1980
1980 was one mother of a year and without doubt possibly the most important in the history of heavy metal. It was quite simply a watershed of a year and the quality of overall releases was simply astounding especially by newish artists. Hard rock and heavy metal had constantly given us quality bands over the previous decade, but far too many of these bands had fallen by the wayside, largely due to the fact that their record labels had had no idea on how to market them. American labels had been without doubt the worst culprits here and had killed a number of talented acts stateside, a situation which would knock the American scene back several years behind its UK rival. So to fully understand the impact that heavy metal had back in 1980, an overview of the music scene in general is worth looking at. The UK scene was dominated by punk bands that had evolved into post-punk and new-wave acts. Schoolkids were into the growing Ska movement and the in-crowd were listening to the bands that would make up the New Romantic grouping of bands, as bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and even newer acts like UFO and Budgie etc were now old hat. Stateside the word ‘safe’ was the watchword, as established artists or new artists that had an established sound were still the dominant forces, as long as they played a cultured mid-tempo rock sound and even giants such as Aerosmith, Kiss and the Blue Oyster Cult were now playing ball, despite all being past their best at this stage. In fact a number of offbeat American acts had to score first in the UK, before making a breakthrough back in the US, so where did this leave hard rock and heavy metal? Firstly all credit to Judas Priest, AC/DC and the Scorpions three artists that all kept the flag flying and were at the height of their powers and without them I’m not sure we would have had this explosion in 1980. Secondly certain other bands especially in the UK such as Motorhead and Thin Lizzy, were deemed as being cool and provided a strong link to the punk fanbase. In the case of Motorhead the punk link was fairly obvious, but in Thin Lizzy’s case the poetic and iconic Phil Lynott was the key, which meant that hard rock and heavy metal had a viable link to what was fashionable circa 1979-1980. Thirdly 1980 would also further the box-labelling of bands even more, as from now on most bands that would’ve been classified as hard rock would now get a heavy metal label! So with all this in mind, the UK was a hotbed for some kind of heavy metal explosion but I’m sure nobody quite expected it to be as big and have the impact that it would over the ensuing years. Also apart from the new heavy metal explosion in the UK, major established artists such as Judas Priest, AC/DC and Black Sabbath had no trouble making this year’s elite top 10 list, a fact that was amazing considering that AC/DC had just lost the iconic Bon Scott and Black Sabbath had pulled themselves from the bowels of despair with the arrival of Dio. Finally all was not lost stateside, as Van Halen were selling by the million and showed us that glamour metal was the way forward there, which in turn would see the USA undergoing their own metal revolution in just a few years. But the revolution of 1980 was really just about one country and one movement and that is explained below......
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (from now on referred to by its official abbreviation NWOBHM which of course saves me writing it out everytime) was the first movement to fully encompass all the existing hard rock and heavy metal genres and in many ways it was the second wave of influential Bristish bands, to follow on from the pioneering giants of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, along with all the other numerous and influential bands that popped up throughout the 1970s. In fact as said above, without the likes of Judas Priest, Motorhead and AC/DC (who were British based of course) it probably wouldn’t have been possible. The NWOBHM is often compared to the earlier punk movement of 1976-1977 and apart from certain similaries such as Paul D’Anno’s singing style and some metal bands adopting a punk–infected garage style. The two styles actually shared very little musically, but what they both did have hugely in common was the ability to attract outsiders, put out an an aggressive sound and most importantly the “do-it-yourself ethos” that both movements adopted, as opposed to the established order of the day. Both movements also had an emphasis on singles and EP’s largely due to budget restrictions that both movements initially faced. The NWOBHM itself would largely be about new bands re-establishing the roots of the bands, music and styles that they loved and had inspired them in the first place to form a band. Black Sabbath often get huge amounts of credit for being a big influence on the NWOBHM largely due to being satan-derived traditionalists and of course laying down every riff and tempo essential to metal, but in my opinion they were probably no more influential on the NWOBHM than the other ten or so other bands that often get mentioned as big influences as well. In fact I’d say Led Zeppelin were probably the single biggest influence on the NWOBHM and Black Sabbath’s turn would actually come later with the birth of the darker extreme metal genres just around the corner. So apart from these two monoliths, bands like Deep Purple, Nazareth, Budgie, Uriah Heep, UFO (where I remember some time ago Joe Elliot of Def Leppard on video saying just how influential they were on him and Def Leppard) AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, Scorpions and Motohead, but probably the most relevant of them all circa 1979-1980 was the flashy and visual metal style of Judas Priest the purest metal link between Black Sabbath and the NWOBHM. Apart from these expected bands just mentioned, a large number of progressive rock artists were also influential on the scene, as were those from the glam rock scene of the early to mid 1970s as well and every band seemed to have their more favoured angles as well, while others were just grouped as NWOBHM. In fact an avid listener could listen to say around 20 or so NWOBHM albums from 1980 and 1981 and hear most of the above influences across these albums, on some its hughly noticeable whilst on others not really at all and needs to be detected. It should also be noted that depite the expected aggression, loudness and speed of some of the bands in the NWOBHM the movement itself was often extremely melodic as well. Certain bands would show us despite their heaviness that they could be melodic as well hence harking back to the likes of UFO and Thin Lizzy for example, so sure the bands were heavy for their time, but melody certainly prevailed for those that were able to master it. Most bands though adopted a tougher overall sound and uptempo songs, along with soaring vocals and of course the maintanence of guitar solos kept their level of reverence as a metal band. Equally important to all of this, were the subject matter of the songs, which often revolved around fantasy and mythology themes along with darker horror and satanical themes for some bands. The fantasy aspect etc though, wasn’t exactly new as Rainbow had already fully established fantasy themes in metal a few years earlier to an amazing level, but now these themes would be more prominent than ever before. Album covers would also form the dominant image of the movement and could well make or break a band commercially and this was one of the areas where a band like Iron Maiden went to the top of the class from day one. Like punk before it, most bands adopted a universal image that of course had already been ushered in by the likes of Motorhead, Thin Lizzy and to its extreme level with Judas Priest, and from this moment on denim and leather would forever be linked with a tough metal sound and image. Finally the NWOBHM didn’t just appear in 1980 (well it almost did) and as I’ve already noted earlier in this journal, a number of bands as far afield as both France and Japan had already adopted a grassroots approach to metal that actually sounded akin to the British bands. These bands along with a number of other new British artists of the NWOBHM persuasion in 1979 such as Samson and Saxon, had released patchy debuts but were still albums that came strictly under the NWOBHM banner. So through either design or chance nearly all new band debuts would come out in 1980 (others missed out largely because they never had the finances for a debut that year) So from 1980 onwards, metal would now attain a new level of excellence that had been previously unsurpassed and now gave us a hotbed of creative fertility probably unrivalled in the annals of metal.