All right, here's a thread idea to take my mind off everything wrong with the world and my life. What are some mediocre or even downright bad albums that nevertheless boast a superb song?

To me two albums leap out immediately when I think of this contrast. The first is pretty obscure: Dark Symphonies released an album from a Spanish band called User Ne, _Atropa Natura_. I bought it because I liked the download track, "Vientos Ne Mar." Nice bagpipes! Definitely recommended for fans of stuff like Eluveitie. But the album as a whole is really a stinker, and I don't say that lightly. This is the sort of mistake that no longer happens in the era of Youtube and streaming.



The second is the album _Vilosophe_ from Manes. It's a sort of electronic post-black metal album with virtually no metal left in it and a lot of experimentation. It sounded interesting conceptually, but the only track I could hack is "Ende," and it's pretty marvelous. Nice melodic vocal lines with percussion and electronics reminiscent of some of The Gathering's later work.



There are other, less extreme contrasts I can think of, but these two I've always thought of as the archetypes of the phenomenon. What are yours?

Wolfchant's "Determined Damnation" isn't really a bad album as it is horrendously dull. But this was a standout track.


Wolfchant's "Bloodwinter" on the other hand was too much wank and no substance, a damn shame. At least it had this.

Poison Godmachine, Enemies of Reality and Narcosynthesis/Engines of Hate, all on Nevermore albums
Painkiller on The Sound of Perseverance
Standing In the Flames on Insineratehymn
The Illusion of Power on Forbidden and Never Say Die/Junior's Eyes on Never Say Die

not 100% on topic, but, 8 years ago The Haunted released Unseen, and everyone was b**ching about "Disappear", a song that's more like Tool-lite and infuriated fans of the Haunted, who started crying "sell out", etc. it's my favourite Haunted song since Made me do it...

Where you're wrong here is that these are all fantastic albums. Now I *really* want to check out the other songs you listed.

Jack The Ripper is one of my favourite Motorhead songs off of the extremely weak March Or Die.
Also find Vile to be one of the more forgettable Cannibal albums but Peverse Suffering and Bloodlands are both awesome tracks.