1985
1984 had been one of the great years in metal, a year that had been chocca with both classic and defining metal albums, but sadly though 1985 would pale in comparison. Since starting this journal most of the years have been consistently strong, but obviously one or two in the mid 1970s had seen the overall quality drop a notch or two despite having some quality albums. 1985 though probably ranks as the weakest so far for a number of reasons 1) None of the established ‘big’ bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, Van Halen and the Scorpions to name just a few released any studio albums. 2) All the other metal bands that released quality albums in 1983 and 1984 seemed to release inferior or watered down versions in 1985, step forward Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Dokken and Kiss who were all bands that fitted this description perfectly. Sadly though many of these bands would end up selling even more than they had done so before, showing how most of these bands were now pandering towards the masses in terms softer sound and slick videos. 3) One of metal’s most exciting and driving forces over the last few years had been glam metal, sadly most of these bands were now content to tow the commercial line with inferior releases as well. There are some bands of course that I’ve placed in points 2 and 3 that did put out some good albums and those have made the top 20. 1985 though as a year, was quite simply saved by the new ‘extreme metal’ genres of thrash, speed and death, all these bands didn’t give a **** about pandering to the masses and were still contented at this stage to continue putting out the type of metal that they believed in. In fact the only compromise that most of these bands would entertain over the coming years, would be improved production which for me was a big bonus anyway. Extreme metal bands (mostly thrash) were without doubt the saviours and flagbearers of what was still ‘new metal’ in 1985 and they achieved this without the genre’s biggest band Metallica even releasing a studio album in 1985. But the genre did welcome back the likes of Slayer and introduced us to classic debuts from both Megadeth and Exodus, and therefore it’s no surprise that at least 12 albums in this year’s top 20 have either a thrash, speed or death label attached to them. This is also the very first year where there was no obvious no.1 album either, because most years I always knew which two or three albums would be the ones fighting for top spot, but this year the best albums of which there were about six, all seemed to be about the same level which was top 10 standard rather than a top 3 level, but in the end these albums all kind of just fell into place anyway. Finally here’s a rundown of albums that didn’t make the top 20 and most of these were guilty of issuing out watered down versions of what they had released in 1983 and 1984: Kiss, Ratt, Yngwie Malmsteen, Venom, Armoured Saint, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Dokken, 220 Volt, Trance, Trouble, Gravestone, a number of NWOBHM acts here and Black ‘n’ Blue. Other bands though did put out something better than they had done over previous years like Saxon, AC/DC and a rekindled Aerosmith but still couldn’t make the cut this year.