I'd say Van Halen's history as a metal band should give them some leeway, even if they weren't truly metal at that point. And I'm pretty sure US doesn't much like Mercyful Fate, so I don't imagine he likes King Diamond any better.

I need to listen to more KD actually. I've listened to enough Mercyful Fate over the years, but I've been really lazy about Diamond's solo material. I'm pretty sure I've actually only listened to Abigail once, and maybe a smattering of his other songs.

.....and you're already one of those AOR closet fans.


The reason Sacred Blade on not on there is that I'd never heard of them until you just mentioned them, but based on what I'm hearing they're pretty good. As for KD I can barely get through one of his albums, even though I prefer the MF stuff a tad more, but even they were a struggle for me.

Exactly Van Halen are on there for their history as a metal band and Van Hagar for his track record previous. It would be pretty strange to ignore a couple of Van Halen albums in the mid 1980s as not being metal enough, especially considering that these albums were huge sellers and the band a household name.

The Lowdown
Kreator were not only Germany’s premier thrash metal band, but pretty much the thrash metal band of the European thrash scene from this period. They formed part of the ‘big four of Teutonic thrash metal’ which was certainly a clear reference to the big four of thrash metal stateside. Kreator like their fellow German thrashers Destruction, Sodom and Tankard were prime exponents of the harsher and colder sounding thrash specimen. Pleasure to Kill would be the band’s second album and like a lot of German metal bands Kreator had struggled on their raw sounding debut the year before with Endless Pain. It very much seemed that German metal bands were often pretty hopeless with debut sets around this time in general, based on my findings anyway. The album cover does little to belie what lies beneath it and the album would be produced by well known European metal producer Harris Johns who constantly worked with the big four of the German thrash metal scene and also with bands like Helloween. Pleasure to Kill would repeat the sonic carnage of the debut, but this time around the band had material that h was far superior than was heard on the debut. Kreator as a band sounded both raw and primitive taking their Venom yardstick into extreme metal territory with the fastest and most aggressive noise that they could muster, rivalling what Slayer were doing and pre-empting in many ways the sheer brutality of the approaching storm that Sepultura would usher in. Across the album the guitars as expected are about as harsh and repetitive as you expect from a front line thrash band and certainly don’t disappoint. The bass of Rob Fioretti is actually quite audible for a change and noticeable. The violent drums from drummer Jurgen Rell who also performed three lead vocals on the album are effective enough but show stopper has to be frontman Mlle Petrozza with his evil sounding rasp. The album starts off though on the wrong foot with the rather pointless instrumental intro “Choir of the Damned” but once past that the aggressiveness and massive sounding riffing are in full effect on the delightfully named “Ripping Corpse” the band then step it up even further with the brutal Slayer sounding “Death is Your Saviour” and the dynamic sounding title track “Pleasure to Kill” to complete a brutal unholy trilogy. Kreator then combine superbly their massive riffing with rhythm changes on “Riot of Violence” and go the distance on the album's longest track "The Pestilence". The album finishes with "Under the Guillotine" and for those that demand more the re-release of the album features three extra tracks worth having. Overall Pleasure to Kill is considered a landmark thrash album and whilst I would never put it on the same level as the best offerings from bands like Metallica, Megadeth or Slayer (even though I'm so impressed with it this time) it would still probably rank though as one of the very best thrash albums from Europe over this time period, depending of course on how the listener labels those early Celtic Frost albums. One thing though is certain since starting this journal, Pleasure to Kill must rank as one of the heaviest albums I’ve listened to so far to date. Like other extreme metal offerings Pleasure to Kill would be a huge inspiration to the arriving death metal scene and go onto inspire bands like Morbid Angel amongst many others. Over the next few years and much like the omnipotent Celtic Frost, Kreator wouldn’t be content to rest on their laurels and would evolve into a metal band that would entertain contemporary metal genres to a pretty high standard and issue out some pretty diverse albums later in their discography.

Mlle Petrozza- Guitar/Vocals
Rob Fioretti- Bass
Jurgen Rell- Drums/Vocals

Production- Harris Johns

A powerful resonation of roots-laced hard rock.

