"Bad" albums that you really like.

[425]

Metal Archives is good for looking up band information but otherwise sucks. It's home to some of the most elitist, egregiously lopsided and vitriolic, silly reviews of any site out there. But they also have ridiculous rules and reasons for not listing real metal bands but allowing, like, Motley Crue and Deep Purple

This, and also the layout of the website is pretty bad. I only use it as a last resort.

And I don't see how one can call it "comprehensive" when it excludes everything outside of a narrow and often arbitrarily-selected range of artists.

[Elite]

And I don't see how one can call it "comprehensive" when it excludes everything outside of a narrow and often arbitrarily-selected range of artists.

This especially.

The information on there is quite thorough, especially on the more unknown metal bands, but also stuff like releases, band-members etc. What makes it a 'bad' website is that they have this narrow-minded idea of what 'metal' should be, and they exclude anything that doesn't fit their worldview. For instance, most (all?) metalcore/deathcore bands are not on there, Avenged Sevenfold and System of a Down are missing, to name two big ones, yet some stuff that's not 'metal' at all, like Rush, are on there, because they 'influenced' the genres.

The examples I gave aren't exactly my favourite bands either, but calling them 'not metal' because you dislike the music and then exclude them from your website is just silly and narrow-minded. And I'm not even talking about some of the stupidest, most-biased 'reviews' I've ever read for albums on that site. So, for metadata I guess it's a pretty 'comprehesive' website, but as soon as you want to find stuff about bands that don't fit their idea of what 'metal' should be, then it's absolutely useless.

[bl5150]

I find Metal Archives pretty good ..........but that's because it covers most areas of interest for me.  To be fair Progarchives isn't too different - plenty of artists that I would consider progressive have been rejected there and their forums are full of discussions on the subject of bands that have been "unfairly rejected."

[Crow]

progarchives also sucks and is basically a prog-rock circlejerk at this point  i used to check there but realized "hey wait nothing on this site has value and is biased towards styles i've never been too into anyways" so

anyways if you want inarguable proof that metalarchives cannot be trusted as an arbiter, they refuse to let between the buried and me on the site.

rym is good as an archiving site, since they don't have any arbitrary restrictions (i have a friend who has their own RYM artist page lol - no you're not going to know who) but the community is garbo and should be avoided at all costs. same with the charts there really, unless you're looking at a specific genre chart

[Elite]

they refuse to let between the buried and me on the site.

Yay, another example! (I already gave a couple). Probably too many 'core'-influeces or some bullshit like that.

[Crow]

yup pretty sure it's exactly that!

[Zantera]

Metal Archives being popular is unfortunate as they perpetuate the old stereotype of metal-fans being like the older kids at the schoolyard who won't let you play with them because you're not 'cool' enough. Getting obsessive about what's metal or not is like something you did when you were 14-15 and didn't know any better, and half the reason you listened to metal was to be one of the cool kids. The fact that there are adults running a popular website with that mindset is just completely baffling to me.

[soupytwist]

Pearl Jam - Backspacer.
Catherine Wheel - Wishville.
Coheed & Cambria - The Colour Before the Sun.
Depeche Mode - Ultra.
Iron Maiden - No Prayer for the Dying.
Kamalot - Silverthorn.
Manic Street Preachers - Gold Against the Soul.
Muse - The Resistance.
Okkervil River - I am Very Far.
REM - Reveal
Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music.
The Tragically Hip - In Violet Light.

[Stadler]

WOW, the bulk of my listening falls into this category.

Aerosmith:  Get Your Wings
Asia: Pick a song from the SECOND album.
Black Sabbath: I MUCH prefer what I call the "prog years" (SBS - Never Say Die) over the "classic years" (S/T through Vol. 4)
Cheap Trick: All Shook Up
Deep Purple:  LOVE Fireball, and actually enjoy much off the first three (Rod Evans) albums
Genesis: I LOVE ...ATTWT and Abacab
Gabriel: I prefer the first one and US over SO.
Grateful Dead: I prefer Anthem Of The Sun and Terrapin Station over the "classics", American Beauty and Workingman's Dead
Iron Maiden: I prefer Dance of Death (and to a lesser extent The Final Frontier)
Elton John: Tumbleweed Connection and Breaking Hearts
Judas Priest:  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Point of Entry.  I think that's one of their best albums.
Kiss:  Unmasked and The Elder are both favorites
Oasis:  Be Here Now and Standing On The Shoulder of Giants (the more they channel the Beatles, the more I like them)
Ozzy:  Other than the title track, I LOVE Bark At The Moon
Queen:  Queen II is my favorite album, which doesn't fit here, but A Kind of Magic and Works are very close.
Rainbow:  I prefer the three JLT records over everything else not named "Rising" (though Down To Earth is an underrated guitar album)
REM:  Reveal and Document both slay the two "popular" albums (Automatic and Out Of Time)
Stones:  Aftermath, Emotional Rescue
Rush:  Caress of Steel, Presto
Scorpions: In Trance, Animal Magnetism
U2: How To Dismantle The Atomic Bomb
Van Halen: Diver Down is one of my favorite VH records, as is Different Kind Of Truth
Yes: Talk. Big Penetrator

I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting.

