The Yearly Metal Project (With a Twist - See inside): 1982

BTW, we're about to start seeing more actual Metal albums and soon there will be less focus on the hard rock/pop side of things (at least until the late 80s). I'm probably going to miss a lot of albums, either intentionally or by mistake, so if there are any albums you think should be on the list for any given year send me a pm and I will include it!
 
Zep's Presence is one of the very few occasions where it's absolutely okay if you buy an album because of one song. Yes, Achilles. That's your quintessential hard rock/metal education to you. My #1 Zeppelin song (barely beating No Quarter) and one of the few reasons to play any LedZep for my nowadays. The rest of the album isn't bad, but that one is so overwhelmingly excellent that the comparison would be unfair anyway.

Sabbath's Ecstasy definitely isn't their worst album and as far as I know it isn't even considered to be one (I believe Never Say Die would fill that spot). It has some good songs and one absolute must-have gem - You Won't Change Me. That's an amazing song, IMHO probably even better than anything on Vol. 4, for example.

Queen - A Day At the Races holds a very special place in my heart. That's pretty much all I can say. But I love even Drowse, seriously.

Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny - somewhat overrated, IMHO. I prefer Sin After Sin, but to each his own, I guess. Still, a very good album and the influence is undeniable.

Rush - 2112 - I'll try to dissect this one soon in the Rush discography thread.

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak/Johnny the Fox - Now that's a duo. Any objections? Anyone will try to put down Running Back or Massacre? I didn't think so. Also, Emerald is a must-have, as far as every Maiden fan is concerned. I'm serious.
 
Jailbreak is one of my favourite albums and Johnny has a lot of good material.
Pretty hard to believe they put all of that music out in one year.
@JudasMyGuide much praise for the Running Back love. Such a great little pop rock song.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Sabbath's Ecstasy definitely isn't their worst album and as far as I know it isn't even considered to be one (I believe Never Say Die would fill that spot). It has some good songs and one absolute must-have gem - You Won't Change Me. That's an amazing song, IMHO probably even better than anything on Vol. 4, for example.
Click to expand...
Oops, meant to say one of the worst, not the worst. But it's close. Definitely the worst of the Ozzy era, just slightly better than Never Say Die.
 
Rainbow - Rising --classic! So glad I got to see Dio play "Stargazer" live when he opened for Maiden in 2003

KISS - Rock and Roll Over -- one of my favorite lps by KISS from the 70's. I have always felt Destroyer was over hyped. RARO is a much harder lp.

Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy -- love "All Moving Parts", "Rock n Roll Doctor", "Dirty Women", & "It's Alright"

Rush - 2112 - classic beyond words.

Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny - yes "Vicitim of Changes" is better live but I still prefer the studio versions of "The Ripper" due to the production that makes this song louder than the rest of the lp. Also like this studio version of "Tyrant" better as the chorus sounds better on studio version. "Genocide" I like most of the live version better, until the end of the song where I prefer the studio version. Of course, there is that age old argument about which side is REALLY side one...
 
Destroyer must have been Kiss' biggest studio album, right?
It's uneven, but Detroit and Thunder are possibly the band's two finest songs.
 
Definitely, it's their Number of the Beast. But, like Terrell, I much prefer Rock and Roll Over, which is like their Piece of Mind. Slightly less famous followup, but much stronger material. I also could never get into Destroyer's production because it's way too polished. I prefer Kiss when they sound raw, when they're trying to capture their live sound. There are much better live versions of the best Destroyer songs.
 
Things were getting heavier here. No Heavy Petting still has many elements of arena rock, but there is a frenetic energy too on some of the songs, combined with an occasional taste of something more substantial in Schenker's tone and riffing that was laying the ground for classic metal. Priest was moving in this direction too, while still hanging on to some doomier Sabbath feel. Rising adds a more epic, mythological flavour to the balls out Highway Star side of Purple and may be the year's finest creation.
 
