Unknown Soldier

Overview
By the time of the release of their fourth album Aerosmith aka ‘The Bad Boys from Boston’ were not only one of the biggest acts in America, they were also one of the most steetwise acts around. They were cool, druggy, smart, walked around like they owned the place and most of all hit you right between the eyes (or in this case between the ears) The band had hit mega-status with Toys in the Attic, but then assured themselves of immortality with the release of Rocks, which actually did the impossible and turned out to be an even better album than Toys in the Attic….just! Well that depends of course on which best Aerosmith review list you’ve been looking at! Now going back some time and long before I’d ever fallen in love with Rocks myself, I’d already heard a lot about it and knew that it was considered the band’s very best album from varying sources. I’d also heard how artists like James Hetfield and Slash who upon hearing the album had decided to take up guitar playing, as the album had helped change their lives! Rocks as an album therefore had everything that was totally essential to any truly classic album and was certainly the product of a band at the supreme height of their creative powers. Steven Tyler on the album continued with the witty jokes and double entendres in the lyrics department, all along with the power and sleaze that his vocals provided. The dirty stripped-down heavy blues-based riffs were there yet again and drove on relentlessly throughout the album, all aided by the pounding rhythm section, quite simply Aersosmith were the raunchiest band around! Rocks was recorded by the now in-house producer Jack Douglas, who was to Aerosmith what Bob Ezrin was to Alice Cooper and the album was recorded at both the Wherehouse and the Record Plant early 1976, and would be released around the May period of that year. The album in many ways, would be the last album that would be recorded by a very young, raw and hungry band that still hadn’t gone full tilt yet on their own excesses! Like Toys in the Attic, Rocks would also assail the somewhat well-known Rolling Stone’s ‘Greatest 500 Albums’ list. The album cover is also very astute, with its studio knobs and its clever use of red and white on a black base for the cover.

Steven Tyler-Vocals
Joe Perry-Guitar
Brad Whitford-Rhythm
Tom Hamilton-Bass
Joey Kramer- Drums

Production- Jack Douglas

Album
Back in the Saddle- With its stomping intro, the song is regarded as one of the archetypal heavy songs by the band and was always one of the main concert openers of the band as well and the song has been covered by countless artists over the years. Last Child- Starts off with a haunting intro which soon gives over to a plodding funky groove and the song is full chocca of Steven Tyler’s double entendre lyrics. Co-writer Brad Whitford plays lead guitar here instead of the more usual Joe Perry. Rats in the Cellar- With a stellar start, this is Aerosmith at their pacey best and was written as a sequel to the previous album track “Toys in the Attic” and matches that track in quality all the way. I’m sure the future Ratt played around with the name of this song for their debut album several years later. Combination- A song about drugs and co-sung between Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and often described as one of the band’s most Rolling Stones like efforts. Sick as a Dog- I once read that this song was about Steven Tyler’s attempts to talk to Mick Jagger and when the time came he fluffed his lines, whether that’s true or not, it’s still a great song that’s really highlighted by some great playing as well. Nobody’s Fault- With its apocalyptic start, the song then bludgeons us…before it spirals around the place and is in stark contrast to the previous song on the album. Without doubt one of the most influential songs ever put out by the band and one of their very best. Get the Lead Out- One of the humour focused songs on the album and the songs is accompanied by a seriously heavy riff. Lick and Promise- With its speeded up rock ‘n’ roll feel, this song seriously kicks and hell it always sounds so good and shows just how strong the b-side of this album is and the ‘no no no’ of the song sounds like a future Cheap Trick! Home Tonight- The perfect album closer is a powerfully performed ballad and certainly one of the best of its type.

