Unknown Soldier

You're probably the only person on this forum, that I can imagine doing a Europe discography review.

As said dad jokes are not really your thing, you're normally too original for those type of jokes.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Another album that got left off my 1983 list and it has kind of been lingering in my mind ever since (I strongly regret leaving it off the list now) and this is an accomplished and lively effort from veteran Canadian band Helix and their No Rest for the Wicked album. Throughout the 1970s in this journal, I’ve featured some pretty impressive Canadian artists, whose fame of course with the exception of Rush, was largely limited to their own country and Helix formed way back in 1974 were one such band. Their third album No Rest for the Wicked was their most impressive to date and it also happened to be their first on a major label in Capitol. The album starts off with the somewhat generic sounding “Does a Fool Ever Learn” before embarking on a solid display of feel good metal which typifies the rest of the album, where they cover similar ground to that of Quiet Riot with their Metal Health album, which of course was one of the biggest selling albums of that year. The impressive album run though really starts with second track “Let’s All Do It Tonight” and its feel good factor easily could’ve found it on Metal Health, where it would’ve been one of that album’s stronger tracks. Third track here is the album’s main single in “Heavy Metal Love” and this is followed by the catchy “Check Out the Love” before the first side of the album closes with the super fast title track “No Rest for the Wicked” whose chorus sounds like it could’ve featured on a Rocky Horror soundtrack. The weakest track on this album is “Don’t Get Mad Get Even” which happened to be the album’s second single, but then come a couple of great tracks and the reason why this album has been remembered by me. These start with “Ain’t No High like Rock ‘n’ Roll” one of the catchiest metal songs of the year and this is followed by what is surely the band’s homage to Led Zeppelin with “Dirty Dog” and comes with a video that would’ve done ZZ Top proud. “Never Want to Lose You” is the nearest we get to a power ballad here (with its Scorpions type intro) and if Heart had written this, it would’ve probably been a monster hit but it’s surely one of the long lost great tracks from this era. Album closer with its Alice Cooper title “White Lace and Black Leather” turns out to be one of the strongest on the album and reminds me of a Gene Simmons Kiss track. What’s really impressive about all the songs on this album, is that nearly all it’s cuts run between 2.50-3.50 mins and the band really knew how to fill out nearly every second here with quality. Despite treading similar ground to Quiet Riot, No Rest for the Wicked reached a highly unimpressive 186th position on the US album chart, which was kind of unfair as the band were writing originals here instead of regurgitating already well known 1970s covers and on top of that they were capable of writing material that far better known bands like Quiet Riot and Ratt could only dream of. This alll resulted in a missed opportunity by Capitol, to market a product that was superior to that of many of its rivals. The album cover also denotes the somewhat playful nature of the band, but despite their lighthearted approach to the genre, the band certainly underpinned their sound with a forceful approach.



The band’s fourth album which despite not being as strong Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge, would do a lot better commercially and crack the US 100 album chart and also contained the band’s best known single “Rock On” penned by Bob Halligan, Jr who of course had written for Judas Priest. Originals like “Young & Wreckless” “Feel the Fire” “My Kind of Rock” and "When the Hammer Falls" despite having a solid and heavy approach to them, do feel a bit by the numbers. The band though unfortunately fall into the ‘lets-do-some-covers’ mentality here (probably suggested by the label) with covers of songs from Crazy Elephant and A Foot in Coldwater and both are nothing special, but the album does finish on a high with the urgent sounding “You Keep Me Rockin”.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

