Some of the bands I considered for this award were Slayer, Black -n- Blue and Fastway. However ultimately I settled on a band who showed a huge improvement over the course of just one year. So the most improved band of 1986 goes to..................
Dark Angel
In 1985 this LA band released their debut "We have arrived" on tiny Azra records. Honestly it had just a few sparks, but it was very rough in terms of playing writing and production. Then the band changed drummers as they brought in former Slayer roadie Gene Hoglan and they got a record deal with Combat records. The result was 1986's "Darkness Descends" which was a marked improvement. They now sounded like they had some direction and it still remains heavy today. I wouldn't have put "We have arrived" in a list of top 50 albums in 1985. However "Darkness descends' was on my long list of considerations for the top ten of 1986. It didn't make the top ten, but if I had extended the list I think it would have come in around number thirteen. So a huge improvement from those guys and they would actually continue to stay solid into the early 1990's.
It's funny, because I considered Dark Angel, but I was thinking of the improvement from Darkness Descends to Leave Scars and Leave Scars was later, so I ruled that out.
ReplyDeletebob-I always liked this one better than Leave Scars, but have not heard that one in years. I have it on vinyl so I need to give it a listen some time soon.
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