Daniel's Reviews

1984 was a huge year for Manowar as it saw them releasing not one but TWO studio albums, with both going on to become a huge part of the band's legacy & representing the peak of their careers. Unbelievably “Sign Of The Hammer” was released in October 1984 which is just three months after “Hail To England”s July release date. Now I don’t know the full story on why that’s occurred but given that the information I’ve been able to find indicates that “Hail To England” was recorded in November 1983 & that they started to record “Sign Of The Hammer” at around the same time, I’d be tempted to suggest that the band were at least considering a double album package of some sort. And why that idea was taken off the table in favour of a split single album release is anyone’s guess. It seems like a very strange decision to me. I can’t see the logic in releasing these two records so close together from a marketing point of view but anyway…. let’s see what “Sign Of The Hammer” is all about because there are some differences between the two records despite their close proximity.

Firstly, they’ve taken a vastly different approach to the cover art with “Sign Of The Hammer” seeing them go for a far less theatrical concept. I hate to say it but it kinda reminds me of something that might have come out of Nazi Germany & I think I would have greatly preferred another one of those glossy images of a huge warrior in the grips of battle to be honest. The album is a little longer this time with it’s eight tracks clocking in at around the 40 minute mark. This includes three epic pieces that fill a more substantial role & subsequently push out past the five minute mark. It’s really interesting that the production isn’t identical to “Hail To England” so that indicates that even if the raw recordings were done at the same time, the mixing & mastered was conducted separately. That’s not to say that the production here is perfect but it’s certainly an improvement on that of “Hail To England”. Unfortunately the rhythm guitars are still nowhere near loud enough for my liking with Joey DeMaio’s bass guitar comfortably dominating Ross The Boss in the mix. Joey’s bass sound gives the whole album a noticeably dirty quality & I’d have much prefered to hear a cleaner & brighter sounding Manowar. Thankfully this doesn’t make as big an impact it did on its predecessor & I can still enjoy the music despite it but seriously gents… get your shit together in the studio because you’re blowing your potential!

Stylistically, this is a much faster Manowar record than we'd heard to the time with a good half of the album taking on a format that they'd attempted a lot more sporadically on their previous albums. The opening two cuts “All Men Play On 10” & “Animal” are two of these more up-tempo numbers & they see the band taking a much cheesier & more commercially accessible hard rockin' approach that doesn’t sit well with me. The lyrics are simply appalling & these tracks leave me feeling particularly worried about what I’m in for with regards to the rest of the album as they’re a far cry from the huge battle hymns we’ve grown to know & love. But fear not… there are a few of those beasts included here in “Thor (The Powerhead)”, lengthy closer “Guyana (Cult Of The Damned” &, to a lesser extent, the epic power ballad “Mountains”. And it won't come as any surprise that those are the highlight tracks of the record along with the fast-paced title cut. I usually don’t enjoy Manowar’s faster material. They’re much more effective at those lumbering slow-to-mid-paced battle gallops but the title track is the exception to the rule with its catchy & anthemic chorus really managing to dig it’s teeth in even though it is pretty cheesy. Unfortunately it’s followed up by “The Oath” which can’t replicate the same level of excitement & glory before we get our standard Joey DeMaio bass solo track in “Thunderpick”. I genuinely think this one might be his worst yet. It’s an absolute dog’s breakfast that sounds like it’s completely improvised. What the listener is supposed to take out of this I’m not really sure but it leads straight into “Guyana” which manages to pick things up substantially with a fantastic performance from vocalist Eric Adams.

Look I have say to that this record is a real mixed bag as far as consistency goes & given the short break between records I’m not surprised that it sounds like it’s been chucked together from the leftovers from “Hail To England”. The tracklisting doesn’t flow & it lacks any sort of focus but thankfully the highlights are strong enough to carry the weaker material this time. In fact, I’d suggest that a good half of the album is of top tier quality while the rest falls well below par. Adams puts in another fine display while Ross The Boss’s furious lead guitar work is again exciting to hear even if he’s largely just repeating his signature approach. The rhythm section are really pretty boring for the most part even though DeMaio tries to show us how great he is on occasion. He’s not great by the way. He’s really nothing too special as a musician but his ego seems to have no boundaries whatsoever. Thankfully the weaker tracks here are also the shortest & it’s not hard to let those songs go in order to concentrate on the four more substantial numbers.

Overall, this is a passable Manowar album that doesn’t compete with the band’s first two releases but is thankfully a little stronger than the disappointing “Hail To England”. Perhaps it’s just the slightly improved production that gets it over the line but I think if you combined the best tracks from the two albums you’d likely have a pretty decent record. Even then, it still wouldn’t compete with the excellent “Into Glory Ride”. 

The first two studio records from the polarizing New York epic metal institution known as Manowar connected with me on varying levels. 1982's debut album “Battle Hymns” presented a fresh & original take on the traditional heavy sound & their can be no denying the huge influence it had on the future direction of the epic metal subgenre. Its highlights were certainly worthy of as many fists as you can muster however I've never had any qualms about claiming it to be an inconsistent record with its losses being just as poor as its highlights were impressive. Overall though, the B side bestowed enough metal glory on its listeners to overcome the obvious flaws of the A sides less ambitious & predominantly rockier material. 1983’s follow-up album “Into Glory Ride” saw the classic Manowar line-up coming together for the first time following the arrival of drummer Scott Colombus & the result was a much more focused, dark & doomy sound that really got under my skin. That’s not to say that it was a perfect record as it still possessed a blemish or two but it showcased a more mature band which seemed to possess a greater understanding of what they were trying to achieve & this new version of Manowar sat very well with me indeed.

And now that brings us to 1984 where Manowar looked to consolidate on the strength of their early works & some lengthy & arduous touring schedules by releasing not one but TWO new albums & these would go on to be known as the two that would define Manowar’s career right up until the current day. But the subject of this review is the first of those two;  the band’s piece-de-resistance… the epic “Hail To England” album. It’s interesting that the band chose to name the record in such a way given that they’re a US band but supposedly this was for a couple of reasons. 1. They wanted the title to acknowledge the role that the English played in both the creation & the continued expansion of the heavy metal genre & 2. They were looking to cash in on the fact that Manowar was much more popular in Europe than they were in their native America. Hhhmmmm…. That all sounds like a bit of a wank to me. I’ve always felt that for all their true metal/death to false metal posturing, Joey DeMaio & co never let their eyes drift from their commercial & egotistical ambitions for too long. The cover artwork the adorns “Hail To England” was certainly the band’s best effort to date though & I think that definitely added to the products appeal. It displays a colourful image of a proud warrior in the midst of an epic battle with bloody sword in one hand & the English flag in the other. It’s a much more convincing & mature image than the band’s previous efforts & it definitely suits the Manowar sound & image much more comfortably than their cheap & (at times) embarrassing earlier efforts.

It’s a very short album clocking in at just over 33 minutes & including only the seven tracks. The more drawn-out & lengthy compositions we saw on “Into Glory Ride” have been replaced by shorter & more accessible songs that require a bit less patience to take in & I think this is a strong contributor in the album’s wider appeal. Only closing number “Bridge Of Death” can be regarded as lengthy as it clocks in at almost nine minutes. When you first press play on “Hail To England” you should prepare yourself for a shock though because the production job is very strange indeed. In fact I’d go so far as to label it as horrible! The rhythm guitars are almost completely lost in the mix while the bass guitar is all the way out front & the drums seem almost detached from the rest of the instruments with an annoyingly big snare sound. There’s this big gap where the rhythm guitars should be & when Ross The Boss comes in with his solos they cut through the mix really well due to the lack of competition which makes them sound really good but overall I have to say that I find this production to create a substantial obstacle for me to overcome if I’m going to enjoy this album. Vocalist Eric Adams is in fine form as usual & he sounds really good here with an emotive & over-the-top performance & I do think that we get Ross’s best work from a lead guitar point of view but Joey DeMaio & Scott Columbus’s rhythm section tend to keep things very basic & given how far out the front they sit in the mix I feel that they needed to contribute more than this if the album was going to recover from the lack of rhythm guitars.

