Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Defenders of the Faith is often seen as Judas Priest’s last great album by metal aficionados (even though I haven’t heard all their later releases yet) largely because it’s an the album that is a pure metal thoroughbred within the genre, by demonstrating the band’s total love for their profession and also it’s the last classic album by a band that had been at the forefront of metaldom over the last several years. The band’s previous killer album Screaming for Vengeance had broken the band big in the USA and it was an album that had effectively married the pure menacing metal from the band’s Stained Class era, to the more commercial punch of the British Steel one and it give us one of metal’s premier signature albums from the early to mid 1980s period. On Defenders of the Faith the band would continue the same formula of speed rockers, mid-tempo grinders and metal anthems in another pure fist punching metal exercise, and as they say if it ‘ain’t broke don’t fix it’ and Priest certainly didn't try to here. Album cover art was again provided by Doug Johnson who did the cover art for Screaming for Vengeance, hence the obvious similarity between the two album covers. The album opens with the soaring energy of “Freewheel Burning” and its video with a kid playing a game on an arcade machine, kind of reminds me a bit of the atmosphere of Black Sabbath’s “Zero the Hero” track. The album then enters into the cream of its tracks with “Jawbreaker” the almost archetypal Priest grinder and then onto the anthemy “Rock Hard Ride Free” one of the best metal anthems ever put out by the band and both songs easily rank among the band’s very best. The guitar work by K.K Downing and Glenn Tipton on both these tracks is pretty breathtaking at times making both cuts real metal essentials. “The Sentinel” is a great track as it harks back to the band’s more complex roots and therefore is stellar for just that reason. The obvious single from the album is “Love Bites” which I guess may have been too mechanical sounding for the record label to really believe in it though. The S&M themed “Eat Me Alive” is probably best remembered as one of those songs which upset the PMRC censor, who were red hot against these bands especially at this time. The second obvious single choice from the album is the Robert Halligan Jr. penned “Some Heads are Gonna Roll” which again keeps that mechanical feel that the album now seems to have adopted. Of the final tracks “Night Comes Down” is very AOR orientated and "Heavy Duty" isthe heaviest on the album and enters into the Manowar stratosphere. The title track "Defenders of the Faith" basically just serves as a heavy outro to the album and lasts just over a minute and some versions of the album have the bonus track "Turn on the Light" a pretty neat sounding track. Defenders of the Faith would be another monster album for the band despite the fact that it failed to deliver a strong single like “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight” from British Steel or “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin” from Screaming for Vengeance. The previous mentioned points are often seen by some critics as detractors against the album, personally I think that’s nonsense as this was time anyway, when many a great band seemed to save some of their best material simply for the album and to have it not be served up as singles. Overall Defenders of the Faith is one of Priest’s most solid outings and ranks amongst their best, despite the fact that a number of its tracks can be seen as being obviously basic and accommodating a overly mechanical aura at times.

Rob Halford- Vocals
K.K Downing- Guitar
Glenn Tipton- Guitar
Ian Hill- Bass
Dave Holland- Drums

Production- Tom Allom

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Boys dressed in leather and girls dressed in lace.

