Some albums I own, but dislike for one reason or another!

It was kind of difficult for me to make this post. I reckon I'd rate at least 80% of my collection a 6/10 or higher, and a lot of the albums I own that are kinda shoddy are there simply there purely for collection purposes, i.e. to complete a discography. Also, I'd say I actually like a fair few universally-panned albums more than the average listener. Some examples - I don't hate Van Halen III. I actually like that record, and I always have! I agree that Metallica's St. Anger is not a good album, but I don't hate it! A lot of people don't like Black Sabbath's Forbidden either - well, I learnt to like it even before the awesome 2024 remix came out! Iron Maiden's Virtual XI... Judas Priest's Demolition... Anthrax's Volume 8... I kinda like all of these too! But as I started going through my collection, I did manage to find some albums I don't like that aren't in there just to complete a discography. It's entirely subjective of course; some of these picks aren't even considered universally bad and I totally get why some people may like them, they're just not to my tastes. This is not necessarily a list of the WORST albums in my collection - just a list of some albums in my collection that I DISLIKE after all! All of these are 4/10s or lower for me. I definitely have more, but right now I can't think of them.


BLUE OYSTER CULT - Cult Classic (1994)
I love Blue Oyster Cult, but why they decided to re-record a whole bunch of their own classic tunes is baffling. There was nothing wrong with the original versions in the first place; I don't think any of the albums those songs originally came from suffer from any real production issues, and the new versions of songs like 'Godzilla', '(Don't Fear) The Reaper', 'Astronomy', 'Burning for You' do absolutely nothing to improve on them. It's not that this album is horrible to listen to - they're re-recordings of pretty excellent songs after all. It's an album that should never have been made in the first place, that's why it's on this list.


DEF LEPPARD - X (2002)
The Def Leppard catalogue is spotty to say the least (in my opinion of course). The first 4 albums are brilliant and I never tire of them. The last couple of albums were solid too (2015's Def Leppard and 2022's Diamond Star Halos), and I even think Slang deserves far more credit than it gets. But there's a handful of albums in this discography that have always left a sour taste in my mouth - and 2002's X is by far the biggest example of this. The pop/rock ratio of this album must be about 80/20, it's so fucking safe and lightweight that it's hard to believe this is the same band responsible for recording the NWOBHM classics On Through the Night and High 'n' Dry!! You know how Joe Elliott absolutely hates any of Def Leppard's association with heavy metal/hard rock? Well X is like his dream finally coming true! He finally achieved his vision for Def Leppard with this album! Well done Joe. 


MACHINE HEAD - Supercharger (2001)
I think Machine Head do have their share of genuinely good albums. Hell, I even agree that Burn My Eyes is a classic (although I don't consider it to be a masterwork like some fans do). But Robb Flynn is also prone to jumping on whatever metal bandwagon is popular at any given time, writing absolutely terrible lyrics and generally just responsible for Machine Head's overall inconsistency as a band. 1999's The Burning Red was a huge downgrade from The More Things Change..., and 2001's Supercharger is a complete mess of nu metal cringe, awful rapped vocals and the god-awful song 'American High', which I've always considered to be one of the worst "metal" songs of all time. I re-reviewed their catalogue last year, and I was genuinely hoping I'd be a bit kinder about this one in my older age, but it's only gotten worse. Total piece of crap; they snapped out of it with their next release, 2003's Through the Ashes of Empires, and then went through a genuinely impressive creative phase for The Blackening and Unto the Locust. That doesn't mean I forgive them for Supercharger however!


MACHINE HEAD - Catharsis (2018)
Machine Head are responsible for not 1, but 2 of what I consider to be the worst albums in my collection!! I remember the review bombing Catharsis got from fans back in 2018, so I avoided it like the plague. However, I finally heard it for the first time last year, and it's honestly worse than I thought! It's so fucking bad in fact that even Supercharger sounds better to my ears!! The lyrics throughout Catharsis (and particularly on the song 'Bastards') are absolutely cringe; Robb Flynn pushing his political agenda all over the album. Look, a lot of music is political, and I'm fine with that. You might as well just avoid a lot of music if you're gonna take whatever artist in question's politics too seriously. But the way Flynn talks about it on this album just reads like an angry teenager at a student society, and that's why I have a problem with it. I wouldn't be as sour about Catharsis if it was only the lyrics that sucked. Too bad the music itself is equally as terrible. Forget writing epic-length thrash/groove/proggressive-infused metal like we got on The Blackening and Unto the Locust (and even Bloodstone & Diamonds) - 'cos that didn't work out for them at all did it?! That particular sound was only responsible for creating 3 of their most acclaimed records!! Nope, Flynn effectively returns to the nu metal nonsense of The Burning Red and Supercharger! It seems like no coincidence to me that long-time members Phil Demmel and Dave McClain left the band post-Catharsis.


