The Batlord

I remember reading in Motley Crue's book, The Dirt, that Nikki Sixx claimed that he and Tommy Lee had been dubbed "The Terror Twins". Although this was more due to their propensity for property and other assorted hijinks.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

I think it's been lost somewhere along the line that Self Destruction Blues isn't actually an album as such but a compilation of 5 singles & B sides plus an EP released between 1980 & 82.

Which I think makes it's quality even more impressive.

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Unknown Soldier

It seems like 'The ..... Twins' was the in thing for a duo of bad boys to call themselves back then.

I mentioned this is the first couple of lines of the review, unless you're referring to something else.

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Metal Wars

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

Oh I was talking in general, pretty much all of the reviews I've seen for it just think it's another album.

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Unknown Soldier

A synthesis of layered keys and heavy riffs.

Overview
Being one of the oldest bands in this journal, it’s always good to see such a band making a return to the limelight (albeit briefly) As Uriah Heep through multiple line-ups and musical directional changes, had pulled out every trick they knew to try and remain relevant to current musical trends, but sadly they had usually failed in this endeavour over the last several years. The band had been the perfect case of talented musicians coming in but usually the face just didn’t fit, largely because the core members of the band had always played in a somewhat idiosyncratic style. A style that had superbly combined their trademark 1970's brand of hard rock with the proggy trends of that era (just check out the band’s classic run Look at Yourself 1971, Demons and Wizards 1972 and The Magician’s Birthday 1972 all reviewed along with other albums in this journal) factors which rubbished their original label of being known as a ‘Poor Man’s Led Zeppelin’ when they first came out. But by the late 1970s and early 1980s the band’s relevance to the heavy metal industry was largely debatable, largely due to a plethora of line-up changes and each album usually only managing a couple of good tracks, while the rest were largely below par filler. In fact only Fallen Angel 1978 and the quality Return to Fantasy 1975 had broken this depressing trend. In fact Kerrang! summed it up perfectly by stating that the band were a definite case of when they were good, they were very good, but when they were bad, they didn’t know when to stop…’ Abominog with its great name despite its gharish album cover, would be the band’s 14th studio album by 1982! (just think they’re still dishing out albums today which pushes the band up into the 20 something album count) The album is the first without mainstay member and keyboardist Ken Hensley who made way for John Sinclair. The other important addition is that of vocalist Peter Goalby (ex-Trapeze) who would sing lead vocals on this and the band’s next three albums. The band would also see the return of drummer Lee Kerslake who brought with him Bob Daisley on bass, where both had previously worked with Ozzy Osbourne (as you can see another huge line-up change was taking place) Stylistically the band had partially given up their not very successful middle of the road half-baked AOR inspired hard rock and were now choosing their AOR themed stuff better and taking their other cue from a logical source in the NWOBHM, such a shame that fellow oldies UFO never adopted this strategy more often as well in the 1980s.

Verdict
Now not mentioned so far, the most important aspect of Abominog was that half of the ten tracks on the album were well chosen covers, which is surprising given the band’s lack of tendency over the years to do cover versions as a general rule. But the crucial aspect of these covers is that they are extremely recent and all coming from artists in the 1979-1980 time period. So starting with the five covers, two of those covers would help the band once again find some critical and commercial success and these would be the album’s two singles “On the Rebound” and “That’s the Way That It Is” The first one of the great Russ Ballard penned tracks and it’s well sung by Peter Goalby and the second would be the band’s biggest hit in many a year, where it cracked the US singles chart probably thanks to its Foreigner inspired tones. “Hot Night in a Cold Town” had previously been performed by John Cougar and it sadly sounds like it as well. “Running All Night (with the Lion)” had been brought across by John Sinclair and sounds like quintessential 1980’s AOR, as does the final cover track here in “Prisoner”. These tracks combine greatly with the real reason why this album is on this year’s list and that is down to the quality of the band’s five original tracks on the album. These start with the furious sounding “Too Scared to Run” which has some great guitar leads from Mick Box and it’s matched in true Uriah Heep fashion with following keyboards. This beef is also there on the lusty sounding “Hot Persuasion” and things then get very fast on the accomplished “Sell You Soul” my favourite cut on the album, before these two final styles come together on the great album closer “Think it Over”. Finally one of the best tracks is “Chasing Shadows” it’s keyboard driven and has a flurry of pop hooks that are underpinned with some serious sounding hard rock and it’s one of the best tracks that the band had written in some time. Singer Peter Goalby does a great job on Abominog and sounds very similar to Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and keyboardist John Sinclair doubles easily for Ken Hensley and pulls the show off with the heavy riffing of band veteran Mick Box. Despite this brief return to their form of old, the band would soldier on and continue to spread their heavy rock message around the world, where they would become known as the band that usually ended up playing in places and often to a large audience where other bands wouldn’t consider playing at all.

Peter Goalby- Vocals
Mick Box- Guitar
Bob Daisley- Bass
John Sinclair- Keyboards
Lee Kerslake- Drums

Production- Ashley Howe

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

That's some pretty sweet stuff, but I can't help but feel that that album is slightly redundant since Dio-era Sabbath and Saxon already existed. So I'm still gonna boo you for putting it ahead of Venom.

