Least Favorite Albums from Your Favorite Bands

[kaos2900]

What are your least favorite albums from your favorite bands. Doesn't mean they are terrible albums or that you hate them, but if you had to throw an album away what would it be.


Opeth- Heritage
Alter Bridge- ABIII
Between the Buried and Me- The Silent Circus
Dream Theater- Systematic Chaos
Iron Maiden- Virtual XI
Metallica- St. Anger
Neal Morse- Lifeline
Nightwish- Angels Fall First
Rush- Presto
Symphony X- Damnation Game
Tesla- Forevermore
Toto- Fahrenheit

[BlobVanDam]

I'm only including bands where I've heard basically all of their discography, and they have more than a few albums, and where there's an obvious loser, so I consider these pretty awful albums (except for Pantera, which I just like noticeably less than the rest).

Dream Theater - When Dread and Day Unite
Van Halen - VH3
Metallica - St Anger
Ozzy Osbourne - Scream
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Journey - Raised on Radio (never heard Trial by Fire though)

[Tomislav95]

Dream Theater - WDADU
Opeth - Deliverance
Porcupine Tree - On the Sunday of Life
Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark
Mastodon - Remission
Dire Straits - On Every Street
Riverside - REM

[Outcrier]

I'm only including bands where I've heard basically all of their discography

Going by that:

Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Symphony X - The Damnation Game
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Megadeth - Risk
Metallica - St. Anger
Radiohead - Amnesiac (it would be Pablo Honey, but i usually doesn't even count it)
Annihilator - Metal
Camel - I Can See Your House From Here
The Beatles - Let It Be
Iron Maiden - No Prayer for the Dying
Protest The Hero - Volition
System of a Down - Self Titled

[Polarbear]

Rush - Test for Echo
Dream Theater - WDADU
Queen - Hot Space
Toto - Fahrenheit
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
Blue Öyster Cult - Club Ninja
Iron Maiden - No Prayer for the Dying
Mastodon - Remission
The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
Soilwork - Steelbath Suicide
Judas Priest - Ram It Down
Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Dream Theater - When Dream and Day Unite:
This one sort of explains itself. It's not that any of the songs on here are terrible, but rather terribly unmemorable, aside from a select few.

The Mars Volta - Octahedron:
I think most fans would regard Noctourniquet as their worst, but I think that album has a little more going for it and still has its moments. This one is still perfectly listenable but struggles to maintain a sense of direction. It simply sticks out as the least memorable of their albums for me.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.:
I think it speaks leagues about Godspeed's body of work when my least favorite album of theirs is still rather enjoyable. However, I don't think it compares to the rest of their discography and I do have to be a special mood to listen to it. Yanqui sounds much more sparse than previous Godspeed releases, which I can understand some listeners being more into. It's, to my ears, geared to sound more like an early Silver Mt. Zion record, which isn't a problem at all, but I don't feel the writing to be as consistent throughout as on a record like, say, Lift Your Skinny Fists.

Slowdive - Just for a Day:
I can't really say that Slowdive's discography is all that extensive unless I counted all the EP's as well. With only three studio albums (and possibly a fourth on the way), Just for a Day is still a good listen every now and then. Spanish Air and Catch the Breeze are some of my favorite songs in Slowdive's entire catalog, but I feel their other two albums to be much stronger still. One of my issues with this album is that, later towards its second half, it begins to sound more homogeneous, whereas an album like Souvlaki has plenty of variety and excels in each sounds as well.

Agalloch - The Serpent and the Sphere:
I liked this album more when I was first listening to it last year, but I don't think it's aged all that well for me. It's still a good listen to get through; the riffs are tight, the instrumental passages are climactic and tense, and John's growls are still sick as hell, but I think what it's missing is the atmosphere that was so strong in previous Agalloch releases.

Iron Maiden - No Prayer for the Dying:
I actually love the title track, but not a lot of the rest does a whole lot for me in the slightest.

[Outcrier]

ITT we all "hate" No Prayer for the Dying 

[jammindude]

Rush - Roll the Bones
Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
Fates Warning - Night on Broken
Savatage - Fight for the Rock
Porcupine Tree - On the Sunday of Life
Pain of Salvation - Road Salt 1
Iron Maiden - No Prayer for the Dying


Some bands I have a tough time choosing:

Yes - They have several albums that are on an equal level of "meh"...this subset of albums are all so blah that it is difficult to choose one.  Open Your Eyes and Tormato come to mind...though they both have some great moments.   I haven't heard Magnification or the new one, but based on reviews, it sounds like the new album would take top spot for "worst".

