There was always a huge void when it came to American metal outside of the big bands throughout most of the 1970s, as it was so hard for new metal bands to get a record deal to record an album, also the size of the country saw so many of these bands isolated and therefore they lacked any type of strong movement as there would've been in the UK. This void also continued to as you say between the NWOBHM and thrash to a degree as well, even though American metal started its first real revolution in the early 1980s with glam metal, which is not surprising given that the biggest US bands/artists had been Kiss, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper and Van Halen, and nearly all these glam metal bands used these artists as their focal points and just looking at the comp in general (Metal Massacre 1) three things come to mind 1) A chunk of these bands would record their debuts under the 'glam metal' banner between the 1983 and 1984. 2) Most of the others are speed metal bands, something that American metal embraced 3) Most of the glam bands would set themselves up in LA, soon to be the glam metal capital of the world, which all unsurprisingly led to the glam metal explosion, because America had been waiting for some kind of metal revolution for about a decade.
Anyway listening to the comp 1 and as you know there are various pressings for it.
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Originally Posted by The Batlord
1. Steeler - "Cold Day In Hell": Sounds kinda like Ratt (also on this comp) or early Crue. Which is funny since these guys are from Nashville, Tennessee. Certainly not bad.
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Yes this was the first band of Yngwie Malmsteen and their debut album is highly regarded.
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2. Bitch - "Live for the Whip": Meh. They a'ight, but nothing special. Heavy metal with a boring chick singer. And I usually love chick singers.
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They were known as 'dominatrix metal' nice!
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3. Malice: "Captive of Light" Like much of what's on here (I'm coming back around to this song right now after listening to most of the rest of the album) this is some NWOBHM inspired metal. I never knew there were so many bands copying this **** so straightforwardly, but I guess it makes sense. I mean this was 1982 after all and I guess the American bands just hadn't had time to evolve much. Not that that makes this kick any less ass. If you like Angel Witch, Blitzkrieg, or early Maiden then you'll dig this. Bitchin' riff I might add.
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You're pretty much spot on with their influences from NWOBHM and looking on google seemed to have struggled to get a deal to record an album initially.
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4. Ratt - "Tell the World": An actual band I know. It doesn't mention this track on their Wikipedia article, so I can't be sure if they weren't on any other comps but it's entirely likely that this was their first time on vinyl. It's pretty much Ratt as you would expect: early glam, with an emphasis on big, catchy riffs. It's pretty sweet. Of course that's assuming you like Ratt. And I do.
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I like Ratt a lot.
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5. Avatar - "Octave" (instrumental): I can only assume this band couldn't find a vocalist in time, cause why they would put an instrumental on a comp that was probably introducing them to the world I have no idea. Not bad though. Definitely NWOBHM inspired stuff that brings to mind Blitzkrieg.
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Never heard of them, but agree I can't see why an instrumental from an unknown band should've been put on a comp, since the object of the comp was to expose them to a wider audience.
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6. Cirith Ungol - "Death of the Sun": I should love Cirith Ungol: they're from one of my favorite time periods of metal, they're properly cheesy, and their album covers are to die for. But, like Anvil, whenever the vocals kick in I cringe. So this isn't doing anything for me.
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Love this band and their terrible singing and had selected their debut for my 1980 list, but as I was struggling to fit so many good albums into the list, I saw it was re-released in 1981 (so it will be in my 1981 list instead)
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7. Demon Flight - "Dead of the Night": That's better. Some good ol' trad metal obviously trying to build from the NWOBHM, but with some oddball King Diamond-style vocals. Not as good as Mercyful Fate mind you, but for all I know the less-than-stellar production might be killing some of the atmosphere. I'm curious to see where they went from here.
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A band I've never heard of either.
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8. Pandemonium - "Fighting Backwards": Coooool. Sounds like kissing cousins to Witchfinder General. Good dose of heavy Sabbath riffs with some Ozzy-style vocals. With the scarcity of doom in the eighties I imagine I'd have heard of these guys had they done anything of note, so now I have to know what happened to them.
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...... also they have a Rush tinge to them as well (at the beginning of the song) and I guess like most doom metal bands of that time went unnoticed, as doom was well down the list when it came to metal at that time.
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9. Malice - "Kick You Down": Right off the bat the opening drumbeat brings to mind Motorhead, but since this is Malice's second song on the comp I know that this is an NWOBHM (by way of LA) band to the bone. Bitchin' riff I might add.
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This ain't like Motorhead bitch, this is more like Judas Priest and the best song on the album!
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10. Metallica (listed as "Mettallica") - "Hit the Lights": Alright, this is the real reason I wanted to do this: the first Metallica song ever recorded. They weren't even a real band when they did this. James played bass and some guy called Lloyd Grant, who wasn't even involved with the band but for this one recording, played lead. Alright, so what does the song actually sound like...
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Good song, never heard of these guys, maybe I should check them out