But that’s not the only issue with the guitars. The other is the noticeable lack of riffs! They seem to have gone missing for the most part with the band preferring to go with simple galloping power chords to accompany the vocal hooks which in effect makes for a more commercially accessible feel that I would imagine has contributed further to the appeal of the album. Manowar really haven’t tried anything majorly different here. This is pretty much a summary of everything they’ve done to date. We get faster thrashier numbers like “Kill With Power”, epic battle numbers like “Hail To England”, “Bridge Of Death” & “Blood Of My Enemies” & the obligatory Joey DeMaio bass solo piece in “Black Arrows” which is once again the low point of the album. He honestly has no idea of just how poor he sounds on these complete wank-fests. He sacrifices all precision & technique in the hope that the listener will appreciate how fast me can play but I don’t there’s too much doubt that most top level guitarists can play that fast if they forget about doing it cleanly. Interestingly enough, there’s a fair bit more cheese about this album than there was on “Into Glory Ride” & it’s starting to become clear that Manowar fans consider this to be one of the band’s drawcards while someone like myself who struggles with cheese is always going to recoil from it. This increase in cheese is almost certainly the reason that many critics claim “Hail To England” as Manowar’s first US power metal album too. I can’t say that it’s very different to their other releases though so this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I can actually see merit in claiming all three Manowar albums as US power metal to be honest but if you do that you’re pretty much making the epic metal term redundant because it doesn’t get much more epic metal than this.

Overall, I’d have to say that "Hail To England" had some potential but it’s hard to say just how much as I simply can’t get past the awful production. Of the seven tracks on offer I only enjoy three so even though a majority of Manowar fans consider this to be the band’s best work, I find it to be comfortably the weakest of their first three records.

1982's "Battlehymns" debut from New York heavy metal icons Manowar marked a distinct step up in mannishness for metal music. It may not have been a genuinely classic album but it’s influence & general infamy are hard to deny. Despite the fact that it's an inherently unfocused release with wild changes in style from track to track, its highlights are impressive enough to justify your time with the more epic songs on the B side being particularly strong & representing something entirely new for the metal scene.

An extensive touring schedule was undertaken to support the record & unfortunately this proved to be too much for drummer Donnie Hamzik, resulting in his decision to leave the band shortly afterwards. A suitable replacement was quickly identified in 27 year-old Scott Columbus & the classic Manowar lineup was now complete. The new lineup seemed to have given Manowar a renewed focus & drive & upon returning home from their first headlining tour they immediately entered the studio to record what was only ever intended to be an EP. That recording session proved to be so successful though that it became the band’s second full-length album “Into Glory Ride” which was released in July 1983.

Now I have to admit that the reception to “Into Glory Ride” has always baffled me. It’s an extremely divisive record with some fans claiming it to be amongst Manowar’s best work while others simply despise it. Let’s take a look at why. For starters, the production is far from ideal with the rhythm guitar sound being quite fuzzy & lacking a bit of volume in the mix. Thankfully the drums & bass combine to prop up the album sonically & I can look past the production issues which really only detract from the experience during opening number “Warlord” which is substantially faster than the rest of the tracklisting. And speaking of “Warlord”, it seems to be a very strange selection for the album really as it stands out like a sore thumb with the rest of the tracklisting taking a completely different direction stylistically with the much simpler & up-tempo “Warlord” sounding very much like an off-cut from the A side of “Battlehymns”. The album kicks off with a terribly misguided attempt at humour that sees the warlord in question (a biker apparently) having loud sexual intercourse with a 16 year-old girl until her parents burst into the room & spring the couple in lustful embrace. The warlord is then chased out of the building while laughing maniacally & the short opening number takes off with little of the ambition that was to follow. I can do without all of this humour because the rest of the album takes a much more serious direction with fantasy, mannishness & general metal worship being the primary themes. I can’t help but feel that a lot of the album’s detractors struggle to see past the opening cut but thankfully I’m not one of them. The other six tracks on the album see Manowar expanding on the more epic battle-themed pieces that closed out their debut & it makes for a pretty colossal metal experience overall. These are all long slow-to-mid-paced celebrations of war & masculinity & I have a very strong affiliation with this sound.

Bassist Joey DeMaio takes a step up with a much more adventurous & ambitious display that goes a long way to highlighting the general worship that seems to follow him. He’s a lot further forward in the mix too which can only be a good thing. Singer Eric Adams screams his fucking head off in a huge performance that’s full of charisma & theatricality. This material suits him so much better than the more hard rock driven numbers on “Battlehymns” & I find myself really enjoying his contribution here. Guitarist Ross The Boss probably doesn’t flood the material with as many solos as he did previously & I think this is a positive as it works to highlight his lead work better when it finally arrives. He doesn’t have the most exotic or expansive repertoire but you can’t fault his ferocious energy & speedy fretwork. And drummer Scott Columbus takes a more lumbering & powerful approach than his predecessor which gives this material the distinct feel of riding into battle. I really liked Donnie Hamzik’s contribution to Manowar’s debut but Scott Columbus seems to have helped solidify & define the Manowar sound here even though he may not be as technically gifted.

This all amounts to a substantially darker & heavier experience than the debut with a much stronger Black Sabbath influence. In fact, there are some genuine doom metal moments that I regard as being amongst the heaviest the metal world had heard to date & you can hear the influence on the Bathory’ & Candlemasses very obviously throughout. There’s little doubt that it’s a more ambitious & focused record than “Battlehymns” was but I think the thing that some critics struggle with is the slower tempo & the darker feel. Manowar fans seem to thrive on the cheesier anthems while cheese has never been my bag so I find myself really getting into this sound. Personally I find “Into Glory Ride” to be a much stronger album than “Battlehymns” & I’d go so far as to say that it’s one of my very favourite releases from 1983.

Newcastle heavy metallers Venom were arguably the most distinctive band in the entire NWOBHM movement & regardless of your opinions on their musical merit there can be little denying that their first two studio albums permanently changed the course of metal. Both releases saw the trio marrying up a traditional heavy metal backbone with punk rock velocity & aggression & capping it off with the sort of Satanic imagery that most fans didn’t even realise was possible at the time. It was a package that was based as much on the packaging as it was its musical substance & while Venom’s popularity was still yet to break out of the underground there can be no denying the impact they were having with an increasingly more extreme metal environment beginning to take form around them. It was bold, brash & paid no attention to authority of any sort; attributes that would be carried over into almost all of the subsequent extreme metal subgenres for decades to come. But one thing remained in question for Venom. They were consistently criticized for their lo-fi production values & poor musicianship with critics often claiming that they really had very little grasp on their instruments at all & as much as the band have always denied it, history has shown that this was starting to get to them. There was also a little bit of pressure starting to build on Venom with several underground metal figures speculating that album number three would be the one that would see the band breaking out of the underground & taking the world by storm. It’s perhaps not surprising then that the combination of these external influences resulted in an album that sees the band seemingly making a conscious effort NOT to go in a more commercially accessible direction.

1984’s “At War With Satan” album saw the light of day a full 18 months after Venom’s highly celebrated & influential “Black Metal” record which really does seem like quite a bit of time between drinks given that Cronos has always stated that the first three records were fully formed before the band had even recorded their debut. It’s a concept album centred around the 20 minute epic that is the opening title track; a song that sees Cronos telling the story of a war between Heaven & Hell; the ultimate result being one that won’t please too many Christians. The decision to release the album with a cover sporting the title over an inverted cross must surely have assured that there would be no big commercial breakthrough for Venom with stores like HMV withdrawing the record from their shelves due it’s blatantly Satanic content. It all seems to show Venom so obviously sticking their middle fingers up at their critics & the commercial music scene in general that it’s fairly hard to think that the band cared about anyone else’s opinions. But when you take a listen to the music the album contains it tells a somewhat different story.

Firstly, we get the entire A side being comprised of a huge progressive excursion that seems tailor made to prove that Venom were capable of more than 3 minute blasts of energy & violence. Secondly, we get a slightly cleaner & more palatable production than we’d heard from the band previously. And thirdly, you can hear an improved instrumental performance from the trio; all three elements seemingly intended to prove critics wrong in my opinion. The title track was Venom’s attempt to emulate Rush’s classic “2112” progressive rock masterpiece; an undertaking that most people would have thought absurd before experiencing it. And it works in my opinion. It doesn’t sound particularly pieced together while there are truckloads of great thrashy heavy metal spread evenly out across the song’s duration. It’s one of Venom’s best works in my opinon with Cronos’ theatrical performance being a real highlight. The riff structures aren’t particularly progressive but the band manages to keep it interesting throughout & it works as a composition. The B side is in direct contrast to the A side as it features six short & highly aggressive tracks that would sit pretty comfortably besides Venom’s earlier works. Not all of them work but there can be no denying that there has been very little attempt made to satisfy a more commercially focused market.

