solid LC release, the critics can kiss my ass on that one.

Well, I tried to go with the original premise of the thread and go with what my least favorite is out of the albums I actually like from these bands. However, there's a few that are outright horrible that I just can't stand that had to be mentioned. Marked them with a * just to be clear on the differences.

Iron Maiden- No Prayer For The Dying
Judas Priest- Demolition*
Soundgarden- Down On The Upside
Van Halen- Diver Down
Megadeth- Risk*
Metallica- ...And Justice For All
Slayer- God Hates Us All*
Motley Crue- Girls, Girls, Girls
Blue Oyster Cult- The Revolution By Night/Club Ninja (too tough to decide)

Icy Grave wrote:

Running Wild - Shadowmaker
I didn't listen to it all the way. Yes, forgive me, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I nearly wanted to cry when I heard what the mighty Running Wild had been reduced to. Yes, their heyday was far behind them, but even in their worst moments (The Brotherhood and Rogues En Vogue), there were still gems to be found. Not here and it infuriates me. Resilient is better, but not by miles.

I think "Riding On The Tide" and "Sailing Fire" are gems.

Short-Fuse wrote:

Kyuss-Wretch
Nuclear Assault-3rd World Genocide
Dark Angel-Leave Scars
Monster Magnet-Monolithic Baby
Exodus-Let there be Blood
Into Eternity-The Incurable Tragedy
Wrathchild America-3-D
Overkill-I Hear Black
Hawkwind-Church of Hawkwind
Angkor Wat-Corpus Christi

Leave Scars is an album that to me can easily rival "Reign in Blood". I Hear Black is one of my favourite Overkill albums. just my 2 cents , mmmmmmmmkay ?

The Elusive Ze_Mau strikes again!

I know this is going to be a controversial choice, but for Slayer I would have to say Reign in Blood is my least favorite album of theirs, I mostly agree with Scott's review. It's not a bad album, but aside from Raining Blood and Angel of Death, most of the songs just don't do that much for me, it gets the least amount of play time compared to their other albums.

Vexer6 wrote:

I know this is going to be a controversial choice, but for Slayer I would have to say Reign in Blood is my least favorite album of theirs, I mostly agree with Scott's review.  It's not a bad album, but aside from Raining Blood and Angel of Death, most of the songs just don't do that much for me, it gets the least amount of play time compared to their other albums.

Not controversial to me. Always thought that album was overrated. Raining Blood and Angel of Death are awesome though. I still think their first two albums were better.

ultmetal wrote:

Vexer6 wrote:

I know this is going to be a controversial choice, but for Slayer I would have to say Reign in Blood is my least favorite album of theirs, I mostly agree with Scott's review.  It's not a bad album, but aside from Raining Blood and Angel of Death, most of the songs just don't do that much for me, it gets the least amount of play time compared to their other albums.

Not controversial to me. Always thought that album was overrated. Raining Blood and Angel of Death are awesome though. I still think their first two albums were better.

Yep. I think their next two were better, as well.

Reign in Blood is certainly Overrated , BUT there are more than "2 good songs" there. Piece by Piece , Altar of Sacrifice , Reborn , Epidemic , Post Mortem are all great songs. I just can´t stand these: Criminally Insane and Jesus Saves. these 2 songs are pieces of poop to me. Necrophobic is OK , not a "great" tune , but acceptable.

The album is overrated , but its NOT by any means a "bad" album. But Darkness Descends and Leave Scars By Dark Angel are much better than this Slayer record to me. Still I´m a Huge Slayer fan, but NOT the "inconditional" type of fan of the band.

My least fave by Slayer is God Hates Us All , pure "yo , yo , yo" Nu "Metal" BS.

Curious thing with "Jesus Saves" , the slow part on the begginning is great , raises a lot of expectation from the listener , but then the actual song begins ... uninspired hardcorish riffs that have never done anything to me ...

Judas Priest - Demolition
Running Wild - Shadowmaker (yuck...)
Candlemass - Psalms of the Dead

I'm sure there's more, but these stand out.

Well I can't believe that I'm in the minority that loves Reign in Blood, all of it, from start to finish. Sure Hell Awaits and Seasons are better records, but it's still amazing.

Boris2008 wrote:

Well I can't believe that I'm in the minority that loves Reign in Blood, all of it, from start to finish. Sure Hell Awaits and Seasons are better records, but it's still amazing.

I just think most of the songs are too short and repetitive.

Vexer6 wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

Well I can't believe that I'm in the minority that loves Reign in Blood, all of it, from start to finish. Sure Hell Awaits and Seasons are better records, but it's still amazing.

I just think most of the songs are too short and repetitive.

Short fast songs were just what was happening at the time. It's a blast of speed and raw aggression just like a lot of thrash in 1986. They did need to vary tempos and such on the next record (and they did) but I think that it sums up that year perfectly. I discovered Napalm Death in '86 so the songs didn't seem that short   

I have to revoke my Stryper--Reborn listing and say The Covering instead. I forgot about that one since it's their only album that I don't keep on my iPod. "God" is a great song, but as for the cover songs, I'd rather just listen to the originals.