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It does n’t get said enough , but artist are human just like us . They are open of impressiveness , butexpecting greatness from bands at all meter is an unrealistic targetto lay out for our hero . As such , even the best ring in heavy alloy have some deplorable album in their catalog .
If the eerie opening to Black Sabbath ’s debut record album is deal the originator of heavy metal , the genre is cursorily approach its sixtieth anniversary . The best alloy bands have provided millions of fans across the human beings a station to purge their feeling , but this list is not about that . For all their strengths , metallic element ’s greatest lot have released some dire euphony . Lots of it , really , and these are the very worst albums put out by truly incredible metal bands .
10Slayer
Diabolus In Musica (1998)
Slayer belong to to thrash alloy ’s Big Four . meet their songs with violent imagery , sequent killers , and Satan , and making it their brand to playact thrash metallic element faster and harder than anyone else , the ' 80s were a great meter to be in Slayer . As with so many other bands who started life in the decade of heavy riffs and bigger hair , the ' 90s were not kind to the age metal - heads . Slayer prove no exception .
Embracing the trend of the time , Diabolus in Musicais well Slayer ’s biggest misfire . Down - tune their guitars to fit in with the nu metal movement , warning signal bells set out call up when lead single " Stain Of Mind " vocalize like Coal Chamber ’s " Loco " without the velocity and sentence . The ring traded in vocalizing about Ed Gein to write a song about rugger ( " Scrum " ) . The album ’s creepy art is perhaps the only redeeming quality , as Slayer botch up their mode through the late ' ninety , until the metalcore movement inadvertently made them relevant again .
9Killswitch Engage
Atonement (2019)
When it take on over heavy music in the 2000s , much of metalcore was too whiny for the exist alloy audience . Such accusations never fit Killswitch Engage , as the set made up of members of Overcast and Aftershock played hulking trad - metallic element riffs and had a singer in Jesse Leach , who had a spirited , more bona fide spokesperson than a lot of the circle of the time . They have a couple of lawful definitive albums , butKillswitch Engage ’s more late record album have failed to impress .
After howl back with the outstandingDisarming The Descent , Jesse Leach ’s 2nd stage in the lot has been creatively uninspiring . No record album encapsulates this like the tired , disappointingAtonement . unconditional and innocent of the passionate power that fuel their best workplace , it feel likea corner - ticking use of everything Killswitch do well , delivered in the most mediocre way potential . With six years to do better , 2025’sThe Consequenceis not much good , as Killswitch are ostensibly cash in one’s chips through the motions in the modern geological era .
8Avenged Sevenfold
Hail To The King (2013)
It ’s an interesting question to ask , but can a world - class title runway stop an album from being terrible ? Avenged Sevenfold ’s vocal , " Hail To The King , " sympathise the mission dead . The band pose on the cusp of being festival star , among a harvest of their contemporaries ’s bands who were perennial openers ineffective to make the jump to the top of the bill . A7X surgically plant parts of every " classic " metallic element stripe they likedin place of their own personality , in a play to overturn the bands they see go on after them . For five minutes and five seconds ( and the hell - invoke unfastener , " Shepherd Of Fire " ) , it worked impeccably .
The harsh truth isHail To The Kingis the only moment Avenged cheat their identity . It has the difficult caveat of being the first record album after the loss of their childhood admirer and primal songwriter , Jimmy " The Rev " Sullivan . It accept out all of the band ’s charm , eccentricity , personality and musical variance , and supersede it with a assembling of songs that cringe over the band they wanted respect from . The band ’s previous album is among their best work , so it is a narrative that at least has a glad ending .
7Trivium
Vengeance Falls (2013)
In recent year , Trivium have become very easy to defend . Their former releaseAscendencyis largely regarded as a classic , and since then they have never stopped improving their skills or adding to their arsenal . Their recent album have something for fans of all subgenres , andMatt Heafey is one of the most natural leader in 21st - century metal . But then there ’s Vengeance Falls .
Trivium had vitriol thrown their agency for twelvemonth over the " actually not that bad " follow - up toAscendency , The Crusade , but it is the David Draiman - producedVengeance Fallsis the band ’s only actively sorry textile . Disturbed are a hard rock ‘n’ roll power plant with a very unique sound , with Draiman ’s musicality at its center . When his distinct ear was paired with Trivium ’s trad - leaning metal attack , it exit together as well as peanut butter and gravel . Even the album ’s good birdcall , " discord , " has n’t been in the dance band ’s setlist since 2022 .
6Iron Maiden
Virtual XI (1998)
Sometimes , it feel like a febricity dream that Iron Maiden had a period that part Bruce Dickinson ’s enormously successful eras . While the spiky , confrontational tone of Paul Di’Anno ’s vocals have an significant place in Maiden ’s history , the menstruation in which Blaze Bayley occupied the microphone is a much bad sell . Much , much , much tougher .
