Bad Albums By Good Bands...Where Do You Stand?

Motley Crue

Four albums with just one thing in common - they all suck - or so say the collective fan-bases and music critics of the Internet, and to a further extent, the world.

Taste is a weird thing, especially when it comes to music, since we can't seem to decide on what we like or what the greatest album is but we can seem to say with certainty what the worst album is. The Darkness aside, the other three bands featured here all have long and fulfilling careers - toured the world several times over and their surviving members are now rich beyond their wildest dreams - yet fans can pick fault with any major artists catalogue and produce an album where it's universally agreed that ****ed up big style or one reason or another.

But do you agree, and not just with these albums, is there an album out there that you think is great - and yet the consensus is that the album is the worst of band x's career? Post your album artwork if you like, isn't music about individuality and expression, so tell us what albums you like that others just seem to hate?

Max Power1

Taking from the listed examples, I am actually a fan of Risk.

I like hard rock as well as metal, and Risk, similar to metallica's Load/reload, is actually a good rock album imo.

In general I would normally buy an album if it was by a band I liked even if I knew it was a "bad" album and form my own opinion. If i dont like it then I can keep it for posterity and collecting purposes (I like to own all albums of a band I like) and if I do like it then it goes on the MP3 etc.

EDIT: another album that I like that most hate is St Anger. The version on the DVD included in the album is how the album should have sounded, and portrayed the band at that time.


EDIT2: I also like trivium's "the crusade" album.

Malice

Queue a load of posts about Load, Reload and to a lesser extent Death Magnetic...

Edit: Heh, Max_Power1 got there first and reminded me that I'd left out St. Anger.

Max Power1

Malice wrote: »

Queue a load of posts about Load, Reload and to a lesser extent Death Magnetic...

Edit: Heh, Max_Power1 got there first and reminded me that I'd left out St. Anger.

Really resisting the temptation to turn this into a metallica discussion, but I dont think DM would be classed as a "bad album" or their "worst" album

Its probably the best Metallica album since 1991!

nyarlothothep

I thought One Way Ticket was average, not awful. Hot Space was a brave step on Queens part which didn't pay off except for being really cheesy. I'm going to depart from the consensus though on Radioheads latest output since Ok Computer by saying its been uniformly mediocre to downright boring and uninspiring.

Malice

Max Power1 wrote: »

Really resisting the temptation to turn this into a metallica discussion, but I dont think DM would be classed as a "bad album" or their "worst" album

Its probably the best Metallica album since 1991!

Agreed, I probably meant to write St. Anger but my brain took it upon itself to filter that album out of my memory altogether .

mike65

Some great bands have released loads of dodgy, and indeed a few downright bad albums - The Kinks (UK Jive) and Cheap Trick (The Doctor which I had the misfotune to buy unheard and unreviewed) spring to mind. The Doctor has one goodish track with trademark harmony vocals but the other 9 tracks are very poor and the prodcution stinks to high heaven, esp the drums.

Mental Mickey

The Calling's first album. The one with the massive hit "Wherever You Will Go". Utter ***** album apart from that track.

There are a few others in the back of my mind that I can't think of right now.

Dark Artist

It's funny how you listed One Way Ticket to Hell as a bad album... I actually much prefer it to their first album, more diversity and great melodies in my opinion.

Malice

Dark Artist wrote: »

It's funny how you listed One Way Ticket to Hell as a bad album... I actually much prefer it to their first album, more diversity and great melodies in my opinion.

Welcome back Dark Artist, we haven't seen you round these parts much recently .

Lawrence1895

I guess, every band has some kind of peak, or some kind of album which somehow can't be topped by all means.

For example Slayer's 'Reign in Blood'...ever since they could not really reach that kind of intensity, though they were never really bad either

Testament1

Risk actually has some pretty decent tunes especially Prince Of Darkness. Personally while I may tend to view many bands albums as bad on a whole I can usually find at least one or two tracks on them that I enjoy.

Say Your Number

Fly on the Wall by AC/DC deserves a mention, It has a few decent sounding tracks but terrible production and awful lyrics ruins any chance it has of being a decent album.

Max Power1

Testament1 wrote: »

Risk actually has some pretty decent tunes especially Prince Of Darkness. Personally while I may tend to view many bands albums as bad on a whole I can usually find at least one or two tracks on them that I enjoy.

Odd, thats probably the only track I dislike off that album!

Just goes to show different strokes for different folks etc...

lord lucan

You forgot Chinese Democracy!:pac::pac:

Seriously,i suppose the problem is that a band either debuts with a killer first album thus raising the bar straight away or has a collective output that is full of classics that everything else will be judged against. A band with a 20/30 year career is going to have stinkers along the way,it's almost impossible to keep the standard initially set going.

