Here we are with Udo making an interesting decision to re-visit the classic Accept album, but covering it front to back with guest appearances from a heavy metal Hall of Fame. The anthemic title track finds Sabaton vocalist Joakim Broden trading verses with him. Never really listened to Sabaton, so only weighing this against the original. Udo sounds like he can still pull off his Bon Scott-like squeal at 72. Taking some of the homo-eroticism out of "London Leather Boys" Biff Byford of Saxon fame joins to make it more about heavy metal fashion than leather culture. Byford's voice does not sound as good as it is on the last Saxon album perhaps it's just out of his range these days at 74. It's a sobering reminder that all the elder statesmen of metal are now elderly.
Mille Petrozza of Kreator is featured on "Fight it Back. He sounds like shit, and it's not Udo's best moment either which begins to make me wonder if he should not have just left well enough alone. Nils Molin of Amaranthe fares much better by bringing his Dio-like belting to "Head Over Heels". His voice does not have the grit of Udo's which makes the song feel darker when he utters the second verse. Michael Kiske of Helloween fame still sounds great at 56. as he helps tackle "Losing More Than You've Ever Had" this is one of the album's strong points, though Udo does not really contribute much. Swedish singer Ylva Eriksson lends her voice to "Love Child" This feels more like a duet wondering the contrast of their voices but works pretty well. Her voice does give things a more commercial Pat Benatar feel.
Danko Jones comes aboard for "Turn Me On". His voice has enough balls to keep things heavier. This was never the best song on the album even in its original form, so it works well enough here. Dee Snider's voice blends with Udo's well on "Losers and Winners" making it one of the album's strongest moments. Ripper Owens does not go as over the top as I expected from him on "Guardian of the Night". He can serve the song after all. The last song is a duet of " Winter Dreams' with Doro Pesch who worked well enough with the song, at 60 her voice is not belted with the same power as her early work, but I will have to check out her more recent work before making a final judgment on how her voice is holding up these days. I'll give this album an 8.5, rather hear him get back with Accept, so while this re-imagining is not something on my wish list, it's well done and there are strong moments, but prefer the original versions.
Forty years later, it's time to take a look and honestly assess what were the ten greatest metal albums from 1984. This is not being weighed on album sales, as some of these did not fare that well upon their release but gained ground over time. All of these have stood the test of time, but some are better than others, which is why the number one album is where it sits, and number ten is where it is. The ranking is based on two main factors I was listening to them back when they were released, the impact they had when I heard them, and how well they have stood the test of time for the past forty years. Unlike lists I make today where it;s based more on how much I listened to them over the year, the results here are more cumulative, though the album I listened to the most in 1984 is on here.
10-Judas Priest - "Defenders of the Faith"
When this came out it benefited from the momentum of "Screaming for Vengence" which achieved the perfect balance of great songwriting but being accessible enough to pack stadiums. Songs like "Rock Hard Ride Free" just did not age as well as "You've Got Another Thing Comin". When I was a kid and id not know any better I enjoyed it as this was the era that found Priest still on top of the world, but when I want to dig back and listen to a Priest album this is not the first one I reach for. However, it's good enough to belong here and beat out both Scorpion's "Love at First Sting' and Ratt's "Out of the Cellar' for its place here.
9-W.A.S.P- "S/T"
This band found the sweet that was missing in music at the time to fall between what Motley Crue was doing on "Shout at the Devil" and what heavier bands like Priest and Saxon were cranking while adding a darker more theatrical element Kiss traded into blend-in with the hair metal scene. Sleazy anthem with the bite of Lawless' saw blade codpiece. It rocks with more earnestness than Priest had on the more contrived number ten ranking album.
8-Slayer - "Haunting the Chapel"
There was a college radio station I listened to as Kid that has a metal night on the weekends, that played "Aggressive Perfector' which was the first Slayer song I ever hear, It sounded like Venom to me at the time, and it was not until I heard the song "Die By The Sword" on the "Live Undead' album that Slayer really clicked for me, though I was aware Kerry King played on the "Liscenced to Ill " album. These songs aged well.
7-Dio - "The Last in Line"
As a kid when this came out, I was reluctant to give this album a shot, as I only knew Dio from the two Sabbath albums he sang on, which I was surprisingly ok with given that I was such an Ozzy fan at the time. So "Holy Diver" was the first solo Dio album I bought, and then I went back to check this one out. The title track which he had a video for, I liked, but the album as a whole had to grow on me, and once I discovered Rainbow, then the more it all clicked into place for me.
