No NWOBHM thread is going to be complete without a Motorhead album, so this album is the fifth essential to have.


Like Iron Maiden Motorhead need no introduction and this group were the dirtiest, meanest and toughest hard rock, heavy metal, revved up rock n roll or whatever you want to call them band around. "Los Tres Hombres" Lemmy Kilmister, Philthy Animal Taylor and Fast Eddie Clarke just didn`t give a f*uck, they`d step up, plug in and play away. The Ace of Spades was one of a number of shiiiiiit kicking albums they put out in the 79-82 time period and it came off the back of the Overkill and Bomber albums of 1979. The album is loud, fast and furious and helped to lay down the foundations of the future thrash sound, but it was Lemmy who was the beast`s engine with his high octane vocals and that dirty sounding bass and he was f*ucking horrible!

One of the first albums I ever bought, and it still rules. Ugly music for ugly people.

Sixth essential album has to be this and IMO its also one of the very best recorded by any NWOBHM band.


Angel Witch in essence were very different to the other metal bands that have been posted so far, besides relying on a dark intense feel to their sound they were also extremely melodic, more melodic than any band featured so far and they were full of great dark lyrical content, they basically covered a musical territory that only Diamond Head would also tread. They were another 3-piece band like both Raven and Motorhead and they were fronted up by guitarist and vocalist Kevin Heybourne and in their early years often co-headlined with Iron Maiden. Not only would this album appeal greatly to metal fans but punk and new-wave fans would also be sure to enjoy this gem as well. The group though, were the prefect example of being a one-album wonder as their second release didn`t come out until 1985, 5 years later and by this time their flame had long gone out.

I was waiting to see if you'd include this, and you didn't disappoint. It's got a very raw sounding production like Maiden's debut, yet very melodic, very well thought out and at times both catchy and complex. From what I gathered, they weren't very good live because they were led by a lead guitarists who also did the lead vocals, and brilliant as he was, couldn't handle both choirs very well in concert.

Another great choice. I think I can sum up my feelings about Angel Witch by saying this: YOU'RE AN ANGEL WITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU'RE AN ANGEL WITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe it was for the reasons that you have suggested, that they decided to hire a vocalist for their second album 5 years later, but by then it was really too late for them.

Seventh essential album is from one of the most influential metal bands ever.


Like Raven they hailed from Newcastle, but whereas Raven like most bands of their ilk were proficient musicians, Venom bordered on being just f*uckin useless, so to hide this deficiency, they played super fast to cover up their inabilities. Lemmy accused them of faking it, Henry Rollins called them and their stage show just hilarious and they even had portable stand up fans on-stage to make their hair blow, hell! they even made Manowar look good! As for the production on this album, it didn`t just sound like a demo, but it sounded like a really bad demo....so what the f*uck is this band even doing on this list! Well, they almost single-handedly created the extreme metal genres of thrash, black and death metal and inspired thousands of bands. So just take the album for what it is and that is a fast, furious piece of metal with evil lyrics to die for. Hell!.....this band had some real balls to get up on-stage and do what they did, and for that reason alone they`re essential.

^I like that album a quite bit actually. I've always thought it had an interesting style with, oddly enough, a slight hint of rockabilly in the mix. They're also the only other band I can think of that I listen to when I'm in the kind of mood that makes me want to listen to Motorhead.

You can hear hints of rockabilly through that production!!! Wish I had your ears.

And how do you rate that cover?:laughing:

Heh. I know it sounds funny but in some weird way I feel like both the vocals and the drums have this very subtle rockabilly thing going on here and there. "Live Like an Angel, Die Like a Devil" is a pretty good example of what I'm talking about:



As far as the godawful album covers from this era of metal go it's far from the worst offender. At least they tried to go kind of an iconic/minimalistic route with it instead of something as atrocious as that Samson cover you posted earlier. :laughing: