Metal Sludge Gossip Board

I tried to come up with some of the best known worst albums that flopped. It can be debated that some of the bands have numerous bad albums, but these are the ones I picked that seemed like they had the most negative reactions when they came out.

Van Halen from the list. Atrocious.

Not on the list: Ratt s/t and Queensryche - HitNF.

And didn't Anthrax and Jackyl make it platinum with at least one album each?

Love_Industry wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 2:32 pm Van Halen from the list. Atrocious.

Not on the list: Ratt s/t and Queensryche - HitNF.

And didn't Anthrax and Jackyl make it platinum with at least one album each?

I believe only the I'm The Man EP from Anthrax went platinum.

St. Anger...straight up

I STILL want my money back.

Those are some bad albums, but VH has to be the winner here.

Rocker4Real wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 3:07 pm

Love_Industry wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 2:32 pm Van Halen from the list. Atrocious.

Not on the list: Ratt s/t and Queensryche - HitNF.

And didn't Anthrax and Jackyl make it platinum with at least one album each?

I believe only the I'm The Man EP from Anthrax went platinum.

Jackyl S/T went platinum, and "I'm the Man" is (somewhat surprising) Anthrax' only platinum....But they have several that went gold by '91 and possibly are near the platinum mark.
https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/

NineteenEightyFour wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 3:08 pm St. Anger...straight up

I STILL want my money back.

I torrented it (hi Lars) and still felt I'd been ripped off. I could have done so much more in that hour.

I went with VHIII...but with hindsight, I shoulda voted for St. Anger, that thing is just painful to listen to, fucking noise. With VHIII you at least get EVH's guitar solos.

I guess we just have to wait another 10 years and we'll be able to prompt ChatGPT to: "redo St Anger but make the songs shorter and copy the guitar tones and production of Master of Puppets."

VH3

Eddie put to rest all those “what if Hendrix/rhoads etc hadda lived, think of the music we missed out on..” lines of thinking

St Anger

Hated that album.

Such a disappointment

GAY MAN! LOOKIN FOR ANOTHER!
CANDY MAN! YEAH THE CANDY MAN CAN!

St. Anger was the last Metallica album that sounded angry. Kinda liked that part of it.....

VH III for me.

Not sure what was worse
Walking out of movie theatre for Star Wars 1 after all the hype
Or
Listening to Hollyweird 1st time in my beach front place during that era

* I really believed Poison was going make the most glam cd ever giving the middle finger to all the haters and giving all the fans a masterpiece WE all could be proud of..the cd cover was perfect for the sh*t head grunge survivors

VH3 sucked, but "Without You" isn't bad, and the tour was great.

Hollyweird sucked, but CC's "Home" still makes me chuckle.

Generation Swine sucked, but most Motley records suck, so no surprise there.

The Elder sucked, but "I" has a certain charm.

Subhuman Race sucked compared to Slave To The Grind, but the same could be said for most any hard rock/metal album that's been released since.

Chinese Democracy sucked compared to expectations and hype, but if that record came out 10 years sooner, I think we'd all be sucking its dick.

Risk sucked, but it's Megadeth's equivalent to Dynasty. If you ignore what came before it, it doesn't seem quite as bad.

That leaves Def Leppard going grunge, Aerosmith going through the motions and Metallica going through a midlife crisis. I'll go with Metallica since those 75 minutes are fucking brutal.

St Anger.
Metallica fell the furthest.

Aerosmith "Music From Another Dimension"
Never bothered to listen or buy.

Def Leppard "Slang"
Not a bad album by any means... neither one of their best.

Guns N Roses "Chinese Democracy"
I lime it.. drags a bit, but Ok overall.

Kiss "The Elder"
Love it.

Metallica "St. Anger"
Hard pill to swallow... worst Metallica album ever.. I can only stomach 2 or 3 tracks ... abysmal.

Megadeth "Risk"
It's ok, at least it is adventurous, they have been rehashing "Rust in Peace" or "Countdown" since the new millennium.

Motley Crue "Generation Swine"
Listenable, but mediocre at best.

Poison "Hollyweird"
See Aerosmtih

Skid Row "Subhuman Race"
It's ok, not in the same leafue as the previous two but still enjoyable.

Van Halen "3"
I voted for this one... shame of an album, they could have done way better with Cherone.

inextrem wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 3:19 am Aerosmith "Music From Another Dimension"
Never bothered to listen or buy.

