Metal Reviews

According to MR's convention, a masterpiece is an album you would rate from 90-99.

So let's talk about when a band releases masterpieces after masterpieces, a killing spree, unstoppable if you will.

So, who has, in you opinion, released the highest number of masterpieces in a row ?

I'll start with MAIDEN, with FIVE masterpieces in a row between 1982 and 1988. The Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind, Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, ALL of them deserve a score in the 90's IMO (hell, 7th son deserves a 100).

I think the sequence is not only bigger 'cause I give Killers a 85, and No Prayer a 75.

Oh and by the way, if the new Kamelot album rates in the 90's, they'll make five masterpieces in a row too, since everything they did since The Fourth Legacy is fucking godly !!

Blind Guardian should be noted. I personally think they nailed it with Somewhere Far beyond, Imaginations From the Other Side, and Nightfall in Middle Earth in a row. before and after those are Tales from the Twilight World and A Night at the Opera, which also come pretty close. If ANATO had better production values and TFTTW did not include Tommyknockers, it would have been five for me. Still, that's a good run.

All in all though, I have to bow to Iron Maiden. Few bands of any kind have ever put out such a long string of top notch albums.

Nevermore's entire career.

I was gonna say Nightwish has had a good run, receiving 98, 95, 98 on their last 3 and then I got to wondering, where in the fuck is a review for Oceanborn? Anyways, I think it would recieve a similar score and say Nightwish has had 4 insanely kickass albums in a row.

5 actually, but this site doesnt seem to share my opinion of AFF.

Include it anyway. If I'm not mistaken, this thread is about what you score the albums, not what the site scores them.

I agree with Nevermore and Nightwish. Both haven't a bad album, all masterpieces except for Nightwish's Angels Fall First, due to it basically being a glorified demo.

Devin Townsend, for sure.

You're right, I got confuzzled by the first line in the post and ignored the "In your opinion part" lol. Anyways, yeah, Nightwish, 5 in a row, gorified demo or not, its damn good

I'll think of some more later, I gotta get to bed!

Word!

Cancel out the Nevermore and Nightwish, second the Blind Guardian and Iron Maiden!

I'd also nominate Kreator and Overkill for their five first amazing albums.

The first five Megadeth and Metallica album—no diggity, no doubt.

Symphony X
Bruce Dickinson -solo

...imo

There isn't an outright bad album among them, but So Far So Good So What and Metallica aren't even very good, never mind masterpieces.

I second that, all Nevermore are solid but not all masterpieces.

For me, the band with the best run in metal is Virgin Steele, by far. The five albums between TMOHAH part I and THOA part II are as deserving of the masterpiece label as Maiden or Guadian's finest, or even more. Too bad they sort of broke that run with Visions of Eden.

Regarding Megadeth and Metallica, I think Metallica maybe has a THREE masterpiece sequence (ride-puppets-justice), and Megadeth FOUR (peace sells-so far-rust-countdown). To me, these seven deserve 90, 91 tops, except for Rust In Peace, of course, which deserves a 100.

Still, me thinks no one can beat Maiden with FIVE.

Savatage - 1987-1993 had a really good run. Chain kinda broke off at Handful of Rain, still a good album however. (4 albums)

Gamma Ray, every album from Land of The Free ('95) till their latest ('05) has been amazing. (5 albums)

Elvenking, even though I like Wyrd the least, its still an excellent album which makes 3 kickass albums and one kickass EP, which so far means they havent released anything bad. (3 albums)

Tarot Have been releasing classic albums their whole career. I dare say this is one of the most consistant bands ever, you basically always know what you're getting. (7 albums)

Sonata Arctica
Nightwish

You can argue So Far So Good, but the black album is a masterpiece. Maybe not to the metal purist, but there isn't a bad song on that album. Not even close.

Guess.

OK, based on a comment in one of the review threads, I think we're using the word "masterpiece" too literally. I take that word to just equate to an awesome album. There are very few TRUE masterpieces out there.

+1

... and by the way, Maiden's 5 sequence is made of REALLY, TRUE masterpieces.