Wow! You must be one hardcore Celtic Frost fan!

I thought they were allright, but on this side of the Atlantic know one really gave two squirts and a piss about them, is this a European thing???

Anyways still a good journal, keep on rockin, cheers.

Most of the Celtic Frost fans on this forum have been American as far as I know.

I certainly think they're highly rated in the UK but it's on the European mainland where there fanbase is at its strongest as far as I know. What's special about Celtic Frost was their ability to constantly set the yardstick for extreme European metal, because I think without them we may never have had top quality extreme metal bands from countries like Norway, Sweden and Finalnd etc.

I see, they were influential in the same way Bathory was. That makes sense then. I don't know how long you plan to do this but it will be interesting if you ever get to the 2000's. I like the general sound of a lot of the pagan & Viking black metal bands, but can rarely find a stand out quality song, so hope you list a few.

If I ever manage to reach the 2000's I sure as hell need to streamline my entries and change the format as it's going very slowly, I usually do a format change every so often anyway.

Black metal is not something I'm really into, but I probably will get into it a lot more as this journal progresses.

As far as I've ever heard, Celtic Frost were as influential to Norwegian black metal as Bathory. The influence might not be as obvious, but CF were kind of a landmark band.

For a band that were extremely influential on black metal, Celtic Frost especially on To Mega Therion were very much like a thrash metal band in terms of sound.

I never thought they sounded much like thrash. More like Motorhead crossed with doom metal.

Well that is one way to classify them.

Verdict
When referring to pioneers of heavy metal, Virginia based band Pentagram surely qualify as one of these true pioneers of the genre. Formed way back in the early 1970s Pentagram with their classic Black Sabbath inspired doom sound, were of the same generation as other American metal bands of the 1970s like Sir Lord Baltimore and Bang, along with some of the bands that I've featured 'In the Shadow of Sabbath' section (see reviews) Unlike these bands though Pentagram never issued any albums throughout the 1970s, but what they did manage to do was to keep the band intact despite constant line-up and name changes throughout this turbulent period, whilst the former rival bands had mostly folded. The longevity of the band can quite simply be attributed to vocalist and principal songwriter Bobby Liebling who has been the constant mainstay of the band, much like what Dave Brock has meant to Hawkwind for example. The band finally released that long awaited debut album in 1985 with an eponymous Pentagram title that would later be changed to Relentless (for a future release) and the album is largely based on the band's 1982 demo All Our Sins under the name of Death Row the then name of the band. The strength of Pentagram as a band, is their ability to infuse an addictive listening edge into their material and the opening track on this album "Relentless" has that in spades and if you add in the Ozzy style vocals of Bobby Liebling and the fuzzy guitar tones the mix is a winner. Some tracks are extremely melodic like "Sign of the Wolf" which kind of avoids the typical doom trappings that ther genre would become known for and other tracks like "Dying World" really rock out. Despite some differences with the album material what all these songs do have in common though, is their ability to constantly lean on the doom meanderings of Black Sabbath throughout and are also enhanced with a solid fuzzy guitar sound. For all its accolades there are several noticeable negatives to the album and these are largely shaped around the fact that the bulk of he material comes from the 1970s and early 1980s, giving the album a dated sound by 1985 metal standards, making the album feel like something that came out half a decade earlier. Bobby Liebling despite being the life and soul of the outfit is not a great vocalist but he does manage to pull off an Ozzy saunter, and for me around his period he very much sounds like one of the weaker NWOBHM vocalists that graced a number of bands from that genre. In fact the Pentagram debut album would not be of place as one of the doom represenatives of the NWOBHM, as they have much in common with bands like Witchfinder General amongst others, than they do with the burgeoning doom metal sound of American bands like Trouble. Another low point for some are are the low-key production values of the album, but for me this underground feel actually does grab me as it should and it's probably the best thing about the whole album. Overall this album is seen as a cult classic by many and despite admiring some of its finer points the album has never really grabbed me as it should do. The Pentagram debut would come out around the time of the Saint Vitus debut and both bands would be seen as forming important pillars of the American doom metal movement.

