Unknown Soldier

Well the number '13' is unlucky for some But if the truth be told 1984 for such an acclaimed record is very much an album that is carried by certain standout tracks and the reputation that both David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen had at this time as well. Of the twelve albums I've put above it, at least 9 of those I consider all round better albums and the other three are on a par with this, but as they display more creativity I put them before Van Halen.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody

13 unlucky indeed. Very well then, I disagree with your assessment, as I would rather have Jump, Hot for Teacher, and Panama on repeat all day than listen to Powerslave in its entirety.

I am horrified by the prospect that Twisted Sister and Celtic Frost are somehow ahead of this album though, but it is your journal & I shall leave it at that.

Unknown Soldier

That Twisted Sister album might just be the 'coolest hair metal' album ever and Celtic Frost well the debut album from possibly the 'greatest extreme metal' band ever.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
This American power metal band from Colorado who were heavily influenced by the NWOBHM had formed their own band in 1981, where they had chosen the distinctive Jag Panzer name after seeing the German WWII tank Jagdpanzer in a poster. Being from the mid-west they seemed unable to pronounce the German name properly, so they sensibly dropped the ‘d’ from the name and arrived at Jag Panzer like so. Their debut album Ample Destruction is without doubt one of the stellar releases from the early days of the North American power metal movement, which would be distinct in a number of ways from its European counterpart (more on that for my 1985 list) also of note is that the album went unnoticed at the time of its release due to poor marketing by the record label Azra, in hindsight the band really could’ve done with being on a label like Metal Blade, who of course would re-issue the album many years later. Ample Destruction therefore became one of those great retrospective metal albums when it was uncovered by music fanatics many years later, until then it had existed as no more than one of those long lost underground albums. The band also didn’t do themselves many favours initially in terms of continuity and much like British band Angel Witch they quickly faced line-up problems, aborted projects and finally the members going off to join other bands, it wasn’t until 1994 almost a decade later that their second album would finally come out. Therefore Ample Destruction as an album needs to be treated as a unique ‘one-off’ and special it certainly is with an album cover that is pure power metal stuff. The album itself is a relentless affair as can be heard on the album opener “Licenced to Kill” a song full of blustery guitar work and an introduction to Harry Conklin’s stunning falsetto. This leads into probably the coolest track on the album the totally badass sounding “Warfare” surely a candidate for the best metal track of the year, especially since it borrows part of its killer riff from Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" and it certainly sounds as cool as anything on the Armored Saint album reviewed earlier. Third track the classic “Symphony of Terror” with its darker touch feels as good as Iron Maiden at their very best and needless to say it’s one of the best on the whole album. The band by now seem pretty adept at coming out with great metal names for their songs and fourth track “Harder Than Steel” is no exception to this point and now is a good time to mention that nearly every song uptil now has had memorable solos and riffs to highlight them. The album finally takes a dip quality wise on “Generally Hostile” but that is shortlived as the memorable “The Watching” is the next stellar track up. The final three tracks that take the original album up its 39 minutes of listening times come with “Reign of the Tyrants” and “Cardiac Arrest” two great late album tracks with the latter showing Harry Conklin borrowing a bit from Rob Halford. Anybody listening to the album for the first time might not be expecting such an accomplished album closer in the epic sounding "The Crucifix" and it's hard to believe that a band like this could've written something so accomplished for a debut album and then issue out nothing for another decade. Overall the guitar work of both Mark Briody and Joey Tafolla across the album is infectious as it’s aggressive and the vocals or better said falsetto shrieks of Harry Conklin come across at times as an even more explosive version of Bruce Dickinson. The speed across the album is mesmerizing at times, making the album that perfect blend or stepping stone between the speed metal and power metal genres. The album since its release has come out again under various re-issues and as is often the case numerous other tracks have been added, but for accuracy I’ve only focused on its initial release track listing, which of course is the release that I’m most familiar with. It’s amazing yet again just how many great American metal releases in the 1970s and early 1980s passed under the radar and Ample Destruction is certainly one of them.

Harry Conklin- Vocals
Mark Briody- Guitar
Joey Tafolla- Guitar
John Tetley- Bass
Rick Hilyard- Drums

Production- Jag Panzer  

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

Too bad it was EP and therefore ineligible.

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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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Unknown Soldier

Technically you're correct but the US version which is the one I have and as far as I know came out in 1984 was extended to 32 mins making it album length which qualifies it, it's about the same length as a Van Halen album anyway.

PS. I didn't see Urban's post till after I submitted this but he's summed it up best really.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

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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