The Lowdown
Balls to the Wall is the middle album in the trio of Accept’s most celebrated albums with the highly infleuntial Restless and Wild (see review) and the lessser appreciated Metal Heart either side of it, but it’s Balls to the Wall that is the most celebrated of these albums due to its commercial success and it’s the reason why most metal listeners know this German band. At the time of Balls to the Wall, Accept briefly attained the lofty heights of fellow teutonic band the Scorpions stateside and it was at a time when German metal had reached unprecedented heights of popularity around the world, and for this reason alone Accept should be given credit for opening the floodgates as it were for metal listeners around the world, to really appreciate what the non-British and non-American bands had to offer the metal genre. Also Accept were always one of the archetypal metal bands circa the 1983-1984 period, for the simple reason that they incorporated all the aspects that were predominant in metal at this time (blazing twin guitars, thumping bass and ferocious drumming to name just a few) which all resulted in some pretty mean sounding fist-pumping metal from them. Their style saw them issue out centralist metal that could easily appeal to listeners of artists like Judas Priest to Dio, basically good honest metal. According to music reviewer Martin Popoff who happens to be one of my favourite reviwers of anything metal, he views Balls to the Wall as the perfect example of what a metal album should be and that is higlighted by what he terms as ‘clean and restrained riffing’ meaning of course that the album resulted in being a totally focused piece of metal, in fact he puts it as the best metal album of the 1980s, very high praise indeed. It’s best known track is its title “Balls to the Wall” from my point of view this represents one of the most essential metal songs around and is so archetypal of what I view pure metal to be. The song has Udo Dirkschneider the pint-sized powerhouse vocalist of the band almost rambling through the song in his famous gruff style, before finally exploding into clean power for the song’s explosive chorus section, making the song one of the ultimate metal statements of the decade. As well known as the title track is, the album cover also took quite a bit of flack expecially in the USA, where its overtly gay overtones upset the censor there (remember this was a time when the PMRC were hot against anything that was metal and saw devil worshippers and society subversives behind nearly every metal release) In Europe of course the album cover was really just another album cover, but I guess the album cover could easily be seen as being uber-gay and the album’s second track “London Leatherboys” along with the title track add further flames to that fire. Now down to the album proper which of course starts with the aformentioned metal masterpiece “Balls to the Wall” and its accompanying cheesy video within the backdrop of a wasteland (en-vogue at the time) has all three of its guitarists moving in that corny unison typical of metal at this time, video aside this is such a metal statement. “London Leatherboys” as expected is full of highly charged lyrics of a sexual nature and basically could be a Judas Priest track from this period. Third track “Fight Back” is about as close as the band get to anything on the more thrashy Restless and Wild and it’s a very good song, as is the fourth track the more melodic “Head Over Heels”. Middle placed tracks like "Losing More Than You've Ever Had" and "Love Child" are great examples of what I'd coin as euro-metallish (influenced by euro-pop of course) "Turn Me On" is a more intense slow builder and re-visits the style laid down on the title track. By the time of "Losers and Winners" and "Guardians of the Night" its obvious that the band just had so many catchy tracks in their locker. The album closer is the acoustic lead "Winter Dreams" which I guess some listeners might have some reservations over but it does work here. Overall Balls to the Wall is a great slice of traditional 1980s metal and as an metal album it could be described as having a great replay value.

Udo Dirkschneider- Vocals
Wolff Hoffman- Guitar
Hermann Frank- Guitar
Peter Baltes- Bass
Stefan Kaufman- Drums

Production- Accept

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody

The song Balls to the Wall has to be one of the greatest chord progressions in the history of metal.

I love the video to, how they're all in synch like some weird guitar warriors, awesome.

