Top ten albums of 1992

1-Sleep-Sleep's Holy Mountain

Great stoner rock, a real stripped down feel.

2-WASP-The Crimson Idol

Blackie Lawless had come a long ways as a songwriter.

3-Dream Theater-Images and words

I played this album to death back in 92-93.

4-Trouble-Manic Frustration

I actually liked these guys better in the 90's than I did in the 80's.

5-Thought Industry-Songs for insects

Insane and brilliant.

6-Obituary-The end complete

Loved it since the first time it knocked me senseless.

7-Deicide-Legion

Mean and relentless album. The lyrics are crap, but you understand them anyhow.

8-Bolt Thrower-The IVth Crusade

Pure chaotic noise from this sometimes overlooked band.

9-Helmet-Meantime

This album was simple yet it hit me hard back then.

10-Tie- Star Star-The lovedrag years and Shooting Gallery-s/t

Virtual unknowns Star Star connected on their second album.

I might be the only one that liked Andy McCoy's short lived Shooting Gallery, but what a great real glam album it was.

Ten things I think about hard rock and metal in 1992

When I started this blog almost seven years ago one thing I wanted to do was briefly reflect on metal from twenty years ago. So each year I make a top ten album list from the year that was twenty years ago and my 1992 list is coming soon. The other thing I do each year is a lits where I reflect on ten things I think about metal from that year. My perspective now may be different from what it was back then. The year 1992 was a bit of an odd year. The musical wave of heavy music was changing as grunge was in full swing and plenty of metal and hard rock acts were either getting the axe from their labels or really feeling the heat. So here are ten things I think about metal and hard rock in 1992.

1-With Fear of the dark Iron Maiden proved that No prayer for the dying was no fluke, they were having serious problems.
2-This was a big year for death metal, maybe one of if the best ones of the decade.
3-It was also a fine year for doom and stoner rock too even though that genre was still a few years away from the seeing a real explosion of bands.
4-Revenge from KISS was a decent attempt to be better, but the results were just alright. However it was enough to keep KISS afloat during a rough time for hard rock.
5-Despite being a big fan of John Bush I still think firing Joey Belladonna and hiring John Bush was not a good move. Anthrax were better with Belladonna and Bush was better with Armored Saint.
6-Tora Tora's Wild America isn't very original, but it's a very catchy album.
7-No matter how many time I have played Black Sabbath's Dehumanizer I still think it's a mixed bag at best.
8-Thought Industry's debut "Songs for insects" was one of the most original albums in some time, but the band never quite came close that level again.
9-As poor as Def Leppard's Hysteria was 1992's Adrenalize was even worse.
10-Despite the changing musical climate G-n-R were still huge even in a year where they were just touring. It's a shame that a new album of original songs wasn't coming any time soon.

Top ten hard rock/metal live albums

I like lists a whole lot. Can't remember if I did a live album list on here before or not. Even if I did ignore it because here's my current one. Here they are in order. Agree, disagree or add your list if you like. I may post a top five most disappointing live albums later today. Yes, I do realize that all of these were made in the 70's and 80's. I tried hard to think of a live album done since 1990 that could be in the top ten. While there have been some good ones, I couldn't think of any that were deserving enough to make this list. So here they are in order.

1-Iron Maiden-Live after death
2-Ted Nugent-Double live Gonzos
3-Judas Priest-Unleashed in the east
4-Hanoi Rocks-All those wasted years
5-Motorhead-No sleep 'til Hammersmith
6-Rush-All the worlds a stage
7-UF0-Strangers in the night
8-Scorpions-Tokyo Tapes
9-Black Sabbath-Live at last
10-Raven-Live at the inferno

Anytime, anywhere

I may have done this topic before, but my answers change so I'll tackle it again. I like a lot of albums, but there are ones I only listen to every once in awhile. On the other end of the spectrum are those albums I could listen to at any given time. So here's the challenge list ten hard rock or metal albums that you could listen to at any time without getting bored of them and you can only use an artist once. Here goes.


1-Iron Maiden-The number of the beast
2-Van Halen-Fair Warning
3-Black Sabbath-Sabbath bloody sabbath
4-Hanoi Rocks-Back to mystery city
5-Led Zeppelin-Houses of the holy
6-Medieval-Medieval Kills
7-WASP-The last command
8-Budgie-Never turn your back on a friend
9-Overkill-Feel the fire
10-Prong-Cleansing

***Feel free to add your own list.

Best Albums Of 1991

Andy's Choices-

In 1991 I was a junior in high school. I was 17 and had no idea what I wanted out of life. I was out of touch with life around me and felt like an outcast in my own skin. Music was an escape for me. I certainly never tried to follow the trends of the day fashion wise or music wise. I attended school in a small town with small minded people. In the days of Garth Brooks and MC Hammer I was an island in and of myself. The following are my ten favorite metal albums of 1991. No particular order and obviously some have stood the best of time better than others.


