What would your representative NWOBHM album be if you had to choose just one to put in a time capsule - buried for milenia - to show the post-coronavirus zombie apocalypse what NWOBHM was all about?
The one and only final Scorpions album is the Live album Tokyo Tapes. In my opinion it contains the definitive version of nearly all my favorite Scorpions songs, in most cases completely different but much better than the versions on the original albums which is true for those four tracks on In Trance: Top Of The Bill, Dark Lady, Robot Man and the Title track: all personal favorites of mine.... on Tokyo Tapes.
The only weak point (apart from that one Japanese song they're playing) about Tokyo Tapes is the weak sound quality of the recording but if you play it sufficiently loud...
But To answer your question 😉
My favorite regular album by The Scorpions is
Taken By Force (3 tracks on Tokyo Tapes: Steamrock Fever, We'll Burn The Sky and He's A Woman, She's A Man)
then
Lonesome Crow just because it's so much different from their other albums at the start of their career (and nothing on Tokyo Tapes)
then
Fly To The Rainbow (again I love the title track and Speedy's Coming on ...)
and then In Trance.
Virgin Killer follows a bit after that with Pictured Life, Backstage Queen and Polar Nights.
I'm not a big fan of their work in the eighties but Blackout is good.
Easily one of the unsung guitar Gods of the 70s, The Scorpions were their mightiest during the Hendrix-worshiping The Uli Jon Roth years which strung from Fly To The Rainbow to the live Tokyo Tapes. During his time, they slowly pruned the competent, but ultimately generic & forgettable psychedelia and blues rock, of the nifty Lonesome Crow, to craft the lean & mean archetypal blueprint of the 70s Hard Rock sound on twin towers Virgin Killer and Taken By Force as well as the arresting (& at times stunning) but ultimately transitional albums Fly To The Rainbow(1974) & In Trance. These are EASILY the Scorpions at their best. Still fresh and not at all compromised by the commercial tendencies that sprung up starting on Lovedrive (just check out the Lynyrd Skynyrd inspired "Always Somewhere" or reggae-inflected "Is There Anybody There?") and then fully bloomed in their 80s recordings.
tldr: There are THREE albums by The Scorpions that I feel are ESSENTIAL for the metal canon. AND they all came during mid-70s when The Scorpions were easily one of the top and most influential hard rock/metal bands on the planet ...
THE THREE U NEED
1. Taken By Force (1977)
2. Virgin Killer (1976)
3. In Trance (1975)
After that, they released some really good but not really essential albums in Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, and Blackout. And after that.... not so much. 😁
And if you had to listen to just TWO tracks, check out...
I think I can agree. I prefer Saxon over Judas Priest.
Think I prefer Judas Priest, but that particular Saxon album was just the essence of 80s NWOBHM, there's no record that you should listen to before that one if you're unfamiliar with the genre. _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
I think I can agree. I prefer Saxon over Judas Priest.
Think I prefer Judas Priest, but that particular Saxon album was just the essence of 80s NWOBHM, there's no record that you should listen to before that one if you're unfamiliar with the genre.
... to be every bit as good if not better! And both were released in 1980! That's why I consider Saxon to be The definitive NWOBHM band which brings us to our second...
So. At this point you know the drill. Give us your thoughts on Saxon. What are their best albums. What are your rankings? Are they really even better than Judas Priest?!?! (Um. I got this one, fellas, "No!!!!")
What’s Saxon’s best album?
Are any of thier albums past Power & The Glory (1983) worth a spin?
Should their self-titled debut in 1979 be considered the album that kicked-off NWOBHM or does that honor fall to Mortorhead’s Overkill?
Anyways these ten songs zip by in a very playful, poppy and colorful way as you'd expect from Donovan, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to put a quick smile on their face.
A downright magical amalgamation of early Black Sabbath and NWOBHM. They not only stole the riffs (which let’s face it everyone was about to do) but the emotion & tone of both Iommi’s guitar and Ozzy’s vocals. People forget that Sabbath were not just blundering riff dinosaurs. They were emotive. Dynamic. Capable of surprising pacing and pulse quickening time signature changes. They often played with restraint, unleashing pastoral passages and emotive, gut wrenching wails from the heart by the Oz man. That's why people loved him so. That's why he was treated almost like a prophet years before the self parody and reality tv m(s)adness. Witchfinder General remembered. And were able to evoke the many sides of early Sabbath on Death Penalty and in turn crafted (in a tie!) the first bonafide Doom album. (Although if anyone gave Witchfynde's Give 'Em Hell that honor, I wouldn't bat an eye.)
I'm a big fan of NWOBHM. Some Artists just had one really good album including Cloven Hoof, Diamond Head, Witchfynde, Praying Mantis & Satan just to name some. Iron Maiden has always been my favorite. Some great albums mentioned on this forum. SCORPIONS however are German.
I'm a big fan of NWOBHM. Some Artists just had one really good album including Cloven Hoof, Diamond Head, Witchfynde, Praying Mantis & Satan just to name some. Iron Maiden has always been my favorite. Some great albums mentioned on this forum. SCORPIONS however are German.
Great picks! I LOVE Satan! Got to see them two years ago supporting their new album from 2018 ...
... which is totally vintage NWOBHM. The lead singer was hilarious and just seemed like the coolest guy ever. Cruel Magic ended up appearing on a lot of Best of 2018 metal lists.
re: The Scorpions. That was related to a different post. I don't think anyone was saying they were part of the NWOBHM although they were certainly a huge influence.
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