Verdict
Rocks as an album quite simply follows on from Toys in the Attic and the two albums serve as the perfect pair in every way. Both are similar but yet different….. Toys in the Attic had tracks more focused to be used as singles, whereas Rocks goes in for being a more album based recording overall. The album’s tracks are yet again dominated by Steven Tyler, but as is often the case they are usually written with the rest of the band. The proceedings are opened straight-away with the pounding “Back in the Saddle” which says it all from the word go, as the band show no hiccups from Toys in the Attic and remind us that this effort is going to be a heavier effort overall. Rocks from the word go maintains its heaviness, with the bands very own type of hard rock and the diversity is also there from the second song onwards. There is the heavy funk of “Last Child” the pacey blues of “Rats in the Cellar” and then the speeded up rock ‘n’ roll feel of “Lick and Promise” and then we kind of wind down the album’s strengths with the swagger of “Combination” and then we have “Sick as a Dog” which is just one of those classic songs written about tales of the road. The album throughout serves as the most complete Aerosmith album around with its combination of heaviness, funk, blues and rock ‘n’ roll along with plenty of time for Steven Tyler’s humour honoured lyrics. The band also give us the stunning ballad “Home Tonight” which finishes off the album, but the killer track on the album is surely its heaviest and that’s “Nobody’s Fault” one of the legendary tracks from 1970s hard rock and one of the very best in the band’s discography, with its apocalyptic style intro….. before we are then bludgeoned by the sheer power of the band, all full of blazing drums and bass and then those soaring guitars…… this song packs one hell of a punch! Rocks has a total nine songs and every one of them is something unique and there isn’t a filler in sight anywhere, and without doubt this is one of the tightest albums of its type. Not only is this possibly the greatest hard rock album ever recorded, but it’s also Aerosmith at both their raunchiest and heaviest. One review I saw, stated that Rocks fucking rocks and that statement says it all really.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

I remember when I first heard of Aerosmith, It was around the time they put out Permanent Vacation and to be honest that album did nothing for me.

Then a guy at school played me Rocks during a lunch hour and from then on I think I had the first 5 Aerosmith albums on permanent rotation for the next decade.

Ironically I bought the Run DMC version of Walk This Way as a single when that came out & don't recall Aerosmith being mentioned on it at all and had no idea it was the same band until I bought Toys In The Attic a few years later.

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Unknown Soldier

Permanent Vacation strangely enough was the first Aerosmith album I'd ever heard and wasn't overly impressed with it, not long after Pump came out and I liked this a lot more BUT it was when I heard early Aerosmith I knew that they were something special.

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Metal Wars

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.


If the Angel debut showed just how thin the line was around this time between heavy metal/hard rock and AOR, then The Baby’s debut would show it at its thinnest. The Babys were a British band that consisted of John Waite-Bass/Vocals, Wally Stocker-Guitar, Michael Corby-Rhythm/Keyboards and Tony Brock-drums. From the word go the band were seemingly being groomed for stardom and were on the Chrysalis label and had Bob Ezrin on production (even though there is little of his production on show here) and the band looked the part as well. Their debut album would be the best album that the band put out and despite being their best, it’s still an album with a number of flaws. Quite quickly the quality of their work dried up and the band would soon garner the label of being a band of potential and nothing more and in 1981 they would eventually fold. In hindsight the band were nothing more than vehicles for some of its members most notably frontman John Waite, who of course would go onto find success as a solo artist and future member Jonathan Cain-Keyboards would of course find stardom with Journey. The debut album is a combination of melodic rock, with a heavy backdrop and an emphasis on commercialism, even though there is no obvious single here. Standout tracks are “If You’ve Got the Time” “Over and Over” and the epic “Dying Man” a song I can listen to anytime, in fact it’s one of my favourite video montages on You Tube. *Also the album cover above is actually from their second album and not their debut, as I had a problem of getting the correct size of the debut*

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Albums that missed the cut.........
Other good albums worth checking out that were also released in 1976, but weren't quite good enough to make the top 10 and are listed below in no set order, so the best of the rest:

Scorpions
Virgin Killer 1976
Moderator cut: image removed
Not as diverse as the previous In Trance album, but the band still produce one or two future concert favourites here and it’s obvious success is just around the bend for Klaus Meine & co, and one of the band's most risqué album covers.

Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell 1976
Moderator cut: image removedAnother concept album that was even more ambitious than Welcome to My Nightmare, but overall it lacks the focus of that album and showed far too much self indulgence by both Alice Cooper and Bob Ezrin, but it was still the last decent Alice Cooper release for a while.

Trapeze
Trapeze 1976
Moderator cut: image removedOne of the band’s heaviest efforts full of driving hard middle of the road songs and Glenn Hughes returned here for a couple of tracks as well. The album shows just how well Mel Galley was able to lead the band and is a must for Trapeze fans.

Montrose
Jump On It 1976
Moderator cut: image removedWith Jack Douglas producing this should have been a great album to match that album cover, but the album never really ignited where it mattered. The band soldiered on but dissolved soon after, only then to be namechecked by Van Halen.

Stray
Houdini 1976

After delving into musical styles they should’ve steered well clear of, Stray put out their best and most cohesive set for a many a year on this album, sadly though nobody really noticed.