When you’re the biggest heavy metal band in the world, it makes sense to then go out and record a live double album and that is exactly what Iron Maiden did in 1985. Live After Death would be a whopping almost two hours long and would be garnered from the band’s highly touted ‘World Slavery Tour’ which the band had undertaken after their acclaimed Powerslave album had rocked the top of metaldon. The tour would also be one of the longest and most extensive undertaken by a rock band, which in turn gave the band little chance of recording a studio album in 1985. The sets for the tour would be lavished with the Powerslave theme, which would be Egyptian sarcophagi and hieroglyphs and the sections for the live album would be taken from the Long Beach and Hammersmith Odeon legs of the tour. The album is noted for avoiding overdubs that were often be used on a number of live albums and bassist Steve Harris stated that the band were strongly against this from the beginning anyway and were dedicated to putting out a completely and truly live experience. Side by side with the album a live video of the experience was also recorded by director Jim Yukich and would include 14 tracks. After the opening ‘Churchill’s Speech’ and the customary “Aces High” the first half of the album is dominated by tracks from both the Powerslave and Piece of Mind albums. The second half of the album would be dominated by The Number of the Beast and the Paul D’Anno era albums Iron Maiden and Killers. As always with live albums there is some debate over the choice of material but for me the choices are pretty good and mostly obvious. Some negative reviews of the album complain about Bruce Dickinson’s voice as being off on a couple of tracks but personally I think he does ok here, especially on the Paul D’Anno tracks, which was always going to be a contention anyway between Paul v Bruce lovers of the band. Kerrang! would describe the album as being ‘The nearest that any person could get to being on an Iron Maiden world tour without actually leaving town’ and the album would be regarded as one of the great live albums of the decade. The 1970s may well have been the era of the live album but throughout the 1980s monster live albums like Live After Death would still continue to enhance the live genre.

Bruce Dickinson- Vocals
Dave Murray- Guitar
Adrian Smith- Guitar
Steve Harris- Bass
Nicko McBain- Drums

Production- Martin Birch
Long Beach 1985
Hammersmith Odeon 1985

1986

1986 as a year is pretty much synonymous with two of the biggest and most important metal albums ever recorded in Master of Puppets and Reign in Blood, two albums that rank amongst the pinnacle of metal releases and two albums that every metal collection should have. The year wouldn’t be just about those two albums though, as great albums also arrived from a fired up Megadeth with their second album, the legendary doom debut from Candlemass a real fav of mine and finally from Iron Maiden who carried the weight of expectation after the resounding success of Powerslave two years earlier, did they deliver…… well just wait and see! The bulk of the albums on this year’s list would again be from the extreme metal genre, which as a major force in 1986 meant thrash metal (its muscular arm) but instead of just being an American product, it now showed that Europeans and especially Germans could do it just as well, as great albums arrived from bands like Destruction and the highly rated Kreator. Glam metal still the main commercial outlet for metal, refused to die after a lacklustre year in terms of quality throughout 1985 and it now injected itself with a number of new bands like Poison, Cinderella and Stryper, all bands that would form the ‘second wave of glam metal’ and despite being popular sellers and darlings of the ever expanding MTV, most of these bands just never had the quality of its first wave acts like Motley Crue, Twisted Sister or the criminally underrated Icon. 1986 would also be a great year for mainstream/power metal as metal giants like Iron Maiden were joined by other ‘luxury sounding metal bands’ like Queensryche, Virgin Steele, Crimson Glory and the little known Fifth Angel, in releasing albums that fell into the middle ground between the excesses of thrash and the glitz of glam metal to promote a more power/progressive metal sound overall. The mighty Van Halen now minus David Lee Roth found themselves back on the radar in 1986 with the addition of hard rocker Sammy Hagar who had been pedalling away as a solo artist. Their polished synth-layered pop metal sound would find the perfect listening market, as they along with most of the glam metal bands, would capitalize on the fall of AOR as a major commercial giant, to release singles and albums that were guaranteed to sell regardless of the quality of their product (see glam metal comment above) List absentees would include previous giants like Accept who were totally unfocused on Russian Roulette, Motorhead had some severe production problems on Orgasmatron, Judas Priest got bogged down with their synthesizers on Turbo and a large number of glam metal albums missed the list as they simply just weren’t good enough, despite the fact that the listening public were still lapping up these albums by the bucketload. Whilst at the the other end of the spectrum, Brazilian band Sepultura released one of the most primitive sounding debuts ever, an album which revealed that they still had some work to do. Overall 1986 has proved to be one of the most interesting years I’ve listened to so far, for the simple reason its top end is chocca full of great metal albums, while its bottom has some great albums of quality that are really liked by metal lovers across the world and there’s plenty of material here that is considered cult stuff as well.

Thank you for privately sharing the order of your top picks for 1986 Unknown; it was definitely a banner year for heavy metal, I like the order of your picks :)

1. Metallica - Master of Puppets
2. Megadeth- Peace sells but Whose Buying
3. Bon Jovi - Slippery when wet
4. Slayer - Reign in Blood

Am I missing something here? You said he shared them privately with you and then you go and air them publicly? You don't think he'll be a little pissed about that? To say nothing of the rest of us.... :banghead:

Putting Bon Jovi before Slayer, shame on you!

I think he's worded this incorrectly as I've shared nothing with anybody, you actually think I would put Bon Jovi in a top 10 list :bonkhead:

I think he means by me mentioning a number of albums in the 1986 intro, but a lot of the albums mentioned from especially the glam bands have not made the list.

Other than Wuss Rock, no. I thought you was 'avin' a larf, mate...