MAXIMUM PENALTY - Uncle Sham (2001)
Did any of you readers rack up the hours in the game Grand Theft Auto IV? Remember the New York hardcore-focused in-game radio station L.C.H.C.? There was a cool track on it called 'All Your Boys' by the band Maximum Penalty that I really liked (along with a whole list of others), and many years ago I went through a pretty big phase of buying hardcore albums and Maximum Penalty were one of the bands I was looking to get into. I ended up buying their 2001 album Uncle Sham - and holy shit it's bad! I'm pretty sure it's the same frontman as the guy that sang 'All Your Boys', but sweet Jesus his vocals are terrible on this album!! It barely sounds like the same guy for starters; he sounds more like some random dude trying to impersonate Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, but pinching his nose in the process! As for the music, well, the production is shitty. The guitars are muddy and the whole album sounds like a demo. I don't have a problem with crap production in the right setting, but the songs are mostly all built around tired mid-tempo, groove-based riffage and none of the energy/fury you want from a NYHC band! I'm sure Maximum Penalty do have their good albums (especially if 'All Your Boys' is anything to go by), but this isn't one of them!


MEGADETH - Risk (1999)
Risk is an album I really hoped I'd start to understand the older I get, in the same way albums like Metallica's St. Anger (*gasp!*), Judas Priest's Turbo, Diamond Head's Canterbury etc. got better for me with age. But when it comes to Megadeth's Risk, I think I can give up on those dreams now that I'm 34! Christ almighty this is bad! If anything, it just gets worse with age! Songs like 'Insomnia', 'I'll Be There', 'Wanderlust' and just about any other fucking song on this record are a total clusterfuck of hard rock, alternative and pop... and just about ZERO of the technically-proficient thrash/speed metal that made Megadeth great to begin with! About the only songs I can tolerate are 'Breadline' and 'Crush 'Em', but I still feel like I lose brain cells every time I hear the latter! And yes, 'Prince of Darkness' sucks. How the hell did it make it to the fan-compiled 2005 best of Greatest Hits: Back to the Start?! It's just Dave Mustaine babbling absolute bollocks over some half-arsed riffs! But the most offensive thing about Risk to me is the fact this is the SAME lineup that recorded Rust in Peace. Just think about that for a minute...


METALLICA & LOU REED - Lulu (2011)
A predictable choice, but for good reason. Back in 2011 Metallica collaborated with Lou Reed (of all people) to record this double album, and the results are... hilarious, actually. Lou Reed sounds like Abe Simpson waffling utterly nonsensical lyrics (unless you're fully aware of the works of German playwright Frank Wedekind anyway) over some half-baked modern Metallica riffs, while James Hetfield provides such backing vocal lines like "I am the table!". This is a failed experiment in every sense of word - Lou's spoken-word vocals are completely out of key with the riffs even if they are funny as fuck, while the music itself feels like it's come from an amateur garage/jam band, not Metallica. This being Lou Reed, the lyrical matter is likely deep and thought-provoking if you really think hard about what he's trying to say... maybe this stuff is just too intellectual for us average Joe's? Or maybe it's all just a joke and Lou was actually trolling everyone? Yeah, Lulu is fucking terrible... but the album is so ridiculous it has at least provided countless hours of laughter for me.


RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - By the Way (2002)
Plenty of the picks for the post are of albums I personally don't enjoy, but I may still understand why someone else would. When it comes to Red Hot Chili Peppers though, they're a band I have almost nothing good to say about - I just can't stand them, regardless of their popularity. I like the song 'Fight Like a Brave', and I don't hate Chad Smith either (probably because he's played with other artists I happen to like, such as Glenn Hughes, Ozzy, Chickenfoot, Joe Satriani etc.). But RHCP just got worse and worse for me over time, and By the Way was fucking massive worldwide when it dropped in 2002. Everyone was listening to it. Personally, I think it always sucked arse. Other than the music to 'Dosed', the rest of this album is just so pedestrian, safe and dull to me. I can't stand Anthony Kiedis as a singer and a person, Flea is overrated and I've never understand the hype behind guitarist John Frusciante either. Nearly every guitar enthusiast as I've ever spoken to bigs this guy up to no end, so clearly Fusciante is doing something right. Obviously I need to hear his solo stuff to really understand the man, but his association with RHCP stops me doing that by default. Either way, By the Way is one of the most overplayed, overrated and annoying rock albums of the 2000's to my ears. And yet I still have it anyway, and won't part with it! I hang on to all my albums whether I like them or not! What a hypocrite I am!


SAXON - Destiny (1988)
Well, this one's slightly better than I remembered. 'Ride Like the Wind' is pretty much universally regarded as a great cover of the Christopher Cross number of the same name, and I actually kinda like 'Where the Lightning Strikes' these days too. For the most part though, this is album sticks out like a sore thumb in the calalogue. Why? Because they were blatantly selling out here by trying way too hard to appeal to the US market. In my head, Saxon are one of the poster boy meat n' potatoes, British blue-collar heavy metal bands. Sounding as shiny and glossy as they do here on the keyboard-drenched Destiny just feels so wrong goddamn it!! Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for this album's existence boils down to record label pressures; the album does not feel like a natural move from Saxon, nor do they ever play anything from it live. Funnily enough, I see plenty of praise for this record online these days. If keyboard-heavy, melodic, hooky radio pop rock/metal is your thing, then this is probably is a good album. But a good Saxon album this is not.


SMASHING PUMPKINS - Cyr (2020)
I was massively disappointed when this came out during COVID. It's predecessor, 2018's Shiny and Oh So Bright was a genuine return to form for the Pumpkins. It sounded like a true SP record. So what the hell was Billy Corgan thinking when he followed it up in 2020 with Cyr - a fucking synth-pop album?! I really do hate this album. I gave it a 3.9/10 when I reviewed it years ago, but it's more like a 2/10 now. I'm not a fan of synth-pop/electro in any shape or form, and that's exactly what this album is. What's the point in even having James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain in the band if you're just gonna write and record songs like this? In fact, do they even play on the album at all?! Are those drums real? Whatever. Oh, and Cyr consists of 20 songs and lasts well over an hour, because of course it does. This should have been released as a Billy Corgan solo effort. I don't claim to be the Smashing Pumpkins' biggest fan, but I don't see how anyone who fell in love with albums such as Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness or even Adore can get behind Cyr.


TRIVIUM - Ascendancy (2005)
I've talked about this album before in this article. I genuinely have no idea why I own this. I hated it when it first came out when I was at school, yet at some point it ended up in my collection well after I finished my education. I can't criticise Trivium for their musical ability; they sure know how to play and write songs, it's just that their early stuff isn't for me. I've said it a million times before - metalcore is not my thing, and this has always been one of the prime albums of said genre to me. Aficionados of the genre might disagree with that, but when I was at school this album and it's follow-up, The Crusade, were hyped to no end. I can't stand Matt Heafy's vocals, I can't stand the melodic guitars, I can't stand the lyrics ('Dying in Your Arms' is one of the cringiest metal songs of all time in my opinion)... I just can't stand Ascendancy! I'm not saying it's a bad album, it just isn't what I look for in a metal album. Having said that, I decided to listen to their 2021 album In the Court of the Dragon on Spotify a couple of months ago. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't always hit the spot for me, but musically they're not the same band they once were, and I can see why even a lot of metalcore haters like myself have given the album praise online.


TYGERS OF PAN TANG - Burning in the Shade (1987)
Even if Saxon's Destiny is a travesty in my books, I get why some people do like that album. Tygers of Pan Tang's Burning in the Shade however, is just god awful full-stop. Like Destiny, this is the sound of a British heavy metal band attempting radio-friendly melodic pop rock, a far cry from the raw and punky underground metal 1980 debut Wild Cat or it's blazing follow-up Spellbound. At least Destiny had some balls; Burning in the Shade is so fucking fluffy and tepid that absolutely nothing about the songs or production bares any muscle whatsoever. When I reviewed this a few years ago, about the only decent thing I had to say is the fact John Deverill is a fantastic singer and totally pulls this style of music off in the vocal department. I still agree with that statement, because the man certainly does have the pipes for heavy metal and radio-friendly pop rock such as this. Too bad the music is awful.


