Unknown Soldier

As a band I prefer Slayer to Metallica, but Kill 'Em All is far superior to Slayer's Show No Mercy and possibly as you've said the ultimate stripped down thrash metal album, so no debate on that one.

I find Flick of the Switch a fairly lifeless album and it wasn't even considered in the top 40

The Krokus album may well miss out, because it's competing with a whole load of other albums for just a few places. I regret not putting Accept's Restless and Wild in my 1982 list so for 1983 Balls to the Wall will be pretty high up.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody

No worries on AC/DC, I just meant in terms of style. I'm a Bon Scott fan and Flick of the Switch in my mind is one of their most sub par efforts, as for Krokus, Headhunter is just a damn good song, but its been a while since I've listened to the whole album.

The Batlord

Nah, I'm betting Piece of Mind's gonna be at the top.

You did what? I don't know you anymore.

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William_the_Bloody

I didn't think Show No Mercy was going to be number 1, just ahead of Kill Em All, so I'm happy the Unknown has acknowledged that....

You could be right about Maiden, but I have another album in mind that I think he's going to pick as number 1.

He's probably saving Maiden for 84, though the Scorpions had their epic release that year as well, so we'll see.

Unknown Soldier

Glam Metal

Glam metal often known as hair metal, became a distinct sub-genre of metal in the years between the explosion of the NWOBHM in 1980 and the rise of thrash metal in 1984. Throughout the 1970’s both hard rock and heavy metal had usually been cut from the same cloth, which meant that a large chunk of bands had that strong bluesy background, a musical aspect which was certainly much stronger on hard rock bands. Black Sabbath of course had forged probably the first true heavy metal identity, which was further strengthened by the likes of Judas Priest and so forth, also psychedelic rock and progressive rock had their far reaching influences as well (not going to repeat a 1970s history here) now aside from all this, the British glam rock scene of the 1970s which had been headed up by the likes of David Bowie and T.Rex along with an assortment of good to tacky bands, had been a commercial boom genre in the first half of the 1970s especially in the UK. Now some of the scene’s more talented bands like the Sweet and Mott the Hoople (whose albums have been reviewed here) crossed into hard rock territory more often than not and for this reason alone, a large amount of music listeners from this period were equally into both their beloved glam rock bands, as much as they were into the likes of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, meaning that there was often a thin line between rockers and glamsters. This was further strengthened stateside with the theatrical approach of acts like first Alice Cooper and then Kiss, which was further with enhanced acts as diverse as the New York Dolls and Roxy Music. The UK punk explosion of the late 1970s added further fuel to the fire, but the single biggest influence could probably be attributed to the mighty Aerosmith, whose attitude and posturing alone would inspire so many of the glam metal bands of the 1980’s.

