What's wrong with The Duellists?

One of my favorite cuts off Powerslave. Great song. Love that riff.

A whole bunch of self-absorbed, self-indulgent stuff

Coming from a guy that only started listening to metal around the late 2010s, I've noticed that a lot of what we called "classic albums" are quite average, but whenever you say "I prefer (album thats better than said classic album)" you immediately see fanboys defending said album

Slaughter of the Soul and DMDS are 2 such albums in my book, and given that we have albums that were made around the same time (or earlier) that still sounds excellent even today, I really do not understand the hype behind these 2 albums (although DMDS has the controversy behind its creation)

Yet Dickinson sounds inferior on any cover of those songs from the first two. There is a reason their greatest ballad ( Strange World ) was kept instrumental when they recorded them with Bruce and released them as b-sides or live albums.

I wonder how much the hype around some of these albums gets people thinking they are middling. Some albums are so hyped people expect to like them right off the bat and just be blown away but many great albums take time to digest. I think people mentioned that about De Mysteris you need to give it a couple of listens.
I also think you can't deny some nostalgia to the people that were there at the start because for some albums that caused massive shifts (None So Vile) you just had to be there to see what they did and how different it felt. I was too young when Left Hand Path came out but I can't imagine hearing that massive guitar sound for the first time along with all the other fans versus having someone suggesting later when it's like you by yourself and everyone awaiting your opinion.
But there will be lots of classics that just click in one listen Reign in Blood and Ride the Lightning were like that to me. And there will be things you need to take time with and stuff that never clicks I really don't like too much Judas Priest. Just listen and give stuff multiple chances sometimes after a few years.

"Writes generic (and possibly meandering) posts" is a title that truly does suit you. Btw, congrats on getting a personalized title with just above 500 posts, it means people in high places are recognizing your contribution to this forum and the quality of it's discussions.

I don't think there are any albums that are viewed as immune to criticism if we take the metal community at large. However, if you frequent a bands official forum you'll have a lot of close minded people there in the vein of what you describe. Just don't succumb to them. If you like it - good. Doesn't matter if someone else doesn't. If you don't like it - then that's good as well.

You are clearly not reading why the op's post rubs people the wrong way.

Coming from a guy that only started listening to metal around the late 2010s, I've noticed that a lot of what we called "classic albums" are quite average, but whenever you say "I prefer (album thats better than said classic album)" you immediately see fanboys defending said album

Slaughter of the Soul and DMDS are 2 such albums in my book, and given that we have albums that were made around the same time (or earlier) that still sounds excellent even today, I really do not understand the hype behind these 2 albums (although DMDS has the controversy behind its creation)

they're only allowedvto be pretty good every 2 to 3 minutes an album for only 30 seconds but the rest has to be a grocery list of generic stuff you put in a death metal song just not memorable

Nah bro at the gates just don't specialize in very effective death metal, I actually don't hate them and think they have some real solid stuff every once in a while, there's always just something lacking about them to me I can't place my finger on it exactly, it's like they have some contract with Satan that they're only allowedvto be pretty good every 2 to 3 minutes an album for only 30 seconds but the rest has to be a grocery list of generic stuff you put in a death metal song just not memorable

It seems like its become more commonplace to dismiss At the Gates these days, specifically Slaughter of the Soul

I mean, I get it. By today's standards it does seem quite middling, don't it? And if it were released today it would be considered incredibly derivative and by the numbers melodeath. But I still think it's a solid record that influenced a ton of bands that we know and love, one major one being The Black Dahlia Murder, one of the best, If not [i]the best, melodeath act from America.

Nah bro at the gates just don't specialize in very effective death metal, I actually don't hate them and think they have some real solid stuff every once in a while, there's always just something lacking about them to me I can't place my finger on it exactly, it's like they have some contract with Satan that they're only allowedvto be pretty good every 2 to 3 minutes an album for only 30 seconds but the rest has to be a grocery list of generic stuff you put in a death metal song just not memorable

British Steel seems to get disparaged here and I don't quite get why; sure it's got some commercial leanings (United/LAM) but there's plenty of hard riffing metal on there too - Rapid Fire, Metal Gods, Grinder, The Rage, Steeler........ sure it's not like the high points of 70s Priest but it's where they refined their more commercial aspects and balanced them nicely with their heavier ones. Still probably the best starting point for someone new to the band IMO.

