Urban Hat€monger ?

It was a 6 track E.P. in Europe and an 8 track album in the U.S. so technically it could be whatever he wants it to be.

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The Batlord

I've never heard of an album being an EP in one part of the world and an LP in another. That's weird as ****.

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Unknown Soldier

It's not rocket science, the EP was 24 mins and with a few extra tracks it became 32 mins which is album length.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Urban Hat€monger ?

Depends on country to country.
Here the definition in the US & UK

According to Recording Industry Association of America, an EP is defined as 3-5 songs OR under 30 minutes, whereas a single is allowed to contain up to 4 songs.

In the United Kingdom, any record with more than four distinct tracks or with a playing time of more than 25 minutes is classified as an album for sales-chart purposes. If priced as a single, they will not qualify for the main album chart but can appear in the separate Budget Albums chart

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The Batlord

Wait... that would mean a significant portion of the punk albums released in the US in the 80s only counted as EPs.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

If you went on minutes of music yes, but they can also be labelled an album by number of tracks too.

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Unknown Soldier

11. Gravestone Victim of Chains 1984 (Scratch)
Heavy Metal

Hey man…… we really are the real deal.

The Lowdown
European mainland bands have been well represented on this year’s list, which is no surpise considering that’s where the European metal secene was shifting after the commercial fall of the the NWOBHM as far as Europe went with metal. Germany was the logical location for the huge rise (technically West Germany as the Wall still hadn’t come down) for a whole host of metal bands at this time. They of course already had the highly acclaimed Scorpions a worldwide metal draw and Accept were on the verge of becoming a world known metal band. That left the multitude of other German bands to concentrate on their native Germany and the already veteran Gravestone were easily of the best bands on this whole Teutonic metal scene and they along with the already reviewed Trance (see 1983 list) were perfect examples of where German metal was at this time. German metal bands for all their talent were unfortunately like a lot of mainland European metal bands, in that their recordings easily fell into the ‘cliched metal style’ that would be associated with a lot of these bands, who by and large were just copies of their English speaking counterparts. Gravestone though were something very different in that respect and steered away from the anthemy style that could be expected from them and instead went in for one of the most ‘all-encompassing’ metal albums of the year in Victim of Chains their third studio album. Victim of Chains besides drawing influences from bands like AC/DC, Judas Priest and fellow Euros Krokus, threw up hard rock, speed metal, power metal, melodic metal and ballad sections across the album and they did all of this to a top-notch level. The band had been formed way back in Bavaria in 1977 as a progressive rock band, which explains their attraction to a multitude of musical styles, before they steered into a pure metal direction and Victim of Chains is without doubt a real metal delight in respect to this. All of the musical styles that I’ve mentioned above are demonstrated on this album, but like with any great album they have been diluted in a way, where each of these styles just seems at times to seamlessly flow from one style to the other and this is done with a great combination of both melody and disjointedness on the majority of the songs. In fact the disjointedness sound of the album is one of its key attractions, making the album a perfect example of needing several listens to really appreciate what it has to offer. The opening song “Fly Like an Eagle” sounds like a speed metal version of the Scorpions but Berti Majdan’s shriek is a world away from Klaus Meine here. The band show that they’re real deal on tracks like “Death and Reality” and “Son of the Freeway” both great metal fare. The band display great beauty for a metal band on the opening of “So Sad” which really harks back to epic 1970s rock. The song then proves what a showpiece track it really is when the track introduces it's staggered sounding melodic section and Berti Majdan even sounds like Jon Anderson of Yes here. “The Hour” is one of my favourites on the album thanks to the vocals and guitar shredding on the song. “For a Girl” sounds vocally like a sloppy effort but the song has a certain amount of charm to it. "Rock 'n' Roll is Easy" is classic almost anthemy type hard rock material before embarking on a great 'radio commentary' section which neatly blends into the song. The instrumental "The Bells of Notre Dame" starts with a motorbike revving before going onto become an obvious homage to Van Halen's "Eruption" and album closer "Blind Rage" is probably not the strongest album closer. Certain listeners may have an issue with the production and others may have an issue with Berti Majdan’s banshee scream vocals, even though he does come down to a canter on “The Hour” but he certainly comes from the Burke Shelley of Budgie school of vocals. The album though does steer clear from what is known as the bane of a lot of these bands, with their clichéd metal anthems and crunchy power chords, which was an easy trap for German bands to fall into at this time. Instead the listener should appreciate the depth on a lot of the songs, from a period that is probably the golden age of German metal. This is a period just before the likes of bands such as Blind Guardian and Kreator, two examples of the German power metal and thrash metal movements that would soon dominate the German metal scene. Finally the album cover is your somewhat typical metal cover that I would easily associate with a European mainland metal band around this time and the album name is surely a nod to the Judas Priest song “Victim of Changes”.