The Lowdown
Sacramento band Tesla originally got their name from the scientist that pioneered electricity and started out as a band called Kidd with less than a convincing sound. They then called themselves Tesla and started getting their hard rock roots orientated sound together and then took an even bigger step in landing a plum record contract with Geffen Records. Geffen for their part had emerged in the 1980s as one of the big commercial labels to be on, especially for any band intent on cracking the US market and artists like Sammy Hagar, Whitesnake and Asia had been three of its biggest names throughout the 1980s are far as their heavier entourage went. Geffen were very much an arena rock label and the huge Tesla sound made them the perfect Geffen product and with hard rock now ready to make a return Tesla it seemed had emerged at just the right time. Success though wasn’t immediate for Tesla but album sales gradually pushed the album into the Billboard top 40 taking the album platinum and a lot of those sales were probably due to the band being lumped in with the glam metal crowd. Mechanical Resonancethough is high on this year’s list, quite simply because it’s an album of two faces with the best saved till last and with 53 mins of running time to play with there is plenty on offer. Side one of the album is its commercial face, where the radio-friendly tracks range from your average clichéd/anthemy offerings like "EZ Come EZ Go" "Cumin' Atcha Live" and "Rock Me to the Top" the best of these and are all nicely designed to appeal to the glam metal brigade. I find the bluesy style ballad "We're No Good Together" tiresome and too long but I know fans of the album dig the song. In amongst these are some pretty good tracks which do make side one a worthy listen and these include songs like "Gettin' Better" which after a slow start turns into a grittier affair and then there is the steady rock of "2 Late 4 Love" and across a lot of these tracks, you can easily hear the band's 70's rock influences. Now onto side two and the reason why this album is on this year’s list and also ranked so highly. We kick off with "Modern Day Cowboy" a classic hard rock track with a glorious riff and with just the right kind of volume build to fill out its 5 minutes. The colder sounding "Changes" with its piano investment is another glorious track and my personal favourite from the album with the album closer and demonstrates the superb writing range of the band. In fact Yes on their 90125 album put out a great song also called "Changes" as well... so maybe something in the name there. There is a good cover of "Little Suzie" which turned out to be the band's highest charting single. The groovy sounding "Cover Queen" and the gloomy sounding yet brilliant "Before My Eyes" finishes off the album. All credit for this album goes to vocalist Jeff Keith who had the vocal chops to pull the whole thing off and lead guitarist Frank Hannon a great guitarist whose playing style was clearly embedded in the style of all those great 1970s rock guitarists. Overall Mechanical Resonance is the kind of album that a resurgent Aeromsith should’ve put out at this time with its combination of obvious commercial material and pure album tracks of quality, something that any great AOR band would already know plenty about and this was certainly a template that Tesla adopted on their debut set. Tesla not only laid down a genre legacy on Mechanical Resonance in terms of their musical approach, but their denim wearing image, lack of make-up and gimmicks steered them away from the glam metal crowd. They also didn’t have the sheen of the Van Haga or an AOR band and preferred to simly blast out a much rawer sound. They wrote better songs than bands like Bon Jovi and Whitesnake, and their hard rock sound was distinctly rooted in the 1970s and not in modern heavy metal. Their sound though was contemporary enough to be arena rock sounding and when the album came out it was a great Geffen product. Further fuel to the hard rock fire would be added the following year when bands like Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and The Cult made an even bigger genre profile splash than Tesla with the albums Permanent Vacation, Appetite for Destruction and Electric. finally Mechanical Resonance is laced with certain tracks that were built to last and songs that serve as a perfect example of hard rock at its very best...... so step forward "Changes" and "Before My Eyes".

Jeff Keith- Vocals
Frank Hannon- Guitar/Keyboards
Tommy Skeoch- Guitar
Brian Wheat- Bass
Troy Luccketa- Drums

Production- Steve Thompson

First time I ever heard Tesla was "Cumin' Atcha Live" from GTA: Vice City, and it was one of my favs from that game. And yeah, "Modern Day Cowboy" is ****ing badass. One problem I have with this album, though, is that it's stuck a little bit too in the middle between glam metal and "real" rock, and so it comes across as just a tad too polished and tepid to be anything more than a product of its time.