6-Queensryche - 'The Warning"
If this album came out today it would be called power metal. I like "Rage For Order' so much that I forget how great this album is. They brought all the elements of what we now think of as traditional metal into play in a manner that had both grace and balls to the songwriting, and Tate established himself as one of the best vocalists in metal at the time.
5-Twisted Sister- "Stay Hungry"
The anthemic classics that everyone knows are not why this album ranks so high, but songs like "Burn in Hell" and "Captain Howdy" that are darker and carry more grit to separate them from the rest of the rising hair metal bands at the time,as they have more in common with Accept and Judas Priest. Great songwriting wins the day, they were not shredders but entertainers.
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4-Kiss- "Animalize"
This is the most underrated album on the list, the opening track alone rocks harder than most of their peers at the time. If this was a list of the albums I listened to the most in 1984 this would be at the top of the list. The guitar attack on most of these songs should silence questions regarding if this is in fact a metal album. I would say "Asylum" that came out after this would be the turning point from metal. This is the best of the post-make-up years, and their last great album, as none of the other releases after this would ever measure up. Paul Stanley sounds great here.
3-Metallica - "Rider the Lightning"
This might be the band's best album as it runs neck and neck against "Master of Puppets". I think the effects of touring and substance abuse were beginning to weigh on them when they made "Master of Puppets" and I might prefer this one as it's a darker album, and more refined than "Kill'em All" there is the perfect middle ground of thrashing and melody here. This album grew on me over the years as when this came out, I was not as into Metallica, as when I became more willing to give this one a more solid listen after getting hooked in by Puppets.
2-Iron Maiden- "Powerslave"
I am not saying this is Maiden's best album, it's not. I am saying this album is better than the eight previous albums mentioned here they are all great in their own right. Any arguments against this fact can simply refer to "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which is better than mosts band's entire careers .
1-Mercyful Fate- "Don't Break the Oath''
As a child, I did not have the musical vocabulary to explain what I wanted when I went into music stores, so when a tall skinny adult with long hair and a chain wallet started working at the record store my grandparents took me to, I did not know what I wanted to ask was 'What's the darkest metal album you have?" so instead I asked "What's the scariest metal album you have ?". The answers in 1984 would have likely been the same as he handed me this cassette. It blew me away, and scared me a bit, while I was more into Kiss and Ozzy IN 1984, I grew into this album, and it might be not only the best album of 1984 but the best metal album of all time.
This is the debut album by a band who would go onto bring this early metal to the mainstream, but on their own terms. This album opener with a song that is darker and more tension that the band you might only think of as not going to take it. I am listening to the Rhino remaster of the album, but this is really well produced. They have Pete Way of the band UFO to thank for this as he produced the album. "Bad Boys of Rock N Roll" is more of a party anthem that owes equal portions to 1950s rock and Alice Cooper. By the time they got to their big hit "Stay Hungry" they had perfected this sort of thing. They get back to a darker more dynamic sound on "Run for Life". It goes from a slower brooding to an almost Judas Priest like riff.
The Priest comparisons do not end there as they also have a song called "Sin After Sin". There is a more AC/DC feel to "Shoot Em Down". When it comes to these kinds of rock anthems, this works better than most. Even when they are in a more mainstream rock mode, they are more aggressive than the bulk of the bands in the hair/ glam scene they typically are lumped into. This shows they are more deserving to best filed alongside bands like the Scorpions and Judas Priest. They continue to cement themselves in metal history with "Destroyer" and the title track. "Destroyer" being the heavier of the two with a more deliberate grind. The drumming is perhaps more Iron Maiden like on "Tear it Loose" . Fast Eddie Clarke from Motorhead plays a solo on this song.
"I'll Never Grow Up Now" was not on the original pressing over the album but when Atlantic Records re-released it in 1985, after "Stay Hungry " broke big this was on it, and that is when I bought the album. It echoes more of the music at the time, like Quiet Riot. They return to a more AC/DC feel with "Day of the Rocker". If you ever wondered if Dee Snider can actually sing this answers that question. I will round this one up to a 10 it's pretty classic.
