Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier · 07-08-2013, 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

I remember when I first heard of Aerosmith, It was around the time they put out Permanent Vacation and to be honest that album did nothing for me.

Then a guy at school played me Rocks during a lunch hour and from then on I think I had the first 5 Aerosmith albums on permanent rotation for the next decade.

Ironically I bought the Run DMC version of Walk This Way as a single when that came out & don't recall Aerosmith being mentioned on it at all and had no idea it was the same band until I bought Toys In The Attic a few years later.

Permanent Vacation strangely enough was the first Aerosmith album I'd ever heard and wasn't overly impressed with it, not long after Pump came out and I liked this a lot more BUT it was when I heard early Aerosmith I knew that they were something special.

Unknown Soldier · 07-09-2013, 04:36 PM

Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.

The Babys The Babys 1976 (Chrysalis)
Hard Rock

If the Angel debut showed just how thin the line was around this time between heavy metal/hard rock and AOR, then The Baby’s debut would show it at its thinnest. The Babys were a British band that consisted of John Waite-Bass/Vocals, Wally Stocker-Guitar, Michael Corby-Rhythm/Keyboards and Tony Brock-drums. From the word go the band were seemingly being groomed for stardom and were on the Chrysalis label and had Bob Ezrin on production (even though there is little of his production on show here) and the band looked the part as well. Their debut album would be the best album that the band put out and despite being their best, it’s still an album with a number of flaws. Quite quickly the quality of their work dried up and the band would soon garner the label of being a band of potential and nothing more and in 1981 they would eventually fold. In hindsight the band were nothing more than vehicles for some of its members most notably frontman John Waite, who of course would go onto find success as a solo artist and future member Jonathan Cain-Keyboards would of course find stardom with Journey. The debut album is a combination of melodic rock, with a heavy backdrop and an emphasis on commercialism, even though there is no obvious single here. Standout tracks are “If You’ve Got the Time” “Over and Over” and the epic “Dying Man” a song I can listen to anytime, in fact it’s one of my favourite video montages on You Tube. *Also the album cover above is actually from their second album and not their debut, as I had a problem of getting the correct size of the debut*

Unknown Soldier · 07-10-2013, 03:32 PM

Albums that missed the cut.........
Other good albums worth checking out that were also released in 1976, but weren't quite good enough to make the top 10 and are listed below in no set order, so the best of the rest:

Scorpions
Virgin Killer 1976
Moderator cut: image removed
Not as diverse as the previous In Trance album, but the band still produce one or two future concert favourites here and it’s obvious success is just around the bend for Klaus Meine & co, and one of the band's most risqué album covers.

Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell 1976
Moderator cut: image removedAnother concept album that was even more ambitious than Welcome to My Nightmare, but overall it lacks the focus of that album and showed far too much self indulgence by both Alice Cooper and Bob Ezrin, but it was still the last decent Alice Cooper release for a while.

Trapeze
Trapeze 1976
Moderator cut: image removedOne of the band’s heaviest efforts full of driving hard middle of the road songs and Glenn Hughes returned here for a couple of tracks as well. The album shows just how well Mel Galley was able to lead the band and is a must for Trapeze fans.

Montrose
Jump On It 1976
Moderator cut: image removedWith Jack Douglas producing this should have been a great album to match that album cover, but the album never really ignited where it mattered. The band soldiered on but dissolved soon after, only then to be namechecked by Van Halen.

Stray
Houdini 1976

After delving into musical styles they should’ve steered well clear of, Stray put out their best and most cohesive set for a many a year on this album, sadly though nobody really noticed.

Lucifer’s Friend
Mind Exploring 1976

After spending several albums doing a proggy thing with very mixed results, Lucifer’s Friend moved back into a more centric sound on this release. This would also be their last album with John Lawton before he jumped over to Uriah Heep.

Screen13 · 07-15-2013, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.

The Babys The Babys 1976 (Chrysalis)
Hard Rock

If the Angel debut showed just how thin the line was around this time between heavy metal/hard rock and AOR, then The Baby’s debut would show it at its thinnest. The Babys were a British band that consisted of John Waite-Bass/Vocals, Wally Stocker-Guitar, Michael Corby-Rhythm/Keyboards and Tony Brock-drums. From the word go the band were seemingly being groomed for stardom and were on the Chrysalis label and had Bob Ezrin on production (even though there is little of his production on show here) and the band looked the part as well. Their debut album would be the best album that the band put out and despite being their best, it’s still an album with a number of flaws. Quite quickly the quality of their work dried up and the band would soon garner the label of being a band of potential and nothing more and in 1981 they would eventually fold. In hindsight the band were nothing more than vehicles for some of its members most notably frontman John Waite, who of course would go onto find success as a solo artist and future member Jonathan Cain-Keyboards would of course find stardom with Journey. The debut album is a combination of melodic rock, with a heavy backdrop and an emphasis on commercialism, even though there is no obvious single here. Standout tracks are “If You’ve Got the Time” “Over and Over” and the epic “Dying Man” a song I can listen to anytime, in fact it’s one of my favourite video montages on You Tube. *Also the album cover above is actually from their second album and not their debut, as I had a problem of getting the correct size of the debut*

I remember this one, as well as a few of the band's US hits. They were pretty popular with the Head First album on my side of the pond, but when 1980 rolled around, they were starting the slide down with the Union Jacks album which at least included the Detroit FM Radio hit "Midnight Rendezvous".