After listening to all these Alice Cooper albums, Destroyer was a really ear opening experience. You really see how much the producer can make a difference on an album, as this is very much in the same vein as Alice's Welcome To My Nightmare, also produced by Bob Ezrin. The sound effects, the orchestra, the larger than life sound, these are key traits of both albums. So for an album I don't particularly like, this was at least a fresh way of hearing it. Unfortunately I think it fits Alice better, I like Kiss better when they're a bit more raw. Live sounding. Because of this, Destroyer isn't an album I go for much. The best songs on there were played live plenty of times and sound much better that way. A lot of the studio things they did with this album just makes a lot of the songs fall flat to me. I can't stand the ultra reverb guitars on God of Thunder, for example. Now my favorite Kiss albums tend to be ones with a good amount of songs that aren't overplayed live, so you get a bit of variety. The songs on Destroyer that don't get played live are really bad, so they don't have that going for them either. Flaming Youth is pretty good though.

On the other hand Rock and Roll Over is 0ne of my favorites. Back to the raw sound I love, but not so raw that it sounds like it was written in a tin can. If you were to ask me what a Kiss studio album should sound like, this is it. Like Hotter Than Hell, there aren't a lot of songs that survived the setlists, which is unfortunate because the live footage that does exist of these songs is awesome. I think only Calling Dr. Love went on to become a staple. I love the one-two punch of I Want You and Take Me, probably the strongest opening to a Kiss album. The "filler" on this album is still good. Definitely stronger than the filler on any of the previous albums with the exception of Hotter Than Hell. Baby Driver in particular is a cool song that shows Peter Criss going back to singing rock instead of sappy ballads. But there is Hard Luck Woman, which is a bit of a sappy ballad, but also a really great song and better than Beth. I highly recommend the unplugged version with Paul Stanley on vocals, which is a cool reimagining of the song. The closing song, Making Love, is another song among Kiss' best. It's definitely one of those songs with a strong start, a strong finish, and a pretty good middle. Many Kiss albums have a strong start and that's it. :D I think the vibe of this album is what Kiss has currently been trying to recapture, but it just doesn't have that charm.
 
Four years before Iron Maiden released their debut album, Led Zeppelin invented the gallop on Achilles Last Stand. No way Steve Harris wasn't listening to this. Queen had a bit of a gallop on Keep Yourself Alive, but this really takes it to the next level, with a much higher tempo. There's a sense of urgency to it that would later define songs like The Trooper. Certainly an early example of a Heavy Metal epic. Like Physical Graffiti, I missed Presence during my initial Zeppelin phase. I'm listening to it for the very first time now, although I was familiar with Achilles, Nobody's Fault But Mine and Candy Store Rock already.

This is a very Page influenced album, more so than usual at least. So it's going back to the guitar driven sound of the first four albums, which is conducive to heavier music. Punk had started to explode by now and you can hear Zep trying to channel that punk aggression but in their own way. There isn't really anything especially commercial here. Even the bluesier songs here are much heavier than they were 5 years earlier. The album is a bit of a let down after Achilles, although Nobody's Fault But Mine and Tea For One are nice. Nothing on the album is bad, but nothing lives up to Achilles either. Still one of the heavier Zep albums.
 
AC/DC is pretty much written off as not being metal by their own words and by common consensus.
I think if you put High Voltage in the context of 1976, it is metal. There is nothing else going on that has that much electricity, that much punch.

The rhythm guitars are fat and chunky, the leads take centre stage regularly and Scott's voice has that rough edge. You can't listen to British Steel and Blackout and High and Dry and other metal albums of the turn of the decade and tell me they don't owe something to what the Young brothers were doing here.

High Voltage is such a fun, cheeky album, simple, catchy and — as Cornfed has pointed out on here before — it really swings.
The rhythm section bounces and Bon has so much devilish charm.

Really, they bottled what Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard did two decades earlier and added loud power chords, booze, cigarettes and buckets of ADHD
So lock up your daughters and lock up your wives and lock up your back doors and run for your lives — that's what rock'n'roll is all about.
 
Mosh said:
Four years before Iron Maiden released their debut album, Led Zeppelin invented the gallop on Achilles Last Stand. No way Steve Harris wasn't listening to this. Queen had a bit of a gallop on Keep Yourself Alive, but this really takes it to the next level, with a much higher tempo. There's a sense of urgency to it that would later define songs like The Trooper. Certainly an early example of a Heavy Metal epic.
Click to expand...
Here another gallop, just like Achilles Last Stand, also recorded in November - December 1975:
source
It was originally recorded a year earlier for Sad Wings of Destiny, but not included on that album. This early version appears on The Best of Judas Priest, Hero, Hero, and some remasters of their first album, Rocka Rolla.
Click to expand...
The Sad Wings album was one of Steve's favourite albums, so I bet he knew this one as well.
 
