Urban Hat€monger ?

I remember it took me years to get hold of that Praying Mantis album.
I first attempted to get it in the late 80s, after a few years couldn't find it and then gave up as my tastes changed.
Then about 7 years ago I found it by chance online, downloaded it, listened to it, thought mehh and never listened to it again.

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Unknown Soldier

I was surprised to see that they had formed as far back as 1974 and it took them a long time to release their first album, as far as I know their sound was always heavily AOR/American infused and they came across as a prime example of a band that was grouped with the NWOBHM than actually really being one, even though there is that Iron Maiden feel to them on some tracks.

I forgot that you did a NWOBHM feature and really want to read this now, which pages is it on? If I look it will take me an eternity to plough through the thousands of pages in your journal.

Based on what I know of your music tastes, I could never imagine you digging Praying Mantis.

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Metal Wars

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

One of the first music books I owned was this old history of metal book I found. It was written around 81/82 so it mostly had NWOBHM bands in it, so most of my early buying habits when I first got into music were from that book.
I gave up eventually because buying 6 or 7 year old albums by bands they had split up in one small record shop it became impossible to find anything so the book got tossed and I started buying Kerrang & Metal Hammer and started buying up to date albums.

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Trollheart

Page 32 is where it all begins with Praying Mantis, Angelwitch and Trespass
Page 61 has Raven, Cloven Hoof and Venom (yeah)
Page 144 has Tank, Saxon and Wolf
Page 183 has Sweet Savage, Girlschool and
Page 184 has Diamond Head

Still to come in the final part: Tygers of Pan-Tang, Samson and Mama's Boys.

Let me know what you think when you get to read the articles; I'd definitely be interested in your opinion.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

So that's why you've got so much knowledge of the lesser known metal bands from that time. It always surprises how alert you are to nearly all the NWOBHM bands from that time.

As always your band choices are quite zany I see that you really like the Praying Mantis debut, but to call it the best NWOBHM of all is a bit far fetched even for you! Personally I feel that the Angel Witch debut is a couple of notches higher than the Praying Mantis one and ranks in the best top 10 NWOBHM albums ever, and whatever made you choose Trespass. Interestingly a lot of the stuff that you've said, I would've put into my reviews had I not reached my word count limit, for example you're spot on with the Praying Mantis and Asia type album covers, even though Asia would never have gone in for the b-movie floating skull.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

And that Lars Ulrich NWOBHM compilation that came out.
Also having an old biker as my next door neighbour helped too.

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Trollheart

Did I? I must re-read that article again. As for Trespass, I heard "Storm child" on the "Metal for muthas Vol 2" album and it instantly became one of my alltime favourite metal songs from a band that you'll never ever hear of again. Love love love that song!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

No matter what decade it is, there's always an old biker somewhere into metal

Yer "Storm Child" does the business, sadly I'm only doing albums so they won't feature anywhere.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Album
Derbyshire’s Saracen were one of the numerous musical assemblages to make up the NWOBHM spectrum and they were also a band that had their feet firmly planted in the progressive rock camp, as opposed to a pure metal one. Saracen also differed to other metal bands with a proggy slant, in that istead of just trying to include their progressive rock influences into their sound, Saracen were more inclined to actually mold those prog influences instead, which raises the question over the band’s true musical identity! One of the most noticeable things about this album, is surely the quality of production on offer here and it’s the vital ingredient that makes the album, as the low budget feel often associated with NWOBHM debuts, just wouldn’t have delivered the proggy-laden style of the band as it should be heard. The opening track is “Crusader” which of course was the historical foe of the Saracen and this is one of several tracks to come in at over 6 minutes of playing time and it immediately harks back to 1970s Uriah Heep in both feel and style. The second track “Rock of Ages” no not the Def Leppard one, is one of those straight forward rock-out tracks, but the heavy use of pomp-rock style keyboards again raises question marks over the correct label for this band. Then there is also a song like “No More Lonely Nights” which is a melodic hard rock track that could’ve been recorded by any number of hard rock acts out there with commercial ambitions. But the real highlights of the album are surely its two progressive gems “Horsemen of the Apocolypse” which has a keyboard lead that any number of up and coming ‘New Romantics’ bands’ would’ve been proud of and this gem is followed by the superb album closer “Ready to Fly” an exceptional 8 minute track that was once described as a heavy metal version of Pink Floyd! The big letdown on the album though is surely the title track “Heroes, Saints & Fools” which is something of an anamoly given its glorious musical arrangements that should make it the album’s killer track, but it’s really letdown by the secondary vocals that are employed on the song and also the instrumental “Dolphin Ride” doesn’t fit much either. Singer Steve Bettney is very reminiscent of Rob Halford on practically every song on the album which of course is a positive. Overall Heroes, Saints & Fools is one of the most diverse offerings of 1981 and the band really tinkered with their track selections at strategic points on the album, and without doubt it’s the lengthy prog-laden material that wins out overall here in terms of quality. Whenever I listen to the Saracen debut, it often reminds me of America’s Legs Diamond not in actual sound, but more in overall feel, as Legs Diamond were a band that covered similar territory a few years earlier (see 1977 reviews) and in songs like “Rock and Roll Man” they certainly matched or if not surpassed what Saracen were putting out.