Lol, no I was just joking about to see if I could get a rise out of the Slayer fans. :)

Think they're still in a state of shock after listening to Repentless! :laughing:

TBH I almost flamed you for that post until I realized you were bull****ting. Don't **** around and get half a peace sign.




Anyways, my predicked for Top 5

1. Slayer - Reign in Blood
2. Metallica - Master of Puppets
3. Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying
4. Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
5. Motorhead - Orgasmatron/Metal Church - The Dark

Lol, that was the goal. I do however like Master of Puppets and Peace Sells (My Megadeth fav) more than Reign in Blood though.

I also always thought the Angel of Death intro sounds like a bit of a knock off of Helloween's Ride the Sky. Anyone else thinks this?

Maybe, but that's like Slayer reign in q r4ign in fcking SLQYER.''i alwayrs weighing breaking like a ****ing bdd!!!

:bowdown:

Dude, does anyone else know what the **** I'm talking about?

Notice

This year's reviews are hopefully going to be more streamlined and hopefully shorter and tighter, which will in turn allow me to get through these albums a bit quicker.

The Lowdown
Most genres of metal are exportable products but that’s not to say that when its exported, that its new purveyors can do a particularly good job with their new gleaming product. Metal outside its principal American and British playground was always a hit and miss affair throughout the 1970s and first half of the 1980s, and it was often a case of venturing into the unknown. Outside its principal playing area, Germany was the country that provided metal with the most tested metal bands and as the 1980s wore on Germany would spread its wings and spread quality metal to its neighbours. German metal would undergo something of a revolution itself in the mid 1980s, as its mainstream and speed metal bands would give way to greater diversity in power metal and the brutal American product thrash metal. Germany particularly embraced thrash and its bands took the thrash blueprint often into even harsher or muscular sounding territory and a band like Kreator were the perfect example of that harsher sound, but a number of other bands including Angel Dust would give a demonstration on how muscular thrash could sound. The album starts with an instrumental piano intro and the expected speed metal of this type of band is quickly beefed up (or porked up as they’re German) with a coating of powerful thrash. Some of the stronger tracks on this album include the cutting “Legions of Destruction” the amusing “Gambler” thanks to some exaggerated vocals. Then there are the energetic riffs of “Atomic Roar” backed up with some heavy drum beats and the killer closer "Marching for Revenge". There are a couple of clangers on the album and these come in the shape of "Victims of Madness" but they are few and far between. The resulting album on face value sounds like a simple thrash assault, but in reality and musically the album’s tracks are complex by thrash standards in general (excepting bands like Metallica of course) and the band’s sound also hints at the future power metal direction that they would move into as well. There are some complaints about the album’s production but I think it’s solid enough due to the quality of its compositions and musically the album hints in the direction of the Metallica brand of thrash metal a la Ride the Lightning. There are also several differing opinions of vocalist Romme Keymer from being dominant to not being voluminous enough and I personally think he falls somewhere in between and gets the job done well enough, despite some rather comical vocal turns in places. The kitschy album cover again hints at the band’s future power metal direction and might be seen as disappointing by thrash metal advocates. Today Into the Dark Past is something of a cult classic that is not too well known outside of thrash and it’s worth a listen to, as here is a thrash band much like Metal Church that were vying the line between thrash and power metal at this time. Into the Dark Past can easily beat albums by bands such as Poison, Cinderella, Great White, Ratt and even reputable albums from thrash based bands like Flotsam and Jetsam and Watchtower to claim a place in this year’s top 20.

Romme Keymer - Guitars, Vocals
Andreas Lohrum - Guitars
Dirk Assmuth - Drums
Frank Banx – Bass

Production- N/A

Pic not showing up.

Fixed. :)

