Urban Hat€monger ?

You should start a blogger page and repost this stuff on it.
It'll make each entry much easier to find and read and it'll be a shame to see all your hard work disappear if anything ever happened to the site.

I did that with mine...
MyDoctorWhoThing

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Unknown Soldier

Keep reading as your comments are always welcome.

I'll have a good look at your blog later, but everything I've written on here is saved on my computer through various sources.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
This Means War ranks as one of the plushest sounding productions on this year’s list, as Tank put out their third studio album in just two short years. 1982 had been a busy year for the band, as they had put out their stinging debut Filth Hounds of Hades (see 1982 review) without doubt one of the quintessential speed metal albums of its time. The band then disappointed on their sophomore set Power of the Hunter, which was a largely mixed and muddled affair despite having a couple of strong salvos for Tank fans! For 1983 frontman Algy Ward and the Brabbs brothers Peter and Mark (much like Raven’s set-up here) decided to augment their trio into a quartet, with the arrival of another guitarist in Mick Tucker ex-White Spirit, who in turn brought to the band a much bigger guitar sound. The overall result would see the band evolve, into a much plusher melodic sounding outfit compared to the Filth Hounds of Hades days just a year earlier. This Means War would be highlighted by a number of characteristics that would put it as being both quite unique and influential for its time and these points can be highlighted like so. 1) The songs and feel of the album would be dramatically slowed down to slower-tempos, something that certain thrash bands would soon adopt after their first few albums. 2) The said production moves away from what characterized a lot of NWOBHM bands of this time and instead gives us a bright sound without losing too much of the band’s venom (no pun intended) again something that certain thrash bands would adopt and this is largely down to the production values of John Verity ex-Argent on the album. 3) The album starts with a slick and atmospheric keyboard intro and this would be something that would be used by certain metal bands in the 1980s on certain tracks, just think Van Halen here 1984, but it’s the next point that is probably the most worthy of note. 4) The album only has seven songs fitted into less than 40 minutes of playing time, meaning that the average song time on nearly all the songs is around five minutes, which is surprising as band’s of this ilk were used to working with three minute tracks. In fact the opening cut “Just Like Something from Hell” far exceeds this and clocks in at around eight and a half minutes. I’m guessing that guitarist Mick Tucker was brought in largely for this, in order to really flesh out the band’s sound over these extra minutes. This results with an album that a number of future metal bands would soon adopt style-wise as well, as metal bands would greatly increase their song lengths over the ensuing years. Through all this though, the band maintain their yardstick with a collection of strong riffs that don’t for one moment trade-in their characteristic blood and guts approach to their sound and the album remains a heavy and loud example of where polished metal was heading around this time. As an album This Means War doesn’t give us anything complex with its lengthy songs, so it can’t be compared to say something like Metallica’s …. And Justice for All which had even longer songs anyway, but it can be compared to other future albums for its song length and scope. The album is often criticized as being pretentious, due to the fact that its overly long songs, don’t really give us too much in the way of complexity, with its detractors then saying what is the point of extended songs that don’t really challenge the listener from a technical perspective....... I guess they have a point here. Overall the album certainly isn’t as strong or as biting as their debut Filth Hounds of Hades, but it’s still an achievement that demonstrates how the band were able to go from crude on their debut, to mixed on their second and then onto fleshed out by their third album in just over a year.