The production may be slightly cleaner but it’s still far from ideal with Abaddon’s drums being far too loud & Mantas’ guitars being much too low in the mix. Somehow this doesn’t take away from the listening experience as much as you might expect as it ensures that Venom maintain the street cred they’d built up over their short career. I’m not sure their fans would have understood a crystal clear & glossy production on a Venom record. Abaddon’s drumming is improved but is still the clear weak point of the band with “Genocide” in particular suffering from a lethargic performance. There’s definitely a greater amount of genuine speed metal included on this album with very little of the Motorhead inspired rock ‘n’ roll influence we’ve heard from them in the past. For that reason, it’s possibly the band’s most metal album to date with quite a few riffs showcasing a sound that’s not all that dissimilar to the newly formed thrash metal sound. Cronos is the clear focal point of the band as usual & he really does carry some of the less substantial tracks. He was a real talent as an entertainer & knew how to get a reaction from his audience.

It all adds up to another fun Venom record & this might shock a lot of people but not only do I consider this one as being of a similar standard to the band’s first two albums but I think I slightly prefer it. The one-two punch of the adventurous 20 minute opener & the electric energy of my favourite Venom track in “Ripe Ride” is enough to overcome the frail ending & make it my go-to Venom record these days.

I had a fair bit of time for Twisted Sister’s 1982 debut album “Under The Blade” & 1983 follow-up “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Both releases were based just as much on hard rock & 70’s glam rock as they were on heavy metal but their penchant for simple anthemic song-writing & no-holds-barred delivery saw them receiving more than a little interest from the metal audience. There's very little question that their third album “Stay Hungry” created a general feeling of skepticism amongst that audience though; mainly due to its two hugely successful hard rock anthems “We’re Not Gonna Take It” & “I Wanna Rock”. Although “Stay Hungry” saw Twisted Sister reaching worldwide success for the first time, it’s developed a bit of a bad reputation with some metal purists due to it's unapologetically commercial edge but I think this is pretty unfair to be honest. I don’t consider “Stay Hungry” to take a vastly different direction to Twisted Sister’s previous material. They’ve always had those more commercially focused rock anthems on every album. It’s just that this time they’re a little more effective & that’s led to the sort of fandom that has scared off those more underground fans that weren’t comfortable with admitting they enjoy commercially successful music.

I’d suggest that there’s probably about the same sort of 50/50 ratio of rock & metal here as there was on Twisted Sister’s first two records. Only this time there’s a little more consistency in the song-writing. There are a couple of flat tracks but no real shockers like we’ve seen from them before. Unfortunately, the production isn’t too great though as the guitar sound is particularly thin & sounds like it'd be much better suited to a rock band than a metal one. Some songs are affected by it much more than others but it’s not all that noticeable on the hit singles to be honest. Possibly because we all tend to turn them up a bit louder. Dee Snider’s vocal performance is top notch as usual though & the rest of the band tend to play mainly supportive roles with the only weak point being my long-standing issues with their guitar solos. They sound particularly pedestrian on this occasion & they’re not helped by the fact that the average level of musicianship metal musicians were capable of had increased considerably in the two years since “Under The Blade”.

Interestingly enough, I actually think that some of the metal songs on “Stay Hungry” are amongst Twisted Sister’s heaviest material to date with a stronger Black Sabbath influence being brought to the fore in the shape of a few slower-paced doomy numbers with chunky Tony Iommi style riffs. Closer “S.M.F.” is pure AC/DC worship but it does it really well too. Ultimately though, Twisted Sister albums will always live & die by the quality of their anthemic choruses & there are plenty here to enjoy. I challenge anyone raised in the 80’s to tell me they don’t have any time for “We’re Not Gonna Take It” & “I Wanna Rock” whose hilariously over-the-top video clips must surely have left a permanent imprint on your impressionable young minds.

Overall, “Stay Hungry” sees Twisted Sister producing their best album to date. It’s exciting. It’s catchy. But most of all.. it’s a really fun listen.

The 1982 debut studio album from New Jersey five-piece glam metallers Twisted Sister entitled “Under The Blade” was a pleasant surprise for those of us who were old enough to remember the band’s hugely popular hit singles & video clips during the mid-80’s, as it was a legitimate metal album & a pretty decent one at that. It nicely balanced the anthemic heavy metal of Judas Priest with the theatrical hard rock of Alice Cooper & KISS & presented it in a package that was raw enough to appeal to the metal audience. In fact, the album performed so well for the band that they scored a major label record deal with Atlantic for the follow-up “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” which was released in June 1983.

This time we see Twisted Sister consolidating their already well-defined sound with a cleaner & more powerful production helping to make the overall package that bit more accessible than before. I don’t think it will surprise anyone to hear that this record is full of poppy vocal hooks & that the song-writing style is directed firmly towards presenting them in the most anthemic way possible. It’s simple & fun & shouldn’t be taken too seriously with front man Dee Snider sounding as powerful as he ever has. I know I’ve said it before but I have to reiterate that I really love Dee’s voice. It’s one of the most powerful in all of rock & metal & he’ll always be the clear focal point of a Twisted Sister album with another wonderful performance here. But he’s not the only one to shine with the bigger production & a favourable mix giving bassist Mark Mendoza the chance to really make a name for himself. This production job really does show the competition how to present a bass guitar in a heavy rock context as it’s as punchy & powerful as you’ll find; in fact often out-heavying the dual guitar attack for sheer heaviness. I have to say that the guitar solos do tend to drift past me without making much of an impact though & that’s an area that could have been improved upon in my opinion. But they’re not overly long & the songs are probably memorable enough to cater for it so it’s not a huge concern.

Stylistically this is more of a hard rock record than “Under The Blade” was. There are probably only three songs that I consider to be legitimate heavy metal but there’s still a lot of metal about the approach that the band take to their music so I’m not surprised that most people seem to label it as metal. There are a few duds amongst the ten tracks (particularly the AOR-tinged ballad “You’re Not Alone (Suzette’s Song)” which Dee wrote for his wife) but the weight of the stronger material is solid enough to carry the weaker moments.

If you liked “Under The Blade” or are a fan of the more hard-rockin’ side of heavy metal then you’ll definitely find enough quality to keep your interest. I think “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” is probably just missing a couple of really epic highlights. The singles here are all a bit simple & don’t tend to be the better tracks on the album. So overall I rate this one fairly similarly to the debut. Neither are essential but both are a good bit of fun. If pushed I’d probably give “Under The Blade” the slight edge due to its stronger metal credentials.

This release was a very pleasant surprise as it is a major step up in quality. In Mourning have expanded on the progressive influences they hinted at previously & have disposed of the generic melodic death metal sound to leave us with a very professional & interesting progressive death metal album. The vocals have improved a fair bit & the production & musicianship is very good. The songwriting has advanced quite a long way. Clean track "Celestial Tear" is particularly well done. I think they are probably only an album away from something really special so I'll need to check out their more recent material. Give this release a few listens though as it took a little while to grab me but that may well have been due to my previous prejudices having found their previous album to be very flat.

This album could be described as melodic death metal with progressive metal & black metal influences. Although the musicians all show themselves to be quite capable I found this release to be fairly uninspiring & flat. There is just not enough balls here. All the tracks are well written & performed but it's all a bit too pretty for my taste. The progressive parts tend to be fairly high on the cheese factor & I also found the vocals to be pretty annoying at times. It's not all bad but you won't find many "Hell yeah!" moments here.

Most music fans who were around in the mid-1980’s would remember New Jersey five-piece heavy metal band Twisted Sister & the huge commercial success they had with the singles & associated video clips for songs like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” & “I Wanna Rock”. And it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that many metalheads might have discarded Twisted Sister as yet another commercially focused glam metal venture based purely on the band’s image & the radio-friendly pop hooks those hit songs unquestionably celebrated. But if you fall into that category then you might have missed out on some quality heavy metal because Twisted Sister had a lot more to offer than teenage singalongs. In fact, they'd already been around for more than a decade by that stage having begun life as a glam rock outfit by the name of Silverstar way back in 1972; initially having been influenced by artists such as David Bowie, Slade, Mott The Hoople, The Rolling Stones & the New York Dolls.

Now it’s very rare that you hear stories like this one in modern times, but believe it or not Twisted Sister built up a sizeable fan base purely through their live performances & were able to spend most of the decade cutting their teeth & honing their craft on stage before finally getting the opportunity to record their debut studio album in 1982; a full decade after forming the band. Having said that they’d gone through any number of lineup changes by that stage so it was a completely different outfit to the one they’d started with. When legendary front man Dee Snider joined the band in 1976, Twisted Sister made a change in musical direction with the influence of heaver artists like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin & Alice Cooper being incorporated into the band’s already solid rock sound. Dee’s personality & natural charisma was just what the band needed to reach the next level & he was often known to have audiences totally captivated with his entertaining & incisive comments between songs. By 1978 Twisted Sister had morphed into a full-blown metal band & were selling out huge venues still without the support of a studio album. They even had a rapidly growing fan club by the name of “Sick Motherfucking Fans Of Twisted Sister” which was later shortened to “SMF” or “Sick Mother Fuckers”.