Berti Majdan- Vocals
Klaus Reinelt- Guitar
Thomas Sabisch- Bass
Thomas Imbacher- Drums

Production- ?

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
A number of years ago on this forum I criticized Metal Church as being a second rate metal band, but one of the members here The Batlord put me right on the subject and I soon realized that he was right. As Metal Church are very much a band that displays everything that is great about the metal genre, in that they display a combination of true metal credentials, a level of consistency in their releases and they constantly go on year after year, despite the fact they only have ten studio releases in their discography. In the ‘thrash intro’ that I wrote at the beginning of this year, I basically split these early thash metal bands into two categories. Firstly, there were those that would go onto fully embrace the genre like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Exodus etc. Secondly there were those like Exciter, Savatage and Metal Church who kind of treated the ‘thrash boom’ as an almost transitory style, that they would adopt for a while before going onto or back to other styles of metal which usually included speed metal. Metal Church though were more focused on power metal and were a band that would always straddle the line between thrash metal and power metal, and depending on your point of view, the listener could easily put them into either camp. The reality though, is that there was actually a very thin line between thrash metal and North American power metal at this time and Metal Church captured that fusion perfectly which makes a lot of their releases prime metal material. Over the years the band like a lot of these lesser known metal bands in terms of chart success, have clearly been dented by constant line-up changes which has done nothing for their continuity, but amongst metal aficionados bands like Metal Church have always been respected. The band hailed originally from California before relocating to Washington state and the band were quickly dominated by its leader Kurdt Vanderhoof, a big guy with a bald head who kind of looks like a larger version of Kerry King of Slayer. Kurdt Vanderhoof the band’s guitarist has been the only ever present member and literally co-writes on nearly all the band’s material, making him the heart and soul of the outfit. David Wayne would be the band’s principal vocalist for their first couple of albums and would sadly leave due to drug issues after their first couple of albums before Mike Howe would take over. The album has a ****ing sweet cover that wouldn’t look out of place on an advert for an ‘Elvira Mistress of the Night’ video and makes no excuses for the insane metal riffs that lie underneath. Album opener “Beyond the Black” starts with a cryptic voice intro before embarking on an epic 6 minutes of the band’s heavy fusion of thrashy riffs, power metal ambitions, tempo changes and the evil screech of David Wayne is the icing on this cake. The song also has time to fit in a nice melodic solo about three quarters of the way through as well, which shows some variation. The title track “Metal Church” is equally as heavy, but it works at a mid-paced grind (the type of metal that I really love) the track also has a reverberating almost film soundtrack vibe in the background that gives the track an epic feel. The instrumental “Merciless Onslaught” kicks off with a double bass and is pure thrash for its 3 minutes. I often measure the quality of a band by its ability to write the odd ballad and Metal Church do this very well on “Gods of Wrath” which is a song which mixes in great clean sections and gritty power metal posturing, and the track is probably the showpiece affair on the album. Tracks like "In the Blood" and "(My Favourite) Nightmare" are just pure energy, the former with its driving riff and its catchiness make in one of the album's best, and the track owes as much to punk as it does to metal. The second track here is equally as good but more disjointed and both songs easily qualify the album as trash material. Not all the songs as expected are anything special and these include tracks like the Iron Maidenish “Hitman” but is does have some muscle power though. On "Battalions" the band cross into Manowar territory and to be fair Manowar do this type of thing better, but again the song is saved by some awesome guitar dynamics about halfway through. Finally I take my hat off to the band for attempting a difficult cover of "Highway Star" where they do a credible job, as the track feels like an extra rather than an integral part of the album. Vocalist David Wayne comes across as a mix between Savatage’s Jon Oliva and Accepts’s Udo Dirkscheneider which of course means he’s bloody epic in his vocal execution. Along with Jag Panzer’s Ample Destruction (see review) the Metal Church debut is a cornerstone release of the North American power metal movement and these two bands remain vital for that reason alone. Fellow bands like Omen, Helstar and Vicious Rumours were also putting out debuts around this time as well and all are worth checking out.