Lucifer’s Friend
Mind Exploring 1976

After spending several albums doing a proggy thing with very mixed results, Lucifer’s Friend moved back into a more centric sound on this release. This would also be their last album with John Lawton before he jumped over to Uriah Heep.

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Metal Wars

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

My first experience of Alice Cooper was a ZX Spectrum game based on that album...

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Unknown Soldier

I never knew that game existed, but I was more of a Commodore 64 person when these machines came out. I looked at the video of the game on YT and as I expected it's unplayable

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Hard, Heavy and Worth a Mention 1976

The Album
In the mid-1980s Heart were one of the most polished AOR bands around and like most AOR bands they had their roots in either soft rock, progressive rock or hard rock. Heart had been firmly embedded in the latter genre albeit with plenty of folk and when their debut album came out in 1976, the album was a fusion of both hard rock and folk rock. Long before the debut album though and as far back as the late 1960s, the band had formed under a series of different names and line-ups, and had been through a number of other twists and turns before arriving with the name of Heart, under the supreme leadership of the Wilson sisters Anne and Nancy. The debut album Dreamboat Annie would be recorded under the Mushroom label and the unexpected success of the album, soon found the band at loggerheads with the label over the payment of royalties, a factor that would have them move to another label for the next album. Dreamboat Annie was undoubtedly influenced by Led Zeppelin in both their hard rock and folky styles, and the album certainly went against the grain in what was expected from mainstream North American female singers of the time (just think Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Joan Baez as the norm) In fact one blast from “Crazy on You” one of the stellar tracks, showed us that Ann Wilson was aiming for something much tougher sounding than was expected, but was still able to retain the feminine clarity of her voice a la Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac. The rest of the album alternated around songs that had the hard rock guitar crunch of “Magic Man” and "Sing Child" and the folky delights of songs like the title track and “Soul of the Sea”. The simple fact of the matter was, that Ann Wilson was a talented rock vocalist over a range of styles and Dreamboat Annie was able to show her and the band’s ability over the course of an album. Hindsight often sees reviewers painting a picture of early Heart being rough around the edges and a later Heart being polished and commercial. The simple fact of the matter is, that Heart from the word go were an extremely radio friendly band and found a niche for themselves in the US charts.

Ann Wilson- Vocals
Nancy Wilson- Guitar
Roger Fisher- Guitar
Howard Leese- Guitar
Steve Fossen- Bass
(Various Drummers)

Production- Mike Flicker

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Hard, Heavy and Worth a Mention 1976

The Album
As per usual I only ever include progressive rock/hard rock borderline bands in this thread and never those solely focussed on progressive rock. One of the heaviest offerings this year, came from Ocean a French progressive rock band that were formed around 1974. The album is an example of grand production tinkering and perfection, and I once read that about 350 hours of studio time were required to complete this album, certainly a far cry from early Black Sabbath, who would’ve had the same thing done and dusted in a fraction of this time! God’s Clown is very much an album by a French quartet that at times sounds like Led Zeppelin (in their guitar soloing) and Kings Crimson (in their sometimes menacing approach) yet retaining their own identity at the same time and they were certainly heavier than their fellow French proggers Atoll. Ocean at times were quite manic, bringing memories of the Japanese Flower Travellin Band (who have been featured on numerous occasions already) Band Vocalist Robert Belamonte sounds like a gruffer and edgier Geddy Lee of Rush across most of the album, and at times a bit like Dan McCafferty of Nazareth. The album is sure to appeal to those into progressive songwriting and intricate solos and that is clearly apparent on the opening track “Sunny Day” which encompasses the whole sound of the band. There are lengthy pieces such as “The Loneliness of the Long Distance” and “Fields of Pain”, and also rock out tracks such as “The Jugglar”. God’s Clown is an album that is sure to interest anybody into bands that transcended the progressive rock and hard rock line from this time. This is also one of the band’s few forays into English, as the rest of their discography as far as I’m aware was sung mostly in French.

Robert Belamonte- Vocals
Georges Bodossian- Guitar/Keyboards
Noel Alberola- Bass/Vocals
Bernhard Leroy- Drums

Production- Ocean

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Big Ears

Heart had two excellent musicians in Roger Fisher and Howard Leese. They made three more good albums until Fisher fell out with Nancy Wilson. He departed for Alias and they were never the same again, despite Leese being a talented multi-instrumentalist. Leese worked with Paul Rodgers and was really great with Mick Ralphs in the reformed Bad Co. Dreamboat Annie is my favourite Heart album.

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