After finally releasing two singles, the band headed to the UK to search for a record contract. They were hoping that the flourishing NWOBHM scene would provide them with greater opportunity & it worked for them nicely with Secret Records picking them up shortly afterwards. Pete Way of the band UFO produced Twisted Sister’s debut album “Under The Blade” in April 1982 with Motorhead guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke dropping in to record a guest solo on one of the songs. Many people would probably be put off by the glammed up images of the band on the album cover but Twisted Sister were far from your average Motley Crue wanna-bes. Sure they went for an overthetop image with big hair & makeup but there was a lot more to them than that. They were a lot less cheesy & a fair bit heavier than their glam contemporaries. To my ears their sound is a nice mixture of the heavy metal of Judas Priest & Black Sabbath, the hard rock of KISS & AC/DC & the glam rock of Alice Cooper & Slade. And with the exception of one horrible commercial radio cash-grab it works for the most part.

The band doesn’t try to impress their audience with flashy musicianship or progressive wankery. They simply work from a basis of catchy & anthemic hooks & build around that with some quality metal riffage. The simplicity of the song-writing is a large part of the appeal & when you add in the well-timed & executed image it’s not hard to see why Twisted Sister went on to become a big player in the 80’s. Pete Way’s production job is a little rough but it only serves to make the album sound a little more metal than it might otherwise have.

Personally I’ve always loved Dee’s powerful voice & he really does make this band for me. He’s perfectly suited to powerful fist-pumping choruses that command audience participation & I don’t think Twisted Sister could have reached the level of success they did without him. “Under The Blade” is a pretty good metal album overall too. It certainly sounds pretty American but I’d be surprised if any fans of the classic heavy metal sound don’t find something of interest here.

Now I don’t like to shy away from the controversial topics & are known to make a big call or two on occasion so be prepared because I’m about to make one or two here. Although Germany was still in its infancy as far as legitimate metal goes, 1982 brought us a ground-breaking German metal release of genuine intrigue & artistic experimentation in the debut album from Hamburg’s Warning (not to be confused with the French hard rockers from the same period). Warning was the brainchild of record store owner Ed Vanguard & record label employee Hans Muller; a collaboration that would spawn two studio albums over two years. But this is no generic metal release. In fact, “Warning” sounds like nothing I’ve heard before or since. It’s an extremely bold & ambitious piece of work that draws upon a diverse & largely unrelated array of influences but presents them in a way that surprisingly makes a lot of sense. Those influences extend far beyond those of your average metal band too with progressive electronic sounds being interspersed with the synth pop of Kraftwerk & a distinctly gothic atmosphere but unlike many people, I think “Warning” is still fundamentally a metal release. An unusual & avant-garde one to be sure but a metal release nonetheless.

To my ears the basis of their sound is built on the crushingly heavy riffs of Witchfinder General & the first three Black Sabbath albums only here it sounds even darker & more mysterious than anything that had come before it from the early doom metal movement. The vocals are extremely unnerving with an ultra- deep male vocal delivery taking several different approaches including unhinged screams, dark gothic scriptures & what could only be described as proto-death metal growling. That’s right folks! You hear correctly. I said death metal growling. I’ve read that the drumming is performed by a real drummer which surprises me because the rhythms found on “Warning” sound quite cold & mechanical so I had assumed they were the result of some primitive drum machine programming but apparently not. Melodically, we hear the suffocatingly heavy metal riffs being coloured by a bizarre array of electronic sounds. Some that would have sat comfortably on the soundtrack to “Blade Runner”, others with a decidedly danceable & qwerky synth-pop edge to them. And then we get those moments where we decend into the sort of depressing atmospheres that the likes of My Dying Bride have journeyed many years later. But remember….. this was 1982 & no one else in the world had ever attempted anything like this.

I’m honestly not sure how the public could have been expected to accept such approaches in 1982 but here it is. Even the doom metal elements are ground-breaking because Witchfinder General had certainly not sounded this dark before. Some tracks are almost sporting a proto-funeral doom sound in their lumbering & minimal guitar assault on the listener. Strangely, through all of this, the opening cut “Why Can The Bodies Fly” was a hit for the band & it peaked at number 11 on the German pop charts; possibly due to its inclusion on the soundtrack to the 1983 crime show “Peggy Has Scared”. Interestingly, “Warning” is one of the rare releases we’ve featured on the "Metal Academy" podcast where I was completely unfamiliar with it prior to conducting my research for the show however I was very surprised to find that I knew “Why Can The Bodies Fly” very well upon first listen & after a few minutes of racking my brain I was able to recall that Austrian death metallers Pungent Stench had covered the song for their 1993 “Dirty Rhymes & Psychotronic Beats” EP which highlights Warning's appeal for fans of extreme metal. 

Overall, I have to say that I really enjoy “Warning”. It’s a fascinating release that draws me back again & again as I try to understand & make sense of what I’m hearing & ultimately find myself giving in to its charms. I feel that it’s the first genuinely avant-garde metal release from anywhere in the world & it seems to have been largely overlooked which is a gross injustice in my opinion. I strongly urge you to give it a few spins with an open mind. Particularly if you're a member of The Infinite.

London-based NWOBHM act Tank were extremely prolific during the first part of the 1980's with 1984’s “Honour & Blood” record being their fourth studio album in just three years.  But a lot had happened in that time with the band being lucky enough to emerge during the absolute peak of the movement. Tank’s 1982 debut “Filth Hounds Of Hades” was full of fun Motorhead-inspired drinking anthems that would become the perfect accompaniment for your average working-class English male at the time with front man Algy Ward’s links to legendary punk rockers The Saints & The Damned giving Tank a unique crossover appeal not afforded to many in the scene at the time. Well Tank’s record label clearly shared the public’s excitement as they forced the band back into the studio for another record before the year was out with the disappointing & decidedly less metal “Power Of The Hunter” being the result. But the addition of a talented second guitarist in Mick Tucker (recruited from fellow NWOBHM hard rockers White Spirit) saw Tank moving away from their dirtier, punk-driven power trio sound towards a much more ambitious & expansive one for 1983’s “This Means War” album with much longer track-lengths & a noticeably more melodic sound highlighted by Tucker’s accomplished lead guitar work enabling Tank to reach a new level of appeal with fans of the classic heavy metal sound. And that brings us to 1984’s follow-up release “Honour & Blood”; a record that saw original drummer Mark Brabbs being replaced with Tucker’s former White Spirit band-mate Graham Crallan & leaving Algy Ward as the only remaining original band member.

Much like its predecessor, the album title & cover art set the scene nicely for another record full of war-inspired themes & the A side won’t disappoint fans of “This Means War” as it takes a very similar direction. In fact, when you look at the album as a whole, it seems to have been tailor-made to replicate almost all aspects of that record with it’s seven lengthy tracks being structured in almost exactly the same way. You get the epic eight & a half minute opening track complete with synthesized intro section, the three tracks on the A side & four on the B side, the more expansive melodic sound complete with lengthy lead guitar excursions from the talented Tucker, it’s all here. And the result would go on to see “Honour & Blood” pushing even Tank’s most highly regarded debut album for overall appeal as it’s a very professionally written & produced release. That’s obvious right from the first couple of minutes of lengthy speed-metal opener “The War Drags Ever On”. And there won’t be too many disappointed fans out there either; especially none that enjoyed “This Means War” as much as I did. If you fall into that category then you’re inevitably gonna love this record too but the fact that “Honour & Blood” sounds so similar to that record leaves me feeling a little hesitant to heap it with a similar level of praise.

Algy Ward’s vocals have certainly never sounded quite so gruff with a renewed level of grindiness evident in his delivery here. It’s almost like he’s completely removed the shackles & said “Fuck what anyone thinks. I’m gonna go the whole way this time”. The B side even sees him deviating away from the war themes for a couple of commentaries on his love life. Mick Tucker’s guitar solos are possibly even more melodic than they were on “This Means War” & they once again represent the highlight of the album with plenty to satisfy fans of flashy metal shred. In fact, this is probably Tank’s most metal release to date with very few signs of Ward’s punk rock roots on display. But that being said, I do get a strong sense of déjà vu while listening to “Honour & Blood”. It’s possibly too closely related to its older brother & seems a little safe to my ears. There’s just not that many differentiators here if I’m honest. Don’t get me wrong…. I still really enjoy my listening experience & rate this release as my second favourite Tank album to date behind “This Means War” but it’s this element (along with the very strange decision to include a cover version of Aretha Franklin’s “Chain Of Fools”) that are stopping me from being in a position to push "Honour & Blood" to the very top of the Tank pile. Also, as much as I prefer the more substantial & melodic sound that Algy’s boys have championed on the last two Tank records, I can’t help but maintain the distinct feeling that the dirtier working-class sound they first appeared with seemed to suit their image & lyrical themes a little better than the cleaner & more accessible one we get here. But at the end of the day, if this was the first Tank record you’d ever heard you’d be more than impressed with the result as it’s a damn fine slab of distinctly English heavy metal. I really enjoy it & are a little surprised that Tank didn’t become even bigger than they were.