Last edited:
:facepalm: I knew I was forgetting one. Diamonds and Rust is a big one too.
 
Nothing to be ashamed of! The famous version is from 1977 (Sin After Sin). And this alternative (more rare) one was recorded during the Sad Wings sessions and released later than the more known version, namely in 1978 for the first time, on the compilation The Best of Judas Priest.

220px-Judas_Priest_-_1978_-_The_Best_Of_Judas_Priest.jpg
 
I really like that version of Diamonds and Rust, especially the bridge. I didn't know its timeline of appearances though. So even though it was recorded around the same time as Achilles, Steve likely heard it afterwards.

Just listened to A Day At the Races, not one of my favorite Queen albums. Given its title, when I heard it the first time I expected something with a similar variety and flow found on the previous album. Instead we get some good material, but also some really bland material too. Not a lot of memorable moments on this album. On the other hand, I suppose both A Night At the Opera and A Day At the Races match up pretty well with the films they're named after as far as quality goes. :D
 
terrell39 said:
Of course, there is that age old argument about which side is REALLY side one...
Click to expand...
So to mix things up a bit on an album I know well for this discussion, I decided to listen to Sad Wings with the sides reversed, as it was originally intended. Turns out my pressing of the album doesn't have prelude! So I'm not getting the full experience, but close enough I guess. It's this version: https://www.discogs.com/Judas-Priest-Sad-Wings-Of-Destiny/release/4557486

It's probably because I'm used to it, but I think Victim Of Changes works better than Tyrant as an opening track. I also think Island of Domination is a better closer than Deceiver. I always thought the tracking on the album was weird anyway, regardless of what side is first. Either way, you can't beat the opening salvo of Victim and The Ripper.

All that said, Sad Wings is still an awesome album and heavier than what most of their contemporaries were putting out. It's especially apparent listening to this after the Sabbath album released this year, which is far less heavy. The old guard is starting to be replaced by a much heavier and energetic generation of Metal bands, with Priest leading the charge. I did notice that this actually isn't as much of a departure from Rocka Rolla as I remembered. It's definitely more improved and different, but feels like the same band. Just better songs.
 
"Clunker"? "Controversial"?? A "bit of a let down after Achilles"??!! Presence is a goddamn masterpiece. Only 1976 releases that matched or bettered it were High Voltage and, of course, Rising.
 
I think it's safe to say that it's the most divisive Zeppelin album. There seems to be a consensus on everything else, but I've seen strong love and hate for Presence. I'm with Judas on this one. Nothing about the album is bad, it's just that Achilles sets the bar so high and the other songs don't come close to reaching it. I'll take the implication that it's a clunker though.

As for best of 76, I'm going to go with Rising, Dirty Deeds (prefer it slightly to High Voltage), and Sad Wings of Destiny. There are still some albums on here I need to listen to though and I would like to give Agents of Fortune a few more chances. On first listen it wasn't as good as Secret Treaties, but it had a lot going on too. Rock and Roll Over and Rocks are both great albums for the standards of their respective bands, but aren't nearly as good as the three I named.
 
Was waiting for your take on Agents of Fortune.
It's a very adventurous album with varied results.

Summer of Love sets the right tone as the opener - very badass fuck the flower children announcement and catchy too.
Side one closes with a pair of excellent songs: ETI is built around a brilliant hesitation riff, soaring chorus and loads of tasty guitar licks; Gemini has a nasty groove, great transitions and a brief killer solo - real tight band track.
I'm not quite sure what True Confessions is, but it's actually not a bad little offbeat song, but it should be an unsung nugget buried on side two. It woefully out of place as song two on an otherwise very strong opening side.
Reaper is, of course, Reaper.
Sinful and Vampire are two of the heavier songs, but they cross the line into parody and don't work for me. Denise is one of those schlocky ballads every 70s rock band figured they needed on an album. Tenderloin is OK.
Morning Final has a cool hypnotic groove and is the highlight of side two.

Pretty uneven effort IMO. High highs and low lows.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top