Sometimes a band becomes emboldened by it's success and decides that they want to tinker with their sound. Creatively they may feel it's the way to go but the fan base,there because of their original sound,becomes pissed off at the change.

McDave

Am not a fan of AC/DC's Stiff Upper Lip. Two good songs (the title track and Give it up) and a load of mediocre filler. A really tired effort overall. I honestly thought it was going to be their last album - until their rebound with Black Ice.

Star Bingo

Diabolus in Musica. where do i stand no such thing as a 'grower' imo; not past 2-3 listens anyhow. though maybe 2-3 tracks salvaged even as a fanboy wasn't having it - the success of indie pop / nu-metal left em gazoomped you'd think the britpop boom should'nt affect thrash but it did.
Les Claypool even slagging oasis on the War at the Warfield DVD n it made the cut

hogflem

Possessed album "Beyond the gates",was very disappointing,so was Sodoms "Tapping the vein".

bad2dabone

Risk has grown on me to be honest, but it's probably my least liked megadeth album. Mustaine more or less admitted that Risk could have finished Megadeth in his autobiography. An aptly named album all the same!

SirLemonhead

Dark Artist wrote: »

It's funny how you listed One Way Ticket to Hell as a bad album... I actually much prefer it to their first album, more diversity and great melodies in my opinion.

I prefer it too..

Max Power1

Star Bingo wrote: »

Diabolus in Musica. where do i stand no such thing as a 'grower' imo; not past 2-3 listens anyhow. though maybe 2-3 tracks salvaged even as a fanboy wasn't having it - the success of indie pop / nu-metal left em gazoomped you'd think the britpop boom should'nt affect thrash but it did.
Les Claypool even slagging oasis on the War at the Warfield DVD n it made the cut

Its the same as Load/Reload IMO.

A popular metal band going in a different direction. Its not going to be universally acclaimed.

No, DIM is not as good as reign in blood or Seasons but, the way i look at it, if DIM was a new band's first album people would be all over it imo.

Mental Mickey

Max Power1 wrote: »

Its the same as Load/Reload IMO.

A popular metal band going in a different direction. Its not going to be universally acclaimed.

No, DIM is not as good as reign in blood or Seasons but, the way i look at it, if DIM was a new band's first album people would be all over it imo.

True. ReLoad is a stinker of an album, but I personally think that Load is terribly under-rated.

Max Power1

Mental Mickey wrote: »

True. ReLoad is a stinker of an album, but I personally think that Load is terribly under-rated.

That was always going to be the way though! Seeing as Reload is essentially the B sides and reject tracks from the load sessions.


Load/Reload could be one better album with a 75:25 ratio of load/reload material.

Star Bingo

Max Power1 wrote: »

Its the same as Load/Reload IMO.

A popular metal band going in a different direction. Its not going to be universally acclaimed.

No, DIM is not as good as reign in blood or Seasons but, the way i look at it, if DIM was a new band's first album people would be all over it imo.

probably the case if a debut; but it reeked more of Slayer being forced to reassess. the cover was most un-slayer too didn't quite judge it by its cover but if its claimed the worst album slayer have put out; they are doing alright

nacho libre

Motley Crue wrote: »

Post your album artwork if you like, isn't music about individuality and expression, so tell us what albums you like that others just seem to hate?

It seems Swansong was too much of a departure from their death and grind roots for many Carcass fans, but this has never stopped me from liking it.

Riddle101

No mention of Metallica's worst album St Anger? thought that would have been the opener of this thread.

Nailz

nacho libre wrote: »

It seems Swansong was too much of a departure from their death and grind roots for many Carcass fans, but this has never stopped me from liking it.

It was quite a toned down album in comparison wasn't it, it's all down to personal preference, if going into it and expecting an old school Carcass album you're bound to be slightly disappointed, but really it's a good album. It's more of a departure than a bad album in my opinion.


Morbid Angel's "Heretic"

One of my favourite bands around, but this album was quite bad I thought! No substance, the riffs weren't as brutal, savage, sick as Trey Azagthoth is expected to produce, also the lack of David Vincent was still a huge factor in how flat the album was. When reading over a few reviews on the net there was a hell of a lot of either fence sitting or sensationalist ****, too afraid to say the album isn't as good as most extreme metal fans would want it to be or they're throwing out nonsense.



Faith No More's "Album Of The Year"

Now I love Faith No More, they're probably my favourite band - full stop - so maybe I'm just being a bit of a biased fanboy wearing my rose-tinted spectacles, but I think Album Of The Year is a really good album. This is supposed to be a contributor to why FNM split, saying they've ran out of ideas, they've run their course and it's time to call it quits while they still have their awesome reputation still intact.