The Lowdown
Despite being an American west coast phenomenon thrash metal sprouted up in several other locales across the USA and New York was one of such location. Constantly a hotbed of developing musical genres historically, New York had been somewhat left behind in the American heavy metal revolution of the 1980s and had lagged behind the likes of Los Angeles and San Francisco as a city that raised quality metal bands at this time. Anthrax would put New York city onto that map and former Anthrax bassist Dan Liker who had appeared on the spunky Stormtroopers of Death album Speak English or Die (see 1985 review) would form the impressive Nuclear Assault thrash outfit a short time after. Their debut album Game Over would turn out to be one of the strongest efforts in their whole discography and one of the many must hear thrash releases of the year. Despite being recently formed, the members of Nuclear Assault fronted by former high school teacher John Connelly, were already seasoned veterans of the New York thrash metal community and their album comes across as a seasoned effort by a bunch of artists that knew exactly what they were doing when it came to thrash. Some critics slam the album as being generic and I suppose if they’re referring to the album in hindsight they may have a case, but for its time the album flows with a certain amount of fiery ambition and this becomes evident from a track like “Sin”. This track then flows into the equally strong “Cold Steel” before then embarking on the slower paced “Betrayal” a song with amusing lyrics, as John Connelly constantly sings about a ‘backstabbing whore’ and the humour contibues also on the errr delightfully titled “Hang the Pope” which lasts all of just 46 seconds and the even shorter “My America” at just 29 seconds. On these last couple of tracks the band have clearly ventured into humorous Stormtroopers of Death territory which of course is a bonus. The inevitable tracks about nuclear warfare the central theme of the album come in the form of “Radiation Sickness” “After the Holocaust” and “Nuclear War” and these tracks add further fuel to the fire here and “Nuclear War” probably ranks as my favourite cut on the album. The Album closer “Brain Death” runs at seven and a half minutes and in my mind the band didn’t quite have the chops to keep this kind of track going for such a lengthy period. The riffs are both tight and furious across the album and at times there is an almost epic backdrop to some of the tracks which adds further fuel to the futuristic grasp, that the album has on a possible future for mankind. The album was produced by Alex Perialas a thrash metal producer who besides working with Anthrax, Stormtroopers of Death and Nuclear Assault at this time, would soon go onto produce vital thrash metal acts like Overkill and Testament as well. I also love the Game Over cover as it’s straight to point with its nuclear holocaust message and its comicbook zombie style characters on its album cover, which contrasts really well with the album cover’s red and yellow backdrop. After this album the band would release The Plague EP in 1987 and is largely remembered for the controversial “Butt **** (You Figure it Out)” track that ill advisedly makes fun of Vince Neil’s infamous ar crash, which goes to show that despite the humour of the band, they often didn’t get it right and failed to run the censor over their own work. Game Over has been ranked on Rock Hard’s The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time list and will be of particular interest to anybody that really digs vintage sounding thrash from this time.

John Connelly- Guitar/Vocals
Anthony Bramante- Guitar
Dan Liker- Bass
Glenn Evans- Drums

Production- Alex Perialas

The Lowdown
Often regarded as the final album of the ‘Great Manilla Road Trilogy’ The Deluge released in 1986 combines the styles of their highly reputable and cryptic Crystal Logic album, with the more accessible metal of their Open the Gates album (see both reviews) The essence of the album is a concept based around typical Manilla Road fantasy offerings that include ‘The Fall of Atlantis” but for my mind the whole thing at times feels like something inspired by the writings of H.P Lovecraft covering terrifying creatures and tormented souls, and the album cover itself looks like something out of Lovecraft as well. Album opener “Delirium” quickly re-introduces the listener to the vocals of frontman Mark Shelton, in one of the most instant vocal song introdutions of the year and around him the instruments swirl away in true Manilla Road style. There are songs like “Shadow in the Black” which after a slow start soon emerge as hyperactive efforts thrashy style which again test the mettle of the band’s components, where these guys kind of jam out Rush style throughout large sections of the album. Songs like “Divine Victim” with its bass intro is a song that attacks religion and again shows that heavy link between the band and their 1970s influences and Mark Shelton is soon singing ‘I’m not a victim of Christianity…..’ The song and lyrics here in many ways kind of reminded me of something of Jethro Tull and Aqualung albeit in a much more metal style, as that was an album based around animosity to religion. “Divine Victim” is then followed by “Hammer of the Witches” its sister track in terms of subject matter but it's a very different ball game altogether, and it’s a track that is clearly modern day metal with crushing riffs with the fill crunchy metal coating. “Friction in Mass” is again another track that reveals itself to be another effort that mixes in various styles and it also has a highlighted extended spoken section. The sub 2-minute instrumental “Morbid Tabernacle” helps glue things together and kind of reminds me of a neat early days video game soundtrack to something like ‘Ghost ‘n Goblins’ and this instrumental is much later joined by an even shorter one in "Rest in Pieces". “Isle of the Dead” which automatically made me think of the Val Lewton horror classic with Boris Karloff, is a song where the band use a cleaner musical atmospheric tone and where the sinister subject matter is displayed in great style, before the whole thing is speeded up. “Taken By Storm” is probably one of the heaviest workings on the album and as expected it relies of fast riffs that again bring the band into purer thrash territory. Finally there is the 8 minute title track which clearly again reveals the proggy roots of the band and is a song that heavily features the fantasy city of Atlantis one of the themes of the album, an area that the band would address in more detail in the distant future. In many ways The Deluge would be one of the final albums of any real quality in the Manilla Road discography based on what I've heard over the years and forms a cryptic and obscure essential trilogy of albums.