HANK WILLIAMS III - 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin' (2011)
I'm not a country fan, but it's not like I detest the genre or anything like that. There's plenty of songs I actually like, even if I don't think I'll ever go out of my way to buy more country albums. I do like Hank 3 though, and actually own a few of his albums. I always liked the way he kind of fused a punk rock attitude into his brand of outlaw country, and the fact the guy is a legit metalhead and has even made metal albums obviously helps too. 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin' though, is one of the stupidest albums I've ever heard. What this is, is effectively 71 minutes of cattle market auctioneer samples babbling over sloppy extreme metal riffs (riffs that range from black metal to doom/stoner metal)! It's pretty fucking hilarious to hear when you're drunk, and credit where credit's due to Hank - he invented a completely new metal subgenre with this album, CATTLECORE! I mean, it's fucking terrible - but original at least! In all seriousness though, this album is a complete joke next to his highly-praised country records. And if you want to hear any of Hank's metal stuff, you're better off listening to Assjack or his doom metal album, Attention Deficit Domination.


These next choices are all albums that I generally dislike for one reason or another, just not to the same extent as the picks above:


ANNIHILATOR - All for You (2004)
1997's Remains quite often takes top spot for "worst Annihilator album", but since it has 'Tricks and Traps' and 'Reaction' on it - 2 of my absolute favourite Annihilator songs - I can't be too unkind towards that one! My vote for worst album goes to All for You. Granted, there's some good stuff on here like 'Demon Dance', 'Rage Absolute' and 'Bled' (hence why it's only made the runners-up list), but All for You is also responsible for 2 of the absolute worst Annihilator ballads ('The One' and 'Holding On') as well as an overall rough start for at the time new vocalist Dave Padden. His alternative/nu metal-influenced vocal style on this album is a mismatch, and the music has often been modernised to match this. Like I said, the album doesn't always miss the mark, but overall it just isn't a good record. Thankfully Padden learned from his mistakes quickly and would redeem himself on later Annihilator releases, but I understand why so many fans felt he was a strange choice of vocalist at the time. Let's not leave Jeff Waters out the picture either though - he's the one who writes all the songs after all!


BATHORY - Octagon (1995)
Not entirely sure what was going through ol' Quorthon's head when he recorded this album! Octagon is a thrash metal album that bears no real resemblance to the pioneering early black metal albums Bathory, nor the Viking-themed stuff that came later. And simply put, this isn't a particularly good thrash album either. I think the actual songs are generally okay, but the horrid, tinny production really does them no favours. People always bang on about how bad St. Anger sounds, have they ever heard Octagon before?! Where's the bass?! And the drums sound like a mixture of pans and cardboard boxes! The lyrics are dumb, and Quorthon's vocals this time around are snarly and nasally - and simply not good. Raw, demo-like production can work for thrash if done correctly, but Octagon is not a good example of this. I don't think this is the worst album in the world at all; I like the intensity of the songs as well as most of the riffs, and had the production/vocals been handled differently then Quorthon could've been onto something. But I don't think it's controversial to call Octagon one of - if not the worst Bathory record.


BLUE OYSTER CULT - Club Ninja (1985)
It pains me to list 2 Blue Oyster Cult albums within this post, but Club Ninja is an album I almost always skip over every time I revisit this band. And it's a shame because at least 3/4 of their catalogue is really good. But they missed the mark with this album in 1985. Too shiny and commercial, and lacking the eccentric, quirky charms of classic BOC - as well as balls. It's more-or-less a straight-up AOR album to my ears, and not a particularly good one at that. I must admit, I think if I were to re-review this one again today, I'd probably up it's rating from a 3.5/10 to a 4, because I enjoy it just a tad more now than I did then, but even so, a 4/10 isn't exactly anything to brag about.