But I personally don't know where they're getting that from; it contains great heavy songs and lots of variety in styles, yet still keeping a decent quality to the music itself. I was once told it wasn't liked because it didn't sound like a Faith No More album, but, disregarding We Care A Lot, has anyone listened to a FNM album and thought "This is similar to the old album"?


Any who, I can't be arsed writing more on this subject.

Twilightning

Anyone remember this stinker? An album that spawned one of their most overrated songs and a hell of a lot of filler.

lord lucan

Riddle101 wrote: »

No mention of Metallica's worst album St Anger? thought that would have been the opener of this thread.

I think to many St. Anger was a given so didn't even need to be mentioned.

Motley Crue

lord lucan wrote: »

I think to many St. Anger was a given so didn't even need to be mentioned.

True enough, that and the slightest mention of Metallica tends to get the tread closed and a reminder there is the super-tread for any discussion of that particular band. I wanted to avoid this so I left them out.

AaronEnnis

Jaysus I must be the only person I know who likes the G and H Morbid Angel albums... let down by production and all of course, but I still think Heretic has some great tracks. Stricken Arise especially! Those filler tracks really sucked momentum from it though.

Of course, it doesnt touch their early stuff, not by a long shot. But I can safely say that not many of the bigger death metal bands' material does, except Immolation really.

And as regards Swansong...Ive no problem with them leaving their 'roots', I mean I even like half of Heartwork. But Swansong is just a terrible album whatever way you look at it, haha. Had it been released by any other band, It'd be populating the bargain bins by now!

SirLemonhead

Twilightning wrote: »

Anyone remember this stinker? An album that spawned one of their most overrated songs and a hell of a lot of filler.

I like that album a lot. It was something different, and they're a band hugely guilty of sounding repetative, so it was welcome. I thought at least. I'd agree a few of the songs are fillerish but on a whole I like it.

I think Powerslave is an awful album though :pac: It only has around 3 good songs on it (aces high, 2 minutes to midnight and powerslave itself) the rest of the songs either being complete snorefests or just plain annoying (like back in the village, worst chorus ever)

Nailz

AaronEnnis wrote: »

Jaysus I must be the only person I know who likes the G and H Morbid Angel albums... let down by production and all of course, but I still think Heretic has some great tracks. Stricken Arise especially! Those filler tracks really sucked momentum from it though.

Of course, it doesnt touch their early stuff, not by a long shot. But I can safely say that not many of the bigger death metal bands' material does, except Immolation really.

And as regards Swansong...Ive no problem with them leaving their 'roots', I mean I even like half of Heartwork. But Swansong is just a terrible album whatever way you look at it, haha. Had it been released by any other band, It'd be populating the bargain bins by now!

Well I never actually knew Gateways To Annihilation was regarded as a bad album, I quite like Gateways, it's a very good album in my opinion, I've made ringtones out of Summoning Redemption and Opening Of The Gates sure. And there was nothing wrong with it's production I think, Heretic's production wasn't the worst thing about the album to be fair.

Production doesn't normally have that much a baring I think, like Domination's production was fucking awful, but it's a great all the same. I look forward to see what the I album brings, Illud Divinum Insanus it's called I think, be interesting to see it all goes with Vincent back where he belongs.

Still like Swansong though, my opinion has already been passed on that one.

jack presley

A lot of bands that I really like have had albums I don't like.

Maiden - Virtual XI, Fear of the dark, No prayer for the dying
Metallica - St. Anger, ReLoad
AC/DC - Fly on the Wall, Blow up your video
Ash - Nu-clear Sounds
Foo Fighters- One by One
The Black Crowes - 3 snakes and one charm

and the first 2-3 Bruce Springsteen albums are awful.

Kess73

SirLemonhead wrote: »

I like that album a lot. It was something different, and they're a band hugely guilty of sounding repetative, so it was welcome. I thought at least. I'd agree a few of the songs are fillerish but on a whole I like it.

I think Powerslave is an awful album though :pac: It only has around 3 good songs on it (aces high, 2 minutes to midnight and powerslave itself) the rest of the songs either being complete snorefests or just plain annoying (like back in the village, worst chorus ever)

Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, Flash Of The Blade, The Duellists?

Kess73

jack presley wrote: »

and the first 2-3 Bruce Springsteen albums are awful.

:eek:


You think that Born To Run is awful. :eek:

Pyr0

+1 with Heritic. Awful, awful album. Enshrined by Grace is the only listenable song on the entire album.

I haven't spoken to anyone that would consider Gateways to Annhilation to be a bad album in any way.

