William_the_Bloody

That totally reminds me that I forgot to add Joan Jett & the Blackhearts to my punk countdown thing I did last year.

I take it Unknown Sold, that you think there more punk than metal....or could they pop up? 81 the iconic year of "I love rock n roll"

The Batlord

Now whenever US makes an entry that I disagree with I'm going to call him Unknown Sold Out.

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William_the_Bloody

Lol, well he does seem to be on the more commercial side of things. I'm still floored at how low Venom was rated...its all good though.

The Batlord

Pussy's gonna pussy.

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Unknown Soldier

I find this whole Venom thing, a kind of romantic metal notion of supposedly thinking something as grassroots sounding as Venom, should be seen as something almighty in the annals of metal.

Firstly if low fidelity recordings and black metal hadn't made the impact that it did, I doubt people would be going on about how great Venom were. Secondly most of the bands that were influenced by Venom in the thrash, death and black metal genres were superior anyway. Thirdly I'm not really into a band that sounds like it recorded their album in the back bedroom, at least Manilla Road sounded like theirs had been done in a basement.

Finally, unless you have the volume turned up high you ain't hearing **** when it comes to Venom as the production is that bad. I don't dislike the band my any means, I just think they're the perfect example of a band rising to an exalted status in retrospect, much like say the Velvet Underground did.

Saying this though, I always pretty much dig "Countess Bathory".

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
With no individual section for live albums now, they’ll now be entered into the main top 20 list and Motorhead’s first official live album No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith is usually regarded by aficionados as one of the best live albums of its type and a live album that fits into the classic era where live albums were at their most popular. The album material is garnered from the band’s 1981 tour which was entitled ‘The Short, Sharp Pain in the Neck Tour’ after drummer Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor had been dropped on his head, by the other members of the band after a show! The most startling aspect though regarding the album material, is that all of it is taken from the band’s live Leeds and Newcastle shows and with nothing from the Hammersmith Odeon, which is hardly surprising anyway as the band never played at Hammersmith on the whole tour! I’m guessing the reference to Hammersmith in the album title was just a good marketing ploy, as it has always been one of the prestigious live venues on the London circuit. Originally the band had planned the album to be a double, but when it came to cutting the album there was apparently only enough material for about three sides, hence the issuing of the album as a normal single album back in 1981. Needless to say since then and over the years, there have been various exapanded versions of the album available which greatly increase the album’s overall length. The album peaked at number one on the UK album chart (the band’s only ever number one album) and was supported by the live single “Motorhead” which besides appearing on the album, was actually an old song written by Lemmy from his Hawkwind days and it had appeared on the both the Motorhead and On Parole albums. No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith was a great marketing ploy in 1981 and was the perfect example of how to release a live album in order to maximise a band’s commercial exposure to the maximum. On the album’s release the band had on their backs acclaimed albums like Overkill and Bomber both 1979 and their biggest album the Ace of Spades 1980. Along with these albums, they also had the Vic Maille initiated project with the heavy metal in-chicks of Girlschool and this consisted of the three track St. Valentine’s Day Massacre EP which was released in 1981 and matched Motorhead up with their female counterparts. This EP in turn was preceeded by the Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers EP which was released in 1980, so Motorhead saw their first official live album released at the height of the band’s popularity in the UK. At this time in the UK just about everybody knew who Motorhead were whether they liked them or not, especially the badass figure of Lemmy. The album cover left no shadow of a doubt, that the album was a live recording and it’s a recording that needs to be in most CD/record collections.

Verdict
First up No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith must be one of the most frenzied live albums ever recorded as Lemmy and crew just seem to whizz through the eleven tracks in record time. This almighty rip-up starts with the perfect show opening of the “Ace of Spades” and basically from the word go the tempo of the album hardly changes. Songs like “The Hammer” are examples of tracks well placed to maintain this whirlwind approach throughout the album and they continually demonstrate the band’s relentless energy. The band’s rendition of previous album title tracks like “Overkill” and “Bomber” are speed monsters and they might be two of my favourites on the whole album, as is the the live single “Motorhead” which perfectly closes out this blistering 40 minute live album, which ultimately ends with an air-raid siren! The slowest track on the album is unsurprisingly “Capricorn” from the Overkill album, which despite not being a song I liked that much does work here though, largely because it’s the only relapse we get while the storm’s blowing a gale on the rest of the album. Studio album stalwarts such as “Stay Clean” “Metropolis” “No Class” and “(We Are) the Road Crew” sound better than ever and I have to say that there are no real weak choices in the material being used for the original album of 1981. Also despite nearly all the songs coming from the band’s previous three albums, there are some tracks that don’t like “Iron Horse/Born to Lose” which was the band’s tribute to the Hells Angels and this song appeared on the On Parole and Motorhead albums. The album smokes and bristles and is a perfect example of a live album that still sounds as good today as it did back then, something I usually think anyway when it comes to classic live albums, especially since the 1970s were without doubt the era of the ‘live album’. No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith might be a couple of years into the 1980s, but as far as I’m concerned it stll comes under that special live era just mentioned. On the flip side, most live albums back then tended to suffer from being cut from how the band wanted and this usually meant a shorter album as well. But No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith is one of the few albums though on its original release that probably never suffered from this trait. Overall No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith brings the curtain down on the band’s golden era and plays like a greatest hits album, by recapping in a live setting the band’s previous three killer albums Overkill, Bomber and the Ace of Spades (see reviews) These three albums had permanently cemented the the hard rocking trio in the annals of hard rock glory and No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith belongs with that triumviate. The album has also managed to get itself into the list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Lemmy- Bass/Vocals
Fast ‘Eddie’ Clarke- Guitar
Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor- Drums

