You're right, though it was released as Hell Bent For Leather and included The Green Manalishi in the US in 1979. Will edit the post
The Yearly Metal Project (With a Twist - See inside): 1982
- Thread starter Mosh
- Start date
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
The pre-chorus (live) or here (studio) (without words), Cornfed.
Going to pick and choose my way through a few of these while at work.
I had forgotten how good Just A Game is.
A handful of decently catchy party rock tunes sprinkled in with some superior prog and some absolutely delicious guitar playing by Rik Emmett
I had forgotten how good Just A Game is.
A handful of decently catchy party rock tunes sprinkled in with some superior prog and some absolutely delicious guitar playing by Rik Emmett
Already know and love the Leppard and Maiden EPs, but Praying Mantis was outside my experience and was good too.
From the vantage point of four decades it is very easy to see how the NWOBHM arrived into something special.
Those albums combine so many of the cool things going on just prior:
* the catchy riff-based hooks of AC/DC
* the throbbing buzzsaw bass of Motorhead
* The guitar melodies and harmonies of Lizzy.
* The musical ambition of prog, but with the pompous pretension annihilated by the garage sensibilities of punk.
Awesome stuff.
From the vantage point of four decades it is very easy to see how the NWOBHM arrived into something special.
Those albums combine so many of the cool things going on just prior:
* the catchy riff-based hooks of AC/DC
* the throbbing buzzsaw bass of Motorhead
* The guitar melodies and harmonies of Lizzy.
* The musical ambition of prog, but with the pompous pretension annihilated by the garage sensibilities of punk.
Awesome stuff.
Had only heard bits and pieces of Riot before, but as I listen to it, Narita has more in common with the NWOBHM (and UFO/Scorpions) than the '80s American metal scene, which they are generally acknowledged as pioneers of.
This is a kickass instrumental
This is a kickass instrumental
Legs Diamond is another band I had heard of, but never heard.
Not a huge fan, but I am surprised they weren't bigger because they are so commercially accessible and very mainstream FM rock. Maybe a little ahead of their time?
They sound like what Rainbow became.
Lovedrive is the Scorps at their best and probably the best album in what was a transitional year without many classics.
I say probably, because it is hard to find fault with Highway to Hell.
Not a huge fan, but I am surprised they weren't bigger because they are so commercially accessible and very mainstream FM rock. Maybe a little ahead of their time?
They sound like what Rainbow became.
Lovedrive is the Scorps at their best and probably the best album in what was a transitional year without many classics.
I say probably, because it is hard to find fault with Highway to Hell.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
In 1979 Midnight Oil made one of their most energetic albums, Headless Injuries.
This is opener Cold Cold Change, live (cool footage, gotta love the crowd as well!):
And this is the album closer (probably my favourite track from the album due to the melodic guitar playing), Is It Now? (excuse the fucked up audio on YouTube)
Koala Sprint is a song with unexpected changes. Its end is so beautifully haunting (go here). Some of the best song endings ever.
The whole album (only 34 minutes long) in better audio quality:
This is opener Cold Cold Change, live (cool footage, gotta love the crowd as well!):
And this is the album closer (probably my favourite track from the album due to the melodic guitar playing), Is It Now? (excuse the fucked up audio on YouTube)
Koala Sprint is a song with unexpected changes. Its end is so beautifully haunting (go here). Some of the best song endings ever.
The whole album (only 34 minutes long) in better audio quality:
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Lovedrive is where Scorpions get good. Kind of ironic because at this point Uli Jon Roth is out of the band and Michael Schenker is on his way out. These two are probably the most talented and universally recognized members of Scorpions, yet the material they were part of is not very good. Lovedrive just barely beats out Highway To Hell for me. The AC/DC album is great but has a few less remarkable songs. Every song on Lovedrive is a classic. Well maybe except Is There Anybody There. But every other song is a top ten contender.
JudasMyGuide
Ancient Mariner
Well, I like only Virgin Killer and Taken by Force. So far I haven't managed to get into the others, including Lovedrive.
I wouldn't expect anything else from you. 
Kidding. That early stuff definitely has its fans. I like some of it but overall there's a lot of meandering. The more commercial style suited them well IMO, especially because they would still throw curveballs that no doubt came from their early psychedelic/prog/krautrock roots. Take the bridge of Loving You Sunday Morning for example.
Kidding. That early stuff definitely has its fans. I like some of it but overall there's a lot of meandering. The more commercial style suited them well IMO, especially because they would still throw curveballs that no doubt came from their early psychedelic/prog/krautrock roots. Take the bridge of Loving You Sunday Morning for example.