Haken - simply not possible.   While The Mountain is simply on another level from the other two, Visions and Aquarius are tied for second and are just so phenomenal that they just simply do not qualify.   Haken doesn't even have a so-so album.   They don't even have a "good" album.   They have only ever released completely amazing, stellar, completely out of the park material from day one.   If I had a gun to my head, I would simply choose the Demos (Enter the 5th Dimension) but I'm not sure that qualifies.

Queensryche - Another one that's hard to pick.  They have a couple real stinkers that should probably be disallowed...but I also admit that they were so bloody awful, that I never even got through a single sitting.   Dedicated to Chaos is probably the obvious answer...but FU could also qualify *if* it actually qualifies as a QR album at all.   

[lonestar]

Dream Theater- WDaDU
IQ- Are You Sitting Comfortably (ironically the album which introduced me to them)
The Who- It's Hard
Yes- Heaven and Earth (made it through half a song, then shut it off in a rage)
Marillion- I'd have to go with Marillion.com, though the run after Brave to the last album never really got me much

[TAC]

Dream Theater-Falling Into Infinity
Iron Maiden- No Prayer For The Dying
UFO-Flying
Alice Cooper-Easy Action
Ronnie James Dio-Angry Machines

[Kotowboy]

REM - Around The Sun

oasis - Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants

Dream Theater - When Dream And Day Unite

Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown

Metallica - St. Anger

Mastodon - Remission

Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth, Tell me Yours

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

[Accelerando]

Alter Bridge - AB III
Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
Daft Punk - Human After All
Queen - Hot Space
U2 - No Line On The Horizon

[BlackInk]

Dream Theater - When Dream & Day Unite
Haken - Visions (this is still a fantastic album though)
Leprous - Tall Poppy Syndrome
Meshuggah - Contradictions Collapse
Periphery - Periphery II: This Time It's Personal (also great)
Porcupine Tree - On the Sunday of Life
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (also good)
TesseracT - Altered State (still awesome)

I do consider myself an Opeth fan, and am very familia with their newer albums, but I have barely ever heard the old stuff because I don't think it's very good. Same with Anathema, and the swedish band Kent,

[King Postwhore]

I'm only including bands where I've heard basically all of their discography, and they have more than a few albums, and where there's an obvious loser, so I consider these pretty awful albums (except for Pantera, which I just like noticeably less than the rest).

Dream Theater - When Dread and Day Unite
Van Halen - VH3
Metallica - St Anger
Ozzy Osbourne - Scream
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Journey - Raised on Radio (never heard Trial by Fire though)

I'd like to add one band for you.  Tell me if I'm right.

KISS -- Hot In The Shade.

[TAC]

And Blob, IIRC, Trial BY Fire was pretty good.

[Dr. DTVT]

I guess most of us have scrubbed Virtual XI from our collective memory.  Poor Blaze, he joined right in the middle of Harris's writing crapfest.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Metallica- Load (LuLu isn't a Metallica album so it doesn't count)
Dream Theater- Falling Into Infinity
Avenged Sevenfold- Sounding the Seventh Trumpet
Sum 41- Underclass Hero
Pantera- Any album from their hair metal days

[The King in Crimson]

The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains
Coheed and Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade
Devin Townsend - Physicist
Dream Theater - A tie between WDADU and BC&SL...
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - 'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress'
Haken - Aquarius
Led Zeppelin - Presence
Leprous - Aeolia (if that doesn't count then Coal)
Mastodon - Remission
Muse - Showbiz
Porcupine Tree - A tie between The Incident and On The Sunday Of Life
The Sword - Apocryphon (and it's still actually pretty good)

[425]

I'm only including bands where I've heard basically all of their discography, and they have more than a few albums

Least favorite but still really good:
Coldplay - Parachutes
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Least favorite and just decent:
Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark
Nightwish - Angels Fall First


I'm not even going to dignify an album I'll refer to as "Big Red Fist With Orange Background" by mentioning it here.

I guess most of us have scrubbed Virtual XI from our collective memory.  Poor Blaze, he joined right in the middle of Harris's writing crapfest.

