Magnum Opus? More Like Magnum Nopus

[Benji]

What are some albums/songs by bands do you think are better than their "Magnum Opus"?

For me, "Warning" by Green Day is a far more interesting album than "Dookie" or "American Idiot". I love how folk-influenced it is and the stories which are told in it.

[Hellraiser]

I always liked Somewhere In Time, Powerslave, Piece Of Mind and Number Of The Beast more than Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son which is considered to be Iron Maiden's Magnum Opus by many metalheads. The consensus seems to be that Maiden's musical declins started with No Prayer For The Dying. To me it started with Seventh Son. I don't consider it a bad album though. Just not as good as it's predecessors.

I also enjoy Blind Guardian's Somewhere Far Beyond and Tales From The Twilight World more than Imaginations From The Other Side.

And Gamma Ray's Heading For Tomorrow and Somewhere Out In Space are better than Land Of The Free.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Hellraiser

[Sousa]

2 hours ago, Benji said:

What are some albums/songs by bands do you think are better than their "Magnum Opus"?

For me, "Warning" by Green Day is a far more interesting album than "Dookie" or "American Idiot". I love how folk-influenced it is and the stories which are told in it.

Warning rules, this is an excellent opinion. Honestly Dookie doesn't do much for me beyond the singles (and Nimrod had better singles anyway) and American Idiot is just... important for them I guess but it's weird how it feels so much more dated than any of the other albums, even the older ones.

[GA!]

I prefer Metallica's 'Load' and 'Reload' to their self-titled and 'Master of Puppets' albums. I like the thrash stuff, but they were way more interesting as an experimental hard-rock band.

Manic Street Preachers' opuses (opusii?) are 'The Holy Bible' and 'Everything Must Go', but I rate 'Lifeblood' - which the band themselves claim to hate - over them. It's just twelve songs of lovely synth-pop.

Deftones' later work > earlier work.

 

 

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Foo Fighters: Echoes Silence Patience and Grace is better than The Colour and The Shape in my personal opinion.

[HarshMillennium]

I always liked Disturbed's "Believe" album, where as their others were way more popular, successful and gained more attention.

[Hellraiser]

Judas Priest: Screaming For Vengeance & Defenders Of The Faith over Painkiller. In general 80s Priest > 70s Priest

Accept: Balls To The Wall is considered to be their Magnum Opus but my favorite by them is Russian Roulette. Very underrated record.

Slayer: I enjoy South Of Heaven more than Reign In Blood

Dio: Last In Line, Sacred Heart and Dream Evil are all better than Holy Diver

Ensiferum: My guess would be that most metalheads would consider one of the two Mäenpää albums their Magnum Opus. My favorite is Victory Songs.

Iron Savior: Rise Of The Hero And The Landing over their selftiteled debut.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Hellraiser

[Adam]

4 hours ago, GA! said:

I prefer Metallica's 'Load' and 'Reload' to their self-titled and 'Master of Puppets' albums. I like the thrash stuff, but they were way more interesting as an experimental hard-rock band.

I'm maybe one of the few who totally agrees with this. I love their thrash stuff for what it was but their late 90's albums were great and my favourite song of all time is actually off Load. I love all of the stuff that came before then but honestly think the best stuff of those two albums tops the lot.

[Bobfoc]

5 hours ago, GA! said:

I prefer Metallica's 'Load' and 'Reload' to their self-titled and 'Master of Puppets' albums. I like the thrash stuff, but they were way more interesting as an experimental hard-rock band.

I go in the opposite direction. I prefer Ride the Lightning.

[VerbalPuke]

Under the Big Black Sun by X is one for me. I think a lot of their fans would consider Wild Gift or Los Angeles their best work. I really think Under the Big Black Sun was their best work, it’s a more diverse and interesting than the first two albums. That said, Wild Gift and Los Angeles are both very good. 

[GoGo Yubari]

The best Beatles song is "You Never Give Me Your Money," off of Abbey Road. Had it been released as a single instead of considered as a part of a medley I'm convinced it'd be considered one of their all-time bests.

[OctoberRaven]

Dark Saga and Night of the Stormrider are amazing, but I consider The Glorious Burden to be Iced Earth's best album. I'm not saying Ripper was better than Barlow (or Stu Block for that matter), but the whole band was just on point for Burden and it's probably Schaffer's best composed work and even the annoyingly preachy Valley Forge is still a well written song.

EDIT- Even more controversial: My favorite Rush album is Clockwork Angels.

Edited March 1, 2018 by OctoberRavenO

[GhostMachine]

To me, Metallica's best album is either Ride The Lightning or ....And Justice For All, not Master of Puppets or the Black Album. And I prefer the Black Album over MoP. (St. Anger and Death Magnetic are both meh....)