THE DARKNESS - Permission to Land (2003)
This album was all the rage here in the UK back in 2003. It was popular to the point where I'm pretty sure even people who aren't rock fans were buying it. Truth be told, I think the songwriting is actually very good. The songs are catchy, the melodies are great and the riffs are memorable. So why is it on this list? Because I can't fucking stand Justin Hawkins' voice!! There's nothing wrong with high-pitched male vocals when done well, but I just don't hear it with Hawkins. I get the guy is kind of a goof and it totally adds to the band's comedic tone (they are a joke band... right?!), but I just find him fucking annoying after a couple of tracks. 


DEF LEPPARD - Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008)
Picking on Def Leppard just feels like low-hanging fruit as a metalhead. Like I said above when talking about the woeful X, they do have albums I love that mean a lot to me, and at least they're open about not wanting to be associated with heavy metal. That has to be better than slagging off metal music and fans while still releasing metal albums at the same time, right?! Still, doesn't mean I have to like everything they ever put out. Case in point, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. When I reviewed this however many years ago, I somehow didn't even know who Tim McGraw was - but he sings on 'Nine Lives' here either way. In general, this is just a very pedestrian, safe-sounding pop album masked as a glam/hard rock record. There's a lot of guitar to digest here, which is good - yet the album still feels soft as shit.


DROWNING POOL - Sinner (2001)
How this one didn't make my 'Albums I own, but don't recall where on when I obtained them!' post last year I don't know. I totally forgot I have this, and I really have no clue where/when I got it! It's Drowning Pool, so it's nu metal of course. And aside from the first couple of Slipknot albums and maybe a bit of Limp Bizkit, nu metal ain't my jam. I don't particularly like Sinner either, but I've heard worse I suppose (*cough* Machine Head! *cough*). To be honest, the song 'Bodies' has tainted Drowning Pool for me; I feel like I've heard that song a billion times over the years, and not by choice! Aside from that, this is just a nu metal album. It could be a good'un for all I know, but it's not my cup of tea.


FEAR FACTORY - Digimortal (2001)
I'm only a casual fan of Fear Factory. I have a few of their albums in my collection, but don't feel the need to obtain them all. I think Demanufacture is excellent, and I have no idea why I scored it a 7.9/10 in 2018 - if I were to review it now it'd be a high-ranging 8/10, easily. But 2001's Digimortal certainly doesn't come close to greatness of Demanufacture. It's their nu metal album of course, but I don't find it to be as offensive as what Machine Head did even if it still sounds pretty poor to my ears. Not every song on here sucks, and I think at the very least Digimortal still sounds close-ish to their classic output in the riffs department at least - just a downgraded version. It's the electro/industrial side that has the most negative impact on this album, and the reason why I always skip over it whenever I am in the mood to hear this band. Sepultura's Roots almost made this list for similar reasons, but that album is more like a 5/10 for me - it's one of the better examples of a band going nu metal and not entirely sucking!


GUNS N' ROSES - The Spaghetti Incident? (1993)
Sadly, Guns N' Roses will always be one of the most overrated bands in rock for me. Appetite for Destruction is an absolute classic (even I admit that despite being sick to death of 'Welcome to the Jungle' and 'Sweet Child O' Mine'), but I hate the way the band have essentially milked that album for what it's worth throughout their entire career. I mean, this is a band that have existed since 1985 and technically never officially dissolved, and in that time they've made 5 studio albums (well, technically 6 if you count G N' R Lies...) in over 4 decades! And one of them, The Spaghetti Incident?, is just a covers album!! I must admit, I don't hate this one like I did as a teenager - probably because I like a lot of the original songs and bands that GN'R cover on here (most of this album is punk covers, presumably because of Duff McKagan's punk background). The covers of The Damned's 'New Rose', Fear's 'I Don't Care About You' and The Stooges' 'Raw Power' are all pretty good, and the guitar tones are great. But the bulk of this album is forgettable even if it's not terrible, and the fact this band's catalogue is so small despite how long they've existed for makes it worse somehow! It's probably a better covers album than UFO's The Salentino Cuts, but at least UFO never stopped making music! Yeah, The Spaghetti Incident? never fails to annoy me in some way, even if the music isn't that bad!