This might not be genre most of you associate with me. It is one t I grew up with.Many of these s I still hold dear today . When the 80s were ranging I was not listening to the Cure, I did not get my interest peaked in them til 1990. I listened to music heavier and darker than this in the 80s for sure, but this was the sound of chasing girls at the mall and smoking pot in my cousins car. I choose 40 since many of these acts represent a time when this kind of music cracked the top 40 . It was a time when MTV began to dominate so image became every thing. Many of these band would put out album that were not metal at all, nor would I consider them metal bands. Granted most are on the low end of the heavy scale, with a few evolvoing into something heavier. I will make a Top 40 Glam Rock albums of all time to clearly contrast the difference, glam rock being more in the vein of Bowie and T-REX. Yes, some of these artists also crossed over into glam , but hair metal has a more cock rocking flair to it and is less androgynous.
These albums are more about doing cocaine and getting pussy, devoid of any political correctness, none of this would fly in 2020. It would get a hastag for sure. Any this list should speak for itself, in some cases it might not be the most popular album or the album that broke the band through , but the album I feel has the best songs when it comes to hair metal. Remember that as some of these bands have better heavy metal albums, but we are talking about the best to tease your hair up and get a blow job to. So here are the top 40 hair metal albums of all time.
20-Dokken- "Under Lock and Key" 1985
This album crossed the band over into hair metal. Before this they had a harder edge. This one was more polished thanks to the slick production. They are sadly under rated band. Top notch songwriting is their strength along with George Lynch's guitar.
19-Buckcherry- "15" 2005
This one might not love the cocaine as much , but overall the songwriting is better.
18-Dangerous Toys- "s/t" 1989
Marketed like a poor man's Guns n Roses, these guys were harder than most with an AC/DC like energy and more snarl to the vocals.
17- Spinal Tap- "This is Spinal Tap"
How much black can it get? the answer is none. When other bands are stuck at 10 with no where else to go these guys went to 11.
16-Twisted Sister- "Love is For Suckers"1987
Generally this band is glam metal, but not hair metal as they owe more to Alice Cooper. This album still had an edge but swinging for the hair sprayed arenas. Even then Dee Snider has a great deal of balls to his voice always giving them more of an edge.
15-Faster Pussycat-"Whipped" 1992
I know this as none of their "Hits" , but it's a better album than their first two. They had more solid songs that allowed them to transition from just being hair sprayed whores of the sun set strip.
14-Def Leppard -- "Pyromania" 1983
It was a tough call between this album and "Hysteria" I think this album is more defining of haire metal, where there is less metal to "Hysteria" and more pop.
13-AFI - "Black Sails in the Sunset"
Plenty of punk bands crossed over into hair metal, Discharge and TSOL among them. This album just feels more like something LA Guns might have done and while it retains a great deal of the punk in it's dna, there are plenty of 8os moments.
12 Alice In Chains "Facelift" 1990
If you can not admit this album is hair metal you have never really listend past "Man in the Box".
11- Lita Ford- " Lita" 1988
The songwriting on this album gives her this spot. It is almost to slickly produced and would sound better without some of these cheese ball keyboards, but they can't hold these songs back.
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Ok we are two weeks in a row now, with this feature that has proven to be more popular than I would have imagined. I just press shuffle on my iPod and review the first ten songs that pop up. So here we go, hope this inspires masturbation and multiple eargasms.
AFI- "Feed From the Floor"
Danny Havok's vocals sound great hear and the bass line certainly invokes the Cure. This song stand more in the shadows of pop punk.I haven't give this album enough listens to that is one of the cool things about doing this feature is getting to dig back in an give things a second chance.
Halsey- "Now or Never"
The hook of this song reminds me of Ellie Goulding. I would say there is more of a hip-hop influence bubbling under the surface here than Goulding. The production certainly gives nods to hip-hop. For pop music this going to be one of the strongest albums of the year.
The Smiths -Sweet and Tender Hooligan"
One of the smiths more driving punk like moments. This shows how their influence touches both indie rock bands and post-bands. Moz sound great and the lyrics are as biting as anything else they have done. This is more straight forward playing than what you expect from Marr , but the bass line is killing it.
the Cure- "Blood Flowers"
This song is both sonically powerful and incredibly moving from an emotional perspective. I always forget how good this album was until I listen to it. It really does hold up against the rest of their work.