RC88

AC/DC - Fly on the wall, Stiff upper lip
Aerosmith - Draw the line
Free - Highway
Metallica - St.Anger

All 5 of these album could have been loads better

tought bout putting in chinese democracy but GN'R haven't been a good band since axl "fired" everyone and put his cover band together, so dosent really count

jack presley

Kess73 wrote: »

:eek:


You think that Born To Run is awful. :eek:

I do yeah although I'm probably on my own. Take out the title track and maybe 10th avenue freeze out and there are no other songs I like. I know Thunder road and Jungleland are popular but they don't do it for me. I think The River was the 1st great album he did.

Kess73

jack presley wrote: »

I do yeah although I'm probably on my own. Take out the title track and maybe 10th avenue freeze out and there are no other songs I like. I know Thunder road and Jungleland are popular but they don't do it for me. I think The River was the 1st great album he did.

At least we can agree on The River being a great album.

Nailz

I'll probably get stoned to death for this and I am probably walking into an unnecessary wall of spite, but I feel oblidged to say it. :pac: I extreamly dislike Bruce Springsteen, I've never heard such a blatant rip off of another artist ever, just about half of Springsteen's discography is basically lifted from Bob Seger. Used to like Springsteen, but not anymore.

Sorry, go easy on me. *shutters & ducks*

Star Bingo

well.. good albums by bad bands, what say do we even give them the dark of night? :pac: see what i did there..

far too subjective even i'll admit that'd open a can of really negative worms

Max Power1

Nailz wrote: »

I'll probably get stoned to death for this and I am probably walking into an unnecessary wall of spite, but I feel oblidged to say it. :pac: I extreamly dislike Bruce Springsteen, I've never heard such a blatant rip off of another artist ever, just about half of Springsteen's discography is basically lifted from Bob Seger. Used to like Springsteen, but not anymore.

Sorry, go easy on me. *shutters & ducks*

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I cant see how anyone cant like Springsteen. Im not really a big fan, or even a fan of the soft/classic rock genre as a whole, but I'd give one or two albums a spin every once in a while. Great driving music imo!

yupyup7up

DIM was decent i thought but this is muck. Slayer are my favourite band too

Nailz

Max Power1 wrote: »

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I cant see how anyone cant like Springsteen. Im not really a big fan, or even a fan of the soft/classic rock genre as a whole, but I'd give one or two albums a spin every once in a while. Great driving music imo!

I see where you coming from, and I do like a good bit of Springsteen's stuff, but you might as well call Bruce Springsteen 'Bob Seger', Seger is awesome and I love his music. And call me ignorant or whatever, but I don't take to artists who gain success of basically using someone elses work, Springsteen owes his career to Seger.

I know this is slightly off-topic but seeing as you mentioned it was great driving music, nothing beats a bit of Creedence Clearwater Revival on a sunny day.

Same with people pointing the finger to other artists and shouting "Thief!" whilst being full of shįt and not having clue what they're talking about, which is why I don't like Anthony Kiedis, have no problem the rest of RHCP though. Actually, this reminds me...


Need I elaborate?

Star Bingo

yupyup7up wrote: »

if as a Slayer fan you knew the bands / songs they covered on there beforehand, esp the D.I. ones to hear slayer giving em the nitro treatment was a gift

yupyup7up

Star Bingo wrote: »

if as a Slayer fan you knew the bands / songs they covered on there beforehand, esp the D.I. ones to hear slayer giving em the nitro treatment was a gift

nah! just should never have released it!

I love every other album but this is crap...

Tzar Gringo

yupyup7up wrote: »

nah! just should never have released it!

I love every other album but this is crap...

not like a pair of slayer fans are going to agree.

this is for the asshole AH mods that banned me.

or whoever had a piece of that pie, it was laced with arsenic. and it will repeat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAXzGkzj5E8

SilverScreen

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I'm going to depart from the consensus though on Radioheads latest output since Ok Computer by saying its been uniformly mediocre to downright boring and uninspiring.

Why do you think Radiohead post-OK Computer is downright boring and uninspiring? Is it just because they moved away from traditional rock? Kid A and In Rainbows are two of the most inspiring albums of the past 11 years for me, they effortlessly eradicated the boundaries between rock and electronica and opened me up to another universe of music. If they're not your cup of tea you could at least respect them. Hail To The Thief I admit was slightly below par but it's still a good album.

SirLemonhead wrote: »

I think Powerslave is an awful album though :pac: It only has around 3 good songs on it (aces high, 2 minutes to midnight and powerslave itself) the rest of the songs either being complete snorefests or just plain annoying (like back in the village, worst chorus ever)

Powerslave is the best thing they've ever done. I do admit that 'Back In The Village' is the weakest track but it's certainly not awful, other than that every track is suburb and the band are on top of their game. And 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' is beyond epic.