Production- Vic Maile

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

Overview
For many a year I knew just various songs from Motley Crue despite their superstar status (in fact I could say the same for a number of the other glam metal bands as well) as I was always one of those metal-listeners that shunned to a degree glam metal in favour of its more traditional heavy metal and extreme metal counterparts. But since starting this journal sometime ago, I’ve secretly been looking forward to re-evaluating this whole glam metal sub-genre, largely because my metal musical tastes have changed in recent years. This is largely because I now see the fun aspect of metal, to be just as important as its more serious side and the Motley Crue debut in 1981 is probably the best place for anybody wanting to jump onto what would become known as the ‘glam metal genre’ within a few years. Motley Crue were one of a number of bands that grew out of the booming LA metal scene that contained other scene leaders such as Kix (who moved there from Maryland) and the already veteran Quiet Riot, and it was a scene that was based around the colourful and hedonistic LA ‘Sunset Strip’. Most of the scene was heavily indebted to the likes of the New York Dolls, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith and the British glam rock bands of the 1970s stylistically and were now being fuelled along by the booming power of a band like Y&T and the glamorous commercialism of Van Halen, whose position as ‘The American Metal Band’ made them an obvious focal point for these bands to follow. Motley Crue were like a lot of the LA scene bands and came together from various feeder outfits, of which one called London was probably the best known and would supply bassist and band founder Nikki Sixx. The band was therefore formed by Nikki Sixx who had teamed up with drummer Tommy Lee and they would soon hire guitarist Mick Mars. After going through various vocalists, they decided to settle on vocalist Vince Neil who amongst other things had been in a Cheap Trick tribute band and they dug his frontman attitude and wanted him from the word go! The band then released their debut album Too Fast for Love on their own Leathur Records label (which has quite a different song order than the Elektra version) and they went down a storm with the quality of their shows and one of their many fans had been a certain Ian Gillan amongst others. Soon various labels were looking at them before they were hitched up to Elektra, who made them have the album remixed and produced to a higher standard (the album everybody knows and loves) This was done by acclaimed producer Roy Thomas Baker and since the time of its release the album makes most ‘best ever metal albums’ lists and and is usually regarded as probably the greatest ever ‘glam metal’ release as well. Its pronounced album cover is based on the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers era style crotch-shot, which of course has the Rolling Stones version of a man wearing simple denims and in a normal pose. Motley Crue go in for a much more unisex image with a swagger pose along with all the trimmings that go with it, adjectives which would perfectly sum up what Motley Crue were all about. It wouldn’t be long though, before the band became known as the ‘Tinsel Town Terrors’ and the ‘Horrors of Hollywood’ and the band would be an arrival that were here to stay!

Verdict
Motley Crue simply arrived like a sleazy tornado and this torrent of glamorous sleaze arrived in superb fashion with the album opener “Live Wire” where its pounding speed and glammy blitzkrieg assault announced the band’s arrival on the scene and with Vince Neil chanting ‘I’m alive’ it was quickly apparent that few bands were alive as Motley Crue were. The second track “Come on and Dance” slows things down a bit but the heaviness gets even heavier here and the song has some pretty slick percussion thanks to Tommy Lee’s trash-can drumming. A track like “Merry-Go-Round” might be one of my favourites, because quite simply the song sounds like a homage to classic-era Cheap Trick, despite the fact I don’t dig the chessy bubblegum intro to the song that much, but the rest of the song is Motley Crue at their best, as Vince Neil delivers this type of song almost as well as Robin Zander could. If you’re not already rocking out by now after the first barrage of tracks, the first side album closer “Take Me to the Top” should remedy this with its instant energy pill thrill and its driving guitar riff by Mark Mars who is right on the ball here. Just when you think things can’t get that much better the band dish out the title track “Too Fast for Love” and close up with “On with the Show”. Other tracks like “Public Enemy #1” have an almost addictive anthem style and would be the type of thing that the band would always excel at, also the song was co-written by Nikki Sixx with London guitarist Lizzie Grey. But it’s the sleazy feel of “Piece of Your Action” which is probably what Motley Crue were all about, as here was a band that made no qualms about cutting into the action of all the numerous bands that they had been influenced by and Motley Crue made it clear on songs like this that they would do it their own way! Constantly like any good glam metal band pop sensibilities were high on the agenda as well and an obvious album track like the excellent “Starry Eyes” shows this style to perfection. Also the production skills of Roy Thomas Baker are most evident across the album, where his deliberate style brings out the best of the band. As a band Motley Crue came across as a hybrid of Kiss meets the New York Dolls and probably boasted on Too Fast for Love, an even greater bunch of addictive tracks song for song than these two previous bands had ever put out over an album. As for the band members Vince Neil as a vocalist was never the most gifted out there but his vocal style and obvious nod to his influences across the album is impressive to say the least and he serves as the perfect outlet for the other members of the band to show off both their attitude and energy, and in my opinion there is some pretty impressive playing by the other three members of the band. Overall cheap gutter-style metal never sounded that much better than this and Motley Crue announced that sleazy low rent rock was here to stay and I’ve gotta say that this was the most addictive listen on this year's list without a shadow of a doubt.

Vince Neil- Vocals
Mark Mars- Guitar
Nikki Sixx- Bass
Tommy Lee- Drums

Production- Roy Thomas Baker

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History