VXI, I love it.
And No Prayer is miles ahead of the mediocre Fear.

[jammindude]

I guess most of us have scrubbed Virtual XI from our collective memory.  Poor Blaze, he joined right in the middle of Harris's writing crapfest.

Actually....I totally had.   It was a total nightmare.   I'd like to change mine.   VXI might be the single worst album by a major heavy metal band....well, tied with Dedicated to Chaos and Frequency Unknown.    I would take 10 St. Anger's with 20 Lulu's over a single VXI.   

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

Still a good album.

[KevShmev]

Rush - Test for Echo
Porcupine Tree - On the Sunday of Life
Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
The Flower Kings - The Sum of No Evil
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (Disc 2)
Devin Townsend - Physicist
Neal Morse - It's Not Too Late
Yes - Heaven and Earth
Genesis - Calling All Stations
Spock's Beard - Spock's Beard
U2 - October
Radiohead - Pablo Honey
Muse - Showbiz
The Beatles - Let It Be
Queen - Hot Space
Kansas - probably one of the three albums from the 1982-1986 era
Blue Oyster Cult - Mirrors
Led Zeppelin - Coda
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs (but I still haven't heard the first album )
Van Halen - Diver Down
The Decemberists - Her Majesty The Decemberists

[XB0BX]

I hate Rust in Peace. Don't like a single song on that album. I prefer Risk or even their most recent album that was so bad I can't even name it.

[jingle.boy]

Zeppelin - Coda
Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
Rush - Caress of Steel
Iron Maiden - The 90s
Queensryche - The 00s
Spock's Beard - Feel Euphoria
Symphony X - s/t
Ayreon - The Final Experiment
Nightwish - Angels Fall First
Threshold - Psychedelicatessen
Avantasia - The Metal Opera Part 2

[Phoenix87x]

1. Dream theater- Black clouds and silver linings

2. Rush- Presto

3. Coheed- IV

4. Dredg- chuckles and mr. squeezy

5. Incubus- if not now, when

6. Linkin park- a thousand suns

7. Radiohead- king of limbs

[Outcrier]

Least favorite but still really good:
Coldplay - Parachutes
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

 

How can you like Mylo Xyloto more than Parachutes?

How can you like WDADU more than SDOIT?

[Crow]

Ayreon - Actual Fantasy
not bad but I never listen to it, kinda boring mostly?

Coheed & Cambria - Second Stage Turbine Blade
just never liked the sound of this album, at all

Devin Townsend - Physicist
there's like... three decent songs here, and one of them has a better version on a more recent album

Dream Theater - Self-Titled
at least WDADU is interesting

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
again, alright, but I never found it that compelling

Haken - Visions
Aquarius and The Mountain are masterpieces, Visions is alright but kind of uninspired and boring at times

Mew - No More Stories...
granted, I never listened to the pre-Frengers albums, but this one I just found offputting and strange compared to their others

Muse - The 2nd Law
but i haven't heard the first two (I'LL GET ON OOS SOMEDAY I PROMISE), but yeah almost none of the songs here do anything for me, i don't like the dubstep especially

Oceansize - Home & Minor
still pretty good since it's Oceansize, but I never got too into this EP, whereas I still spin all their other stuff quite a lot

Pain of Salvation - Road Salt 1
boooorriiing. scarsick is underrated, it's not as good as their first 5 but it has some great songs on it. this album is just uncompelling from start to finish. even the good songs aren't great

Periphery - Juggernaut
it's still an alright album but I feel like they should've trimmed it down and made it a single-disc album, it goes on for too long and there's several songs I could outright do without

Protest the Hero - Fortress
again, still a decent album but I just never liked the sound of this album as much, Sequoia Throne is fantastic though

Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves
there's some good songs here but I found this a weak follow up to ADHD and MIMH. i've only heard REM like once though, i need to get that at some point

Sigur Ros - Med Sud etc.
way too straightforward and lacking in the soundscapes I like from sigur ros, just could not get into this album at all. also i never heard von

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath
an absolutely UNLISTENABLE album to me. i hated this so much on first listen that i haven't even touched their albums after it, just give me their first three albums and i'm good

This Will Destroy You - Another Language
i liked this but it was a bit underwhelming compared to their previous two great albums

there's prob more i can't be bothered tho

[jammindude]

I hate Rust in Peace. Don't like a single song on that album. I prefer Risk or even their most recent album that was so bad I can't even name it.