JudasMyGuide
Ancient Mariner
Yeah, it's more like We'll Burn the Sky and Virgin Killer [song] are really awesome 
Actually, I don't mind their pop stuff at all. Apart from Winds of Change, which is terribly overplayed (especially here in Europe), I even enjoy those radio hits. Including Still Loving You and Rock You Like a Hurricane. Even You and I
Actually, I don't mind their pop stuff at all. Apart from Winds of Change, which is terribly overplayed (especially here in Europe), I even enjoy those radio hits. Including Still Loving You and Rock You Like a Hurricane. Even You and I
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
I'm straying a little off topic here, but the early UJR-era Scorpions has some fantastic peaks, but also a lot of filler. Songs like "In Trance," "Sails of Charon" and "Steamrock Fever" are excellent. None of the individual albums is as good as Lovedrive or Blackout as a whole, but this compilation is well worth seeking out (it's out of print), as it really does hit the highlights from that era:
If we're picking favorites, I'd rank the 1979 studio albums listed above in the following order:
1. London Calling
2. Highway to Hell
3. The Wall
4. Lovedrive
5. Hellbent for Leather
But those are just the studio albums, the live albums from 1979 almost steal the show:
1. Strangers in the Night
2. Unleashed in the East
3. Live at Budokan
Jeez, those are three of the best live albums ever, let alone for a single year.
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Thanks for the rec, I've heard all the UJR Scorps albums but I wouldn't mind hearing a compilation of the best material to find if anything new sticks out.
My rankings would go like this:
Studio albums
1: Sheik Yerbouti
2: Dream Police
3: The Wall
4: Lovedrive
5: Hell Bent For Leather
Honorable mentions to AC/DC and The Clash. Not a huge fan of either bands, but those are among their best moments. Definitely the best Clash I've heard, Highway To Hell is probably 2nd or 3rd favorite (#1 is Dirty Deeds). Overkill is also up there.
My live album ranking would be the same as Cornfed's, but with Budokan on top.
I also don't mind Dynasty. The album is mostly remembered for I Was Made For Loving You, but Kiss hasn't yet completely softened their sound (that would come with Unmasked, which is also an album I like). Some good tracks on there. 2000 Man, Dirty Living, Sure Know Something, and Save Your Love are strong.
Here are two that haven't been mentioned yet:
Legend - From the Fjords. The original epic metal album. The entire genre of US Metal that emerged in the mid eighties derives from it. Bands like Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol or Manowar simply would not have happened without this record. It's also one of the first purebred metal albums to have been recorded in the new world that didn't take its inspiration from Led Zeppelin, Kiss or AC/DC. It's nowadays very hard to find a physical copy, but fortunately, some good folks uploaded it on YouTube.
Nokemono - From the Black World. I wouldn't expect anyone to know this one, as I stumbled on it by accident too very recently. But it turns out this was actually was the first Japanese metal album, at a time when Loudness was not even a pipe dream. It's very straightforward heavy rock for the most part, even if it drifts off into psychedelia a bit towards the end of the album. In any case, strongly recommended.
Legend - From the Fjords. The original epic metal album. The entire genre of US Metal that emerged in the mid eighties derives from it. Bands like Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol or Manowar simply would not have happened without this record. It's also one of the first purebred metal albums to have been recorded in the new world that didn't take its inspiration from Led Zeppelin, Kiss or AC/DC. It's nowadays very hard to find a physical copy, but fortunately, some good folks uploaded it on YouTube.
Nokemono - From the Black World. I wouldn't expect anyone to know this one, as I stumbled on it by accident too very recently. But it turns out this was actually was the first Japanese metal album, at a time when Loudness was not even a pipe dream. It's very straightforward heavy rock for the most part, even if it drifts off into psychedelia a bit towards the end of the album. In any case, strongly recommended.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Wow. Into the second track on that Legend album now. These guys have an own face really. As if I'm hearing fusion/proggy musicians doing metal for the first time in history. These guys definitely deserve a place in the history of hard rock / metal, although they are pretty different from most bands. This is good music and very good playing. A shame they didn't make more. I see the guitarist/singer died in 1983.
More here:
http://drumsinhisheart.weebly.com/legend.html
But beware, the site is from the drummer, who denies that the album has anything to do with metal, and it seemed he has turned in a very, very Christian. I can't help thinking it blinded his views somewhat on the music he made.
More here:
http://drumsinhisheart.weebly.com/legend.html
But beware, the site is from the drummer, who denies that the album has anything to do with metal, and it seemed he has turned in a very, very Christian. I can't help thinking it blinded his views somewhat on the music he made.