Def Leppard "Slang"
Not a bad album by any means... neither one of their best.

Guns N Roses "Chinese Democracy"
I lime it.. drags a bit, but Ok overall.

Kiss "The Elder"
Love it.

Metallica "St. Anger"
Hard pill to swallow... worst Metallica album ever.. I can only stomach 2 or 3 tracks ... abysmal.

Megadeth "Risk"
It's ok, at least it is adventurous, they have been rehashing "Rust in Peace" or "Countdown" since the new millennium.

Motley Crue "Generation Swine"
Listenable, but mediocre at best.

Poison "Hollyweird"
See Aerosmtih

Skid Row "Subhuman Race"
It's ok, not in the same leafue as the previous two but still enjoyable.

Van Halen "3"
I voted for this one... shame of an album, they could have done way better with Cherone.

I AGREE TOTALLY

BernieTaupson wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 3:48 am Maybe the worst album I have ever listened to by a major act is 2016’s Braver Than We Are by Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. It’s Peter Criss All For One level headscratchingly awful.

Good call. Was going to write in Ozzy's Black Rain but it's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath compared to both albums You mentioned. Peter Criss is a platinum act, his 1978 solo went platinum

Also just remembered Slang isn't Def Leppard's worst album. It sucks but X is worse. A lot worse. Take away 2 songs and it's worse than VH3.

St. Anger gets my vote. You can still find some semblances of music on all the others in the list, but St. Anger is just noise.

St. Anger gets my vote. You can still find some semblances of music on all the others on the list, but St. Anger is just noise. It's also a stupid title and the SKOM documentary just showed a band full of self-centered, egotistical chickenasses. Even Phil fuckin' Towle couldn't sort them out. Wasn't a good era.

I'll take the worst song off of Metallica's St. Anger over the best song off of LuLu.

https://youtu.be/nWUFxD3nRAA?si=OJ4yUxAhZSiFJ2Rn

The only one Ive ever listened to, all the way thru was Subhuman Race. I don't like suckage

VH III. What an awful album. I’ve tried several times to like it and it’s actually worse with each listen. I’m saying this as a big VH and Extreme fan who was excited for the album.

Thebottomline wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:06 am I'll take the worst song off of Metallica's St. Anger over the best song off of LuLu.

https://youtu.be/nWUFxD3nRAA?si=OJ4yUxAhZSiFJ2Rn

This is the correct answer. LuLu is THE most painful album I've ever listened to by any act, platinum or otherwise. St. Anger is aggressively mediocre, VH3 sucks, but LuLu is next level bad.

Almost all of the albums mentioned have songs that were competently written - they’re just lame or stupid songs.

St Anger and VH3 stand apart because it’s hard to believe the people that made those albums were even remotely capable of writing anything decent, let alone hit songs.

Well St. Anger was written by a therapist, and VH3 was written by a methhead. Anyone who ever said that EVH should record a solo album, VH3 is your answer. He needed someone else to help make songs out of his endless drunken basement noodlings with his brother.

BernieTaupson wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 3:48 am Maybe the worst album I have ever listened to by a major act is 2016’s Braver Than We Are by Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. It’s Peter Criss All For One level headscratchingly awful. It’s so fucking odd I just can’t understand how Steinman wrote it.

https://youtu.be/z3LuwWkcJmQ?si=z6CX7xZfNSTNU-y0

Reminds me of when they show those sad pictures of how someone’s handwriting turns into meaningless gibberish as they get dementia.

https://youtu.be/RppWjGQOawY?si=_dZdYYOtRgrw3MIF

With both of the Heaven By The Dashboard Light vocalists.

The One For All is Sgt Peppers compared to this shite fest!

Anthrax442 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 2:49 pm

Thebottomline wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 7:06 am I'll take the worst song off of Metallica's St. Anger over the best song off of LuLu.

https://youtu.be/nWUFxD3nRAA?si=OJ4yUxAhZSiFJ2Rn

This is the correct answer. LuLu is THE most painful album I've ever listened to by any act, platinum or otherwise. St. Anger is aggressively mediocre, VH3 sucks, but LuLu is next level bad.

I didn't want to include Lulu because that would have been an easy vote for everybody.

LuLu should not be mentioned because it is a side project and NOT a Metallica album.