Unknown Soldier

At that time films like The Warriors, Mad Max II and Escape from New York that either featured gangs and/or post-apocalyptic scenarios were very popular, and this type of thing often carried across to films in the way of warriors and wastelands etc.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
The debut release by Celtic Frost is one of those releases that could be deemed either an EP at around 25 mins which it was in Europe, or as a full album at 31 mins which it was on its US release, and the latter release is the one I’m reviewing here. One thing is for sure though, the introduction of Celtic Frost into the ingoted streams of metal, ushered in one of the genres greatest extreme metal exponents and album for album they also rank as one of the best and most consistent bands within the metal genre, Death are another band in my mind that have a discography that matches Celtic Frost in terms of consistent quality. Celtic Frost though were a far more encompassing band than most and a band that I would truly call ‘extreme metal’ which is a label of course that can have two meanings. 1) An umbrella term which covers all the extreme styles like thrash, black and death etc and the one it’s most known for. 2) It also fits bands like Venom who all put out musical styles that either included some or all of the elements that included thrash, black and death metal, and any band under this banner would be a big influence on these genres and Celtic Frost of course were one such band. The band were formed in Zurich out of the elements of Hellhammer (I’ll be covering some of these bands briefly in an extra section) where Thomas Gabriel Fischer aka Warrior was the main link between the two bands and he with bassist Martin Eric Ain would write all the material for the band’s early releases. Part of the Celtic Frost magic are indeed its inspirational roots, which included the likes of Black Sabbath and Venom (expected) but just as important to them were the inspiration from the British gothic/hardcore scene at the time, which included the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Discharge, which of course with the band’s huge talent led to a delicious distillation of all these styles. The first few albums by the band are pure extreme metal releases that can easily lay waste to much of the competition, before they eventually moved with equal venom into a more avant-garde metal style later in the decade. The album cover to Morbid Tales of which there are a couple of variations (not sure which one I put in the end) does nothing to hide what the material would be like underneath and despite witchcraft or satanic themes hardly being anything new at this time in either music or film, few in 1984 would’ve expected the intense fury that would lie underneath this album, unless of course the listener had already dabbled with the likes of Metallica and especially Slayer. The album starts in blistering style with the frenetic speed of “Into the Crypts of Rays” and welcome to the Warrior’s distinctive vocal style before the song goes into that pivotal awkward melodic style that a number of thrash bands would adopt at times. “Visions of Mortality” is a much slower affair and by now you can notice Thomas Gabriel Fischer’s similarity vocally with Tom Araya of Slayer, and of course the song as expected speeds up in places. The next two tracks are the additional tracks for this release “Dethroned Emperor” and title track “Morbid Tales”. The first introduces that death metal grunt and one almighty Diamond Head inspired riff to go with it, the second if not quite as essential is still a credible effort. "Procreation (Of The Wicked)" is without doubt one of the beasts of the album and its primitive grind, surely influenced my beloved Sepultura right here (they even covered in in their Roots period) and following track "Return to the Eve" provides more variety and again has a killer riff, but I admit I don't really like the female voice over here. "Danse Macabre" is an experimental track that just sounds nasty and "Nocturnal Fear" brings back the thrash again but with some interesting experimental touches. So apart from this blistering debut was else was so essential about this Germanic-language band? Firstly they wore black leather with corpse-like face paint which influenced hordes of other bands out there, but secondly and most notably they introduced a central European concept to extreme metal, which was different to anything that could’ve come from either the UK and USA, and along with the likes of Mercyful Fate were largely responsible for setting up an extreme European metal scene that is just as relevant today.

Thomas Gabriel Fischer- Guitar/Vocals
Martin Eric Ain- Bass
Stephen Priestly- Drums

