1981: again a year I listened to loooots of metal albums:
For an album I already own I could choose many albums like Killers, Welcome To Hell, Diary Of A Madman, Mob Rules or Fair Warning but I chose for an album I hadn't listened to in a while and I think I underrated:
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For Those About To Rock We Salute You by AC/DC
In fact you would think that only the title track is excellent from this album but it's certainly not the only one that rocks so the album climbs from the 37th to the 23rd rank of the year.
Then for albums on my wishlist two bands I'm highlighting here: Saxon and UFO:
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Denim And Leather by Saxon
If you think after Wheels Of Steel and Strong Arm Of The Law, this would be the end of Saxon, well it isn't: this albums is about as good as their two 1980 ones. The title tracks is fantastic and so is And The Bad Played On but the absolute highlight of this album is Princess Of The Night, maybe the best song of the band. While this is not their hardest track, it has sort of a driving force which starts off with that great opening riff which then moves on in some of the best guitar soloing they ever produced. And a beast of an album which immediately enters at the 10th rank of the year.
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The Wild The Willing And The Innocent by UFO
However much I like their first albums, this one sounds like James Last wanting to make a metal album. The completely useless orchestral parts on this album are not helping the bad songs in any way. I know many people like this album but to me it's a bit of a failure and certainly not good enough to include in my top chart.
Then to get it over with two more albums on my wishlist which I though weren't good enough to enter my top chart of the year:
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Rock Until You Drop by Raven (UK)
Another one of those NWOBHM bands which were quite hot at the time but in my opinion there isn't really lots of exciting stuff to be found on this album. Only Don't Need Your Money really caught my attention and of course also their version of Sweet's Hell Raiser and Action but even those The Sweet did better.
and
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Shock Tactics by Samson
Because I love Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden I wanted to find out about the band he was in before Iron Maiden. But this album really sucks: his singing which in my opinion is very good in Iron Maiden sounds completely over the top here especially because it is flanked by really bad songs. Some of the guitar work is not bad but never really special.
But there's so much more good German metal and NWOBH (was there something else that year):
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Breaker by Accept
Their most known track to me is Balls To Wall which I always found a bit cheesy and on the verge of what the hair metal bands would do later (but I'll listen to the full album later to see if my prejudice is proven). But this album sounds much rawer and I liked most of the tracks enough (although there were no real highlights) to take it to the 12th rank of the year.
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The Nightcomers by Holocaust
Also a real nice surprise with a really raw no-nonsense sound but the songs are exceptionally well played and I liked the album very much. and goes to the 13th rank of the year.
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Spellbound by Tygers Of Pan Tang
Another good NWOBHM band at least in the three first tracks (when you skip the short Minotaur) which are really good and especially show the great guitar craftmanship of John Sykes. After that the album deteriorates a bit but nevertheless a good one for my top chart at the 33th rank.
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Difficult To Cure by Rainbow
A bit like the Scorpions and some other bands that had great records in the seventies, also Rainbow entered their stadion rock period here which was not always a good thing. Is suppose the best examples of that are All Night Long and Surrender (which in fact was a cover from Russ Ballard) and Can't Happen Here on this album. But I have to say, I like both tracks very much. I have always liked their classical influences like also established in a great way on Spotlight Kid and the title track which more than hints to Beethoven's 9th but features some great guitar soloing. There's nothing interesting in tracks like No Release and Magic but in general this is a better album than what I thought it would be so it enters at the 34th rank.
The last metal album of 1981 I'm gonna listen to is Fire Down Under by Riot but that's for tomorrow.
Fantastic summation of the year! I agree with most of your takes. Great, great year for metal. Glad to see you dug Accept's Breaker and Holocaust's The Nightcomers!
Again a lot of metal albums for this year 1982 although the number should be 666.
