Unpopular Or Obscure Albums That You Think Are Great

I’ll give you Metal Gods and Living after Midnight. I’ll even throw in Grinder. But then there’s United and YDHtBOtbW.

Now do Turbo which has two good songs. Meh, opinions eh?

Painkiller is better than both!

I like Turbo. An example of a traditional metal band giving pop metal a try and doing it better than most actual pop metal bands LOL!

Can't say the same for Stronger Than Ever. 
* (Boltendahl looks the other way and starts whistling)

Black Rider wrote:Hall Aflame. A Kurt Vanderhoof band that was bluesy hard rock. I really enjoy their album.

Yes, that definitely was not a popular album.  I've never heard it, but "bluesy hard rock" gets my attention 

Bahana wrote:Schizophonic by Nuno Bettencourt

I had that way back but really didn't care for it.  I wonder how well or poorly it sold?

Pethead wrote:Painkiller is better than both!

Agreed.

MagnusPrime wrote:There are quite a few - I have a habit of liking albums and bands others usually do not...LOL

Silver Mountain - Shakin' Brains (1983)

Talk Show - Talk Show (1997)

To this day I do not understand the dislike of "Shakin' Brains."  It was universally maligned back in the day and I don't think it ever recovered it's dignity.  Yes the production was not great but the songs are very creative.  It's one of my favorites from the 80's.

Talk Show was not bad...not too memorable but better than some of the later STP stuff.

Black Rider wrote:Jugulator is a great album, wish they'd put it on Spotify 

Here is what Wikipedia says about that:

"Both Jugulator and 2001's Demolition are two Judas Priest albums that have never been released on any major digital media website, due to SPV falling under and going bankrupt around 2009."

I'm not sure if these guys are obscure enough. Their two songs on Heavy & Hard from Down Under (Death of Hades, Tombthroat) impressed me so much in the late '90s I ordered JaR from Australia at a premium price.

Constantine wrote:

Bahana wrote:Schizophonic by Nuno Bettencourt

I had that way back but really didn't care for it.  I wonder how well or poorly it sold?

Some of the songs had an alternative sound to them. It's understandable why Extreme fans wouldn't like it. The last Extreme album before this was in '95, went to #40 and had no hits. You can imagine how a solo Nuno Bettencourt album would do.

Constantine wrote:

Black Rider wrote:Jugulator is a great album, wish they'd put it on Spotify 

Here is what Wikipedia says about that:

"Both Jugulator and 2001's Demolition are two Judas Priest albums that have never been released on any major digital media website, due to SPV falling under and going bankrupt around 2009."

Demolition is streaming. Considering Jugulator was part of that super massive boxset they recently released, surprised they havent put that one back on streaming services.

^Huh, you're right.  I see it on Apple and it is on Spotify too.  Guess the Wiki page should be updated.

Speaking of unpopular, I remember when Judas Priest first appeared, they were hated by the American rock press.  

True heavy metal was generally hated by the mainstream back then and made fun of endlessly by those who looked down on it and its fans.  To be fair, metal was part of a more rigid, anti-social sub-culture back then, one that took itself a bit too seriously.   It wasn't until the early 80's that metal broke into the mainstream and hair metal made it more of a "party" ands didn't take itself so seriously.

I don't believe that any of Paul Di'Anno's solo work was all that popular or well-regarded.  
However I thought that the 2nd album by Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone was really good.  
The album had some great guitar work and some very catchy songs.   It was a more commercial sound but still heavy.  
A completely different lineup appeared on a later release called Feel My Pain (1998) which was not very good.

Sevenoneself wrote:

I'm not sure if these guys are obscure enough. Their two songs on Heavy & Hard from Down Under (Death of Hades, Tombthroat) impressed me so much in the late '90s I ordered JaR from Australia at a premium price.

100% ditto.

Once Dead - Visions of Hell


Absolutely one of my favorite Thrash albums ever but I remember it getting skewered when it came out.

DragonForce - Valley Of The Damned. I prefer old-school DragonForce over their more recent work, contrary to what many others seem to think.

DF was best through Inhuman Rampage imo.

The Power Within and Maximum Overdrive are my favorites, but I like the early DF too.

DF brings up another good candidate for this list: 

I Am I: Event Horizon

The band ZP Theart formed when he left DF. Good solid power metal that I’ve enjoyed since it came out.

I remembered another one.

Vicious Rumors - Sadistic Symphony

Better than Cyber Christ but Warball blew it away.

Black Rider wrote:Better than Cyber Christ but Warball blew it away.

LOVE Vicious Rumors.

Had a really good string of albums from '85 to '94, then had their "experimental" phase from '96 to '00 with mixed results (I like those albums ok), then entered another great era starting with Warball. 

That last one, Celebration Decay, is GREAT.

Ronny Munroe is the vocalist now. Hope they can keep the "ball" rolling with another good album.

Agree with your assessment and I think Ronnie is a very good vocalist.