1)Sepultura-Arise: Mind blowing thrash. Probably my favorite album from 1991.


2)Metallica-The Black Album: At the time I had convinced myself that this was the future of metal. Now I look back and realize this was the beginning of the end for Metallica. I did a lot of drugs in those days which probably explains a lot!


3)Ratt-Ratt & Roll: I am not ashamed to admit I've always loved Ratt. Out Of the Cellar is one of the greatest hard rock releases of all times. This best of collection is just plain awesome.


4)Guns -N-Roses- Use Your Illusion 1&2: Yes, this is actually two albums. Yes, Guns N' Roses are a band people love to hate. And finally yes, I hate to admit to liking these. Thing is both albums have good tracks, so-so tracks and some real dogs. I made myself a compilation of the best off of both. I just liked the pissed off attitude and anger these showed. Slash was on fire and his playing was just so powerful.


5)Death-Human: Man, I love Death. Probably the best death metal band of all time. Human was another masterpiece for Chuck and company.


6)Soundgarden-Badmotorfinger: Is this metal? Or is it just "grunge"? I fought long and hard about whether to include this. I'm sure I will get flack for this but I think it's more metal than people give it credit for. Some of the riffs on this record are just crazy good. It's loud, heavy and aggressive and one of my favorites of my Junior year.


7)Motorhead-1916: What can I say other than it's Motorhead!


8)Bolt Thrower-War Master: Another underrated album that no one seems to have ever heard. This will blow the roof of any metal heads foundations!


9)Armoured Saint-Symbol Of Salvation: With a sound all their own Armoured Saint's Symbol is classic metal. A powerful example of straight up heavy metal!


10)Dark Angel-Time Does Not Heal: Another thrash release that showed the power of the genre at a time when thrash metal was not in vogue. Dark Angel wasn't flashy but they got the job done.


Honestly this was a hard task. There were some albums that could have been on my list: Releases from Slayer, Tourniquet and Mortification. Also at the time I was listening to a demo by Affliction (USA) that was better than most of what was going on with thrash metal. I would have included it but as it was only a demo I decided to skip it. All in all 1991 was a decent year for metal.




Metal Mark's choices-


One of the main projects I wanted to do when this blog started six years ago was to go back and re-evaluate my top ten albums of the year for the year that was twenty years ago. So I have done that and I asked Andy if he would like to post his list this year too and he agreed. So now you get two views on 1991. This was kind of an odd year. I say that because although 1991 was a good year for a metal we also saw grunge really knock metal/ hard rock out of favor rather quickly. This was a gradual build-up that I think started back around 1989 and grunge had been growing since then, but in 1991 it exploded and popular music trends for the rest of the decade would never be the same. For metal it was a fine year. Lots to choose from. So here are my picks.

1-Armored Saint-Symbol of salvation
Four years since their last studio LP. In between that time Dave Pritchard passed away and they lost their record deal. They bounced back, filled in the band, got signed to Metal Blade and put out the best album of 1991.

2-Prong-Prove you wrong
My favorite metal band of the 1990's even though they broke up like 2/3 of the way through the decade. The follow-up to Beg to differ had more industrial touches, but it was also more adventurous in a lot of ways as well.

3-Overkill-Horrorscope
Darker than some of their previous albums, but it shreds and hammers it's way through. One of their bet albums.

4-Death-Human
I had been following them since their debut, but on this album they really beginning to bring a strong technical element into the death metal sound they had been playing for the previous three outings. The results were spectacular.

5-Sepultura-Arise

Like a wall of sound hitting you in the face. An overwhelming album in many ways.


6-Ozzy-No more tears

Hard to believe that it's been twenty years since the last good Ozzy album. Actually I think this is the third best of solo career coming in after the first two releases.


7-Metal Church-The Human factor
Often overlooked album. It didn't sell all that well, but boy did I play my cassette of it over and over in 1991.

8-Voivod-Angel Rat

I tend to like their first two albums a lot and didn't enjoy them as much when they branched out. Except the quirky nature of this album struck a chord with me.


