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

Forostar said:
Quite a ride is also The Who's Quadrophenia. Although I haven't heard several other The Who releases, this one certainly clicked immediately. Strong drumming and singing, and I like many of the melodies. Overall, an ambitious project with one of the best album closers ever: Love, Reign o'er Me.
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I hadn't listened to Quadrophenia for years until you posted this. I have fond memories of listening to The Who via my dad's music collection when I was younger, but didn't hear Quadrophenia until later. Listening again, it may be their strongest album. And "Love, Reign o'er Me" is brilliant - one of Daltrey's best performances? Certainly, I feel they were at their peak 1969-1973. I don't remember The Who By Numbers (or anything afterwards) being as good, although I did enjoy "Squeeze Box" when I was younger (being unaware of the innuendo at the time).
 
Mosh said:
This early Blue Oyster Cult stuff is weird. I can't believe I'm listening to the same band that did Don't Fear the Reaper. it's interesting though. Any seasoned BOC fans want to chime in on this one? @mckindog @Dityn DJ James
Also relevant to us Maidenfans is the opening tune: The Red and the Black.
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It is absolutely weird. Off-kilter WTF stuff, particularly lyrically.
I find the first album a little too hippy-ish for me, they get heavier here.
They aren't as heavy as Sabbath on Tyranny, but they have the same sinister vibe

Quicklime is a favourite for me. Hot Rails and the Red and the Black remained live staples for quite some time.
I prefer the live versions of most of the early tracks, like this one of 7 Screaming Dizbusters.

 
I had no idea Pentagram went as far back as they did. That's really cool.

The Blue Oyster Cult has some interesting songs for sure, I liked The Red and the Black fine. Was really just unexpected, I kinda figured they'd be a bit more riff driven and doomy like Sabbath. Looking forward to their later material.
 
Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On a Friend
This classic hasn't got a mention yet. I was first introduced to Budgie by my friend Ian, who has a ridiculously large and eclectic record collection. Budgie was one of his favourite bands as an early-20-something in South Wales at the time, and they are a crucial part of the history of British metal. NTYBOAF is almost certainly the best slice of their discography up to this point. The album opens with the killer riff of their best-known song, Breadfan, which also showcases the the Rush-like vocals of Burke Shelley, which just flow so wonderfully on this track. Other highlights include the short-but-great ballad "You Know I'll Always Love You", drum solo of the year at the beginning of "You're The Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk" (what a title!), and a heavier moment with "In the Grip of a Tyrefitter's Hand." It's not the most metal-ly of 1973's offerings, but it is worth several listens. I mean, just look at the cover...

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They never took themselves too seriously, Budgie, with album titles like "Squawk", "If I were Brittannia I'd Waive The Rules" and album covers like Impeckable:

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Also, Derek Riggs did the cover to their 1981 album Night Flight.
 
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And years later Maiden would cover I Can't See My Feelings from the 75 Budgie album Bandolier. For those who didn't know that :D So safe to that Maiden were/are also big fans of the band.
 
Forostar said:
Quite a ride is also The Who's Quadrophenia. Although I haven't heard several other The Who releases, this one certainly clicked immediately. Strong drumming and singing, and I like many of the melodies. Overall, an ambitious project with one of the best album closers ever: Love, Reign o'er Me.
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So you're coming around on The Who? I remember you saying you didn't care for them in the past.

The Who are not my favourite band, but they are the one group where I feel like you could make a CD of their best songs and say "this is what rock music is all about." Their range was stunning; I can't think of another band who could have pulled off both "I Can't Explain" (best two-minute rocker ever) and "Quadrophenia" (most prog bands would kill for that one). Quadrophenia is probably their best album (with My Generation as the main challenger), though I tend to listen the most to the singles.
 
This was my first time listening to the Montrose debut, although I was familiar with a few of their songs already (partly because of Maiden). Did some reading up and found that some people consider it the first American Metal album. I can see it. It definitely has that blues edge and party rock vibe that would become the cornerstone of the Glam Metal movement. Sammy Hagar doesn't get enough credit as one of the great rock vocalists. IMO he is up there with Daltry and Plant.

The album has a rickety start with a generic rocker for an opener, but really gets going afterwards. Bad Motor Scooter and Space Station No. 5 are both excellent songs. Of course, Maiden covered the latter in the 90s and you can really see how this sound influenced what they were doing at the time. You can hear this band experimenting with the production a bit, with the sound effects and guitar work, which makes it stand out from other Hard Rock albums. Rock Candy is a tune that gets played often on satellite radio and I always enjoy it. Has a nice driving beat to it.

Everything else is decent, but a bit generic, hard rock. The best material really shows a lot of promise though.
 
Ha, was listening to the Montrose debut on the drive in to work today! I don't think of it as metal -- but it is a pioneering hard rock album. I haven't studied it, but presumably it influenced a ton of bands, from AC/DC to Van Halen to G'n'R (and Maiden, of course). And, if I were a DJ I would absolutely sample the beat from Rock Candy.
 
Mosh said:
This was my first time listening to the Montrose debut, although I was familiar with a few of their songs already (partly because of Maiden). Did some reading up and found that some people consider it the first American Metal album. I can see it. It definitely has that blues edge and party rock vibe that would become the cornerstone of the Glam Metal movement. Sammy Hagar doesn't get enough credit as one of the great rock vocalists. IMO he is up there with Daltry and Plant.

The album has a rickety start with a generic rocker for an opener, but really gets going afterwards. Bad Motor Scooter and Space Station No. 5 are both excellent songs. Of course, Maiden covered the latter in the 90s and you can really see how this sound influenced what they were doing at the time. You can hear this band experimenting with the production a bit, with the sound effects and guitar work, which makes it stand out from other Hard Rock albums. Rock Candy is a tune that gets played often on satellite radio and I always enjoy it. Has a nice driving beat to it.

Everything else is decent, but a bit generic, hard rock. The best material really shows a lot of promise though.
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I would agree with the generic hard rock critique in retrospect.
But for the time? One of the prototype American discs.
 
I thought of that, which made me reconsider what i said. There aren't really any albums on the list that sound like that, let alone from America. Easy to see them as a precursor to Van Halen too, which is funny in retrospect. That goes for songs like Bad Motor Scooter and Space Station No 5 though. Roughly half of the album seems like it's trailing ground already set by The Who and Led Zeppelin.
 
Missed your Sammy comment the first time.
Bang on. And the dude's been bringing it for 40 years.
He's got his cheesy moments but the man can sing.
 
@Shadow I'm not that much of a Who fan (I'm no that eager to hear other stuff) but certainly of this album.

On the Montrose album: I played the first half and enjoyed it a lot! I love that guitar (playing and sound). I'd take Hagar easily over Plant, perhaps not over Daltry, but he's a great singer nonetheless.
 
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