With their burly rugby - club brain , Iron Maiden ’s fanbase are so passionate that they take over metropolis with their colors when the band total to town . Those diehards are the only people give enough to see past what an arrant turkey of an albumVirtual XIis . Bloated , pompous , and a pale imitation of the characteristics that make Maiden one of metallic element ’s most significant bands , the dance band ’s cinematic vision is replace by a wily CD - read-only memory look at Virtual Reality and all of the ghastly late-’90s Microsoft Encarta - esque imagery you ’d expect with it .
5Korn
III: Remember Who You Are (2010)
Johnny Cash ’s soul - searching melodic dispatch with Rick Rubin was all the madness in the other part of the 2000s . There was a rule that millionaire artists needed to reconnect with who they were when they made their most vital oeuvre . As Korn ’s line of business - up became unstable and their music declined , Korn work to Ross Robinson to recapture their flaming . After all , on their first trial of album together , this combo of manufacturer and band shift the face of heavy music forever .
Reuniting in 2010 , Korn and Robinson were in dissimilar headspaces . The grizzly reality is that Robinson is a creative rebel with a very unique and provocative manner of working , and it ’s toilsome to convince someone who ’s never going to have to work again to put in the expect feat when they do n’t want to . Korn III : Remember Who You Areis not worthy of the band ’s name , as it sound like a high school ring being tasked to write songs that sound like Korn .
4Rob Zombie
Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor (2013)
spread himself across motion picture , spiritedness , and euphony , Rob Zombie is a never - stopping hub of creative energy . He knows who he is , what he likes and what he grow , and his audience are mostly fine with that . There is a showcase to argue for Zombie no longer caring about his music as much as his other pursuits , and even the claim ofVenomous Rat Regeneration Vendorsounds like a man who can not be bothered .
There were telling signs thatmusic was n’t as important to Rob Zombie in these years , admit majorly scale down the spectacle of his hot show . " Teenage Nosferatu Pussy , " " Rock And Roll ( In A Black Hole ) , " and " Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga " audio like inebriated people come up with fake - but - funny Zombie song titles . This man wroteHellbilly Deluxeand frontedAstro - Creep 2000 . It is disingenuous to suggestVenomous Rat Regeneration Vendorhas the same level of care and attention as those records .
3Bullet For My Valentine
Temper Temper (2013)
It is not an magnification to suggest thatTemper Temperis so bad it derailed heater For My Valentine ’s flight forever . The previous record album , the excellent Hot Topic - flavoredHard Rock Fever , take in the band headline the world - famous Wembley Arena on the final night of its touring round . They were supported by Bring Me The Horizon , and it was the biggest show run by a new British hard rock candy or metal band since Def Leppard . Prior to that , The Poison and Scream , Aim , Fire were both received rapturously .
It is genuinely as if Matt Tuck temporary worker lost his songwriting ability . Nothing BFMV released has been as bad , before it or since . To call it amateurish in its delivery , ambition , and quality would be an insult to amateur bands everywhere , as every lick of this features none of the lead appeal or hooks of the preceding album . The lumpish material across this track record was so disastrous for the band , thatBullet For My Valentine never amply recover their reputation .
2Megadeth
Risk (1999)
It is n’t a wild leap to suggest that nu alloy is everything Dave Mustaine is not . Nu metal is playful , playfulness , and does n’t take itself too seriously . Dave is curmudgeonly , dour , and he is not one of liveliness ’s jokers . Of all the shredders cast off for a eyelet by the sea modification that materialize in metal , Megadeth’sRiskis the worst record album put out by a fellow member of The Big Four .
Of all of the crimes committed on this melodic atrocity , Megadeth wield to make with child alloy boring . The never - terminate " Prince Of Darkness , " the cringeworthy repeat of " Insomnia , " and the boogie-woogie - woogie horridness of " Seven " are just a few examples of the dull , meandering folderal churned out by Mustaine and his employees . For an awesome band , Megadeth have more than a few bad record , butRiskis comfortably the worst of them all .
1Slipknot
The End, So Far (2022)
One of the most important metallic element bands in the genre ’s history , few bands have had as much immediate shock as Slipknot . An 18 - legged mayhem machine out of a nowhere town in Iowa , Slipknot formed a trammel in blood with their interview in 1999 , build on the passion for creativity and katharsis through artistic dismissal . It is not an exaggeration to say that the men who made the isthmus ’s sensory debut album would be ashamed ofThe End , So Far .
The End , So Faris a portentous and aimless coronach . Slipknot are so far from their original mission statement on this recordthat the aloofness can not be measured . Sung like " The Chapeltown Rag " and " Warranty " do n’t feel vital or thirsty . They sound dire and out of touch . While " Scissors " and " Vermillion " feel haunting and unsettling , " Yen " is bland and offer nothing of substance . Slipknot themselves do n’t seem to consider in this record album either , with only three of the songs ever being put into the setlist in the years since its release .
Custom image by Sarah Milner