Mark Shelton – Guitar/Vocals
Scott Park – Bass
Randy Foxe – Drums

Production- Manilla Road

The Lowdown
So how progressive are Fates Warning this time aound after I asked the same question for their previous album The Spectre Within? Well the odd tempo changes are certainly there but they do seem even more focused this time around. Out of the musicians it usually strikes me that drummer Steve Zimmerman might well be the star turn here, in at least with what the band were trying to do with his disjointed drumming style sounding spot on. The vocals of John Arch cover geeky Rush fantasy territory and as would be expected are underpinned with the typical trademark Fates Warning riffs. John Arch also certainly enters into that proggy/complex Iron Maiden territory especially with his Bruce Dickinson type vocals……. so the band seem to be checking the right boxes. In hindsight there weren’t too many metal bands at this time either, that were doing cohesive progressive metal to use as a yardstick in which to measure Fates Warning’s output from this period, so I suppose the progressive metal label does apply to the band, even though for me this album feels just like a complex playing machine rather than a full blooded prog-effort in the style I’m probably accustomed to. On the commercial front Awaken the Guardian would be the band’s first album to enter the US Billboard 200 album chart, where it reached a modest 191st spot and would also be the band’s last album without original vocalist John Arch before Ray Alder stepped in. The band continue with their impressive sci-fi/fantasy style album covers here as well and this cover very much evokes something that 1970s Yes could’ve put out, albeit Fates Warning do it in a much darker less forgiving style which suits their output. The song titles don’t skim on fantasy appeal either, with titles like “The Sorceress” “Fate Morgana” and “Giant’s Lore (Heart of Winter)” which shows the type of fantasy that the band were into. The album is a solid enough listen and according to most reviews really needs multiple listens over a long period of time to really do the album justice, but the album’s two standout tracks are probably the highly regarded “Guardian” and “Exodus”. The former with its extended acoustic intro and accomplished feel as it drifts through its 7 plus minutes of playing time and the song would become a permanent fixture on the band’s live set and The latter "Exodus" even surpasses “Guardian” by a minute and rounds off the album in competent style. Overall Awaken the Guardian is not only the most highly regarded album from the John Arch era, but also for many the best album in the band’s discography and in fact All Music states this album to be a ‘closet classic’ that needs to be heard. In many ways its somewhat odd meandering style actually caters for the type of metal I’m really into which is proggy power metal, but as said in my The Spectre Within review I’m much more a fan of the Ray Alder era anyway, which is probably why this album doesn't rate as highly in this year's list as could be expected. So for me the band’s best material comes from that time and I also always thought anyway that they did this meandering style better as well with Ray Alder at the helm…………. but that of course is just my opinion.

John Arch – Vocals
Jim Matheos – Guiitar
Frank Aresti – Guitar
Joe DiBiase – Bass
Jim Archambault – Keyboards
Steve Zimmerman – Drums

Production- Brian Slagel

I believe I mentioned in my thread that this album sounds like a more boring Iron Maiden. I stand by that.

I'd agree with that hence its position at the lower end of the list. It's still a credible album though, but nowhere near as good as some reviewers would have you believe though.

As darkness descends...... the dead will rise again.

The Lowdown
With numerous west coast thrash bands from this period springing up in San Francisco, it was no surprise that sister city Los Angeles would have its own thrash metal bands as well and one such band the “LA Caffeine Machine” better known as Dark Angel were one of those bands. Their album Darkness Descends is often considered one of the landmark thrash albums from this period, so much so that Revolver magazine placed it in their “14 Thrash Albums You Need to Own” list and 14 seems like a strange number to me for a list! For my ears the album is suitably geared up for the dedicated thrash enthusiast, as its song structures are often extended with long instrumental sections (kind of like Slayer trying to stretch out songs) that might just end up testing the mettle of your average metal fan. I think it’s this uncompromising style that earned the band the aptly named “LA Caffeine Machine” moniker that was mentioned earlier and Darkness Descends would be the band’s second album after their debut We Have Arrived had been released the previous year. We Have Arrived was certainly one of those primitive thrash metal albums that’s hardly a listening necessity, even though it does have its fans, so it might be a worthy listen for some out there. The album cover ties in nicely with the gharish and some would call tacky album covers from this period, but as I’ve always really liked these type of Halloween album covers I think it’s a pretty good one and it's almost 3D in style where it really captures the mood of those mid-1980s horror flicks. The album was produced by engineer/producer Randy Burns who was a constant mainstay in extreme metal at this time and had already worked with bands like Megadeth and Sucidal Tendencies, and would later go onto to work with Death. From the word go the production values are far superior than the debut where the riffs are far tighter and more potent, and this is in evidence from the 5 minute onslaught of the title track “Darkness Descends” which like Anthrax features comic book characters. In this case it’s the Dark Judges from Judge Dredd and even features the line ‘this city is guilty, the crime is life, the sentence is death’ which for any Judge Dredd fan is familiar rhetoric. The lack of variation on the album is certainly evident by track three the neatly named “Hunger of the Undead” where it now seems completely apparent that not much is going to change throughout the rest of the album, despite some moody song intros. The strongest tracks come in the shape of “Merciless Death” where Don Doty sounds a bit like Dave Mustaine at times and the equally strong “Death is Certain”. The albums falls down though on its longest track "Black Prophecies" where at over 8 minutes the band had certainly pushed their envelope too far. The end of the album though is saved by "Perish in Flames" which gets back to certifiable thrash territory, even if the track sounds like a another Slayer entry with Don Doty throwing in some James Hetfield type vocals. This would also be the band’s final album with original vocalist Don Doty (yep that’s not Don Dokken btw) where he would soon be replaced by Rob Rinehart. Most of the tracks on the album would be written by guitarist Jim Durkin and fellow guitarist and driving force Eric Meyer would be the band’s mainstay over the years. Star turn on the album is probably put in by drummer Gene Hoglan, who would go onto become known as the best known musician from the band, as his creative drumming over the years would see him feature on multiple extreme metal releases. Dark Angel like so many other thrash bands of their ilk, never actually managed to really grow beyond their local fanbase and largely became known as just another one of those ‘scene bands’ that continued to put out albums over the years, in general though these albums never reached the heights of this their second album Darkness Descends. In quick summary the album is a solid if not great listen imo, largely because most of its songs sound like other artists rather than the band trying to squeeze out their own unique sound, but it's still worth checking out.