I'd say the glam metal is what the record label wanted the band to put out and the real rock is what the band wanted, so we ended up with this type of compromise.

I'd be curious to hear any demos or bootlegs, pre-record deal. Or some of the albums from their reunion in the mid-00s, which seem to have some good ratings on RYM.

But some of those glam anthems, like "Cumin' Atcha Live" actually sound more Quiet Riot than Poison, or maybe Def Leppard with the balls of Too Fast for Love-era Motley Crue, so I'm not knockin' the band, I just don't see them as quite top shelf as a whole.

They were perhaps the first wave of glam bands who were taking a step back from all the hair spray and vapid trash that was going on around them from the second-wave wannabes. A precursor to bands like Guns N Roses I suppose (though I'd gladly take them over GNR any day of the week.)

Oh, and I've finally updated the index, so aside from the Tesla entry it is now current again.

I reckon Geffen has said we want you to do glam anthems like Quiet Riot (due to that band being one of the biggest sellers from the genre)

To be fair it has been years since I listened to a lot of their albums and so the debut I really enjoyed when I listened to it again, I remember it being on one of your survival battles as well.

Yes they were a precursor to bands like GNR and other bands like the Cult were hitting it big as a rock band around this time as well.

I believe I almost used Mechanical Resonance, but changed it at the last minute for a Skid Row album or something. Might have chosen differently on another day of the week, though.

Well that explains why I couldn't remember on how well it did in your survivor battle.

The Lowdown
Noble Savage would be the breakthrough album from Virgin Steele towards finally consolidating their own unique sound. This New York band would become one of the premier Amercian power metal bands around this time as well, largely thanks to the incorporation of guitarist Edward Pursino an old friend of vocalist and principal songwriter David DeFeis. The Virgin Steele sound was a brand of power metal firmly entrenched between traditional heavy metal and epic rock in the vein of Dio era Rainbow. Blended into their overall sound were touches of symphonic rock, further enhanced by the use of medieval and jazz influences which certainly gives Virgin Steele the metal diversity label with a capital D and this sound would be explored more fully over ensuing albums. The band’s compositions at times were often complex in their arrangements and the band seemed to have no problems in filling out their albums with consistently strong tracks, that drift between muscle style metal efforts and those searching your soul type of track listens that band’s like Queensryche would also excel in. In fact the Queensryche comparison is somewhat interesting as both band’s some years earlier had been tipped for metal stardom some year’s earlier, but up until this moment only Queensryche had hinted at this expectation. Noble Savage would demonstrate a lot of these traits, but by and large its execution is more of a predictable outcome with the band relying on a lot on their own metal influences on a number of the tracks, but of course there are some Virgin Steele nuggets tucked away here. The album cover for Noble Savage could easily be mistaken for something that could’ve adorned a Manowar album, but given that Virgin Streele as a band were pretty much entrenched in Greek mythology the album cover is perfectly acceptable here. The high and mighty starts with “We Rule the Night” which feels like a galloping Iron Maiden track meets Manowar and David DeFeis could easily be mistaken for Bruce Dickinson here as well. “I’m on Fire” with its Van Halen style guitar intro quickly kicks into an Armoured Saint rhythm which means it sounds pretty cool. Rocking staples include the title track “Noble Savage” which is a track I really dig a lot and it’s probably the most ambitious effort on the album. The band showed that they know how to write a catchy metal sounding single with the excellent "The Evil in Her Eyes" which title wise sounds like a nod to Dio era Rainbow and I just love David DeFeis's vocals on this song and everything here works much better than the following "Don't Close Your Eyes". The album closes on the glorious "Angel of Light" a more typical track from the band, despite having some dated keyboard dabblings in places and the searching your soul efforts here come in the brevity of the instrumental “Image of a Faun at Twilight”. A re-issue of the album comes with six bonus tracks which really increases the listening time of the album quite a bit and there are some worthy tracks here as well. Across the album the vocal range of David DeFeis is credible to say the least especially if you’re into that gruffer Bruce Dickinson vocal style and this powerhouse screamer was also a talented artist that played keyboards and piano, was album producer and he was also responsible for writing the lion’s share of the material on the album. Noble Savage remains an important piece in any power metal collection and one of those crucial building bricks of the power metal legacy despite having disparities in its make-up. Despite being a rated album in general, a number of fan reviews for the album rate it as being a flawed effort and not to the height of some of the band’s later releases. Personally I find Noble Savage a credible album whose only drawback might be its references to other artists, which are not always disguised that well. Noble Savage might not fit into a lot of top 10’s in 1986 but it gets into mine because of the band’s importance to the power metal sub-genre.