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

Production- John Verity

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Saxon’s fifth studio album the Power & the Glory should’ve delivered Saxon as superstars stateside as it did with Def Leppard and their Pyromania album, but fate it seems had other plans in store for Saxon. The band went into the studio in 1983 on the back of three killer NWOBHM album classics Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law and Denim & Leather, as well as the live The Eagle Has Landed (see all these hot reviews) a period which had seen a stunning creative output by the band in just a few short years, a quality few of their rivals could match. Headed up by Biff Byford possibly the most important vocalist of the NWOBHM, where his vocals and the band’s sound had always veered to an epic metal approach with its steady stream of melody, even though the band did speed metal as good as anybody else when they wanted to. This meant that a combination of the band’s trademark sound and the tacking on of the beloved American AOR sound as demonstrated on a song like “Nightmare” should have come up trumps for the band in the USA. But in many ways compared to a band like Def Leppard, Saxon had their fate already sealed before they even went into the recording studio when it came to conquering the American market. Both they and Def Leppard hadn’t released a studio album in 1982, both bands had also toured vigorously BUT they had toured in two different spheres and this was the vital point here. Whilst Saxon were continuing to dominate in the UK and Europe, Def Leppard had taken the USA by storm (due to their excess of shows there) and were set to become the biggest British heavy thing there since the days of Led Zeppelin, and the band had also done themselves an even bigger favour by embracing the ultimate marketing tool back then in MTV! Therefore Saxon had missed the opportunites that Def Leppard had been afforded there, but the Power & the Glory was still an album that was recorded with the American market mostly in mind, rather than being a straight up metal album of choice by the band. This meant the album was recorded in the USA, Atlanta to be exact and for the album’s polished production (even though All Music states the album sounds like it was recorded in a large tin can) the band used the services of Jeff Glixman, who produced all those early classic Kansas albums. He had now cut his teeth with something harder with Gary Moore, so on the face of it Jeff Glixman fitted the type of album that Saxon wanted to record here. As an album Power & the Glory sounds from its first track the title cut “Power and the Glory” like a band that have that veteran and more mature feel to them, as the song plays like a defined metal cut that revolves around a balanced display of vocal prowess and heavy metal riffing, in many ways an archetypal metal track of excellence. They follow a similar vein on a song like “Warrior” which is highlighted by its impressive mid-song guitar solo. The band do the whole dark ballad thing well on “Nightmare” and again Biff Byford’s vocals propel the whole thing along. The showpiece track on the album is the album closer “The Eagle Has Landed” named after the previous live album and also the band’s usual logo on their previous albums. The song harks back to the epic days of Led Zeppelin in the mid-1970s largely because it has that aura about it. The band stay true to their beloved biker themed tracks with “Redline” and cover speed metal on the intro to “This Town Rocks” and then splash it around the rest of the song. Not everything though comes across as well as it should, as the ET based “Watching the Sky” could’ve been better and its following track “Midas Touch” falls into the same category here, despite being more uplifting and with better riffing than the previous song. Despite the album’s criticism from various quarters, it was included in Rock Hard’s The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time, a fact I certainly won’t disagree with as this is always the kind of epic metal that I really dig and because this album is a true heavy beast of burden for those in the know.

Biff Byford- Vocals
Graham Oliver- Guitar
Paul Quinn- Guitar
Steve Dawson- Bass
Nigel Glockler- Drums

Production- Jeff Glixman

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Pet_Sounds

I just want to say that I've been reading through this lately and am really enjoying it, even as someone who isn't a metal fan. Definitely one of my favourite journals on here.

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Everybody's dying just to get the disease

Unknown Soldier

Glad you're enjoying and have noticed that you're a big 60s music fan. Therefore the albums in the first few years might be more to your liking.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
After their breakthrough on the superb odds and ends album Self Destruction Blues (see review) ‘The Strange Ones’ as they were oft known in some quarters, released the commerical highlight of their career with Back to Mystery City. This is without doubt an album that is highly synonymous with the early days of glam metal in every aspect and it’s also an album that I always remember from right back then. When I first saw the album cover back in 1983 or 1984, I remembered seeing a guy with his arm around a stunning blonde who I thought looked similar to Kim Wilde……….. it wasn’t long after this that I found out that this sexy blonde was actually a man called Michael Monroe! The band had also tinkered with their line-up and added to their ranks British drummer Razzle from the Isle of Wight, who had replaced Gyp Casino in the band. The appointment of Razzle was seen by many as the perfect fit, in order to give the band that extra oomph in the drumming department that was possibly not there before. The British connection to the band was also strengthened with the services of Dale Griffin and Peter “Overend” Watts from Mott the Hoople on production duty, giving Back to Mystery City that truly authentic British glam rock vibe. The heavily glam, punk and late 1970s art rock sound that so influenced the band, often leaves me thinking whether this band should be in this journal at all sometimes, but given the fact that their lighter musical sound and heavy glam image, are so often revered in glam metal circles, as well as being on all kinds of hard rock and heavy metal must listen to lists, always decides me that they should be and so once again they are here. As with previous efforts the album is dominated by ‘The Muddy Twins’ Michael Monroe who harangues his way through proceedings and Andy McCoy the band’s psychedelic axe-slinger solely writes all the album’s tunes minus one and that one track is shared with Michael Monroe. The album’s ten songs start with the appropriately named “Strange Boys Play Weird Openings” a 43 second acoustic ditty and an odd choice to open up with, considering that the first song proper the single “Malibu Beach Nightmare” is a world away from it with its sax accompaniment. Then there is the groovy Clash sounding “Mental Beat” easily one of the best on the album. “Tooting Bec Wreck” a song inspired about a somewhat naff area of London where the band lived for a time and the song makes use of a chant like drum approach by Razzle and it's also the longest song on the album. The band cross into Motley Crue territory on "Until I Get You" and show that they can do this type of addictive track just as well and the title track to "Back to Mystery City" is certainly worthy of being a title track with its anthemic approach. "Ice Cream Summer" is another great driving song about summer love. I also like tracks like "Lick Summer Love" and "Beating Gets Faster" which despite coming across as slightly weaker material, still have a intensity factor about them, but the weakest effort overall is probably "Sailing Down the Tears". I suppose the great asset of the band that is most evident here on these songs, is the fact that nearly all their great driving tunes, often sound like any number of addictive punk and new wave songs from the 1970s, but as with any great band, it’s usually quite hard to locate where these original songs first came from and Hanoi Rocks were pretty adept at melding their inspirations into their own repertoire in an almost incognito fashion. The band’s Hollywood success would be short lived though, as drummer Razzle would die the following year in a ‘rock star car crash’ involving Motley Crue’s Vince Neil, a setback that the band would never truly recover from.