Sorry, but Sabbath's Heaven & Hell.
So does Wishing Well ("existing" is the highest praise I can give that song). Lady Evil is an interminable boogie.

I was amazed at the hate the album had received when I first started using MA. I've never really understood it and think most of it's irrational and jumping on the hate wagon lazy sorta stuff but I can kinda understand the old heads who were disappointed with the perhaps commercial direction it went in tho it's in reality anything but, we're not exactly talking about the black album here.

Die Young and Heaven and hell are the best Sabbath songs. Far better than anything they did with Ozzy.

That's not exactly the point though. The fact is that Slaughter of the Soul was a genre defining album, a real game changer for melodic death metal, and for a long time there was absolutely no denying that. It's only years after the release of the album, and with thousands of copycat bands trying to release the next SotS that some people decided to go on an historical revisionism trip and went "Wait, maybe SotS wasn't influential and good afterall".

Say what you will about the music, I personnally kind of agree with you that At the Gates usually only have a few flashes of greatness here and there, but can't seem to release a single album that's consistently solid all throughout, but SotS had moments of greatness AND was also objectively very important in shaping melodic death over the following decade or so.

I guess that's where MalignantTyrant was going with his previous post when he pointed out the almost sudden change of attitude that the metal community had towards SotS. I think part of it comes from the fact that people needed someone to blame for the big metalcore trend of the mid 2000's, and since so many metalcore bands took influence from SotS, it became a good target for angry metalheads to release all their frustrations against "mallcore"

In the context of this thread, it's even funnier that SotS was mentionned, and in the OP, nonetheless, because it is one of the albums that receives the most hate in all of metal history. Nobody who is at least a little bit familiar with the metal community would call it "immune to criticism".

I'd imagine all the metal magazines at the time gave it huge praise

I don't hate the album, it's got some good melodic work, but it kinda just seems like a faceless modern metal album

From memory, it was all 4/5 reviews, which was quite unusual for an extreme metal record of the time. Most of the bigger metal mags like Kerrang and Metal Hammer in the UK, were anti- anything more extreme than Machine Head. I think Terrorizer gave it the same rating too. So, unilateral good reviews but nothing that would indicate the influence it would have.

But that's precisely the issue with your whole take. It's not a faceless modern metal album. Regardless of how good or bad you think it is, it was a trend setter, a game changer for melodic death metal. It might appear "faceless" because of the number of bands who copied it into oblivion, but it was objectively not faceless at the time of release. There were no other melodic death metal bands making metal like that at the time.

You can argue that it's weak, bad or whatever, it's not like it's one of my favorite albums anyway. But faceless? That's like arguing that Black Sabbath's self-titled has no personnality.

One of the things that amazes me about metal is people's desire to bash obvious classics.

I mean, I bought "Slaughter of the Soul" when it came out. It sounded great to me at the time (if not lifechanging). I remember the subsequent decade when it became steadily more influential and I was glad to see such a relatively underground record have a wider influence on the world (despite me not being particularly interested in most of the bands it influenced).
I listened to it this afternoon and it still sounds great. It always will, for simple reasons like having cracking songs, a great production and good, catchy riffs.

Another phenomenon I've noticed is the trend for rather obscure albums like Morbid Saint's "Spectrum of Death", Infester's "To the Depths...", maybe Gorement's "The Ending Quest" to suddenly gain huge posthumous recognition and almost reach 'immunity to criticism' stage. I mean, these are good albums but they're not anything particularly exciting as far as I am concerned.

Another phenomenon I've noticed is the trend for rather obscure albums like Morbid Saint's "Spectrum of Death", Infester's "To the Depths...", maybe Gorement's "The Ending Quest" to suddenly gain huge posthumous recognition and almost reach 'immunity to criticism' stage. I mean, these are good albums but they're not anything particularly exciting as far as I am concerned.

And don't compare it to Sabbath for one second because black sabbath were total underdogs in the beginning, they have way more authenticity than slaughter of the soul to the level I'm almost stunned by the comparison and how you could make it so willy nilly, id say sabbath deserves more respect than that.

You guys are nuts if you think slaughter of the soul is anywhere near as much of a complete kick in the balls as reign in blood is, that's so unbelievably ridiculous to me