First an album I already own and what an album:
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The Number Of The Beast by Iron Maiden
This is the best metal album but one in my opinion (the best remains Master Of Puppets) and all tracks are great with the first 666 in the title track, one of the best metal tracks ever written. I repeat that I really liked the Di'Anno period but on this first album with Bruce Dickinson all the dots were connected: a mighty rhythm section and bellowing singer who knew how to deliver the magnificent epics on this album an many albums to come later. And epics were already there as one of their other best tracks ever, Hallowed Be Thy Name. Add to this Run To The Hills, 22. Acacia Avenue and Prisoner and you have an album overflowing with the most excellent metal you can hear. And after listening to it again, it rises from the 3rd to the 2nd rank of the year.
Then a whole lotta albums on my wishlist:
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Metal On Metal by Anvil
This is one of the best Anvil album and to me they are the true front bearers of the speedmetal scene that would soon rule the metal world. And the album even features a track with the title 666 and deserves the 16th rank of the year.
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Black Metal by Venom
I fairly liked their first album maybe a bit also because they sounded like a lo-fi version of Motörhead. Here they find their own sound with still a very basic sound which I only began to like on the last part of the album with tracks like Countess Bathory and Don't Burn The Witch. And again a track with 666 in the lyrics (in the first line in Leave Me In Hell) and both the name of the title track are supposed to be the first reference to the genre black metal. Not the best metal album in the world but still deserves the 666th, no sorry the 41st rank in my 1982 top chart.
And to prove that this was the year of 666, this year was the first year of a Norwegian band called 666 considered to be the real first black metal band ever. It's difficult something on them but here is a Youtube excerpt from 1983:
Restless And Wild by Accept
I already said discussing their first album that this is not my most favorite band but also this album is really not the worst of course most proven by the first track Fast As A Shark which is indeed a groundbreaking speed metal track. But I can't help thinking this is more a comic book version of metal than real metal especially since many tracks are not much more than shouting the title over and over again. But still the 38th rank of the year.
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Battle Hymns by Manowar
Again one of these bands that maybe had a lot of following in the eighties but after all will disappear in the shadows of the metal canon. This is their best and fairly decent but not at all a top album and lands on the 42nd rank of the year.
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Assault Attack by Michael Schenker Group
Michael Schenker is a top guitar player but he needs a good band around him and good songs (like UFO). Here everything sounds fairly decent but never reaches the top which is already clear in the fact that the best track is an instrumental (Ulcer). Nevertheless the 29th rank of 1982.
And finally:
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Death Penalty by Witchfinder General
An album I took from repo's recs and indeed there are a bit of similarities with Black Sabbath but there the buck stops. The shrill voice of the singer and the many references to witchcraft are a bit too much over the top in my opinion and above all it's missing good songs. This album is the only one in the list here that I really didn't like at all.
Also for 1983 I listened to a lot of metal albums (and I'll discuss them in groups of 2):
An album I already own:
Kill 'Em All by Metallica
And finally they were there: the band that was going to set a new standard for (speed) metal. And set a standard they did already with this first album which already featured a few epics: Four Horseman but especially Seek and Destroy which contains more twists and turns than you can count. And they churned out some of these really faster than fast speed metal tracks of which I think Whiplash is the best example. Maybe except for Pulling Teeth there is no bad song on this album and I must admit I had it underrated because it rises from the 22nd to the 7th rank of the year. And they would get better on their next albums...
And then the albums on my wishlist and the poor man's version of speed metal (I don't really mean this):
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Forged In Fire by Anvil
This third album of theirs was topping the second and also a real fine speedmetal album going to the 20th rank in my year chart.
Here's another round of two:
Satanic Rites by Hellhammer
This is even a step further than Venom in the brute and unpolished character of the album. While I could appreciate the two first Venom albums, this goes a bit too far for me. In this respect I don't really understand the link with Motörhead. Also this band is very unpolished but at least they knew how to write a good album (I still have to hear their first bad one). Satanic Rites was not really my thing.
And this brings me to:
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Another Perfect Day by Motörhead
Somehow I hadn't listened to this album yet and maybe it doesn't really contain one of their 'hits' but it's still a very good album in which they play the same damn songs all over again but they never get boring or less energetic. 15th rank of my year chart.