Production- Celtic Frost

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
After the huge splash created by their debut thrash classic Kill ‘Em All, Metallica effectively continued moving through the high gears for the equally impressive sophomore Ride the Lightning. Most thrash bands at this time would’ve been contented to try and issue out a Kill ‘Em All mk.2, but Metallica showed that when it came to thrash they were far more ambitious than was possibly expected (even though parts of the previous album showed where they were going anway) on Ride the Lightning and were now ready to push the boundaries of the genre to the max. Kill ‘Em All had demonstrated how Metallica had taken their Diamond Head template and had turned it into something less melodic but far meaner sounding, Ride the Lightning would now take the band into improved compositional expression, greater progression, controlled experimentation and the band’s lyrics now delved into even more personal subject matter, such as death by electrocution on “Ride the Lightning” a man's eventual suicide on "Fade to Black" and being in a cryonic state on “Trapped Under Ice” and overall the band display great maturity for a band that were from such a young sub-genre. The album still has two writing credits that were partly written by the ex-guitarist Dave Mustaine, which all shows that recordings for this album took place not long after Kill ‘Em All. The album name Ride the Lightning despite being suggested by Kirk Hammett, could also be attributed to the fact that the band were riding the lightning streak created by their thrash sound and also how Metallica had possibly stolen Diamond Head’s thunder, but of course that is just supposition on my part. The band also started their tenure with producer Flemming Rasmussen who would stay with the band for their ultimate masterpiece in Master of Puppets and then onto their most contentious album ….. And Justice for All. The album is loaded up with a cascade of metal epics that start with the seminal “Fight Fire with Fire” which has the band starting the song with a pseudo-classical intro that has a slight Led Zep tinge to it. The song then explodes into a speed merchants dream and progresses through several notable stages, it’s also a Metallica track that has been covered multiple artists. The song then practically leads into the title track “Ride the Lightning” which has an awesome groovy intro that permeates throughout the rest of the song and at times the whole thing sounds like one long song from the previous track, but as title tracks should always be something special this song fits the bill nicely and is literally 6.35 mins of pure progressive thrash metal from the band. “For Whom the Bells Toll” which now in hindsight sounds like the slower archetypal Metallica song title, is a more ponderous affair that kind of reminds me of those dark Judas Priest tracks from the late 1970s and at 5 mins it’s actually one of the shorter tracks on the album. Next track “Fade to Black” kind of starts the band’s affair with balladry and basically the band show here that they had been listening to a whole load of Wishbone Ash albums, which of course shows that they had immense musical taste anyway in choosing their influences. Given that the song is almost 7 mins the second longest on the album, the track is a masterful representation of the band’s musical talent. The second side of the album starts with “Trapped Under Ice” which turns out to be the most one dimensional track on the album and also one of the album’s lesser tracks, which is surprising given its pure thrash credentials. I’m not exactly enamoured with the following track “Escape” either which tries to work some melody into proceedings and give us an easier on the ear approach, and in many ways these two tracks let the album down a notch or two. “Creeping Death” deals with the subject of plague and basically sounds like a b-side composition, and in my mind drags on a bit too much. A less than brilliant b-side is then saved by the epic “The Call of Ktulu” an awesome instrumental which just seems to glide by and hardly feels its almost 9 mins. Finally one thing that strikes me again as with the best tracks on “Kill ‘Em All” the two tracks that are written here with Dave Mustaine “Ride the Lightning” and “The Call of Ktulu” are yet again some of Metallica’s best tracks from this period, which leads me to believe if Dave Mustaine had remained. Metallica could’ve been even better than they were, but then of course we would never have had Megadeth. Overall Ride the Lightning clocks in several minutes shorter than Kill ‘Em All and is the perfect link between that album and the even more seminal Master of Puppets, personally I believe had Metallica not recorded Ride the Lightning, then the band would’ve never have reached the heights on the Master of Puppets.

James Hetfield- Rhythm/Vocals
Kirk Hammett- Guitar
Cliff Burton- Bass
Lars Ulrich- Drums

Production- Flemming Rasmussen

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

First of all, while I can sort of agree on "Trapped Under Ice" and "Escape" (which was the first sign of things to come, as it was consciously written as an attempt at a radio single), although I still dig both those songs, but did you just call "Creeping Death", one of the greatest thrash metal songs ever written, a "b-side composition"?

Secondly, I completely understand and approve of having Iron Maiden at #1, but you're about to give the second spot to Scorpions, aren't you? Thankfully this will be the last I'll ever have to worry about that band taking space away from actual good artists.

Oh, and I just updated the index, and you misspelled "Accept" at the top of that entry. NAGL.

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Unknown Soldier

Well considering that mainstream metal was now dishing out hit singles, I guess it was obvious that some extreme bands (the lighter ones) would follow suit and you're right "Escape" was a sign of things to come for the band. I know "Creeping Death" is one of the rated songs on the album but I never thought it was that special, great name though. I think by the time it comes up I had already been spoilt by the more diverse tracks on the first side of the album.

That Scorpions album is the balls, but you're right it may well probably be their final high placing on these lists.

Thanks and have just corrected the error, wouldn't have noticed until you said.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody

Time for me to get my two cents in after a few beers:

Celtic Frost: admit ably I have a soft spot for Celtic Frost, but I wouldn't have put them so high myself, in the end they're just a lesser Discharge on their earlier releases, not as talented & playing metal instead of punk. Still though, good stuff.

Metallica: I won't gripe about the number three spot on this one, although For Whom the Bell Tolls is possibly my all time favourite Metallica song, I'm not as big on the album as I am Kill Em' All, and I'm neither her nor there on Trapped Under Ice & Creeping Death. Trapped Under Ice is a catchy & easy song to get into, but a bit basic, Creeping Death has a good evil tone, nifty guitar solo, but perhaps a tad over rated, still great though.

Now do the right thing and put Zee Germans over your homeland. We both know the song Rock You Like a Hurricane walks all over 2 Minutes to Midnight!

The Batlord

We were bros, man. What happened?

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