David DeFeis- Vocals/Keyboards
Edward Pursino- Guitar
Josh Block- Bass
Frank Gilchriest- Drums

Production- David DeFeis

The Lowdown
Despite being one of those bands that neatly fitted into ‘the thrash metal boom’ Metal Church were certainly a perfect example of a band that straddled the line between thrash metal and power metal. At this time there was still a thin line between thrash metal and North American power metal in terms of musical approach and Metal Church captured that fusion perfectly, which makes a lot of their early releases prime metal material. The thrash connection with the band was always going to be strong anyway, especially since the band had prime touring companions in a certain Anthrax and Metallica who of course would shatter the boundaries of heavy metal in 1986 with Master of Puppets. The Band’s second album The Dark would crack the US Billboard 100 chart and also continue with the band’s tacky thrash looking album covers, this one was certainly less in the eye candy department than the debut imo but has a similar approach. The early Metal Church line-up is often cited as their classic and top dogs here David Wayne and the big man Kurdt Vanderhoof dominate the writing credits with a selection of consistently strong offerings. The album would be produced by Mark Dodson whose production work over the years would pretty much cover the heavy metal spectrum. The album quickly gets down to business with the frantic drumming intro of “Ton of Bricks” and then quickly goes into the ruthless sounding vocals of David Wayne and the speed metal riffs of Kurdt Vanderhoof and Craig Wells. This song then leads into the bad ass licks of “Start the Fire” and as I’ve often said numerous times on this journal, this is just the kind of metal I really dig and this track has some tongue-in-cheek nods to Metallica in its execution, and often cited as a fan favourite to boot as well. The title track “The Dark” is suitably brutish in its execution to be a title track and is interestingly placed on about the halfway point of the album. Songs like “Method to Your Madness” come across as more disjointed in their approach and I’m certain this is where critics attack the band’s musical direction at this time. Then there are tracks like “Over My Dead Body” and “Psycho” which are fairly routine thrash type offerings, while “Line of Death” is without doubt the best of these type of tracks. The album is rounded of with “Burial at Sea” a deep and more interesting track than some of the band’s more thrash orientated tracks on the album and album closer “Western Alliance” follows in much the same mold. The most epic track on the album is “Watch the Children Pray” with its acoustic intro that gradually enters into a grandiose power metal sound, with some pretty heavy sections being applied to it and it’s a track that really shows how great Metal Church were at grinding out these kind of compositions when they wanted to and imo showed that they had more depth than just offering thrash type numbers. The Dark would be the final album without dynamic vocalist David Wayne, who I once described on a previous review as a cross between Savatage’s Jon Oliva and Accepts’s Udo Dirkscheneider in the vocal department, he would sadly leave the band due to drug issues and Mike Howe would finally take over. The Dark is a worthy entry onto Rock Hard’s ‘The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time’ and pretty essential listening from this period as well for anybody into thrash metal meets traditional heavy metal, and the album is also cited as an influence on a number of bay area thrash bands around this time as well, so it’s well worth the listen.

David Wayne- Vocals
Kurdt Vanderhoof- Guitar
Craig Wells- Guitar
Duke Ericksson- Bass
Kirk Arrington- Drums

Production- Mark Dodson

So whatever happened to this. You have at least got to go to 1990-92 my Unknown Soldier.

He hasn't been around for months. No idea why.

A: dammit power metal's too good.
B: I forgot about Soldier.

It's your fault.

Well maybe it's for the better, he likes all that cheesy Y & T rock opera sounding stuff.

I mean he snubbed Highway to Hell for the Scorpions, I can understand if say the album was Love at First Sting...but cmon. In fact he leaves a lot of good rocking straight up riff bands out.

Take that UN :)

Good point. I just wish he'd left before we had to read about every single ****ty Scorpions album ever made.