David Wayne- Vocals
Kurdt Vanderhoof- Guitar
Craig Wells- Guitar
Duke Ericksson- Bass
Kirk Arrington- Drums

Production- Terry Date

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
From time to time on these lists, I’ll end up including albums by artists that I don’t particularly much care for and Mercyful Fate are just one of those artists. As a band their music was certainly up there with other bands of their ilk and the band’s influence on the extreme metal genre considerable, but the problem for me is listening to frontman King Diamond’s theatrical falsetto, which I find great for around 3 minutes or on the odd song or two, but in the end it usually ends up driving me nuts for anything longer than this. The band were formed in Copenhagen by both its leading orchestrators in vocalist King Diamond with his corpse face paint style and guitarist Hank Shermann and the bands love of progressive rock and especially that of Satan and the occult, quickly linked them along with Venom as early purveyors of the ‘first wave of black metal’ bands of the early to mid 1980s. Don’t Break the Oath is seen as a pivotal album in the progression of the European extreme metal scene at this time and comes hard on the heels of their previous Melissa album (had I been a fan of the band, that album would’ve made the 1983 list) Melissa it should be mentioned introduced us to the band’s extremist take on satanic Black Sabbath, but all done at a higher speed and also with the twin-guitar riffs of guitarists Hank Shermann and Michael Denner showing the band’s love of Judas Priest especially Stained Class era and Iron Maiden, and both these albums helped pave the way for other European extreme metal bands in just a few years. Bands like Mercyful Fate would also help in polarizing the European metal scene into mostly an extreme metal camp (like the bands just mentioned) or into the European power metal movement which would be fronted initially by German bands like Helloween, Blind Guradian and Gamma Ray etc. All these bands besides owing a debt to all the traditional metal lumineries out there, also owed a metal debt to fellow German artists that have been featured on these lists like the Scorpions, Accept and the more localised swathe of German metal bands like Trance and Gravestone (all reviewed here) The album starts with probably its magnum opus in "A Dangerous Meeting" a track dominated by some of the best riffs on this year's list and that driving guitar lead is pure muscle metal. The second track "Nightmare" is the kind of Kind Diamond track that I switch off on and I did my best here to listen to the actual music rather than his tortured meanderings, but to be fair the music sounds just like an intense demonstration of the band's ability and not too much more, but I'm sure a bona fide fan would think differently. The "Desecration of Souls" though I find is a much better track and musically it's the kind of metal track that I really dig with that mid-tempo stomping and it's real heavy, but yet again by the time of "Night of the Unborn" I start to switch off again and when I do these songs seem ever so long, so as you can see we're getting into a listening routine here! "The Oath" is like the band's ultimate homage to both Black Sabbath and Lucifer himself and its atmospheric intro to the sound of pouring rain is impressive, before embarking on 7 minutes on one of the band's more impressive progressive tracks. "Gypsy" I like and it has an almost power metal feel to it as well, which leads us into the final three cuts on the album "Welcome, Princess of Hell" kind of starts like a Van Halen track and its disjointed feel goes actually quite well with King Diamond's vocals here. "To One Far Away" is a quiet interlude before "Come to the Sabbath" a fitting title for the final song. The song is like a progressive hymn and it's at this point that I realize that a lot of the riffs on this album have been lifted by numerous bands since this album's release, as I recognize a lot of them in releases by future bands. Across the album Kind Diamond mixes his theatrical falsetto in with what sounds to me at times, to be like a British new wave influence on his vocals a la Mike Score of a Flock of Seagulls for example. Musically I can't fault anything here and on that alone the album is a classic especially its driving riffs, but for me the singing is equally as important, so it will always lose a lot of points for me on that score. Previously I had always thought of this album as an extreme metal release, but as a few people have reminded me on this forum, Don’t Break the Oath is actually a traditional heavy metal record and bloody tight one at that, which is why it features so highly on this year’s list. The album’s most interesting features though are King Diamond’s vocals if you can stomach them and the album progressive elements, something again that would make the album influential on numerous metal genres over the coming years. Overall fans of early extreme metal are pretty much geared into recognizing these early Mercyful Fate releases along with those of Celtic Frost (further up this list) as vital ingedients for the whole extreme metal scene. Mercyful Fate though would split the following year with Kind Diamond going solo, as the falsetto God didn’t see eye to eye with Hank Shermann with the band’s future direction, Hank Shermann had wanted the band to go more commercial but Kind Diamond saw things differently.