I had a fair amount of time for Tank’s debut album “Filth Hounds Of Hades” with its dirty Motorhead-inspired heavy metal & hard rock offering quite a bit of appeal. Unfortunately the less up-front sequel “Power Of The Hunter” tended to fall a bit flat in comparison & sounded a lot like some of the weaker & less metal Motorhead filler material which wasn’t surprising given just how little time Tank had to prepare for the recording. Actually, if you look around a bit you'll find that some old metalheads suggesting that there really isn't much of a reason to listen to early Tank when you can listen to Motorhead delivering the genuine article instead & there’s definitely some merit in that way of thinking even though I feel it's a bit harsh when referring to Tank's debut. So the big question was whether Tank would finally be able to step away from their reputation as a Motorhead tribute act to deliver a record of real artistic merit & I’m very pleased to be able to say that Tank’s third album “This Means War” manages to achieve that.

A major contributor to the band’s fresh & more ambitious approach was the recruitment of a second guitarist which left Tank sporting a brand new four-piece lineup & gave them additional tools to work with. The guitarist in question was a gentleman by the name of Mick Tucker who had cut his teeth with NWOBHM hard rockers White Spirit (who interestingly enough were the original band of future Iron Maiden guitarist Jannick Gers). It's hard to say exactly how big an impact Mick had on Tank’s sound here but the result is a much more polished & ambitious record. “This Means War” sees Tank finally achieving a suitably professional production job & the occasional use of synthesizers adds some nice points of interest. It’s a much more polished sounding album than most people would have expected & it would have been quite a shock for those fans that were primarily attracted to the dirtier punkier nature of Tank’s early releases. But surprisingly, the new cleaner Tank sounds quite natural to my ears & I find myself really enjoying the fruits of their newly found inspiration.

The song-writing is much more expansive than it was previously with substantially longer & much more drawn out arrangements. There’s a lot more melody to this material than you might previously have expected from Tank which is obviously the result of their new acquisition. Mick Tucker is a very talented musician & his guitar solos are a huge improvement on the much simpler & sloppier efforts found on Tank’s earlier material. Front man Algy Ward’s uniquely bad-assed vocal delivery is still as identifiable as ever & while the Motorhead influence is still easily discernable, it’s no longer the be all & end all. This is a much heavier & more metal Tank who are no longer merely slaves to the sound of their idols. Some of this stuff is more metal than anything Motorhead had released to that time & it’s certainly worth checking out if you’re a fan of the NWOBHM.

Tank's Motorhead-inspired NWOBHM debut "Filth Hounds Of Hades" made a fair impression me as it possessed an energy & honesty that was quite infectious. And although some of the rockier numbers weren’t quite up to the task, most of the metal material was pretty damn fun. But when a band releases their follow-up album just five months after their debut you wouldn’t expect there to be much in the way of development given the short time period. What I would more likely expect would be more of the same or possibly a drop in quality due to the band having to resort to using the leftovers from the debut. And with Tank’s sophomore effort “Power Of The Hunter” being released in August 1982 both of those things are true.

Firstly, no one would be surprised to hear how the band sounds here. The production is again a bit rough but so is Tank so that’s not a such a big deal. The musicianship on the other hand seems to have been improved with much tighter instrumental performances. Vocalist Algy Ward is still pretty sloppy vocally but that seems to be half the appeal of the old punk rocker. What IS different to the debut is that we have decidedly less metal material this time. It’s much more of a straight-up punky hard rock affair in a similar style to Motorhead’s more generic filler material. I don’t have a problem with that at all as long as the song-writing is up to the task but unfortunately it’s not on this occasion.

I think this was very likely a case of the band being rushed back into the studio due to management or record label pressure & having to settle for leftovers from their early days in order to fill a full-length album. There’s nothing particularly horrible here but a lot of the songs just seem to drift past without engaging much of a reaction from the listener. There’s a distinct lack of the urgency & intensity that made “Filth Hounds Of Hades” such a fun listen & ultimately I’m left wondering if I’ve paid close enough attention. The closing title track is the best & most iconic track on the album with its energetic verse riff reminding me very much of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock” but there’s really only a couple of other songs that draw me in so I’d going to have to recommend that you give this album a miss & explore the albums either side of it which possess a more exciting & electric vibe.

London three-piece NWOBHM outfit Tank first formed in London in 1980 around bass-playing front man Algy Ward. Algy was already a well-established musician having worked with Aussie punk rockers The Saints in a purely instrumental capacity on their classic 1978 album “Eternally Yours” as well as it’s follow-up “Prehistoric Sounds” from later the same year. Even more notably, Algy then played bass on the career-defining third album from legendary London punk rockers The Damned entitled “Machine Gun Etiquette” in 1979 so I would imagine that news of Algy’s first foray into vocal territory would have created quite an interest with not only the hard rock & heavy metal community but the punk rock one as well. And when you first hear the initial results of this venture in 1982's “Filth Hounds Of Hades” album, it’s not hard to see why Tank possessed a not insubstantial crossover appeal because although their sound champions both heavy metal & hard rock in roughly equal portions there's a definite punk rock sensibility about the packaging of Tank’s product.

There’s no room for indulgence or virtuosity here. Tank are all about pedal-to-the-metal speed, raw energy & that elusive live electricity that some bands can never seem to harness in the studio. Algy’s vocal delivery has a bad-assed quality to it that entirely suits Tank’s sound & image too. There’s certainly a hefty dosage of dirty, snotty grime about their sound & you won’t be surprised to hear that Fast Eddie Clarke produced the record & that Motorhead is unquestionably Tank’s primary influence. Eddie’s rough & ready production sees very little care taken to ensure that the riffs & solos are perfectly executed but it really doesn’t seem to matter because much like their idols, Tank’s music is ultimately meant for getting drunk, causing trouble & having a bit of fun. Songs like album closer & live favourite “(I Fell In Love With A) Stormtrooper” certainly aren’t meant to be taken too seriously & I get the distinct feeling that the band couldn’t give a bugger what you think about them anyway. The heavier & more metallic songs definitely have more appeal for me than the rockier numbers here which again shouldn’t surprise anyone & the few songs that I find to be a bit flat are all pretty much straight-up hard rock numbers. There are certainly more hits than misses on “Filth Hounds Of Hades” though with NWOBHM classic “Turn Your Head Around” being probably the most intense & punky number on the album. Many of you may already be familiar with it from the cover version which was included on 1990’s “Better Off Dead” album from German thrash metallers Sodom.

I think most NWOBHM fans will get something out of "Filth Hounds Of Hades". It's a fun & enjoyable listen heavy metal record whose overall appeal far out-weighs the individual performances or the technicalities of the song-writing. Don't we all crave a bit of danger every now & then, though?

The Plasmatics originally formed in New York in 1977 when former porn star Wendy O. Williams first became acquainted with controversial performance artist Rod Swenson. Rod wasn’t a musician as such but he specialized in creating confrontational experiences for his audiences & that was exactly what he had in mind for Wendy. Together they created an extreme stage show based on a five-piece punk rock backbone. Their performances featured everything from extreme nudity to sledgehammering TVs to chainsawing guitars in half to blowing up cars on stage & this seemed to interest a public that craved ever more shocking visual experiences. The Plasmatics shows were selling out on a nightly basis with fans lining up around the block to see Wendy viciously spitting out her lyrics while wearing nothing but some well placed electrical tape. In fact, Wendy would often find herself in trouble with the local authorities for her overly sexual stage antics. It was about as punk rock as it gets really & the Plasmatics were receiving much more attention than one would normally expect from a band who had yet to release any studio output.