And another round of two:
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Balls To The Wall by Accept
I liked Breaker and also Restless & Wild was OK but on this album they take the stadion rock screaming a bit too far. And the best example of that is the title track which was in fact the only track of them I knew well and which I had always considered as the typical type of metal I didn't really like. While this track still has some good parts (a good guitar solo and some rhythm changes) the rest of the album is even worse: a lot of screaming and a lot of bad songs.
Then I like the band with that other screamer and comic book type of songs more: Brian Johnson and AC/DC with one of their least critically acclaimed albums:
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Flick Of The Switch by AC/DC
But still an enjoyable album with fine tracks like Landslide and Guns For Hire and the hilarious Bedlam In Belgium which is about a concert of theirs in a small Belgian town which completely got out of hand. Good enough for the 21st rank of 1983 albums.
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Power & The Glory by Saxon
Maybe not as good as their two previous albums but still one that has to belong to their top canon. On some tracks they turn the power down considerably but that doesn't hurt a very good track like The Eagle Has Landed or Midas touch. And of course they still knew how to rock like on the title track. It goes to the 16th rank of my chart of 1983.
So going from a band still in full force to a band completely on their way out:
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Bent Out Of Shape by Rainbow
What can I say: this is AOR in the style of Foreigner but while Foreigner knew how to create a good song or two, not even shadows of a good song are to be found on this absolute low in the career of Rainbow and not even the guitar of Ritchie Blackmore was able to shine here.
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Crystal Logic by Manilla Road
I can't say I disliked this album and it features some good guitar parts and songs (especially The Ram) and I even listened to it twice because I wanted to appreciate it more but somehow it didn't connect to me as an album. So for now no part of my top chart although it was a near miss.
Last edited by dihansse on 07/23/2020 04:38; edited 2 times in total
FischmanRockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMasterProfile Land of Enchantment
Another Perfect Day by Motörhead
Somehow I hadn't listened to this album yet and maybe it doesn't really contain one of their 'hits' but it's still a very good album in which they play the same damn songs all over again but they never get boring or less energetic. 15th rank of my year chart.
Again a lot of metal albums I listened to from the year 1984:
First one album I already owned but that I had scored much to low:
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Perfect Strangers by Deep Purple
Their comeback album and what a comeback this is featuring the great Ritchie Blackmore who lets its guitar scream like in the old times, featuring the awesome Ian Gillan who screams as in his old yesteryears, featuring the magnificent Jon Lord who is one of the only keyboard players who is able to let its organ be the contender of a guitar solo, and featuring the thunderous Iain Paice. For me all these features come together the best in the best track of the album: Gypsy's Kiss. The album climbs from the 33rd to the 15th rank of the year.
Then albums on my wishlist I included in my year chart:
Metal Church by Metal Church
A very good mix between classic NOWBHM style hardrock and trashmetal with gripping tracks like My Favorite Nightmare and an in my opinion great cover of Highway Star. Goes to rank 9 of the year.
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Saint Vitus by Saint Vitus
Riffs like Black Sabbath (with in my opinion also some references to stoner rock) but with their own take on the genre. The album only has 5 fairly long tracks but they never bore. Immediately good for the 14th rank of the year.
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Fistful Of Metal by Anthrax
The first album of this trash metal band with very good speed metal here. The production value of the album is not really top quality but that doesn't really kill the impact of this album with breakneck speedy riffs and just good tracks (most of the time). And it lands at the 21st rank of the year.
And then a number of albums which didn't make it to my year chart and this one to start with:
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Crusader by Saxon
The title track is just as good as any of their other better tracks but then the misery starts with one stadion rock screamer after the other. After all these fantastic albums a real letdown.
and then also other albums I couldn't really get into:
Here is 1985 and you know what: I had no metal album in my 1985 year chart until now and so only albums from my wishlist:
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Feel The Fire by Overkill
In fact I know this band mainly from their newer albums of which their 2019 album Wings Of War is really good and is even better than this also fine metal album with no bad song on it: 11th rank.
Relentless by Pentagram
They sure know how to make it sound like Black Sabbath and it never reaches their quality but a good doom album anyway. 16th rank.
Albums I listened to but weren't good enough to make it to my top chart:
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