Kind Diamond- Vocals
Hank Shermann- Guitar
Michael Denner- Guitar
Tim Hansen- Bass
Kim Ruzz- Drums

Production- Henrik Lund

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
The Icon debut album sounds very much like one of the big glam metal albums from its time, largely due to the fact that the album is littered with all the things that a glam metal strives to be: Loud and pounding, punching choruses, catchy anthems and every song here is just damned good. The reality though is that Icon are a metal band that few people have ever heard of it, making the Icon debut album probably ‘the best ever hair metal album that you’ve never heard of’ and in fact quite a few reviews that I’ve read echo these sentiments as well, also their sophomore album Night of the Crime is also heavily lauded by reviewers as well. It was not long after their second album that things would fall apart for the band, with the usual problems of a dissatisfied record company and the always badly fated line-up changes which usually ruin any chance for band stability. The band hailed from Arizona, where of course a certain Vincent Furnier aka Alice Cooper and another all-time favourite band of mine the Tubes also hailed from, even though both artists made their bases elsewhere. I once read that Arizona was one of the sweatiest cities in the USA, so maybe they thought it would be cooler setting up elsewhere. In the case of Icon though they always toured heavily and were well known for doing both Deep Purple and Judas Priest covers in addition to their own material, and so by the time of their debut they were already vets from plenty of shows. The album opens with the big pounding “(Rock On) Through the Night” a track capable of blitzing most other hair metal bands and this power is maintained on “Killer Machine” a track which has that classic 1980s vibe, as does “On Your Feet” a metal track that any commercial metal band would’ve loved to have in their locker. “World War” sounds like a classic single and its edgy feel makes it an essential listen here and it's probably the pick from the album. This edgier feel takes on darker overtones on the sluggish “Hot Desert Night” which again has that vital catchy section which reverberates throughout the song. “Under My Gun” the fastest track on the album comes at just the right time as well after the slowness of the previous track. “Iconoclast” is an instrumental that sets up “Rock ‘n’ Maniac” another anthemy track that sounds like a classic hair metal cut. “I’m Alive” sounds like a sort of homage to AC/DC on its intro before settling into more typical Icon material. The album closer is the epic ballad “It’s Up to You” one of the best ballads put out by a hair metal band period. Now there is nothing unique about the material on this album in terms of its depth, but it’s probably the best example of how a basic metal record should be played and that’s with a musical honesty without the silly frills that some similar metal bands would try to incorporate here. Singer Stephen Clifford sounds a bit like Kevin DuBrow from the better known Quiet Riot which is not a bad thing, as Kevin DuBrow was the best thing about Quiet Riot anyway. The simple fact of the matter is that song for song over this album, Icon rock harder than W.A.S.P, prove that they have more muscle than Dokken, put out material that Ratt wished they had, show that they’re better than Quiet Riot could ever hope to be and sound more serious than Manowar. Only Twisted Sister at this stage could cope with what Icon could put out and I’ve purposefully left Motley Crue of the analogy list here, due to Motley’s distinct style of hair metal. In fact in terms of quality only Y&T in their prime a few years back are truly on a par with this Icon debut, but sadly as with Y&T marketing for this type of sound would end up going to the less talented bands out there, making Icon another one of those huge casualties of the American metal graveyard where many a great band ended up.

Stephen Clifford- Vocals
Dan Wexler- Guitar
John Aquilino- Guitar
Tracy Wallach- Bass
Pat Dixon- Drums

Production- Mike Varney

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History