The Batlord

I'd say Van Halen's history as a metal band should give them some leeway, even if they weren't truly metal at that point. And I'm pretty sure US doesn't much like Mercyful Fate, so I don't imagine he likes King Diamond any better.

I need to listen to more KD actually. I've listened to enough Mercyful Fate over the years, but I've been really lazy about Diamond's solo material. I'm pretty sure I've actually only listened to Abigail once, and maybe a smattering of his other songs.

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Unknown Soldier

.....and you're already one of those AOR closet fans.


The reason Sacred Blade on not on there is that I'd never heard of them until you just mentioned them, but based on what I'm hearing they're pretty good. As for KD I can barely get through one of his albums, even though I prefer the MF stuff a tad more, but even they were a struggle for me.

Exactly Van Halen are on there for their history as a metal band and Van Hagar for his track record previous. It would be pretty strange to ignore a couple of Van Halen albums in the mid 1980s as not being metal enough, especially considering that these albums were huge sellers and the band a household name.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Kreator were not only Germany’s premier thrash metal band, but pretty much the thrash metal band of the European thrash scene from this period. They formed part of the ‘big four of Teutonic thrash metal’ which was certainly a clear reference to the big four of thrash metal stateside. Kreator like their fellow German thrashers Destruction, Sodom and Tankard were prime exponents of the harsher and colder sounding thrash specimen. Pleasure to Kill would be the band’s second album and like a lot of German metal bands Kreator had struggled on their raw sounding debut the year before with Endless Pain. It very much seemed that German metal bands were often pretty hopeless with debut sets around this time in general, based on my findings anyway. The album cover does little to belie what lies beneath it and the album would be produced by well known European metal producer Harris Johns who constantly worked with the big four of the German thrash metal scene and also with bands like Helloween. Pleasure to Kill would repeat the sonic carnage of the debut, but this time around the band had material that h was far superior than was heard on the debut. Kreator as a band sounded both raw and primitive taking their Venom yardstick into extreme metal territory with the fastest and most aggressive noise that they could muster, rivalling what Slayer were doing and pre-empting in many ways the sheer brutality of the approaching storm that Sepultura would usher in. Across the album the guitars as expected are about as harsh and repetitive as you expect from a front line thrash band and certainly don’t disappoint. The bass of Rob Fioretti is actually quite audible for a change and noticeable. The violent drums from drummer Jurgen Rell who also performed three lead vocals on the album are effective enough but show stopper has to be frontman Mlle Petrozza with his evil sounding rasp. The album starts off though on the wrong foot with the rather pointless instrumental intro “Choir of the Damned” but once past that the aggressiveness and massive sounding riffing are in full effect on the delightfully named “Ripping Corpse” the band then step it up even further with the brutal Slayer sounding “Death is Your Saviour” and the dynamic sounding title track “Pleasure to Kill” to complete a brutal unholy trilogy. Kreator then combine superbly their massive riffing with rhythm changes on “Riot of Violence” and go the distance on the album's longest track "The Pestilence". The album finishes with "Under the Guillotine" and for those that demand more the re-release of the album features three extra tracks worth having. Overall Pleasure to Kill is considered a landmark thrash album and whilst I would never put it on the same level as the best offerings from bands like Metallica, Megadeth or Slayer (even though I'm so impressed with it this time) it would still probably rank though as one of the very best thrash albums from Europe over this time period, depending of course on how the listener labels those early Celtic Frost albums. One thing though is certain since starting this journal, Pleasure to Kill must rank as one of the heaviest albums I’ve listened to so far to date. Like other extreme metal offerings Pleasure to Kill would be a huge inspiration to the arriving death metal scene and go onto inspire bands like Morbid Angel amongst many others. Over the next few years and much like the omnipotent Celtic Frost, Kreator wouldn’t be content to rest on their laurels and would evolve into a metal band that would entertain contemporary metal genres to a pretty high standard and issue out some pretty diverse albums later in their discography.

Mlle Petrozza- Guitar/Vocals
Rob Fioretti- Bass
Jurgen Rell- Drums/Vocals

Production- Harris Johns

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

A powerful resonation of roots-laced hard rock.