1985

1984 had been one of the great years in metal, a year that had been chocca with both classic and defining metal albums, but sadly though 1985 would pale in comparison. Since starting this journal most of the years have been consistently strong, but obviously one or two in the mid 1970s had seen the overall quality drop a notch or two despite having some quality albums. 1985 though probably ranks as the weakest so far for a number of reasons 1) None of the established ‘big’ bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, Van Halen and the Scorpions to name just a few released any studio albums. 2) All the other metal bands that released quality albums in 1983 and 1984 seemed to release inferior or watered down versions in 1985, step forward Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Dokken and Kiss who were all bands that fitted this description perfectly. Sadly though many of these bands would end up selling even more than they had done so before, showing how most of these bands were now pandering towards the masses in terms softer sound and slick videos. 3) One of metal’s most exciting and driving forces over the last few years had been glam metal, sadly most of these bands were now content to tow the commercial line with inferior releases as well. There are some bands of course that I’ve placed in points 2 and 3 that did put out some good albums and those have made the top 20. 1985 though as a year, was quite simply saved by the new ‘extreme metal’ genres of thrash, speed and death, all these bands didn’t give a **** about pandering to the masses and were still contented at this stage to continue putting out the type of metal that they believed in. In fact the only compromise that most of these bands would entertain over the coming years, would be improved production which for me was a big bonus anyway. Extreme metal bands (mostly thrash) were without doubt the saviours and flagbearers of what was still ‘new metal’ in 1985 and they achieved this without the genre’s biggest band Metallica even releasing a studio album in 1985. But the genre did welcome back the likes of Slayer and introduced us to classic debuts from both Megadeth and Exodus, and therefore it’s no surprise that at least 12 albums in this year’s top 20 have either a thrash, speed or death label attached to them. This is also the very first year where there was no obvious no.1 album either, because most years I always knew which two or three albums would be the ones fighting for top spot, but this year the best albums of which there were about six, all seemed to be about the same level which was top 10 standard rather than a top 3 level, but in the end these albums all kind of just fell into place anyway. Finally here’s a rundown of albums that didn’t make the top 20 and most of these were guilty of issuing out watered down versions of what they had released in 1983 and 1984: Kiss, Ratt, Yngwie Malmsteen, Venom, Armoured Saint, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Dokken, 220 Volt, Trance, Trouble, Gravestone, a number of NWOBHM acts here and Black ‘n’ Blue. Other bands though did put out something better than they had done over previous years like Saxon, AC/DC and a rekindled Aerosmith but still couldn’t make the cut this year.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody

Yes on Helix, I can't vouch for the whole album but Rock You was a huge song in Canada, I was only in Elementary school at the time, but much like Were not gonna take it ,you couldn't get away from it.

I agree with you on Motley Crue, a lackluster album and Home Sweet Home generally marks the turning point of glam metal from rock to pop.

Sad to see AC/DC left off the list though, one of the few worthwhile Brian Johnson releases, I suppose we will not see them until the Razor's Edge now.

Finally, I'm surprised (Somewhat pleasantly) that you left Mr. I can drive 55 of the list for 84, considering you have publicly endorsed the unspeakable! (Ou812)

Unknown Soldier

The album with "Rock You" is somewhat average, but it's the album before that No Rest for the Wicked that is their best imo.

I like Sammy Hagar a lot with both Montrose and Van Halen, but I'm very meh on most of his solo albums even though I've featured some in this journal. "I Can't Drive 55" is a fun song and largely relies on its video which of course was the sort of thing that MTV liked at the time.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Spreading the Disease is no better or worse than many of the albums that missed out on this year’s list, but as is often the case in these situations, the album gets the nod largely because of its historical importance. I’m not a huge fan of the album either despite the fact that Kerrang called it one of the best thrash albums of the year….. high praise indeed! The importance of this album is nothing defining, but is important in the forming of the commercial aspirations of the new and fledgling thrash sub-genre, as Anthrax would go onto to form the ‘big four’ of thrash metal throughout the rest of the decade and beyond. Their debut album the cliched sounding Fistful of Metal was a forgettable affair, but then a personnel change brought vocalist Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello on bass in and this altered the whole dynamic of the band for the better. These two joined band founder and leader guitarist Scott Ian, along with guitarist Dan Spitz and drummer Charlie Benante, and they would go onto become one of the most popular and most loved of all thrash metal bands (a very large and loyal fanbase here) Musically from the word go, Anthrax despite their potent metal sounding name which was named after a nasty disease, presented a much lighter and humourous form of the ‘brutal thrash metal’ sound than their counterparts and this approach was perfectly represented on the album cover. Also the band were east coast as opposed to the thrash heartland of the west coast and so were largely isolated in their development in that sense and their sound was certainly distinct to many of the other thrash bands out there. Vocally Joey Belladona was a very different animal than say James Hetfield- powerful bark, Tom Araya- satan spawn and Dave Mustaine- crazed maniac and these three had an expected style for thrash metal. Whereas Joey Belladonna on the other hand, was a more traditional vocalist that could’ve fitted in perfectly in any number of metal or rock bands from this period and in some ways kind of reminds me of a more playful Bruce Dickinson and he often reminds me of John Bush of Armoured Saint (both had ultra cool sounding delivery) and therefore it was no surprise that in the distant future that John Bush would replace Joey Belladonna in the band. Joey Belladonna was also the only vocalist here that was a full-time one, as the other three were either guitarists or a bass player first. The album starts with the downward spiralling sound of “A.I.R” which happens to be one of the most engaging tracks on the album as Joey sings ‘welcome to your nightmare’ third track “Madhouse” would be the single from the album, but it received little airplay as it’s video was banned, as it was said that it degraded the mentally insane (they were banning everything back then) later album tracks like "Armed and Dangerous" written when previous vocalist Neil Turbin was in the band is perfectly poised for a vocalist like Joey Belladonna and is musically is the most ambitious sounding on the album and this is followed by the equally impressive "Medusa" one of the best on the album. Spreading the Disease though is littered with a number of average, clichéd and dated sounding tracks even though they're fast like “Lone Justice” “S.S.C/Stand or Fall” “The Enemy” “Aftershock” and "Gung Ho". Overall the band dynamic produces a certain amount of originality with the Anthrax sound, which was characterized by pounding riffs, humorous touches and vocally the band went in for a mix between punk style shouting and the melodic rock delivery approach, something of course that would foreshadow metal over the coming decades. Straight after this album Scott Ian and Charlie Benante would form the spin-off Stormtroopers of Death, whose crossover thrash approach was far superior than what their main band Anthrax had issued out on Spreading the Disease (that album much further up this year’s list) in fact the only classic Anthrax release would be their biggest album the following Among the Living and I’m very much a big fan of that release.