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Album
In the past I’ve often thought of the solo career of Ian Gillan as being about as exciting as that of both Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne, his two nearest counterparts in terms of both prestige and era, but since starting this journal I’ve now rejected that opinion completely. Because given the amount of Ian Gillan post-Deep Purple albums that have been featured here, I’d now say that his solo career is actually head and shoulders above the other two quality wise, even though he doesn’t get enough credit in this respect. Future Shock is also his seventh album would you believe it, since his Deep Purple days and also one of his very best. Prior to this he had done three studio albums with the jazz-fusion inspired Ian Gillan Band and then reorientated himself back to his hard rock roots under the Gillan moniker, where his second album Mr.Universe (under the Gillan name) had been his best album so far. Its follow-up album Glory Road was a more mediocre effort and given the quality on offer in 1980 it never even got a look in! But on 1981’s Future Shock Ian Gillan bounced back with one of his best albums to date and it was also an album that also contained his stable backing band of Bernie Torme-guitar, John McCoy-bass, Colin Towns-keyboards and Mike Underwood-drums. Future Shock as an album is an all round great listening experience of strong hard rock/heavy metal tracks, which came out when the NWOBHM was in full swing and as an artist Ian Gillan was one of the most revered vocalists around when it came to inspiring that movement. The bulk of the material here initially comes across as no frills hard rock, but on further listens the songs offer so much more and have an interesting change of pace, a great volume level, varied instrumentation, changeable vocals and pumping riffs. The album is largely dominated by its sheer speed and energy, which is always great coming from a veteran artist and in a track like “(The Ballad Of) the Lucitania Express” Gillan puts out one his fastest ever tracks. “No Laughing in Heaven” is one of Ian Gillan’s most humorous tracks and a track like “Sacre Bleu” combines both speed and humour in just 3 minutes and keeping in line with these tracks is a cover of “New Orleans” which either does it for you or not. The rest of the album is made up of great pumping melodic rock issues like “Future Shock” “Bite the Bullet” and “Don’t Want the Truth”. But the best two tracks are surely “Nightride Out of Phoenix” which revolves around its metal riffola and spontaneous synths and then there is the album closer “For Your Dreams” with its ambient and moody feel thanks to the piano of Colin Towns, and it’s possibly my favourite on the album. A large chunk of the songs sound like Ian Gillan has recorded them fully charged up on something, so much so that the normal sounding “If I Sing Softly” actually sounds like an album oddity here. Overall 1981 was a good year for Ian Gillan, as he also released the double studio/live album Double Trouble as well, which despite being a good album didn’t get included here because of the amount of already strong albums on the list. Future Shock ranks in the Rock Hard’s “The 500 Greatest Rock and Metal Albums of All Time” book and it’s a book that I’ve never read, but should do so to see what they say about these albums.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History