Michael Monroe- Vocals/Sax
Andy McCoy- Guitar
Nasty Suicide- Guitar
Sam Yaffa- Bass
Razzle - Drums

Production- Del Griffin/Peter Watts

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Within a year Long Island’s most gharish exponent were back in the studio with Stuart Epps to record their sophomore set, an album that would further add fuel to their already burning glam metal fire. Their debut album Under the Blade (see review) had been a hard hitting if somewhat regurgitated effort as an album, but it had done the business in getting the band noticed due to its decent sales and the band’s much talked about live show. The band had already gone down a storm in the UK in 1982 and like many other fellow American bands, had actually got their commercial break in the UK, so much so that most American record companies had initially thought that they were a British band. The band were soon snapped up by a major label in Atlantic to record the first of their two best known albums and You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll would be the first of these with the other being their biggest seller Stay Hungry which would be released in 1984. On You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll, the band would largely hit their peak with a much more consistent affair than shown on their debut and the resulting album luckily came out just a few months after Metal Health by Quiet Riot (higher up on this list) and that was the album largely responsible for igniting the whole glam metal movement as far as the record buying public were concerned in 1983, making the Twisted Sister album an en-vogue release. You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll is largely on a par in terms of quality as the Quiet Riot album, thus making it one of the best of the year overall. But in both sound and image the ‘Twisted Ones’ as they were known, went in for a different approach to most of their contemporaries (all explained on their previous review) So yet again the band give us another ten tunes all written by the delightful Dee Snider that would revolve around their raw sound and ‘real man metal’ approach, and this is summed up immediately on the album opener “The Kids Are Back”. This song gives us Dee Snider combining Kiss style anthemic vocals with that classic Alice Cooper sneer in certain places and the whole thing is further beefed up by the dual guitar power of Eddie Ojeda and Jay Jay French. The album has some really glorious sounding mid-paced pounders edging on the faster side of things, like “Like a Knife in the Back” “We’re Gonna Make it” "You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll" and “The Power and the Glory” no not the Saxon song but a great track that gets faster as it progresses. It’s these type of songs that give the album its energy and strength and are designed to the strengths of both Dee Snider. and the band and are as good as anything else out there at this time, also I’ve even seen reviews that called some of these tracks filler……….. well **** that! There is also the obvious single in “I Am (I’m Me)” but the pick of the lot is the flowing biker anthem “Ride to Live, Live to Ride” one of the best songs ever put out by the band, but this point is excellence is balanced out by the album’s poorest song in the soppy ballad “You’re Not Alone (Suzette’s Song)” which was apparently written by Dee Snider to his wife. You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll results in being another one of those early glam metal albums, that not only the band themselves would struggle to better over the coming years, but most other bands of their ilk as well. The album also sees the start of the band’s glory years, where in 1983 they were one of the leading bands at Castle Donington and the band also released the first of a number of well remembered singles throughout the 1983 to 1985 period. The album also appears on Metal-Rules 'The Top 100 Heavy Metal Albums' list one of the better online lists.

Dee Snider- Vocals
Eddie ‘Fingers’ Ojeda- Guitar
Jay Jay French- Guitar
Mark ‘The Animal’ Mendoza- Bass
A.J Pero- Drums

Production- Stuart Epps

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody

The top 10, 1983 was a banner year for heavy metal so I'm looking forward to this. I think I've got at least 9 of the 10 figured out, so let the chips fall where they may.

Unknown Soldier

Glad you're enjoying and the top 10 is I'd say fairly predictable, but there is one big surprise in there.

Also Van Halen 1984 is not on this year's list as I always thought the album came out in 1984. Found out though on Wiki that it came out on the 31 December 1983, so too late now to include it this year.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History