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Anteater

Abominog deserves to be in the Top 10 just for that cover alone, lol! Big fan of the album itself too though, especially 'Chasing Shadows' and 'Prisoner'.

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Unknown Soldier

Besides Dio-era Sabbath a number of bands put out some similar sounding material that is still top notch stuff. Secondly there is the nostalgic value with the Uriah Heep album, as not many old bands can return from the depths of despair as they did with this release. Also this album was meant to be number 6 on this years listing, but I made a mistake and the original album 7 will move up a place to 6.

I knew you'd like this album, as the sounds are just up your street. But saying that, I carefully selected four of the original tracks as the tasters, as I think they're stronger than the covers (but the covers are still great)

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The Batlord

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the album. It's certainly better put together than Black Metal, and can compete with the other two bands I mentioned, but if I want to listen to Venom, which I often do, I've only got Venom. If I wanted to hear Uriah Heap on the other hand, or at least that version of Uriah Heap, there are other bands I'd listen to first.

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Unknown Soldier

Overview
As nominees for both the best album name of the year and also the album with the most gharish cover award, Tank emerged as an almost understudy band to their far better known speed merchant brothers Motorhead. Much like Motorhead they were a trio fronted by a bassist/vocalist and were a band that played their metal with a punk rock approach a la Motorhead, in preference to that of the more straightforward metal approach of other metal bands around this time. The band were London based and were formed by Algy Ward bass and vocals, and he was soon joined by the Brabbs brothers Peter on guitar and Mark on drums. Algy Ward had previously cut his teeth in a couple of punk bands before finishing up in one of the biggest punk bands around at this time The Damned, but being a metal nut it was obvious that Algy Ward would only truly be happy in a metal band and thus he formed Tank. At the time of Tank’s debut album the Filth Hounds of Hades, Tank were just one of the many bands from the NWOBHM that were waiting in the wings after the huge success of bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon to take their opportunity. The debut album had all the promotion it needed as the band ended up supporting none other than Motorhead in 1982 on that band’s ‘Iron Fist Tour’ and it would also be Motorhead’s Fast ‘Eddie’ Clarke that would produce Tank’s debut album as well. Overall Tank were decent musicians despite not being upto the level of Lemmy and Co. and based their scruffy hard rock sound around a punk attitude, that dressed itself up as metal. They were also one of those metal bands that just didn’t give a **** and simply went out and played, despite usually being too pissed out of their minds most of the time to do so! Like fellow speed merchants Raven, Tank demonstrated that British speed metal around this time was based around a rough ‘n’ ready attitude as much as it was to the speed of the music. Speed metal as a genre in its own right would end up being somewhat short-lived in the early 1980s as a principal player, as it would soon be superseded by the louder and more aggressive thrash metal that came out of California, but in bands like Tank and Raven the sub-genre would always have a viable outlet for fans. This would be strengthened when a number of North American bands led by Anvil (higher up this years list) would carry on with the baton as well. In 1982 the same year, the band would also release their second album Power of the Hunter and despite some good stuff was seen as a disappointment compared to the debut.

Verdict
The album opens with “Shellshock” and its unexpected cavemen chants before moving into more serious speed metal territory and it sounds like speed metal the Motorhead hard rock variety, before you realise that this is Algy Ward singing here and not Lemmy! This speed doesn’t let up as it drifts into second track “Struck by Lightning” setting the tone for a large chunk of the album. One of the very best speed tracks on the album is the killer “Turn Your Head Around” with its dynamic riffing and a song that is particularly suited to Algy Ward’s limited vocal range. The title cut the “Filth Hounds of Hades” is a more controlled speed metal track that comes late on in the album and it’s these tracks that set the overall tone of the album. Not all the tracks are just based on speed and attitude, as there are some like “Run Like Hell” that dress up the speed in the guise of a heavy rocker and none of these come any truer than a subject close to the band’s heart “Blood, Guts and Beer”. “Heavy Artillery” is probably the heaviest tracks on the album thanks to its chorus and “Who Needs Love Songs?” probably the most humorous, this humour then continues onto the album’s final track the impressive “(He Fell in Love with A) Stormtrooper”. I’ve saved the best till last here in the epic “That’s What Dreams Are Made Of” a song with one of the best riffs around this time and the song is also punctuated with some pretty impressive ‘bluesy jamming’ showing just how reliant metal still was at times on blues based inspiration. Not only is this track probably the best ever put out by the band, but also one of the very best from the whole of the NWOBHM and the song surprisingly delivers a somewhat cheerful approach to the whole metal genre, with its kind of sing-a-long feel. Brothers Peter and Mark Brabbs are a great double act that compliment the punkish Algy all the way in what was the initial line-up of the band. Fast ‘Eddie’ Clarke who produces here had been slammed by critics for his production of Motorhead’s Iron Fist album (see this year’s review) gets it right here. The Filth Hounds of Hades would not only end up as being one of the best debut albums of the year ,but also one of the essential NWOBHM releases as well in terms of energy and it's vital for any speed metal fans out there,especially if they like their speed metal with both a rough ‘n’ ready attitude and a touch of humour.

Algy Ward- Bass/Vocals
Peter Brabbs- Guitar
Mark Brabbs- Bass

Production- Fast ‘Eddie’ Clarke

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History