When they finally did get into the studio, the resulting albums didn’t achieve the sort of commercial success the band had hoped for without their controversial shock rock show. Their first two records “New Hope For The Wretched” & “Beyond The Valley Of 1984” were very much in the punk rock style they had championed to that time but for 1982’s “Coup d’etat” album they elected to go down a different route with more of a hard rock-driven heavy metal sound. The core of the Plasmatics sound was influenced by bands like the Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Stooges & the Ramones but on “Coup d’etat” we hear a lot more of their hard rock influences with KISS, New York Dolls & particularly Alice Cooper & Joan Jett & the Blackhearts springing to mind. The music is really pretty basic with your standard old-school rock ‘n’ roll verse/chorus song structures & riffs that you’ve heard many times before but the Plasmatics are essentially just a vehicle to showcase Wendy’s aggressive delivery because the world had never heard anything like this from a female before. She absolutely screams her guts out here in what may well be the most extreme vocal performance the metal world had experienced to the time. In fact, during the recording of the album, Wendy had to visit a medical professional every day to have her vocal cords attended to as to ensure that she hadn’t done any permanent damage.

“Coup d’etat” became the breakthrough album for the band but it still didn’t give them a commercial success that they hoped it might. Personally, I don’t find this surprising as the novelty doesn’t last too long leaving the bare songs sounding pretty dumb & lacking in intelligence at times. It's worth noting that “Coup d’etat” is known for being one of the earliest punk/metal hybrids but in reality there isn’t as much punk on this as people often make out. Sure you can hear a Motorhead influence but that doesn’t really constitute legitimate punk in my opinion. Speaking of Motorhead, the album includes a cover version of “No Class” which was originally intended for a sequel to Motorhead & Girlschool's “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” split E.P. & it’s probably my favourite song on the album even though it’s clearly a couple of steps down from the original. Love it or hate it “Coup d’etat” certainly made an impact even if it did just open the world up to the idea of women in metal or the combination of punk & metal that seems to be so popular in modern times.

Diamond Head's classic NWOBHM debut album "Lightning To The Nations" made a very big impression on me back in the day. So much so in fact, that I'd comfortably nominate it as the best metal album of 1980 ahead of some very strong competition which is quite an achievement for a release that was only ever intended to be the demo that would score the band a decent record deal. And it was successful in that endeavor too with major label MCA picking them up in 1981; a deal which saw Diamond Head recording their “debut" album “Borrowed Time” with producer Mike Hedges who had previously worked with the likes of The Cure & Bauhaus but had no real metal pedigree to speak of.

“Borrowed Time” certainly has a cleaner & fuller production job than “Lightning To The Nations” but it’s open for debate as to whether it suited the band’s sound better. Most people will tell you that it doesn’t & I have to say that I sit pretty comfortably in that camp too. It’s pretty easy to compare the two production jobs because “Borrowed Time” includes re-recorded versions of two of the songs from “Lightning To The Nations” in the title track & the classic “Am I Evil?”; neither of which are as good as the originals. “Lightning To The Nations” isn’t far behind the original to be fair however “Am I Evil?” has been performed at a slower pace & with less energy than the original. Plus, the production makes the riffs sound a bit muddy so even though it’s still amongst the album highlights it’s definitely a step down from the original version.

But the production isn’t the only thing that’s vastly different from the band’s previous studio offerings. Diamond Head are also championing a new style on the five new songs on offer. In fact, the two re-recordings are the only genuine metal songs on the album with the rest sitting more comfortably in the hard rock camp or somewhere in between. The new material is much less riff-oriented & also less obvious than the exciting metal of “Lightning To The Nations” so it requires a fair bit more time to get into. The urgency that was so potent on earlier releases isn’t there any more & it’s a moodier sounding Diamond Head in general.

Many fans & critics will tell you that this change in style can be put down to record label pressure however I’m not so sure as there’s really only one song that has a particularly commercial edge to it. Three of the songs clock in between six & eight minutes in duration & there’s a distinctly progressive edge to some of the material; particularly with the lengthier tracks on the B side which I would genuinely label as progressive rock. The single “Call Me” was clearly written with commercial success in mind though as it’s a fair bit poppier than anything we’ve heard from the band previously & although the chorus is pretty catchy it struggles to maintain my interest.

Brian Tatler’s lead guitar playing is the clear highlight of the record & I really enjoy the more progressive & bluesy moments where he’s given the space to stretch out a bit. I think vocalist Sean Harris has to try pretty hard to keep some of this material interesting because he’s not working with the sort of hooks he’s accustomed to but he does a pretty good job of it to be honest.

While “Borrowed Time” is comfortably regarded as Diamond Head’s second best release, it’s not considered to be essential NWOBHM listening. I think that’s a fair call but I do quite like it. It’s a very consistent record with just the one short blemish & I really enjoy listening to these four musicians as they generally always championed creativity & musicality over accessibility. If you’re a fan of Diamond Head’s early material then I’d recommend that you give this one a good four or five listens with an open mind to give it a chance to open up.

May my sword of valour gloriously slay this source of such insidious dragon shit & may thee be forever banished unto the wasteland from whence thee came.

1982's “Soviet Invasion!” E.P. from legendary NWOBHM doom merchants Witchfinder General had served as a welcome introduction to the lumbering beast that is the doom metal subgenre. However it was their “Death Penalty” album from later that year that saw the band making more substantial waves with underground metal fans the world over. It was a record that wasn't quite doomy enough to qualify as legitimate doom metal in my opinion, despite it’s strong following & reputation. Whilst I don't consider "Death Penalty" to be the classic release that it’s so often reported to be, I’ve always had some time for it; despite the fact that it was clearly more of a tribute to Black Sabbath than anything more significant or ground-breaking. So it remained to be seen whether Witchfinder General would be able to build on their early success by taking a more artistic view point & creating a sound of their own with subsequent releases.

Well, we wouldn’t have to wait long to find out as Witchfinder General’s sophomore effort “Friends Of Hell” would be released a year later in 1983. This time with a fuller lineup featuring an actual bass player rather than the imaginary one we heard on “Death Penalty” where guitarist Phil Cope filled that role under the name Wolfy Trope. Rod Hawkes was the name of the new recruit & I’m pleased to say that “Friends Of Hell” doesn’t suffer from the same production problems as “Death Penalty” where the bass was much too far back in the mix. This time the production has a decidedly more polished feel to it in general with every instrument sounding more vibrant & a little cleaner. The guitars in particular are no longer simply trying to replicate the Tony Iommi crunch & are a little less dirty here while vocalist Zeeb Parkes sounds significantly more professional too.

But it’s not just the production that’s improved. The band members musical abilities seem to have benefitted from another year of steady gigging with Zeeb’s performance being noticeably slicker & Phil Cope’s guitar solos achieving a significant jump in technical proficiency. The jerky transitions & cut-&-paste composition of “Death Penalty” have been improved upon here too. Musically, Witchfinder General haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel here as they still seem very committed to recreating the 70’s Black Sabbath sound however there are some note-worthy elements to the “Friends Of Hell” record that warrant discussion. Firstly, I’d suggest that even though it may not sound as heavy as “Death Penalty”, “Friends Of Hell” showcases a fair bit more of the traditional doom metal sound than it’s older brother. In fact, unlike “Death Penalty”, I’d go so far as to say that “Friends Of Hell” does enough in this area to be labelled as an actual doom metal record. But what it also does is explore some more commercially accessible ideas which kinda cancel out the effect to an extent.

The almost disco feel & ridiculously dumb lyrics of the single “Music” & the weak & soppy love ballad “I Lost You” really get on my nerves & unfortunately the stronger tracks just aren’t strong enough to cover my disappointment. Of the eight tracks on offer here I only find myself to be fully engaged during three & none of them blow me away to be honest. You can hear the band attempting to implement more expansive arrangements on some tracks with additional instrumentation thrown into the mix here & there but the more groovy stoner feel to some of the material has never been something I’ve had much love for.

As a result, I’ve always found “Friends Of Hell” to be an overrated & disappointing release that does nothing to enlighten me as to why Witchfinder General seem to be held in such high esteem by doom tragics the world over. They may well have been amongst the earliest exponents of this sound but I simply can’t justify the heavy praise they receive because there were so many bands that did this sound much better; albeit a little later in the game. Sadly, Witchfinder General called it quits the following year in 1984 although there was a brief & fairly unsuccessful reformation attempt made without the involvement of vocalist Zeeb Parkes in 2007 which resulted in a disappointing third studio album in 2008. 

Despite being generally well received by fans, I'd recommend that you give "Friends Of Hell" a miss & go straight for the more highly celebrated "Death Penalty" record which will almost certainly make a better account of itself.

Amazingly, by 1982 the metal world was still yet to experience a release that genuinely defined a new subgenre in the same way that Black Sabbath's self-titled debut did when Tony Iommi first hit those three epic downstrokes notes way back in 1970. To put that into perspective, that means that the first twelve years of metal had passed by without anyone really pushing the sound into places that it hadn’t already gone before. But that was about to change, & things would gradually start to escalate over the next few years too.