MACHINE HEAD - The Burning Red (1999)
Yep, Machine Head are on this list for the 3rd time!! The Burning Red is the best of the 3 nu metal albums they put out, but that's not saying much. It's predecessor, The More Things Change..., displayed subtle hints at what was to come with The Burning Red, but just imagine if this anomaly came out directly after Burn My Eyes!! Would any of their fans stuck around?! Well, the cover of the Police's 'Message in a Bottle' is surprisingly good at least, and there's some bits and pieces of 'I Defy', 'The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears' and 'Devil with the King's Card' that I like - but the bulk of this album is a chock-full of those shitty detuned, simplistic nu metal riffs and embarrassing rapped vocals from Robb Flynn. Not as bad as Catharsis or Supercharger, but still lame.


MORBID ANGEL - Illud Divinum Insanus (2011)
A pretty universally-hated album, all things considered. I agree it's poor, but I don't hate it to the same extent that so many other people do. Since it has a small handful of songs that actually sound like Morbid Angel on it ('Existo Vulgore', 'Blades for Baal' and 'Beauty Meets Beast'), I don't think it's a total flop. The rest is mostly an embarrassing mess of industrial/groove metal cringe with small hints of death metal, i.e. not like other Morbid Angel records at all. A failed experiment, and one I talked about pretty recently in detail here.


SAXON - Rock the Nations (1986)
Like Blue Oyster Cult, I really don't like listing Saxon - one of my favourite bands - twice in this post! But Rock the Nations is the other outlier in their discography that just does not work for me like 95% of the rest of the albums do. 'Battle Cry' is fucking awesome - why couldn't the rest of the album sounded like this! To be fair, I do think the title track is kind of a fun arena rocker, and 'Waiting for the Night' is a guilty pleasure, but the rest of this album feels kind of dishonest. Not to the same extent as Destiny of course, but Rock the Nations still feels like an obvious attempt at appealing to a wider audience; a far cry from their roots. But hey, Elton motherfucking John plays piano on 'Party 'til You Puke' and 'Northern Lady'. ELTON JOHN PLAYED ON A SAXON ALBUM!! How cool is that?!


SUICIAL TENDENCIES - Free Your Soul... and Save Your Mind (2000)
I'm a big ST fan, but even I have to admit they're catalogue as a whole is far from perfect. Too many lazy re-recordings of old songs masked as proper studio albums, and they started dabbling too much with funk in the '90s/early 2000s. I've never really understood why that happened; Mike Muir already had his funk metal/rock band Infectious Grooves as far back as 1989, so why he put this much funk into Suicidal Tendencies for 2000's Free Your Soul has always confused me. Wikipedia has this album's genre down as "hardcore punk" - not true. It's more like "funk-infused punk" works better. Not that this automatically means the album will be bad, but is anyone really gonna put this on the same pedestal as the legendary punk rock debut, the crossover classic Join the Army or the thrash metal-focused brilliance of How Will Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today? and Lights... Camera... Revolution?! 'Cos I sure don't!


U2 - Rattle and Hum (1988)
I'm not a U2 fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't hate them like some people do. Bono is a tosser, sure, and in general I think there's always been something pretentious about them - but it's hard not to like an album such as The Joshua Tree. Too many good songs on that one, and I like a handful of their other '80s tracks too. That's why I own Rattle and Hum; I bought it because I liked the song 'Angel of Harlem' and this used CD cost me something like £2. The rest of this album doesn't really do a lot for me. It's a mish-mash of live tracks and studio numbers, and the whole thing feels like a bit of a rushed hackjob, especially compared to the intricate Joshua Tree. I get that it's basically the soundtrack to the documentary of the same name (which I have no plans to watch), and to be honest, it sounds better to me than most of the shite this band have put out from the year 2000-onwards. But it's not something I'll probably ever sit down and listen to in full ever again either.


URIAH HEEP - Different World (1991)
Uriah Heep's Different World is yet another case of a pioneering heavy rock/metal band trying to appeal to the masses. Simply put, it doesn't sound like any of the albums that likely made you a Heep fan in the first place (...Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble, Salisbury, Look at Yourself, Demons and Wizards, The Magician's Birthday... even Abominog) - nope, expect something that resembles arena/melodic rock/AOR/pop metal over prog-infused heavy rock songs, distorted Hammond organs and metallic guitar riffs and operatic vocals. Not necessarily awful, just not what I want to hear from the Heep. On the plus side, it was the second album to feature vocalist Bernie Shaw, and I always enjoy hearing that guy sing.