In a present day context of the early 1980s, bands who loved all of the earlier acts had the British NWOBHM bands on one side to look to, especially the Def Leppard debut On Through the Night which was a strong glam inspired album and on the other side were the American metal bands led by Van Halen (who were glamorous rather than glam) to aspire to. As for location, I’m not sure if glam metal at this time could’ve taken off in terms of popularity in any other place besides Los Angeles, as the city provided the essential backdrop for the movement and that was sun and fun by the day, with seedy and decadence by night. The Sunset Strip was the place to be for any up and coming glam metal bands at this time and to varying degrees bands like Y&T, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and Hanoi Rocks were the most important bands for the early days of the genre in the early 1980s. The last two of course were not even west coast bands and Hanoi Rocks not even American, but stylistically they all could’ve been born on the Sunset Strip. Unlike the NWOBHM feature I did in 1980 (see review) I mentioned a bit about the musical style of that movement, but glam metal in many ways had a lower emphasis on an obvious style than the NWOBHM did, sure the music was often sleazy, full of pop hooks and catchy guitar riffs and the movement owed as much to punk as it did to metal, along with having a noticeable frontman which was a prime feature for most of these bands. But musically bands like Y&T, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and Hanoi Rocks all sounded fairly distinct to one another and had different approaches as well, but what they all did have in common, was a sense of decadent flair and a stylistic approach which grouped them all together and in many ways this diverse yet similar grouping, could also be attributed to the grunge movement much later in the decade as well (another genre of distinct bands but with a common cause) which now leads to the foremost feature of what glam metal was really all about, and that was a genre that styled itself heavily on the aesthetics of the 1970s British glam rock movement and taking elements from all the aforementioned artists above as well, which all culminated into a sleazy, gaudy and sometimes androgenous look for most of the bands, that were just content to really go out and live the rock star lifestyle to the full. So if the NWOBHM had been metal’s masculine side then glam metal would be its feminine side, a fairly logical outcome given the nature of the human species. The genre on the one side would be a huge commercial success throughout the 1980s, where it firstly took on the energy of the NWOBHM and then in just a few years, it would deprive most AOR bands as the principal commercial outlet for the big record labels. It also survived numerous challenges from extreme metal, before finally going into decline with the rise of grunge at the end of the decade. Most listeners often hold nostalgic values for a lot of these bands and more often than not, a vast number of the bands in the genre often put out poor quality material which generally lowered the overall opinion of glam metal as a whole, but a number also put out some really quality material and stuff worth exploring (and most of those should feature on my 1980's lists) On the genre’s negative side though, the above mentioned lower quality material along with the flooding of bands flocking to the glam metal banner would certainly milk the cow dry and certainly didn’t help the genre’s status in many people’s eyes or indeed ears. In fact hardcore metal listeners could never really accept the feminine side of metal provided by this movement and found their own outlet in the extreme metal genres to counter this. As for how glam metal made its big splash, well it was one of its mediocre bands in Quiet Riot who would effectively launch the whole genre from a commercial perspective in 1983 with one well planned swoop or was it just luck?

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

20. Savatage Sirens 1983 (Combat Records)
Heavy Metal

Metallic metal from the land of southern rock.

The Lowdown
With so many albums having been left off this year’s list including albums by Motorhead, Tokyo Blade, Vanadium, Bitch and Krokus etc, Savatage have done well to be included for what is a raw and patchy debut. In fact all those previously mentioned albums quality wise could be seen as being better albums overall, but the Savatage debut album gets on the list ahead of those bands, as this album was just more relevant to the metal scene in 1983 and would be one of those albums from this period that would set the tone for much of the decade due to its style. The band were formed in Tarpon Springs, Florida by brothers Jon and Criss Oliva with Jon on vocals and Criss on guitar and they were the driving force behind the band and were soon joined by Keith Collins on bass and Steve “Doc” Wacholz on drums. Originally they had formed under the name of Avatar but were forced to change their name and chose Savatage instead (a much better name anyway) The band state that both Sirens and their long EP The Dungeons Are Calling were both recorded and mixed in just one day and were released as two different entities, largely I guess because debut double albums were a simple no go as far as labels were concerned and bands were also usually encouraged to leave songs that didn’t get on their debut for their sophomore instead. The band in their early days were something of a band of contrasts, as here was a band that in many ways were laying down roots to the future death metal sound (Florida would be a hotbead for death metal) whilst at the same time demonstrating certain musical attributes that would go onto characterize power metal, making Savatage an innovative metal outfit for their time due to their contrast of certain styles, which is impressive since the band came from southern rock country. Also a number of reviewers tend to be pretty negative on this album calling it too basic, but I dig the album for its rawness. Like a lot of bands on the lower end of these lists, the album is somewhat unbalanced in terms of quality and Savatage have gone in for an early barrage at the start of the album where the stronger tracks are located. The album starts with its classic title track “Sirens” as the band’s evident metal sound is at the forefront with Criss Oliva’s guitar and brother Jon Oliva’s to-die-for vocals welcoming us to the world of Savatage. Second track “Holocaust” is quite simply dominated by its killer riff and if you’re not into the album by now, then you probably never will be. “I Believe” is another quality track especially with its loca guitar histrionics in its latter part, making three straight tracks where brothers Jon and Criss just sound the business. After this things tend to get patchy, as tracks like “Rage” and “Twisted Little Sister” despite being blustery are nothing special, while album closer “Out on the Streets” sounds too tame for this album. But there are still strong tracks like the mid-paced pounder “On the Run” the lightning “Living for the Night” and its sister track “Scream Murder” which both sound like something Megadeth were inspired by at a future date. Overall Sirens would result in being probably the darkest album in the bands discography in relation to their later releases, which would take on a more progressive metal/concept rock stance, just think the Hall of the Mountain King and Streets: A Rock Opera their best known albums. Now what always strikes me with certain metal bands around this time, is the distinctly metal sounding style that they have adopted, where bands like Savatage seem devoid of hard rock, blues or punk influences and just quite simply adopt a completely metallic sound and this sound is provided here by guitarist Criss Oliva, whose guitar sounds like a piece of processed metal, but all plaudits on the album surely go to the performance on Jon Oliva a man born to sing metal. In respect of these characteristics the band sound like they live and breathe metal and demonstrate that in the decade plus since the inception of this kind of music in the late 1960s, the genre had in many ways completely shed its early roots, by showing a much purer metallic direction largely thanks to bands like Judas Priest, making Savatage one of their many metal sons. Overall Sirens is an album that should be listened to by anybody seriously into metal, it might not be as mean or as aggressive sounding as either the Metallica or Slayer debuts, but it’s still one of the beefiest sounding albums on this year’s list, with its early incarnation of both power and thrash metal grooves in places, whilst also sounding both mean and dark as well.