9-Soundgarden-Badmotorfinger

My favorite Soundgarden album. It's loud, heavy and in your face. This was another one I played to death on my Walkman back then.


10-Morbid Angel-Blessed are the sick

None of their other albums hit me like this one. An intense attack that strikes and never lets up.

***I really liked Motorhead's 1916 and Roll the bones from Rush back in 1991, but neither has aged very well. If I could have picked the best songs off of the Use you illusions, trimmed down the fat and made one album than it would have made my top ten. As it is there is just too much filler on those albums. Honorable mention to Heathen's Victims of deception which just making the list. Biggest disappointments of the year would be C.O.C's mediocre Blind and Helloween's odd Pink bubbles go ape.

Ten 1980's albums that I overrated

In no real order here they are.

Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime
I played this over and over in 1988. A few years later I began to realized how lame the story was and how average several of the songs were.

Venom-At war with Satan
I was on a huge Venom kick at one point and really thought that their first three albums were fantastic. Eventually it dawned on me that Welcome to hell and Black Metal are quite good, but this the third effort is where the cracks in the armor began to show.

Black -n- Blue-Nasty Nasty
I played this one to death in the fall of 1986. Later I began to see that it has some very good songs on it that still hold up well, but it also has more filler than it should.

KISS-Animalize
I caught up in KISS becoming popular again and the great year of 1984. Looking back this is just alright album that falls around the middle of the pack for the 80's albums by KISS.

S.O.D.-Speak English or die
Most people overrated this one, even Scott Ian does. I played this to death back when it came out. The truth is it's a joke album and some of the jokes work and some don't. COC's "Animosity" and DRI's "Dealing with it" came out the same year and both are far better examples of early crossover.

Quiet Riot-Metal Health
Okay, it's a good album, but not nearly as great as I thought it was in 1983. Back then I probably held it up there with Pyromania and Shout at the devil, but it's definitely not on that level.

Ozzy-The Ultimate Sin
I definitely got caught up in this album. I think that I initially interpreted polished production for heaviness and that wore off after a few years. Decent album, but nothing special.

Dio-Sacred Heart
I bought this one right when it came out and even wore out a cassette. Later it dawned on me that it was a definite step down from the previous two releases.

Nuclear Assault-Game Over
This one I heard when I was full swing into speed metal so I ate it up. Then I later noticed how sloppy some of the songs were and it certainly could have been heavier.

Manowar-Fighting the world
The first Manowar album I ever heard had me singing along with their cheesy lyrics. Probably half a decade later I came back to it and saw it for the mixed bag that it is.

Top ten albums of 1985

Here they are.

1)Anthrax-Spreading the disease
2)Exodus-Bonded by blood
3)WASP-The last command
4)Over Kill-Feel the fire
5)Armored Saint-Delirious Nomad
6)Celtic Frost-To mega therion
7)Lizzy Borden-Love you to pieces
8)Artillery-Fear of tomorrow
9)Zoetrope-Amnesty
10)Helloween-Walls of Jericho

Let's see Diamond Dave was out of Van Halen, the PMRC created a mess and metal was still growing. This was kind of an odd year. So many big name bands released albums in 1984 so many of them were not ready release albums the following year. A number of the big name bands like AC/DC, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue and KISS released albums that were mediocre or worse. However this was definitely a year where underground metal was growing by leaps and bounds. Thrash was getting ready to explode. I don't consider live albums for these lists. However Iron Maiden's Live after death came out this year and it's easily the best live metal album of the decade if not of all time.

Okay, I am satisfied with the lists I did for 1986-1989. So if you want to see my 1986 list then you can go into the archives for December of 2006. For 1987 check out the December 2007 archives and I did the 1988 and 1989 lists last month. So now I am actually going to journey back to the 1970's. I am going to start with 1979 and work my way back. I have decided to do a top five rather than a top ten. Now I could come up with a good top ten for some of the later years of the decade, but not so much for the very early years. So for the sake of consistency it will be top five lists.

Top ten albums of 1983

Here they are.

1)Iron Maiden-Piece of mind
2)Def Leppard-Pyromania
3)Motley Crue-Shout at the devil
4)Dio-Holy Diver
5)Mercyful Fate-Melissa
6)Hanoi Rocks-Back to Mystery City
7)Metallica-Kill 'em all
8)Motorhead-Another perfect day
9)Satan-Court in the act
10)Twisted Sister-You can't stop rock n' roll

Iron Maiden and Def Leppard pulled to the front of the NWOBHM pack. MTV helped bands like Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Quiet Riot reach larger audiences. Metallica, Slayer and Exciter all released debuts that helped to lay down the foundations for thrash. KISS took off their make-up, more independent labels were popping up and more bands were emerging on both sides of the Atlantic.