Cocteau Twins- "Treasure Hiding"
I normally dopn't think of these guys as shoe gaze , but I guess if this was the only song you heard from them it would be easy to slap that label on. Not my favorite song from this album as it lingers in the abstract for too long. Liz sounds great, but she could sing from the phone book and it would sound divine, the melody that comes in at 2:40 mark is awesome , but wish they got to the point.
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum- Helpless Corpses Enactment
Another bad that I am always glad to hear when they come up in shuffle as their are so chaotic that Sleepytime is not always my go to when cuing up something to listen to. This is one of their more metal moments, it's a damn shame these guys broke up, because I can't imagine what else they would have been capable of.
Life of Agony - "I Regret"
This band in their prime was criminally under rated. Too band when Keith's river started running red that he also forgot how he sang on this song and what about his delivery helped define this band and make them stand out from all the other bands in the 90s. This song is one of the few from the second album that sounded like it could have been on their first.
2Pac- "Only God Can Judge Me"
This is not one of the strongest songs from "All Eyez On Me". It suffers a little more than some of the other songs when it comes to how the 90s production holds up today. Lyrically its a bunch of whining about how hard it is living in his shoes. The guest rap by Rappin 4 Tay is pretty terrible.
Mastodon- "Clandestiny"
I don't remember really being overly wowed by this song when I first got the album. It had endured in the competitive landscape of my iPod so that says something. Metal should not feel so middle of the road and this song doesn't hit me as being heavy enough to be metal despite it's guitar tones and most of the metal trappings being close to center.
Cult of Youth - "Monsters"
When they are in the more rambling folk punk strum they tend to sound less like Death in June. The baritone vocal is more rowdy and carefree than Death IN June, in fact I can hear fans of punk liking this more than tragic goths. Their earlier work was more filled with this kind of punk energy.
Twisted Sister - "Burn in Hell"
For anyone who wants to lump these guys in with the rest of the 80s hair metal I think this song sets the record straight. Not as dynamic vocally I think Twisted Sister has more in common with old Iron Maiden or Priest than they do Motley Crue. Unless we are talking about the Crue's first two albums then it does have a similar drive to it.
The Cramps- "Bop Pills"
This song is pretty much straight up rock in the vein of early 50's rock more than it strikes me as being rock a billy unless we are saying Jerry Lee Lewis falls into that as well. It's as song about drugs and those song are always good to party to.
Continuing our Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time. You might notice some of your favorites on here but lower than expected, well count you lucky pentagrams that they made it all at because the bar is raised even higher and I invoked my Lat Fm page to help me sort this out.
90 - Death - Leprosy
This album captured a better balanced of song writing than their debut which has gained popularity in the new crop of hipster death metal. After this production began to get too slick before they turned into tech/prog with a side of growls. The high point for this band is King Diamond's guitarist Andy La Rocque played with them for a minute.
89- Grim Reaper - See You in Hell
This is a classic metal album but is so heavy on the cheese it winds up down here.
88 - Dream Theater -Awake
This band would be great if every element that sounds like Journey could be extracted, still even with that going against them this is a still a pretty remarkable album.
87 - Fates Warning - No Exit
They are now thought of as one of the forerunners of progressive metal, from their inception they were a poor man's Iron Maiden, then album they injected more of a thrash feel and brought on a more competent singer.
86 -Annihilator- Alice In Hell
Jeff Waters knows how to turn great riffs into great songs, one of the most well written albums from thrash's glory days.
85 - Dark Angel- Leave Scars
They live up to their name making darker thrash than Slayer. They captured a certain intensity that set themselves apart from the other bands of the era.
84- Twisted Sister- Stay Hungry
Sure you have heard "We're Not Going to Take it " on Glee, but songs like "Burn in Hell" and "Captain Howdy" earned this album's place on this list.
83- Venom - Black Metal
The only thing this really has in common with black metal is the name. This album while it is a lot of fun and deserves to be here, has a mythology built around it that its legend doesn't live up to. The reason being is that they were the entry point for a lot of punk rockers into metal. They are more of an influence to High on Fire than Emperor.
82-W.A.S.P - the Last Command
This album was a big step forward for these guys in terms of song writing and production and hits harder than their more hair metal debut.
81-Alice Cooper - Raise Your Fist and Yell
One of the few artists who crosses over from our rock list. Cooper beefed it up to change with the times , knowing that bands like Megadeth, would be opening for him.
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90 - Death - Leprosy