To go into more detail, Black Sabbath may have defined the heavy metal sound through songs like “Black Sabbath” & “N.I.B.”, but they also hinted at an even darker & gloomier sound at times without ever really embracing it for more than a couple of songs here & there. I think it would be fair to say that Sabbath were an artistically expansive & quite an ambitious band & that’s why they were so instrumental in the formation of so many of the subsequent metal subgenres, but they never spent too long sitting on their laurels. Later in the mid-70’s, bands like Pentagram & Bedemon would take that doomier sound & expand it into something more targeted, but neither managed to get their shit together for long enough to enable them to release that seminal record that would put this new sound (known as doom metal) on the map. That honour would have to wait until 1982 when a young four-piece NWOBHM band from Stourbridge in West Midlands, England put out their debut single entitled “Soviet Invasion!”.

Witchfinder General's first-up three-song affair featured two studio recordings in the title track & “Rabies” as well as a live recording of a song called “RIP”. It was a fairly low budget effort but all of the elements of what we now expect from the traditional doom metal sound were there nonetheless: the monotonous & heavy playing style of early Black Sabbath, the deathly slow tempos, the repetitive & sometimes atonal guitar riffs, the “rocking to sleep” bass lines, the blues rock & psychedelic rock influences, the cold & grief-stricken vocal approach & the dark & depressing lyrical content. All of these factors contributed to the birth of a new concept in metal & one that would change fairly minimally over the years but would build a legion of devoted followers who craved ever more destitute & down-trodden hymns for the damned. But that wasn’t to say that Witchfinder General had stumbled across an all-time classic release here. It was certainly ground-breaking from a conceptual point of view but I wouldn’t say that it was particularly note-worthy from a quality one.

The title track is comfortably the best of the three songs included. It begins with a lovely sweet acoustic guitar section that lulls the listener into a false sense of security before the impending arrival of the crushingly heavy down-tuned guitar riff onslaught of Phil Cope. Phil’s riffs really do sound extremely heavy for the time. He’s managed to tap into Tony Iommi’s riff library & stole what could only be described as some of Tony’s most disconsolate work. There’s nothing bright or uplifting about the guitar sound either. It sounds genuinely depressing but not in a bad way. For this is a point worth noting about doom metal in general. Its fans seem to take solace & a general feeling of empowerment from all of the negativity presented to them. It’s a difficult thing to explain to those that aren’t already onboard with it but doom metal possesses the timeless ability to impose a feeling of unity on the listener. It’s almost like we feel better about our own lives because we’re presented with solid evidence that others experience the same sort of dark feelings that we do on occasion & this can in turn lead to an uplifting feeling that can be quite addictive.

Each of the songs on “Soviet Invasion!” speeds up a little for short changeup sections that both draw the audience into live performances & also work to further enhance the heaviness of the slower material when it returns a short time later. The vocals of Zeeb Parkes are clean & quite serviceable without being particularly engaging while the bass lines generally double the guitars & add some nice little melodies here & there despite the fact that there's very little energy to them. They tend to lead the listener into a comfortable sway that has a somewhat psychedelic effect & that’s not uncommon for doom metal in general. Especially the more traditional 80’s style. The drumming is also fairly laid back here though which is not always the case with doom. I would definitely have preferred to hear the drummer really savaging his kit but he seems to be sitting back in his comfort zone here to an extent. Particularly on the live cut. It doesn’t contribute to a heavier sound which is a shame & I think this is the element that prevents me from really getting into this release as much as I feel I should. This is hardly a precision performance either with the three instrumentalists seeming to struggle to stay in time quite often.

Witchfinder General certainly hint at a sound that would appeal to me on a deeper level but overall this E.P. seems to sound a little bit casual to my ears & I think it’s the drumming that’s the major factor in that. Doom metal fans will want to hear this single at some point but I wouldn’t say that it’s particularly essential & younger doom metal fans might be best served by checking out Witchfinder General's debut full-length "Death Penalty" before deciding that the band are none of their business. "Soviet Invasion!" is more of a seminal release than it is a high quality one in my opinion.

Their 1982 self-titled debut album was a far cry from Virgin Steele’s glory days of the mid-90s. The production was absolutely atrocious & the song-writing showcased a band that was still very much finding their sound. It did however hint at a more orchestral & symphonic style of epic metal than we’d heard to that time so you may be interested to see where the band would take that on their follow-up record which was released just six months later with the same lineup.

1983’s “Guardian Of The Flame” album sees Virgin Steele only marginally improving on the woeful production of the debut with their sophomore effort sounding very thin due to a distinct lack of rhythm guitars & overall bass in the mix. It’s a very wishy washy sound to be honest & I’ve got absolutely no idea how anyone with working ears could have thought they were on the right track during the mixing process. The rhythm guitars really are about half the volume they need to be & it sucks all of the heaviness out of these songs which is a real shame because this is some much stronger material.

Guitarist Jack Starr has toned down his tendency to continually throw guitar solos around on the debut & this sees the songs having a little more room to breathe. He still goes to town when given the opportunity though & his solos are certainly shredding, if not particularly precise. The rhythm section keeps things fairly simple which puts a lot of pressure on front man David DeFeis to deliver given the lack of guitars. He’s really improved his delivery in the six months since Virgin Steele’s first effort though & puts in a much more polished & mature performance. In fact, the stronger pieces definitely line up with the moments where David gets it right as far as the vocal hooks go.

Virgin Steele’s sound is decidedly more metal than before with much less progressive rock & a bit less hard rock influence. The basis of their sound still sits with the classic heavy metal bands of the 70’s & early 80’s although they’ve retained the more symphonic elements that were hinted at previously with Rainbow’s “Rising” album once again proving to be a major influence. This is mainly evident on the more epic & lengthy songs which lean further towards the US power metal sound that was starting to be developed. There are 3 or 4 really good anthemic heavy metal songs here & it’s a real shame that the production puts a cap on how far they can dig their teeth in but you can comfortably discern that Virgin Steele have some real potential. Unfortunately the B side isn’t as strong as the A side & the last couple of tracks in particular really do their best to taint the impact of the stronger material. The closing number stands out as the only real shocker on the record though. It’s a terribly cheesy ballad which leaves me sporting a particularly bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, I’d suggest that you give “Guardians Of The Flame” a miss & check out Virgin Steele’s more classic material. It’s limited payoff isn’t worth the effort it will take you to get into it.

New York heavy metal legends Virgin Steele began life as a four-piece back in 1981 & unbelievably started recording their debut album just three weeks later. The self-titled release finally saw the light of day late the following year in December 1982 & it didn’t exactly set the world on fire to be fair. For starters, the production is absolutely dreadful (even for the time) so one would assume that this was a self-financed & produced effort. In fact, it sounds very much like it was recorded live as the rough edges haven’t been smoothed out & are all still very obvious (if not intrusive). Also, much like Manowar's "Battle Hymns" debut, the album showcases a band that was very much still finding their sound with an array of different styles on offer across the tracklisting. There are a few tracks that present the bombastic style of heavy metal that Virgin Steele would later become known for but they’re surrounded by material that could only be described as generic 70’s inspired hard rock. I mean, as with many heavy metal releases of the NWOBHM era, there’s just as much hard rock here as there is legitimate heavy metal with 70’s hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, UFO, Rush, Van Halen & particularly Rainbow all having a hand in Virgin Steele’s sound. On the other side of the equation there’s a lot of 70’s Judas Priest here too along with elements of the more modern early 80’s Ozzy Osbourne metal sound.

A combination of those influences Virgin Steele may be but it’d be remiss of me not to draw your attention to the fact that early Virgin Steele also offers the listener an additional element; a unique identifier that set them apart from the rest of the field. Even at this very early stage we see them regularly employing elements of classical music to give their sound more of an epic orchestral feel. I’d suggest that this more pompous & theatrical style was influenced by bands like Queen & Rainbow however Virgin Steele present their melodies & orchestration a bit differently; often hinting at a medieval sound. It’s certainly pretty cheesy at times with more than a whiff of power metal about it & the higher register vocals of David Defeis do nothing to alleviate my concerns but this album really is all about the solos with guitar shredder Jack Starr showing off his Eddie Van Halen & Randy Rhoads influenced chops at every opportunity. Jack employs a similar approach to Randy in that he colours the riffs with improvised lead work & very rarely sits still. To be honest though the production is that poor & the song-writing so substandard that it makes very little difference to my overall enjoyment of the record. In fact, the only track that I legitimately enjoy is an Eddie Van Halen “Eruption”-inspired unaccompanied guitar wank piece entitled “Pulverizer” which doesn’t say much for the rest of the material. There are a couple of real shockers here too.