Joey Belladonna- Vocals
Dan Spitz- Guitar
Scott Ian- Guitar
Frank Bello- Bass
Charlie Benante- Drums

Production- Carl Canedy

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

I'd agree that the songwriting wasn't totally consistent on Spreading the Disease, and that the sound was still coming together to an extent, but it's still my favorite Anthrax record. It's their most fun, and Joey's way of singing on, and only on that album unfortunately, is just so great to sing along to at the top of your lungs.

And "Armed and Dangerous" is totally underrated. If I could sing one song at a karaoke bar, it would be that one.

Interesting story about that. Back when Metallica came to New York to record Kill 'Em All in 1983, they stayed in Anthrax's rehearsal space, and from what I hear, they also played locally at L'Amour - where Anthrax were sort of like the house band. So I imagine that Metallica probably did have a big influence on Anthrax.

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Unknown Soldier

Not long after this the two bands toured together for a 'European Tour' 1985-1986 and if memory serves me right the tour ended when Cliff Burton died. From what I also read, there was a lot of contact between the two bands in 1984 and 1985, so yer you're probably right there would've been a big Metallica influence on Anthrax.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Savatage were one of those mid-1980s metal entities that felt comfortable churning out a sound that had roots in thrash, speed and death metal, rather than in the traditional metal of many of their counterparts. But overall the band were 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. The debut album Sirens had been a dark but unbalanced affair, largely in that most of its best tracks had been pushed to the front of that album, giving it that top-heavy feel. The band then issued out one of their best releases in the thrash based EP The Dungeons Are Calling (highly recommended) and both these two releases are covered in my 1983 listing. By the time of the band’s actual second album Power of the Night, which has an album cover that often reminds me of the Legs Diamond album cover A Diamond is a Hard Rock (see that 1977 review) The band then landed a big league contract with Atlantic and soon had hot producer Max Norman on board after already having made his name as Ozzy Osbourne’s almost in-house producer and he would later go on to produce Megadeth in their most commercial period of the early 1990s. The word ‘commercial’ though is certainly the key word for this album and is probably the main point of contention concerning the album. As they had been signed up to a big label, Savatage were certainly pushed to produce something palatable for the metal market, as this is what was selling circa 1983-1986. For this exact reason the album often gets accused of sounding somewhat lifeless, as in the band has had the lifeforce sucked out of them, a similar observation I remember was made against Mudhoney many years later in the grunge explosion. Personally though I think that Power of the Night as an album has quite a bit to offer which is the reason why it’s here. The first thing on listening to this album as expected, is the cleaner production feel on the opening song and title track “Power of the Night” but the song soon gets down to typical Savatage business of mean sounding vocals and cool-ass guitar licks by brothers Jon and Criss Oliva. Ambitious tracks like “Warriors” pretty much work as well, largely again thanks to the smouldering guitar of Criss Oliva who drags everything along nicely. Songs like “Hard for Love” and “Skull Session” were two tracks due to their so-called sexual metaphors, that saw the album have a ‘Parental Advisory’ sticker attached to it. Final track “In a Dream” kind of reminds me of one of Alice Cooper’s 1970s rock opera type efforts, something of course that the band themselves would soon move towards. Admittedly there are a number of throwaway tracks on the album and when the songs don’t work musically, the cheesy lyrics of Jon Oliva seem even more exposed than normal but despite the basic feel of a lot of the songs, there’s a Savatage vibe that’s surely underpinned by bassist Keith Collins. Keyboards are used over the album to strong effect and really enhance a track like “Unusual” and overall the feel of the album is Savatage at a slower pace than their first two efforts, something that often gives proceedings a harder edged feel. Overall if you like high-pitched/mean sounding vocals, Judas Priest style riffarama and fantasy lyrics, despite the fact that the band had toned down the latter here and had gone in for modern issues this time around, Savatage are usually a rewarding brand of metal to consistently listen to with their pumping sound. Sure the sound is pretty commercial here and the songs are only there some of the time, but imo they do a better job than some of the bigger sellers of the year.