People argue over whether Def Leppard's best album is Hysteria or Pyromania. It's Pyromania, by a mile. High N Dry is a better album overall than Hysteria. Hysteria only gets the nod because of the song Pour Some Sugar On Me, and it isn't even the best song on the album. Or second best. Or third best.

And I totally agree with Hellraiser about Maiden and Priest.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by GhostMachine

[Skummy]

I think Metallica have long suffered from a crisis of confidence in figuring out what people expect them to be - not helped by giving themselves a name that actively pigeonholes them.

St. Anger is obviously ridiculed now, and was an absolutely atrocious album, but I remember the hype for it being released - all the interviews in Kerrang! and Metal Hammer and so on, the band were talking about how it was a "return to their roots", how they listened to fans' criticisms after Load and Re-Load, and they went back to the studio to record something heavy and loud. St Anger happened because Metallica thought that's what people wanted.

Load and Re-Load, while massively flawed, I find interesting just because they seem to be the last example of Metallica recording what they wanted, rather than trying to second guess their audience. It was a chance to see how the band might mature, and what they'd do left up to their own devices - something akin to Iggy Pop releasing his weird French jazz-influenced stuff, or Wino Weinrich deciding to release an acoustic album. You had interesting stuff like Marianne Faithfull's contribution to "The Memory Remains", James Hetfield exploring his country singer ambitions in "Mama Said", and so on - and I'll lump "I Disappear" in with it as a pre-St Anger Metallica song, and I think one of their most interesting singles. Since then, I just don't think that they've allowed themselves to explore, grow or experiment - which was a shame when they had Jason Newsted in the band, it's a travesty when they have a bassist and songwriter as good as Rob Trujillo at their disposal.

 

Personally, I'd probably lean towards Ride The Lightning as their best album - "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is one of their few songs that I'd still listen to now, and feels like a perfect middle-ground between the earlier pure thrash metal and the more "sophisticated" songcraft of the Black Album, having the best elements of both.

Master Of Puppets I think is pretty overrated - the title track in particular, which seems to be considered an "epic", but really just feels like a lot of Kirk Hammett guitar wankery, and very disjointed; it feels like two or three songs that have been awkwardly mashed together, rather than flowing naturally from one section to another.

"...And Justice For All" has "One" on it, which is a strong contender for their best song, but otherwise I hate the record. The production of it really puts me off - the bass is practically inaudible, and for me a good bassline is at the heart of good heavy metal. It feels like a concerted effort to marginalise Jason Newsted's contribution, and it hurts the album's sound to have so little going on at the low end.

The Black Album is probably their most well-rounded, though - I'd say the songs on there are the best written, and it's as good an overview of everything the band is about as anything they ever released, but I do think that some of it suffers from over-production, especially Sad But True, which could benefit from feeling a little rougher around the edges.

[GhostMachine]

"For Whom The Bell Tolls" is my hands down favorite Metallica song. But the title track on "Ride The Lightning" sounds more like Megadeth (and I know Dave Mustaine was still in Metallica at the time) than Metallica. But I rarely listen to any of the last four tracks aside from "Creeping Death". RTL has my favorite cover art for a Metallica album, though.

The production on ...And Justice For All is bad, but the only song on it I don't like is the last one, Dyers Eve.

 

[VerbalPuke]

I remembered on.e 

Alice Cooper. I think a lot of people probably figure Billion Dollar Babies as his best. I like his second album as my favorite, Easy Action. It's a really well rounded album, some of it feeling like early punk, some retaining some of that psychedelic 60s garage stuff, and Alice Cooper showing glimpses of what they'd become. 

I actually love Alice Cooper in general, he's fucking great. They're great. Alice Cooper the guy and the band I like. 

[livid]

Wish You Were Here is better than Dark Side of the Moon.

[Liam]

Not so controversial, but I remember being one of the few people back in the day who preferred 'The Bends' to 'OK Computer' by Radiohead.

[METALMAN]

23 hours ago, livid said:

Wish You Were Here is better than Dark Side of the Moon.

Obvs. I don’t really like the Pink Floyds. And I’m not even one of those Pink Floyds dislikers who likes the Syd Barrett stuff. Because the Syd Barrett stuff is even worse than the noodly Dave Gilmour stuff. Some people pretend to like the Syd Barrett stuff because they think it makes them seem cool but they really ought to go back and listen to it: it’s shit.

So is Dark Side of the Moon, although it’s not quite as shit.

Wish You Were Here is quite good though.

[VerbalPuke]

I like the Syd Barrett stuff better. 

And everybody already thinks I’m cool so it’s not that.