[DTA]

WOW, the bulk of my listening falls into this category.

Kiss:  Unmasked and The Elder are both favorites

The Elder is awesome. Do you feel like it was probably just a few years too late to be successful? I think if came out in 1976 then it would've been more liked.

[Indiscipline]

Deep Purple:  LOVE Fireball, and actually enjoy much off the first three (Rod Evans) albums

Beautiful

[Stadler]

WOW, the bulk of my listening falls into this category.

Kiss:  Unmasked and The Elder are both favorites

The Elder is awesome. Do you feel like it was probably just a few years too late to be successful? I think if came out in 1976 then it would've been more liked.

I think there's truth to that.   I think there was a sort of perfect storm there:  losing Peter; following Unmasked; the costumes; the complete fumbling of the video age (by such a profoundly visual band)...

I think if they released that following "Rock And Roll Over", or instead of the solo albums after "Love Gun", and went on tour with the huge production, the '77 costumes, and threw in "The Oath", "Only You/Under The Rose", or "Dark Light" in the set, I think history would show something different.  But I could be biased; other than "Mr. Blackwell", which is horrific, I really think that's a strong MUSICAL album. 

[Sacul]

Depeche Mode - Ultra.

Didn't know this was underappreciated in the fanbase, it's a banger

[Lowdz]

All the sellout Megadeth albums, Youthanasia, Cryptic Writings, Risk, Supercollider

KISS - Unmasked, the Elder. Hot In The Shade is still crap.

DT - WDADU

Bon Jovi - Have A Nice Day

RATT - self titled

Poison - Native Tongue

[jcmoorehead]

Bat of of Hell III - Meatloaf

This one too! yeah, it's not like the other two but it's still the best album he's done ever since, only Hang Cool Teddy Bear maybe comes close.

Gonna add a +1 to this. I absolutely love Bat Out Of Hell 3. I think the things that don't help it are the weight of expectation on it and that there seemed to be a lot of drama whilst it was being made, both between Meat/Jim and also Desmond Child not quite fitting in with the whole process but I think it's a fantastic album. Great to see Hang Cool get a shout out too, big fan of that one. Meat Loaf is probably my fav singer so always nice to see him get a shout out in places

--

I don't know if I have too many albums I like that are generally classed as 'bad.'
Genesis - We Can't Dance (There are a few tracks I'm not big on, but generally it's a fun album with some real good stuff on there)
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (Also really like Division Bell/Final Cut but i don't think they get as much hate as Lapse does)
Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy (I don't know if it's classed as 'bad' but I don't really feel people took it seriously because of the drama and farce surrounding it. For me it's a really strong album, not everything is a winner but it's certainly solid.
Porcupine Tree - The Incident (I'm not sure if it's classed as 'bad' but I do remember seeing a few say they were disappointed with it? I really liked it, it was the first Porcupine Tree album that I 'got' as such. I had heard a bit of their stuff but nothing had clicked, but this one did.)

[HOF]

Stadler, are there U2 fans or anyone else really who dislike How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb? It was a massive hit record, and I and all the real world people I know who like U2 (unlike most bands we discuss here, I actually know people in real life who are fans of U2) loved it.

[Max Kuehnau]

Stadler, are there U2 fans or anyone else really who dislike How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb? It was a massive hit record, and I and all the real world people I know who like U2 (unlike most bands we discuss here, I actually know people in real life who are fans of U2) loved it.

I would guess that quite a few U2 fans dislike(d) Pop, more so than Atomic Bomb.

[HOF]

Stadler, are there U2 fans or anyone else really who dislike How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb? It was a massive hit record, and I and all the real world people I know who like U2 (unlike most bands we discuss here, I actually know people in real life who are fans of U2) loved it.

I would guess that quite a few U2 fans dislike(d) Pop, more so than Atomic Bomb.

Yeah, I know that one was controversial and not all that great IMO outside a few spots. I do know real life U2 fans who disliked the slicker produced All That You Can’t Leave Behind (another huge hit that I do really like), and then the last two U2 albums have really not interested me. But Atomic Bomb feels like maybe the last great universally lauded rock album almost.*

*obviously there are some people/fans who dislike it, just generally speaking it was very well received.

[Stadler]

Nah, I'll give you guys that.  I was looking at it more from the "U2 is an institution, even though their last great album was Achtung Baby!" perspective, and that may be just me. 

[HOF]

Nah, I'll give you guys that.  I was looking at it more from the "U2 is an institution, even though their last great album was Achtung Baby!" perspective, and that may be just me. 