***Next week will be my list for 1984. I consider 1984 to be the best year ever for metal. I don't think I could limit myself to just 10 so the list 1984 is going to be a top 25.

Top ten albums of 1989

Wow was 1989 really twenty years ago? I guess it was. Here is my list for what it's worth.

10-Faster Pussycat-Wake me when it's over
Not as fun as their debut, but a fine album for sure.


9-Faith No More-The real thing
A fresh approach that was much needed and appreciated.


8-Bang Tango-Psycho Cafe
Great debut with some much needed fire added to their hard rock sound.


7-Annihilator-Alice in hell
Jeff Waters going crazy on his band's debut.


6-Sepultura-Beneath the remains
The previous album turned some heads, but this one put them on the map.


5-Death-Spiritual Healing
This band finally came into their own and began to carve their niche as the best death metal band of all time.


4-Exodus-Fabulous Disaster
The Steve Souza era finally began to gel.


3-King Diamond-Conspiracy
The story is a bunch of crap, but the music and vocals and fantastic.


2-Overkill-Years of decay
I loved their debut, "Taking over" was alright but noisy and "Under the influence" was weak. By their forth release they were finally back on track.


1-WASP-The Headless Children
These guys were good before, but they came out on fire for this one. Just a huge monster that stands up well even today.

Golden Turd of 1989-Alice Cooper-Trash

Not his first bad album and maybe even not the worst of his career. However he had done "Constrictor" which was decent and the very good "Raise your fist and yell", but then followed them up with this clunker. This was Alice trying to do a sappy hair metal album and it resulted in a limp noodle.

There you go.



On a related note in upcoming weeks I will be re-evaluating my top ten lists for 1980-1984. Back when I started this blog I did those lists in very quick fashion. Then with 1985 I began doing more involved lists. So I will look at the lists from 1980-84 and post again. Maybe there will be some changes due to my tastes or albums I have gone back and heard. We will see.

List with a long name

This list is "Ten hard rock/metal albums from the 1980’s that you may not have heard, but really need to". Not any mega-rarities although a few have never been released on CD and some are out of print. Still these are all very good to great albums that I think more people should hear.

10- Blind Illusion-The sane asylum (1988)
Bay Area speed metal band’s only release and it took them several years and numerous line-up changes to get to this point. It’s very much a speed metal release of the time and the place but far more creative and they took some gambles that largely work.
9-Tigertailz-Young and crazy (1987)
A lot of the glam bands of the day started to all look and sound a like after awhile. Yet the vocals of Steevi Jaimz and the slightly less pop sound of Tigertailz debut pulled me in 21 years ago and it still works for me.
8-Whiplash-Power and pain (1986)
This New Jersey trio actually knocked out several good albums, but none of them matched the intensity or the originality of their whopping debut.
7-Witchfinder General-Friends of hell (1983)
Many NWOBHM bands were trying various different approaches, but these guys reached back to the 1970’s took a page out of Sabbath’s book and added on to out with surprisingly solid results.
6-Artillery-Fear of tomorrow (1985)
Criminally overlooked early speed metal outfit from Denmark. I am not as big on the vocals as I am on the music, but this is a killer. It’s very possible that these guys actually influenced Slayer, Sodom and others.
5-Pentagram-Day of Reckoning (1987)
Perhaps the only doom band that ran parallel to Black Sabbath rather than running behind them. They were knocking some great metal in the 70’s, but most of us didn’t get to hear it until much later. This was a later version of the band that played a much more grim, focused still style of doom and it just further managed to establish this band as one of the best of their genre.
4-Cirith Ungol-King of the dead (1984)
Actually and of their three albums from the 80’s could be on the list, but I think this might be their most consistant effort. A good mix of 70’s and 80 metal plus they combined doom and classic styled metal while making it all look rather easy.
3-Executioner-In the name of metal (1986)
The worst produced album on the list and the lyrics may not be a whole better. Doesn’t matter because they combined early speed metal with a NWOBHM metal sound. Their energy and the raw sound actually helped quite a bit.
2-Zoetrope-Amnesty (1985)
Chicago band who created their own style that pulled in elements of thrash, classic metal and even punk rock. More than anything sounded very comfortable with what they were doing.
1-Medieval-Medieval Kills (1987)
If there was one band who could have changed metal for the better it was this trio who certainly didn’t look like your typical metal band with their short and clean cut image. Yet the music was gritty, heavy, rough and they were probably several years ahead of their time. Unfortunately their label hit a snag and this album didn’t get distributed like it should and many people never had the pleasure of hearing them.