Don Doty- Vocals
Eric Meyer- Guitar
Jim Durkin- Guiitar
Rob Yahn- Bass
Gene Hoglan- Drums

Production- Randy Burns

The Lowdown
Along with both Kreator and Sodom, Destruction would form the backbone of the newish Teutonic thrash metal movement, which certainly differed from its American counterpart in a number of aspects. Whereas the American sample was usually pure aggression with different variations, the German counterpart simply adopted a harsher element, overall showing that their brand of thrash was probably closer to what would become black metal. In fact Devastation on their debut album Infernal Overkill and their even earlier EP Sentence of Death were pretty close to a black metal sound, but for Eternal Devastation their best album they had moved away from these beginnings and firmly into thrash territory. Another interesting feature of these German thrash metal bands was the ‘trio element’ to their sound, where these three bands (Destruction, Kreator, Sodom) in this period only had three members in their line-ups. Of course trios were hardly anything new in rock, but in metal it was always a challenge given the need for most metal bands to bash out a potent sound. I’m guessing the influence of a band like Venom and the more technically superior Celtic Frost, may well have been vital influences with the ‘threesome concept’ here. Band frontman vocalist Marcel Schirmer ‘Schmier’ with his screeched vocals, certainly rivalled Mille Petrozza of Kreator and Tom Angelripper (great name) of Sodom at this time in defining the type of Teutonic vocalist that the listener should expect to hear. The striking feature of Eternal Devastation is that it’s an extremely tight and consistent album from beginning to end, with its opening brace of tracks “Curse the Gods” and “Confound Games” which both set the tone for most of the album with their insistent riffing that are prone to instant changes and progression. The sinister sounding vocal approach from Schmier is hard to ignore as he screeches his way through the album, all against the previously mentioned harsher backdrop of the Teutonic thrash metal sound with some interesting progressive elements in places. I particularly like the condensed sound of “Eternal Ban” which seems to cram a lot of what the band has previously played on the previous four songs into just over three minutes. Instrumental "Upcoming Devastation" is a pure headache job with its propulsive guitars and sound that don't seem to stop for the whole of its plus four minutes. Final track "Confused Mind" starts with a welcome acoustic intro before the inevitable final onslaught arrives which is largely more madcap hectic thrashing by our trio and personally I think the band should've gone in for something different for the album closer, as I don't think it's as strong as it could've been. Overall despite some strong progressive chord work on the album, the lack of variety limits very much to what could've been a much more impressive thrash album but of course there are those that like their thrash exactly how this album sounds. According to All Music the thrash sound of Devastation was the most American like of these bands, I’m guessing that this possibly comes from the chord progression that the band has adopted here across the album. Star turn is possibly the buzzsaw guitar of Mike Sifringer which is probably no surprise as the band were known for their guitar proficiency anyway. Eternal Devastation certainly forms a vital element in German thrash metal along with Sodom’s Agent Orange and the even more renowned in Kreator’s Pleaure to Kill (higher up this year’s list)