[Dark Castle]

Dream Theater - When Dream and Day Unite:
This one sort of explains itself. It's not that any of the songs on here are terrible, but rather terribly unmemorable, aside from a select few.

The Mars Volta - Octahedron:
I think most fans would regard Noctourniquet as their worst, but I think that album has a little more going for it and still has its moments. This one is still perfectly listenable but struggles to maintain a sense of direction. It simply sticks out as the least memorable of their albums for me.

Octahedron is a journey man.

[jammindude]

Rush - Test for Echo
Porcupine Tree - On the Sunday of Life
Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
The Flower Kings - The Sum of No Evil
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (Disc 2)
Devin Townsend - Physicist
Neal Morse - It's Not Too Late
Yes - Heaven and Earth
Genesis - Calling All Stations
Spock's Beard - Spock's Beard
U2 - October
Radiohead - Pablo Honey
Muse - Showbiz
The Beatles - Let It Be
Queen - Hot Space
Kansas - probably one of the three albums from the 1982-1986 era
Blue Oyster Cult - Mirrors
Led Zeppelin - Coda
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs (but I still haven't heard the first album )
Van Halen - Diver Down
The Decemberists - Her Majesty The Decemberists

Test for Echo - Me thinks thou dost protest too much....   I know you're secretly cranking Virtuality at night on noise cancelling headphones so as not to give away your secret. 

Calling All Stations -  You know that From Genesis to Revelation still counts as a Genesis album in spite of its being left out of the boxed sets, don't you? 

Diver Down - ....so does 3.   

 

 

[BlobVanDam]

I'm only including bands where I've heard basically all of their discography, and they have more than a few albums, and where there's an obvious loser, so I consider these pretty awful albums (except for Pantera, which I just like noticeably less than the rest).

Dream Theater - When Dread and Day Unite
Van Halen - VH3
Metallica - St Anger
Ozzy Osbourne - Scream
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Journey - Raised on Radio (never heard Trial by Fire though)

I'd like to add one band for you.  Tell me if I'm right.

KISS -- Hot In The Shade.

Nope, that one's not too bad. It would have to be between Crazy Nights, and Unmasked.

And Blob, IIRC, Trial BY Fire was pretty good.

Really? Everything I've seen has been pretty negative, so I never bothered to check it out!

[425]

Least favorite but still really good:
Coldplay - Parachutes
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

 

How can you like Mylo Xyloto more than Parachutes?

How can you like WDADU more than SDOIT?

Mylo Xyloto is my favorite Coldplay album and in my top five of all the albums in my collection, period. It's an absolutely stunning achievement that deserves none of the hate it gets.

SDOIT's first disc is the weakest 50-minute run of music in the DT discography. The Glass Prison is overrated and the second-weakest in the 12SS to TROAE. Blind Faith is the best song on there. Misunderstood is 7 minutes of good song that I rarely listen to because I hate the last two minutes. The Great Debate is good but a bit bland. Disappear is good but overrated. The second disc is very good, but I would easily rather listen to WDADU's 45 minutes of good music (including the three excellent songs AFIL, TKH and OAMOT, the last of which is better than any six minutes you'll find on SDOIT) plus LFAGA than SDOIT's 97 minutes of a mix between good, bland and irritating (Misunderstood's ending, Disappear's intro).

[jammindude]

Blob is correct in putting Crazy Nights and Unmasked below HitS...

...and TAC is correct about Trail by Fire.  Freaking BRILLIANT Journey album, and a worthy follow up to Frontiers.   

[Outcrier]

I hate Rust in Peace. Don't like a single song on that album. I prefer Risk or even their most recent album that was so bad I can't even name it.

Mylo Xyloto is my favorite Coldplay album and in my top five of all the albums in my collection, period. It's an absolutely stunning achievement that deserves none of the hate it gets.

Ok, i give up.

[Genowyn]

Devin Townsend - A lot of people have been saying Physicist which is fair, but are we forgetting the existence of Devlab and The Hummer?
Coheed and Cambria - Year of the Black Rainbow
Protest the Hero - Scurrilous, though Fortress also leaves a lot to be desired.
The Dear Hunter - Does one TCS EP count? If so Indigo. If not I'll have to grudgingly pick Migrant.
Porcupine Tree - Anything before Stupid Dream?