Jon Oliva (Shrieks of Terror) - Vocals
Criss Oliva (Metalaxe) – Guitar
Keith Collins (Bottom End) – Bass
Steve “Doc” Wacholz (Barbaric Cannons) – Drums

Production- Danny Johnson


The Lowdown
Even though I don’t include EP’s on these lists, this one is certainly worth a mention due to its relevance. Although this was recorded in 1983, this essential EP by Savatage wasn’t released in North America until 1984 and aficionados had to wait till 1985 in the UK for it. The Dungeons Are Calling continues the mean and dark sound that was heard on Sirens, but concentrates far more on the thrashier elements heard on that album, basically meaning that the aggressive end of Sirens is what features on this EP. The songs here are based around the concept of the horrors of drug use and its six tracks are of equal strength making this EP stronger than the patchier Sirens, in fact had Savatage released this package as they desired then we’d be talking top 10 at least for the Savatage debut album. Two of the songs here the title track “The Dungeons Are Calling” and “City Beneath the Sea” the latter track here is probably the pick of the six tracks are based around the masterful guitar of Criss Oliva, Jon Oliva’s blood curdling vocals and complex structures that would go onto feature as a typical thrash delicacy for some bands. The mid-paced pounder “Rage” from Sirens finds its sister tracks here in “By the Grace of the Witch” and “Midas Knight”. Whereas the band are at their fastest on “Visions” and “The Whip”. Also most of the songs feature atmospheric prologues and epilogues which gives the EP a somewhat distinctive vibe. The 1994 edition of this EP is further lengthened by a seventh track in "Fighting for your Love" and a live version of "Sirens". Finally it’s interesting to note that this EP only runs about 4 minutes shorter than Slayer’s Reign in Blood, has an album cover that is top drawer thrash and in hindsight had the band released all these cuts with the thrash elements from Sirens, we could´ve had a definitive thrash/speed album from this era. It wasn’t until 2011 that the whole package was released together where Jon Oliva stated “As it was meant to be.”

Jon Oliva (Shrieks of Terror) - Vocals
Criss Oliva (Metalaxe) – Guitar
Keith Collins (Bottom End) – Bass
Steve “Doc” Wacholz (Barbaric Cannons) – Drums

Production- Danny Johnson

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I'm assuming you're gonna include The Dungeons Are Calling in some manner. That album is killer, and the closest they ever came to true thrash. EP or not, it deserves recognition.

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Unknown Soldier

I wasn't but you're right it deserves to be mentioned and have just seen that it was released in 1984 and not in 1983 as I thought. So will either include it here as an extra or wait till 1984 to feature it. In fact it wasn't even released till 1985 in the UK.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Dungeons Are Calling has now been included with Sirens.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

And the album review index has been updated accordingly. Bitchin'.

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