***So there you go.

What's coming up?

The biggest struggle at my house lately was being without our clothes washer for two weeks. We had to wait for a part to be ordered and finally it was fixed today and I could tackle that mountain of stinky clothes. The good news was our warranty covered the repair. Other than that I am still working my way through that stack of CDs I need to review. So this week I hope to have these out this week...

Reviews of...
Yayo-The demos
Violent Force-Malevolent assault of tomorrow (re-issue)
Johnny Crash-Unfinished Business
For Friday-Ekklesia
Your Highness-The grand hooded phantom
and maybe 1-2 more if possible.

Interviews with...
John Ricci of Exciter
David Reece of Bangalore Choir

and maybe a picture of my old back patch if I can get around to it.

***Here are ten things I think about music so far in 2008.

1-It's been a good year so far, but not a great one.
2-So far younger acts are beating the snot out of veteran acts.
3-I have heard a number of good demos from glam bands, but not a lot of good full length albums so far.
4-Like last year the overall best genres so far are doom metal and stoner rock. I would say bands from those genres occupy four-five spots in my top ten albums of the year so far.
5-Byzantine's Oblivion Beckons was the first album I heard this year and it's still the best release of 2008 so far.
6-I have not heard a whole lot of really bad albums so far, which is a good thing.
7-I have not heard a really good old style thrash album yet although I have not heard Testament's new one and Bonded by blood's new one is coming soon.
8-The 2008 release I would most recommend to fans of 1980's hard rock/metal is ShannoN's Angel in disguise.
9-Metal Mind records have released some outstanding re-issue CDs and some fine DVDs so far. A glance at their upcoming releases for the next few months looks just as good.
10-I am glad that Axl Rose's album still hasn't come out.

***Have a great week!

Top Ten most underrated hard rock/metal bands of the 1980's

This is just my opinion, however I have wasted a great deal of my life listening to and reading about these bands so I think that I know something about them. So here they are with the countdown from ten to number one.

10)Medieval-They only made one LP and one EP, but they were fantastic. Unfortunately they were on a label that did very little to help them so one of the most original metal bands of the decade went largely unnoticed.

9)Lizzy Borden-Between 1984 and 1986 they cranked out a few really solid albums that easily blended hard rock and metal.

8)Cirith Ungol-LA band that drew on Sabbath, Pentagram, Budgie and Priest as major influences. The combined elements of doom, classic metal and more as well as adding their own ideas.

7)Raven-They did a few clunkers in the mid-1980's, but their first three LPs were huge influences on the speed metal scene. They also did one of the best live albums of the decade and returned to being a solid band again towards the end of the decade.

6)Accept-Now they sold some albums, but I they got overshadowed by other mid-paced metal acts of the day like Judas Priest and Dio. However, metal bands even today talk about the impact this band had on them. Udo was and is a one of a kind singer (I mean that in a good way) and in their prime (82-85) these guys just went at it.

5)Metal Church-These guys were cranking out killer heavy music from the word go. They were also just as good with second singer Mike Howe as they were with original vocalist David Wayne. I think they got a little lost and left behind due to the rise of speed metal and they were kind of between speed metal and classic metal.

4)Celtic Frost-Perhaps no one else in the 80's defined the heavy aspect of metal more than this band. They also were not afraid to expand and take changes, but "Cold Lake" was not a chance they needed to take. Still they created sounds that are still influencing bands, but they didn't quite get their due back then.

3)Mercyful Fate-These guys were creating so much as they went along and I don't think even they quite understood the immediate impact they would have on the metal scene. Just solid, well played, tight metal all the way around. I think that King Diamond's image and the lyrics caused people to forgot just how good this band was.

2)Armored Saint-Tremendous straight forward real metal band that kept pushing forward despite trends changing around them and lack of support from their record label.

1)Hanoi Rocks-Between 1981 and 1984 they did four studio albums, a live album and an album of b-sides. Every album was at least very good. They combined elements of 70's glam, hard rock, punk and pop with ease. Unfortunately they broke up by the middle of the decade and got overlooked due to the dominance of too many lame hair bands.