Yeah, I’m sure that element exists. Ironically, even  though Achtung Baby was a huge hit itself, I actually think one may have been more controversial at the time than Atomic Bomb.

[Samsara]

There are SO many albums regarded as "bad" by the majority of a fanbase that I seem to like or love.

The three that quickly come to mind for me are:

Dream Theater - Falling into Infinity
Queensryche - Hear in the Now Frontier
Rush - Snakes & Arrows

[King Postwhore]

There are SO many albums regarded as "bad" by the majority of a fanbase that I seem to like or love.

The three that quickly come to mind for me are:

Dream Theater - Falling into Infinity
Queensryche - Hear in the Now Frontier
Rush - Snakes & Arrows

Sam with you 100% with HITNF.  I know most hate it but I liked it a ton. I still spin it regularly.

[Max Kuehnau]

Nah, I'll give you guys that.  I was looking at it more from the "U2 is an institution, even though their last great album was Achtung Baby!" perspective, and that may be just me. 

not just you, but apart from No Line On The Horizon (which was "largely-killer-little filler" to me as it were), Achtung was a massive banger by contrast (IMHO anyway, and Achtung is my favourite U2 album, with TJT and The Unforgettable Fire being close successors), especially concerning Edge's contributions. (and yes I never liked the execution of the drumming with U2, although I like some ideas Larry uses, and U2 aren't revered for nothing because of Edge)

[The Walrus]

I like a lot of pop records. They're objectively bad, naturally.

[King Postwhore]

I like a lot of pop records. They're objectively bad, naturally.

Your new shirt is bad.

[The Walrus]

I like a lot of pop records. They're objectively bad, naturally.

Your new shirt is bad.

[King Postwhore]

 

[wolfking]

I'll go with Queensryches Tribe.  Very nice album.

[Lowdz]

I'll go with Queensryches Tribe.  Very nice album.

I find nothing to like about it.

[Dream Team]

WOW, the bulk of my listening falls into this category.

Aerosmith:  Get Your Wings
Asia: Pick a song from the SECOND album.
Black Sabbath: I MUCH prefer what I call the "prog years" (SBS - Never Say Die) over the "classic years" (S/T through Vol. 4)
Cheap Trick: All Shook Up
Deep Purple:  LOVE Fireball, and actually enjoy much off the first three (Rod Evans) albums
Genesis: I LOVE ...ATTWT and Abacab
Gabriel: I prefer the first one and US over SO.
Grateful Dead: I prefer Anthem Of The Sun and Terrapin Station over the "classics", American Beauty and Workingman's Dead
Iron Maiden: I prefer Dance of Death (and to a lesser extent The Final Frontier)
Elton John: Tumbleweed Connection and Breaking Hearts
Judas Priest:  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Point of Entry.  I think that's one of their best albums.
Kiss:  Unmasked and The Elder are both favorites
Oasis:  Be Here Now and Standing On The Shoulder of Giants (the more they channel the Beatles, the more I like them)
Ozzy:  Other than the title track, I LOVE Bark At The Moon
Queen:  Queen II is my favorite album, which doesn't fit here, but A Kind of Magic and Works are very close.
Rainbow:  I prefer the three JLT records over everything else not named "Rising" (though Down To Earth is an underrated guitar album)
REM:  Reveal and Document both slay the two "popular" albums (Automatic and Out Of Time)
Stones:  Aftermath, Emotional Rescue
Rush:  Caress of Steel, Presto
Scorpions: In Trance, Animal Magnetism
U2: How To Dismantle The Atomic Bomb
Van Halen: Diver Down is one of my favorite VH records, as is Different Kind Of Truth
Yes: Talk. Big Penetrator

I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting.

In Trance and Animal Magnetism are considered bad albums?? By who? They’re pure gold like all of their 70s stuff.

[TAC]

In Trance and Animal Magnetism are considered bad albums?? By who? They’re pure gold like all of their 70s stuff.

Animal Magnetism blows chunks.

[jammindude]

AM is often considered the least best of the first 4 classic Mercury-era albums, but it DOES NOT “blow chunks”.

There’s not a single song on that album that isn’t incredible, and the title track is the single most underrated song of the Mercury-era. (2nd most underrated is China White)

[wolfking]

I'll go with Queensryches Tribe.  Very nice album.

I find nothing to like about it.

lol, glad we cleared that up.

[Mladen]

Depeche Mode - Ultra.

Didn't know this was underappreciated in the fanbase, it's a banger

That one is my favorite Depeche Mode album. I've never seen any hatred towards it, though.

[Zydar]

WOW, the bulk of my listening falls into this category.

Kiss:  Unmasked and The Elder are both favorites

The Elder is awesome. Do you feel like it was probably just a few years too late to be successful? I think if came out in 1976 then it would've been more liked.

The Elder is awesome, definitely a Top 5 Kiss album for me.