Doing some Detroit Drive In research recently, I came across an article in The Detroit News on their first Detroit gig that was not well reviewed. The writer said that the talent was there, especially sighting Waite's singing, but it sounded generic.

I came across their final album, On the Edge, mainly for it being from 1980 and Produced by Keith Olsen (Ex-Music Machine turned super producer). It was more on the energetic Pop side of things with a couple of nice tracks although you could hear the band about to go by that time. I also got (for 25 cents) Waite's Ignition album just to hear what it sounded like while the original image aimed for some kind of MTV-centric Pop stardom that happened with the next album.

Unknown Soldier · 07-16-2013, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Ears

Heart had two excellent musicians in Roger Fisher and Howard Leese. They made three more good albums until Fisher fell out with Nancy Wilson. He departed for Alias and they were never the same again, despite Leese being a talented multi-instrumentalist. Leese worked with Paul Rodgers and was really great with Mick Ralphs in the reformed Bad Co. Dreamboat Annie is my favourite Heart album.

To be fair I never liked the rest of the early Heart albums as much as the debut, despite the fact that they had some very good songs. If truth be told I liked their 80s stuff even more, such as the very commercial Bad Animals album.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Screen13

I remember this one, as well as a few of the band's US hits. They were pretty popular with the Head First album on my side of the pond, but when 1980 rolled around, they were starting the slide down with the Union Jacks album which at least included the Detroit FM Radio hit "Midnight Rendezvous".

Doing some Detroit Drive In research recently, I came across an article in The Detroit News on their first Detroit gig that was not well reviewed. The writer said that the talent was there, especially sighting Waite's singing, but it sounded generic.

I came across their final album, On the Edge, mainly for it being from 1980 and Produced by Keith Olsen (Ex-Music Machine turned super producer). It was more on the energetic Pop side of things with a couple of nice tracks although you could hear the band about to go by that time. I also got (for 25 cents) Waite's Ignition album just to hear what it sounded like while the original image aimed for some kind of MTV-centric Pop stardom that happened with the next album.

The band changed their sound after Mike Corby went and when Jonathan Cain arrived the band was even more geared up for the US market. They kind of went from a 1970s melodic hard rock band to a slicker radio friendly sound. As I mentioned earlier both John Waite and Jonathan Cain were homing their skills for their future projects.

Unknown Soldier · 07-17-2013, 03:47 PM

Hard Heavy and a Tad Aggressive 1976

With the arrival of punk in 1976 music not only got more straightforward after the excesses of the progressive rock era, but it also introduced us to a time that gave out a more aggressive sound, with a somewhat home-made feel to it! In many ways future hard rock and heavy metal acts of this generation, certainly owed a debt to the punk movement and the summer of 1976, as both its home-made approach and its aggression gave the ‘heavy genre’ a much needed boost. It wasn’t an easy start for some of these bands, but after a few years the groundwork laid here would shape the future of the genre. Two great early examples of this were the all-female Runaways and of course Motorhead.

The Runaways consisted of Cherie Currie-Vocals, Joan Jett-Rhythm/Vocals, Lita Ford-Guitar, Jackie Fox-Bass and Sandy West-Drums/Vocals and they used a number of well-known artists as focal points, but a certain Suzi Quatro may have been the most influential on them! From the word go, the band’s ‘in yer face’ hard rock approach put them in the punk borderline camp but unsurprisingly their approach bought them little success in their native USA, but luckily the Japanese market took to them at once, certainly proving as I’ve always believed just how receptive Japanese rock fans were to new and fresh rock outfits around this time. The band put out a number of albums over the next couple of years of which their debut and Queens of Noise are their best regarded. After the band folded most of the members went onto solo careers of which Joan Jett would be the most successful. The Runaways also just predated the NWOBHM chicks Girlschool on the scene as well.

Motorhead on the other hand, would gradually ease their way into things after a number of early setbacks with their record label (as yet again another record label didn’t know how to promote them) The band members though were hardly newbies to the music business, especially frontman ‘Lemmy’ Ian Kilmister who had already been in a number of bands most notably Hawkwind. He was then joined by Larry Wallis ex-Pink Fairies and Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor already the replacement drummer, and the band issued their debut album On Parole in 1976. But due to record labels lack of interest, the album didn’t get a release and most of the material soon ended up on the following year’s official debut Motorhead. On Parole in its complete form would have to wait until 1979 to get an official release, but of course by then the band had made their breakthrough on Overkill and Bomber, and that is where I will properly review the Motorhead albums!