Unknown Soldier

I always enjoyed that soundtrack, without doubt one of the best rock soundtracks ever.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

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Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Blow (1989)

One of the great, and under-rated, powerful bands of the 80's Gothic scene, the Lorries were wise to try and find a different direction by the end of the decade. They could have whipped another Paint Your Wagon, but there was no reason to when that album was a classic in itself that did not need to be turned into a formula and there was a lot of potential to break through. Unfortunately, the Rave style cover was one of the first reasons why this album tanked. Opening up the sleeve, you discover that on about half of the album The Lorries are singing love songs that are certainly enough for any closed-minded Talk About the Weather-On-Repeat listener to stay away, missing out on catchy hook-driven feasts such as "Temptation," "In a World," and "In This World." Yeah, there's plenty of the great burning guitars which make up the distinctive Lorries sound to go around, but in a different setting, and Chris Reed is singing damn good with his style instead of just intoning angry into a microphone (hints of that were on the previous album Nothing Wrong on the ultra fine "Only Dreaming" and other tracks). So many people missed out on a good album, and the final round of the "Situation 2 Era" as well as the classic Lorries line-ups. Next Stop: To LA and a sadly bland album...

Howard the Duck

commercial success but critical flop

say what you want, but I think this is his last great album, before he's doing whatever he's doing now (i lost interest after "I Just Called to Say "I Love You"")

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

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If I heard it all the way, I would love to nominate Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. I'm sure there will be someone who would rate it here.

For this post, I remember the title of a good a ha single, "Move to Memphis" and take the time machine back to '68 and '69 for some good albums made there which deserve more fans.

Paul Revere and The Raiders, Featuring Mark Lindsay (actually Mark Lindsay and some legendary Memphis Session musicians...) - Goin' To Memphis (1968)

The band was facing changing times as Revolution (1967) marked a slow downturn in their fortunes, and it was decided to do something a little different, one can safely think that this album was a result of possibly looking at the success of The Box Tops (with Cult Music favorite Alex Chilton), knowing their more Soulful sounds of "Peace of Mind" made it (and would also be the only performance by the full band on this album), and knowing that their featured lead vocalist could seriously do something like this for a whole album - something that seriously suited their talents. A look into the album first shows that at least the grooves were a success even if the album was a sales disappointemt: Mark Lindsay's vocals were first rate all the way, and even if his originals including "Every Man Needs a Woman" and "I'm a Loser Too" were not up to Stax level, at least they were damn good considering the situation while the covers of classics like "Soul Man" were good considering that in the hands of a weaker singer, this would have been a major fail. In a way, this seriously is among the best crossovers of a Rock band going into Soul when such a move was seriously head turning.

Keep in mind that this is a damn good album in The Raiders' long line of good albums, but also keep in mind that they covered up the fact that this was reportedly just their excellent singer with Producer Chips Moman's crew (although the band could have done these songs live with no problem anyways) - Take note of the only in-studio photo with only Mark in the frame. Sadly, this was released with one of the worst album covers ever, featuring a cartoon style drawing that made it like like a Kid's album, already turning off a lot of potential listeners (Back in my very young days, even I did not venture even if I knew of their G-Pop classics). Then, to make matters even more disappointing for the fans of the album who at least made it go into the lower half of the Top 100 Albums, the Raiders' fans who were more used to their catchy Pop were cold to the convincing Soulful sounds of Lindsay and the Moman Crew. The album is still a fan favorite, and while it may not be the best way to start, it is something to get into after going through a hits collection and moving your way into one of the more interesting music projects of 1968.



Mitch Ryder - The Detroit/Memphis Experiment

From a cool Pop Soul happening to the ultra Real Deal, although this time there was no chart action for the album.

In 1969, Paramount was Distributing Stax Records (Note the G+W on the original pressings - Gulf and Western = Paramount), and Mitch Ryder, fresh from parting ways with Bob Crewe, was free to do the kind of project he wanted to. Of course, knowing that the label he was on was Distributing one of his favorite labels, he worked with the Stax Crew. The result: One damn fine album including the under-rated single "Sugar Bee" and plenty of choice cuts like "I Get Hot," Liberty," and "Raise Your Hand." Sadly, even after showing that Ryder was back in serious music action after a 1968 of flop singles, this went into the cut-outs very quick with yet another pretty bad cover, although the liner notes which may have been a little more honest about his opinions of the music industry than the company was used to may have halted the promotion. No matter what, this should be found and heard on sight.

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Fleetwood Mac - Behind the Mask

Loaded with emotionally and musically complex songs that could have been minor hits.

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Caress of Steel by Rush is maybe my second or third favorite album by them and I am a huge Rush fan, The Necromancer is great as well as the 'throwaway' track, I Think I'm Going Bald.

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If I don't go to Hell when I die, I just might go to Heaven



EVERYWHERE

Frownland

I didn't even know that that album was widely considered to be a flop, and I'm a fan of that song as well. It may be more based on the vocals, but I think that it's quite a fine tune.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Holerbot6000

One of the biggest flops ever - TUSK! I remember when it came out, I thought it was incredibly ballsy of Fleetwood Mac to put out such an ambitious and quirky album after 'Rumors', but unfortunately, they really got their asses handed to them. I still think this is far and away the best album the Buckingham Nicks version of the band ever did and I have found/made a lot of converts over the years, especially among young people. I love it just as much as I did when it first came out and still listen to it all the time.

Glad to see Ministry-Filth Pig on the list also. Very underrated album!

Howard the Duck

i love that one as well

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

James Ihash

Hello Music Banter, this is my first post. The list below is what I remember now, maybe there is more...


My Dying Bride - 34.788%...Complete
Probably my favorite from MDB, a very experimental doom/goth album, there is nothing like it, very unique. Metal fans always want more of the same, so they changed back to their doom/goth origins.


Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music
Free improvisation with noise and electronic music, of corse people will dislike this, but I think it is very avant garde in my opinion. I've heard many stories behind the making of this record, but I think it is of great value if you consider experimental music in the 80s/90s.


Sepultura - Roots
Roots took Sepultura to stardom, they became famous everywhere in the planet, and became the most famous brazilian band outside Brazil. But in brazil, where Sepultura was already famous, most fans consider roots to be a "new metal crap". I think it is their best album, and also the last that I really enjoy by them.


P.O.D. - Payable on Death
When guitarist Marcos Curiel lft the band, they were in their peak, dominating charts everywhere. So, when they realeased Payable on Death everybody was expecting more of the same, something this wasn't. They left nu-metal out and started playing a consistent reggae-rock, way more accessible than their previous works. It's their best, in my opinion.


Metallica & Lou Reed - Lulu
I am not a fan of metallica and I don't care much about what their are doing since the load-reload phase. But their collaboration with Lou Reed is really interesting. I like it very much, and I was kind of surprised no one enjoyed a bit.