The Lowdown
Sacramento band Tesla originally got their name from the scientist that pioneered electricity and started out as a band called Kidd with less than a convincing sound. They then called themselves Tesla and started getting their hard rock roots orientated sound together and then took an even bigger step in landing a plum record contract with Geffen Records. Geffen for their part had emerged in the 1980s as one of the big commercial labels to be on, especially for any band intent on cracking the US market and artists like Sammy Hagar, Whitesnake and Asia had been three of its biggest names throughout the 1980s are far as their heavier entourage went. Geffen were very much an arena rock label and the huge Tesla sound made them the perfect Geffen product and with hard rock now ready to make a return Tesla it seemed had emerged at just the right time. Success though wasn’t immediate for Tesla but album sales gradually pushed the album into the Billboard top 40 taking the album platinum and a lot of those sales were probably due to the band being lumped in with the glam metal crowd. Mechanical Resonancethough is high on this year’s list, quite simply because it’s an album of two faces with the best saved till last and with 53 mins of running time to play with there is plenty on offer. Side one of the album is its commercial face, where the radio-friendly tracks range from your average clichéd/anthemy offerings like "EZ Come EZ Go" "Cumin' Atcha Live" and "Rock Me to the Top" the best of these and are all nicely designed to appeal to the glam metal brigade. I find the bluesy style ballad "We're No Good Together" tiresome and too long but I know fans of the album dig the song. In amongst these are some pretty good tracks which do make side one a worthy listen and these include songs like "Gettin' Better" which after a slow start turns into a grittier affair and then there is the steady rock of "2 Late 4 Love" and across a lot of these tracks, you can easily hear the band's 70's rock influences. Now onto side two and the reason why this album is on this year’s list and also ranked so highly. We kick off with "Modern Day Cowboy" a classic hard rock track with a glorious riff and with just the right kind of volume build to fill out its 5 minutes. The colder sounding "Changes" with its piano investment is another glorious track and my personal favourite from the album with the album closer and demonstrates the superb writing range of the band. In fact Yes on their 90125 album put out a great song also called "Changes" as well... so maybe something in the name there. There is a good cover of "Little Suzie" which turned out to be the band's highest charting single. The groovy sounding "Cover Queen" and the gloomy sounding yet brilliant "Before My Eyes" finishes off the album. All credit for this album goes to vocalist Jeff Keith who had the vocal chops to pull the whole thing off and lead guitarist Frank Hannon a great guitarist whose playing style was clearly embedded in the style of all those great 1970s rock guitarists. Overall Mechanical Resonance is the kind of album that a resurgent Aeromsith should’ve put out at this time with its combination of obvious commercial material and pure album tracks of quality, something that any great AOR band would already know plenty about and this was certainly a template that Tesla adopted on their debut set. Tesla not only laid down a genre legacy on Mechanical Resonance in terms of their musical approach, but their denim wearing image, lack of make-up and gimmicks steered them away from the glam metal crowd. They also didn’t have the sheen of the Van Haga or an AOR band and preferred to simly blast out a much rawer sound. They wrote better songs than bands like Bon Jovi and Whitesnake, and their hard rock sound was distinctly rooted in the 1970s and not in modern heavy metal. Their sound though was contemporary enough to be arena rock sounding and when the album came out it was a great Geffen product. Further fuel to the hard rock fire would be added the following year when bands like Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and The Cult made an even bigger genre profile splash than Tesla with the albums Permanent Vacation, Appetite for Destruction and Electric. finally Mechanical Resonance is laced with certain tracks that were built to last and songs that serve as a perfect example of hard rock at its very best...... so step forward "Changes" and "Before My Eyes".

Jeff Keith- Vocals
Frank Hannon- Guitar/Keyboards
Tommy Skeoch- Guitar
Brian Wheat- Bass
Troy Luccketa- Drums

Production- Steve Thompson

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

First time I ever heard Tesla was "Cumin' Atcha Live" from GTA: Vice City, and it was one of my favs from that game. And yeah, "Modern Day Cowboy" is ****ing badass. One problem I have with this album, though, is that it's stuck a little bit too in the middle between glam metal and "real" rock, and so it comes across as just a tad too polished and tepid to be anything more than a product of its time.

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Unknown Soldier

I'd say the glam metal is what the record label wanted the band to put out and the real rock is what the band wanted, so we ended up with this type of compromise.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I'd be curious to hear any demos or bootlegs, pre-record deal. Or some of the albums from their reunion in the mid-00s, which seem to have some good ratings on RYM.

But some of those glam anthems, like "Cumin' Atcha Live" actually sound more Quiet Riot than Poison, or maybe Def Leppard with the balls of Too Fast for Love-era Motley Crue, so I'm not knockin' the band, I just don't see them as quite top shelf as a whole.

They were perhaps the first wave of glam bands who were taking a step back from all the hair spray and vapid trash that was going on around them from the second-wave wannabes. A precursor to bands like Guns N Roses I suppose (though I'd gladly take them over GNR any day of the week.)

Oh, and I've finally updated the index, so aside from the Tesla entry it is now current again.

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Unknown Soldier

I reckon Geffen has said we want you to do glam anthems like Quiet Riot (due to that band being one of the biggest sellers from the genre)

To be fair it has been years since I listened to a lot of their albums and so the debut I really enjoyed when I listened to it again, I remember it being on one of your survival battles as well.

Yes they were a precursor to bands like GNR and other bands like the Cult were hitting it big as a rock band around this time as well.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I believe I almost used Mechanical Resonance, but changed it at the last minute for a Skid Row album or something. Might have chosen differently on another day of the week, though.

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Unknown Soldier

Well that explains why I couldn't remember on how well it did in your survivor battle.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History