Marcel Schirmer- Bass/Vocals
Mike Sifringer- Guitar
Thomas Sandmann- Drums

Production- Manfred Neuner

The Lowdown
After reviewing what has been quite a few thrash albums on this year’s list, it was something of a breath of fresh air to review this cult classic from Fifth Angel. Fifth Angel hailed from Bellvue, Washington State and their debut album the eponymous Fifth Angel had certainly been fuelled by the style of neighbours Queensryche (minus the proggy parts) The band can also lay claim to being part of that ‘Seattle power metal scene’ from this period, which for any US power metal fan such as me is all vital listening. As power metal is probably my favourite brand of metal band for band, I always take a big interest in anything power metal related and indeed Fifth Angel have only been a recent addition for me in terms of knowing their discography. This though is hardly a surprise as they only managed to put out two albums, meaning that it was pretty easy to overlook them. Band components leaned heavily on guitarist James Byrd who was a big fan of bands like UFO and MSG, and being a guitarist there was a sure link to Michael Schenker who of course had been in both of these bands. Vocalist Ted Pilot had the power to go high-pitched often a vital attribute for most power metal singers, but at the same time his vocals were pretty beefy just check out “The Night” and “Only the Strong Survive” and it was also clear that the band were also influenced by the NWOBHM in their general rock orientation. Opening cut “In the Fallout” is a pretty damn heavy intro to the album, both fast and epic and it carries the energy of a faster paced Queensryche effort. The song is punctuated with an impressive guitar solo from James Byrd about halfway through, clearly inspired from that classic 1970s guitar solo mentality that he had. “Shout it Out” takes a step back with the speed and infuses a stomping metal beat and its chorus is certainly typical of a ‘shouted hair metal band’ style. Third track “Call Out the Warning” despite picking up the speed, actually sounds more like a European power metal track before then moving onto the moody title track “Fifth Angel” which again had me drawing comparisons with Queensryche. The album’s showpiece track might well be its power ballad “Wings of Destiny” which sounds like Iron Maiden meets Queensryche with a Scorpions song name. But like most of these tracks Fifth Angel again prove that they are very much their own band, as constant listens to this album reveal that the band had their own sound, rather than just sounding like a band that had been influenced by others. The album finishes with strong brace of songs "Cry Out the Fools" and "Fade to Flames" the former strong and melodic and the latter faster and touching onto that almost Europe power metal sound. Overall this is a pretty vital addition to any fan of power metal from this period and in many ways it has more in common with a European power metal release than a fellow American one. Largely because the Fifth Angel sound is pretty much devoid of thrash influences, that were often heard on albums by bands like Metal Church from this period. Saying that though the Queensryche comparisons do keep the album on the American side of the power metal scene, making the album an inviting listen due to its American/European elements. The vocals of Ted Pilot are resonant and melodic throughout, and some of the best of the year imo. The guitar sound of James Byrd is constantly fresh and inviting throughout the album, making this a great example of ‘ a feel good metal album’ in a year that was dominated by the harsher realities of thrash metal.

Ted Pilot- Vocals
James Byrd- Guitar
Ed Arhcer- Guitar
Kenny Kay- Bass
Ken Mary- Drums

Production- N/A

A black soaring eagle arriving late to its nest.

The Lowdown
I guess this is a classic example of the saying ‘better late than never’ because without doubt the Elixir debut album is exactly that. Elixir were in essence another NWOBHM band, but because that label was now completely out of fashion the band must've seemed like an anomaly in 1986, especially with both thrash metal and glam metal ruling the metal waves. Life must’ve been pretty tough for a British metal band at this time, a country of course that had dominated the metal scene for so long throughout the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. The British legacy had of course shaped metal but other countries like the USA and mainland Europe would now be the future for the scene in general. The Elixir debut album Son of Odin as the name would suggest, would end up being labelled power metal, which was pretty handy giving that this scene was about to burst out as a major metal movement….. and I guess with a name like the ‘Son of Odin’ the album couldn’t be anything else but be under the power metal moniker. The band Elixir were certainly late formers for a NWOBHM act and the Son of Odin is probably without doubt for me the best very late period NWOBHM album, as there are quite a few floating about of very dubious quality. The album has been further enhanced firstly from the late great Dio who reviewed the band’s first single “Treachery” in Kerrang! by giving it and the band the thumbs up in 1985. Secondly the album sneaked onto Terrorizer’s top 20 greatest power metal albums of all time another feather in the album’s cap, especially considering that Elixir would more than likely be one of the last bands that people would guess to be on that kind of list. So what does this archaic album actually sound like? The album starts with “The Star of Beshaan” with its galloping riffs that immediately recalls prime NWOBHM offerings and the second track “Pandora’s Box” a more subdued effort but with enough muscle to make it a standout are a great opening brace. One of the best tracks on the album is the Black Sabbath inspired "Children of Tomorrow" especially with its killer riff that any NWOBHM band would've proud of. Songs like "Trial By Fire" and "Starflight" add further fuel to the fire here and the give the album a consistent feel throughout. Other standout cuts include "Dead Man's Gold" the previously mentioned single "Treachery" and the brooding title track "Son of Odin" which finishes the album. In fact when I listened to the album this time, I realized that is was the 2001 re-issue of the album which actually has a different track order from the original release which did change the feel of the album slightly. Vocalist Paul Taylor was compared to Gary Moore from some sources I read about the album and I can definitely see the Gary Moore connection when listening to this album. Also this album is all about blazing guitars that dominate the album from beginning to end and the band’s five components certainly knew their trade. Now after listening to this album again would I call this a power metal album, on first impressions not really but on a further appraisal I think power metal NWOBHM style would be a label most apt for this album with the expected Iron Maiden influences present as well. In summary it would’ve been an uphill struggle for a band like Elixir, because without a doubt the only British bands that were really selling at this time were the giants such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Def Leppard with not too much being left for the lesser known lights. Elixir’s problem would be further compounded by the fact as well that their sophomore set wouldn’t come out until four years later in 1990. finally the band would gain some notoriety for having an Iron Maiden connection several years later when original Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr had a brief stint in the band.