Jon Oliva- Vocals/Keyboards
Criss Oliva– Guitar
Keith Collins– Bass
Steve “Doc” Wacholz – Drums

Production- Max Norman

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Dio’s third album Sacred Heart would be one of the best selling in the band’s whole discography but it would also be one of the most contentious as well. Critically Sacred Heart would prove to be a divisive affair amongst listeners, where many were now starting to dismiss Ronnie James’ work as sounding distinctly clichéd and trying to hold onto the formula of the previous two albums. Other claims that he was distinctly pushing more and more into a commercial direction at the expense of writing pure metal classics, is somewhat more dubious in my opinion as the so-called ‘pop hits’ are not as numerous as some people seem to think. In fact nearly every Dio release from now on, would receive more and more critical knocks each time an album was released, which was often based around an old rocker trying to hold onto former glories. Now one thing I will say though about this album in its defence and I imagine that fans of the album would say something similiar, is that this is genuinely a heavy effort from the band and in large that powerful Ronnie James vibe is present across most of the material. Sadly the compact line-up of the band would come to an end here, when guitarist Vivian Campbell was fired from the band towards the end of the album’s recording and for many Dio as a band have never been quite the same since. Dio were one of the biggest metal acts around at this time and in Keeping in line with the other big metal acts of the time, the album tour was distinctly over the top, with a dragon and laser show of epic proportions, as everything in metal at this time was usually big. Now the reason why the album is here is because of the quality of some of its tracks like the title track “Sacred Heart” which literally pumps with the salubrious and powerful vocals of Ronnie James and some of Vivian Campbell’s best guitar work on the album is done here as well. The album’s big hit “Rock ‘n’ Roll Children” is one of the best singles that Dio ever put out and is a great favourite of mine especially with its ringing chorus and the third great track the energetic “Just Another Day” is the type of track that Ronnie James always did well. On the downside there are a large number of clichéd tracks and these come in the form of album opener “The King of Rock and Roll” which seems to work in similar sounding vocals from previous material and comes with a dated in-concert opening intro which was created in the studio, but the song does rock hard. There are so so tracks like “Another Lie” which is a lower tempo rocker that sounds like it would be more at home on a Deep Purple or Rainbow album. The single “Hungry for Heaven” again reworks earlier ‘pop metal’ that the band had done before and most notably “Mystery” from the previous album is the obvious reference here. Songs such as “Like the Beat of a Heart” is similar to “Straight Through the Heart” from Holy Diver and I'm pretty meh over both "Fallen Angels" and the poppy sounding album closer "Shoot Shoot". Overall if you don’t mind clichéd metal and a truckload of fantasy lyrics and the album's pop metal leanings, then Dio’s Sacred Heart is a fairly rewarding album based on its stronger tracks, which admittedly are in the minority here.

Ronnie James Dio- Vocals
Vivian Campbell- Guitar
Jimmy Bain- Bass
Claude Schnell- Keyboards
Vinnie Appice- Drums

Production- Ronnie James Dio

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History