... In the latter part of 1978 Kevin Nugent, Fred and I were in a small, 8 track studio in New Haven, CT recording the first of what we knew would be a good five albums worth of material to eventually get recorded. We had a lot of music. It was a very fertile time for me, musically speaking, lyrically and all. And the three of us just melded together, musically, as well. But my soul was empty. Drums, everything associated with drums, drumming, music ... I just felt alone and empty. I should mention I became an atheist around 13 years of age. Just stopped considering the existence of a real, personal God. The Bible? Just made up. Stories. Fiction. Ancient myths and ... well, legends. For years I asked questions of schoolmates, other friends, relatives; no one had the answers to my probing questions. Wrong. God allowed a certain set of circumstances to develop around me which began to unravel the shroud of mystery He seemed to be clothed in. Those circumstances led to the evening of March 18, 1979. At 24, right in the middle of our album project, I gave my life to God, to Christ, to a real, personal Savior and Lord. The actual moment of conversion was like my bedroom lighting up and a joy, a peace, a cascading of God's presence flowing through me while I lay in bed , and it was overwhelming. Inexpressible. It was so real it remains a vivid memory 30 years later. And a new path was born.
There wasn't much musical imagination around me in those formative days after my conversion. Drums were frowned upon in the church I joined, no one suggested I think deeply about the instrument and the talents God gave me, and how to employ such in the future, save for a few comments from the Bible worker who studied with me, and a guy who became a close friend in the church, a very marvelous classical pianist; and seeing as I had to pay off the bank loan for the album project, I sold all my drums, cymbals, everything. In many ways I just lost interest, almost overnight, which astounded people close to me. I left Legend, and left behind a lot of confusion for those who just could not figure out what on earth I was doing. But the reality of it, to me, was so profound I saw no other path so strong and so alive. Why couldn't everyone else see it? Hope. I found hope. I found truth. I found love deeper than anything one can imagine. Oh, yes. God is real. And I answered His call.
ASAPH
I owned a small set or two over the next twelve years, but always sold them to get some new equipment for ministry I was in. Got into preaching, teaching, evangelism, seminars, some writing, did some traveling, had a few radio programs, and just kept busy involved in ministry. ...
There wasn't much musical imagination around me in those formative days after my conversion. Drums were frowned upon in the church I joined, no one suggested I think deeply about the instrument and the talents God gave me, and how to employ such in the future, save for a few comments from the Bible worker who studied with me, and a guy who became a close friend in the church, a very marvelous classical pianist; and seeing as I had to pay off the bank loan for the album project, I sold all my drums, cymbals, everything. In many ways I just lost interest, almost overnight, which astounded people close to me. I left Legend, and left behind a lot of confusion for those who just could not figure out what on earth I was doing. But the reality of it, to me, was so profound I saw no other path so strong and so alive. Why couldn't everyone else see it? Hope. I found hope. I found truth. I found love deeper than anything one can imagine. Oh, yes. God is real. And I answered His call.
ASAPH
I owned a small set or two over the next twelve years, but always sold them to get some new equipment for ministry I was in. Got into preaching, teaching, evangelism, seminars, some writing, did some traveling, had a few radio programs, and just kept busy involved in ministry. ...
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My favourite of their studio albums. "Waiting for an Alibi" is the perfect Thin Lizzy song.
So there were two concept albums about the dangers of the music business released by sixties survivors at the end of the seventies. Now imagining a mash-up, with "Don't Leave Me Now" leading straight into "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?"...
The thing about the Buzzcocks, I think, is that they were really just great pop songwriters who happened to work in a punk idiom. Most of the songs would still work as sixties garage rock or eighties jangle pop or whatever. That gives them an edge over most bands from the late seventies punk scene, who tend to sound a lot more dated to that particular era and its aesthetics (which can still be fun, of course).
Here's a b-side showing a different side to the band compared to "Ever Fallen in Love":
Alibi is indeed a signature Lizzy track.
I love Black Rose, but to me it was the beginning of the end of their golden era - a couple ill-considered tracks and a glossy Hollywood production being its biggest sins.
The same type of production and song choice issues plagued BOC's Mirrors, despite the fact they had a few inspired ideas like The Vigil and collaborating with fantasy writer Michael Moorcock.
It seems two of my all-time favourite bands were starting to show the cracks of not being able to follow up their monster hits and were flailing a bit.
Lizzy started to lose touch with the streetwise romanticism at their soul, while BOC was doing the same with their eclectic weirdness.
I love Black Rose, but to me it was the beginning of the end of their golden era - a couple ill-considered tracks and a glossy Hollywood production being its biggest sins.
The same type of production and song choice issues plagued BOC's Mirrors, despite the fact they had a few inspired ideas like The Vigil and collaborating with fantasy writer Michael Moorcock.
It seems two of my all-time favourite bands were starting to show the cracks of not being able to follow up their monster hits and were flailing a bit.
Lizzy started to lose touch with the streetwise romanticism at their soul, while BOC was doing the same with their eclectic weirdness.