Paul Taylor- Vocals
Phil Denton- Guitar
Norman Gordon- Guitar
Kevin Dobbs- Drums
Nigel Dobbs- Drums

Production- N/A

The Lowdown
5150 would be a major turning point for Van Halen as this was their first album without the trademark face of the band’s talisman David Lee Roth, who now considered himself to be a solo artist. So without David Lee Roth the band returned as an altered beast with their most consistently accessible collection of songs to date. The band’s constant dabblings with synths would be at their most expansive, their dedication to hit singles even greater and the link to the AOR listening market enhanced with the polished sound and production of the album's most commercial efforts. So enter Sammy Hagar a friend of Eddie Van Halen and a hard rocker that had a long pedigree in the business, Sammy Hagar had made his reputation as the vocalist in Montrose before embarking on a solo career which saw him release an impressive eight studio albums to decent commercial success. Some of these albums especially the Montrose ones have already been reviewed by me some time back (see reviews) but most of his solo stuff was certainly average fare a lot of the time despite having a large fanbase. Despite all this I was always a Sammy Hagar fan and was one of those that welcomed his inclusion into the Van Halen line-up. David Lee Roth was certainly the face of Van Halen and his sexy onstage shenanigans and innuendos were what made Van Halen a huge market seller, but like a lot of high profile frontmen he thought he could do it better on his own and imo his pseudo pop material that he recorded as a solo artist leaves a lot to be desired. With all this in mind 5150 still very much feels like a Van Halen album in its key aspects, because even with David Lee Roth in the band this would’ve been the direction that band would’ve taken anyway. Also on the album’s opening track “Good Enough” if the listener wasn’t aware that David Lee Roth had left the band, the vocal sound of Sammy Hagar is pretty much the same especially with his ‘hello baby’ intro (clearly chosen for this reason I guess) and on a lot of similar tracks he sounds pretty similar DLR anyway. As said earlier I really like Sammy Hagar as he had the ability to sing on 5150 solid polished songs as they should be sung, without ever needing to revert to that overused DLR style, as Eddie Van Halen was now clearly the band leader this stylistic control was probably down to him. The songs on 5150 are a mixture of traditional Van Halen hard rock efforts and a consistently strong collection of power ballads with big hooks. So starting with the power ballads which were designed as the album's singles and they don't come any bigger than "Why Can't This Be Love" with its knocking keyboards intro that turned out to be the biggest selling single from the album and one of the band's best known songs. This then gives way to the even more superior and soaring "Dreams" one of my all time favourite tracks from the 1980s. The band return to that "Dreams" style with the glorious sounding "Love Walks In" another huge favourite of mine and a song I can listen to all day and both of these songs were released as singles as well. The grittier tracks come in the aforementioned "Good Enough" and the manic guitar of "Get Up" which sounds like a nod to "Hot for Teacher" and in my opinion these songs are somewhat mediocre but not without a certain charm in the right places or mood. The best of these type of tracks are without doubt "Summer Nights" whose disjointed style blends in nicely with its melodic chorus, then there is the single "Best of Both Worlds" a straight forward hard rocker that's easy enough on the ear for the record buying public to like. "Inside" is a fun stab of humour from the band and in my opinion a clever addition to close the album. Finally the title track the most ambitious on the album, probably blends in the two principal styles of the album to give a strong late album track that lasts around 5 mins. The album is a testament to Eddie Van Halen’s passion for keyboards which don’t come at the expense of his great guitar playing and Sammy Hagar sounds like he’s been at the band’s helm for years and this is just another album for him with the band, giving the whole listening experience a certain level of authenticity. On the downside 5150 suffers like most Van Halen albums do, in that its singles and standout tracks are consistently stronger than the rest of the album material on offer, a factor which has always dragged down most Van Halen albums in these listings, but nevertheless 5150 is an enjoyable listening experience.

Sammy Hagar- Vocals
Eddie Van Halen- Guitar
Tony Anthony- Bass
Alex Van Halen- Drums

Production- Van Halen

Did you really just put Van Hagar over Nuclear Assault, Dark Angel, and Destruction? **** off.

I'm one of the few that probably prefers Van Hagar to Van Halen and even though I know the album so well, it came like a breath of fresh air in a year dominated by thrash, so yer it kind of deserved its position at 12.

****ing AOR dweebs.

Van Hagar at 12 is an interesting choice, as they do seem to be more AOR than even glam metal by the time Roth departed. Sacred Blade or maybe King Diamond might have been around this point if I were to do a "best of" metal of '86, but I like quite a bit on 5150....maybe it counts as a crossover album?