Personally I find “Virgin Steele” to be pretty lackluster overall but it was always unlikely to appeal to my tastes. If you like the sound of 70’s-hard-rock-inspired heavy metal like Japan’s Loudness crossed with the epic cheesiness of Sweden’s Heavy Load & the more expansive & fantasy-fueled arrangements of classic Rainbow then you may feel differently.

The unusually named Picture formed as a four-piece in Rozenberg in 1979 & released their debut self-titled album the following year. It suffered from poor production & was more of a straight up hard rock record so it slipped by the metal media without much fanfare. 1981’s follow-up record “Heavy Metal Ears” was more of a legitimate heavy metal release; probably the very first to come from the Netherlands in fact. The music was a step up in quality from the debut however Picture still hadn’t got the production right & once again the album failed to have the impact that the band & their management were hoping for (despite being a generally pretty enjoyable listen in my opinion). During this time Picture were building a strong following through their solid live performances with several high quality support slots across Europe but it wasn’t until they recruited Israeli vocalist Shmoulik Avigal that things really started to come together for the band with Picture’s third album “Diamond Dreamer” being the record that would see Picture finally managing to achieve the studio production they deserved & fulfillling the promise they’d shown since their early days. 

Musically, Picture keep things pretty simple on "Diamond Dreamer". They stay predominantly within their comfort zones by laying down tight, high-quality 70’s-inspired hard rock & heavy metal grooves. The metal outweighs the rock considerably on this occasion however if I had to guess as to Picture’s influences I’d probably point at more hard rock-driven 70’s outfits like Deep Purple, Whitesnake or Rainbow. But the band presents those influences in a more modern 80’s metal package that should appeal to fans of Accept, Saxon, Dio & late 70’s Judas Priest.

There’s nothing flashy on display here. It’s a workman-like performance from a band that had paid their dues over the previous three years but Picture’s real strength comes in the remarkable vocal abilities of their front man. Avigal’s performance is nothing short of brilliant in my opinion. His voice is so strong that he’s able to lift some of the less impressive vocal hooks to much higher levels. Think the hard rock power of Whitesnake’s David Coverdale meets the soaring operatics of Ronnie James Dio & you won’t be far off the mark. I just love his sound. Some of the lyrics do tend to be a bit basic & cheesy but I can easily look past that as the vocal hooks are infectious. I’m genuinely amazed that “Diamond Dreamer” didn’t make any sort of dent on the early 80’s metal scene & it’s really unfortunate that this would be Avigal’s only release for Picture as he was unceremoniously axed from the band after a petty argument with Picture’s manager a short time afterwards. Out of interest, he would later go on to record an album with US heavy metallers The Rods.

I consider “Diamond Dreamer” to be somewhat of an undiscovered gem. In fact, I actually rate it more highly than many of the more widely celebrated metal albums of 1982 so if the influences listed above mean anything to you at all then I'd strongly urge you to give "Diamond Dreamer" a good few spins to give it a chance to fully dig its teeth in. You won't regret it. 

The early French metal scene was a little slow to get off the mark in comparison to their competition in the NWOBHM. In fact, we really didn't see any genuinely heavy releases of any note coming out of France during the first decade of the metal journey & 1980 didn't offer a whole lot more with only the very popular Trust pushing a sound that touched on the heavy metal model. However 1981 would see some competition finally starting to take shape in the self-titled debut album from a five-piece outfit from gay Paris going by the name of Warning (not to be confused with the avant-garde German doom metal band Warning that released their own self-titled album in 1982 just to make things confusing). "Warning" was a more than decent hard rock record but there was little sign of any legitimate heavy metal on there to tell you the truth. We'd have to wait for the 1982 follow-up release "Warning II" to hear anything close to that (well actually it's also called "Warning" but let's go with "Warning II" to avoid even more confusion).

Now if we're working to the letter of the law, then it's definitely more accurate to say that "Warning II" showcased a brand of heavy music that still sat more comfortably under the hard rock banner than the heavy metal one overall with the influence of bands like AC/DC, Van Halen & Def Leppard all jumping out pretty obviously. But there's still just enough genuine metal on offer on to satisfy all you metalheads out there & it's of a pretty high quality too with Judas Priest & Riot seeming to be the main influences if my ears don't deceive me. Warning were an extremely talented bunch of musicians & I’d be very surprised if they weren’t seasoned veterans of the scene by this stage in their careers because these songs are beautifully performed & constructed. The guitar solos in particular are quite breath-taking & lead shredder Christophe Aubert possesses some serious chops to burn. Do I even hear some sweep picking at one point which would be more than a year before legendary Swedish shred virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen brought this technique to global infamy? Vocalist Raphael Garrido has an extremely bad-assed style of vocal delivery that I really enjoy too. It makes the French lyrics sound so much more palatable to an English speaking listener like myself. I’d suggest that his sound falls somewhere between Accept’s Udo Dirkschneider & Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine with a bit Judas Priest’s Rob Halford in his upper register screams. Now that might sound horrible to some people but give him a chance because this guy is pure rock ‘n’ roll.

The production job on “Warning II” is very good with the production team favouring more of a hard rock sound than a metal one. The bass guitar could be a little louder in the mix but it’s not a major concern.

The tracklisting is particularly consistent overall with just the one track falling into the filler category however there aren’t really all that many highlight songs which is what has possibly prevented “Warning II” from a greater level of success. I still quite like it though & to be honest these first couple of Warning albums mark the earliest foreign language metal releases that I find much enjoyment in. I probably prefer the follow-up just slightly over the debut but I'd recommend that you give them both a spin if you're partial to well composed & executed heavy rock.

Some pretty generic black metal that lacks the sophistication & technical prowess of the top tier  bands. The vocals are pretty decent in the style of Satyricon. The production is very nice too. There are some good sections of powerful black metal that unfortunately don't hold out for a full track. The simple, boring old school thrash/punk riffs show their heads just when you think you're getting into it. The lead guitars are very average & don't suit the bands sound at all. See the outro of "Waters Of Ain" for a prime example as it sounds like the end of an Eric Clapton track. Bonus track Chains Of Death is especially poor & should not have been included.

I find this album to be fairly generic with a very strong Meshuggah influence. The musicianship is excellent but I just can't get into it.

I've never been a huge fan of Unleashed. I've always found them to be a bit simple & every album was basically the exact same formula. So no surprises that "As Yggdrasil Trembles" follows the same trend. You'll hear the same simple (but effective) old-school death metal riffs with the trademark death growls that are unusually intelligible for a death metal vocalist. The lyrics are far too childish for an older metalhead like myself to take seriously & I think Unleashed could certainly spend a bit more time on that aspect of their next release. I must say that (even though they are overly long at times) the guitar solos are really great. I found myself waiting to hear them each song. This is a solid release that won't win any new fans but won't lose them many either.

This is a big improvement on the band's previous "Godlike Snake" release in my opinion. "Snailking" sees Italy's Ufomammut bump up the psychadelia & doom a couple of notches & tone down the stoner rock. These can only be great things as far as I'm concerned. This results in an album that's heavy as hell & dirty as shit. It's like a huge lumbering beast that's tripping out after eating some dodgy mushrooms. I love how the vocals take a backseat to the huge Sabbathy riff carnage. A really fun record.

I was floored by the quality of this album. It came outta nowhere! A combination of crushing Black Sabbath style doom metal & drug-fuelled psychadelic rock, "Eve" is not intended to be listened to as individual tracks. It must be experienced as a whole. This is indicated strongly by the lack of song-titles & the way the tracks flow from one to another.

The opening & closing tracks are epic 13min+ builders that start deeply atmospheric & finish in chaotic walls of sound. The noisy distorted bass guitar leads from the front & vocals are left to an absolute minimum. In fact, the vocals are rare & are more for background colouring than for anything else. This is very cerebral music that I wouldn't recommend for celebratory parties. It's prime time stoner material for a dark room with just some trippy visuals on the TV. Highly recommended!

Being an old Hellhammer/Celtic Frost fan, I was pretty excited to hear what this release was like & I haven't been disappointed. This CD is full of the crushing Sabbath-style riffs that I loved 30 years ago recorded with a greatly increased level of production. Tom sounds as angry as ever as he spits out his lyrics over an imposing wall of sound. Last track "The Prolonging" in particular is absolutely epic and is a clear highlight. Atmospheric interludes are used to break up the heavier moments and create a nice contrast. Unfortunately, most of the more up-tempo moments on the album are a bit of a let-down. "A Thousand Lies" sounds like a poor man's version of early Bathory & the outro to "Descendant" is a straight rip-off of the King/Hannemann solo section in Slayer's "Angel Of Death". However it is worth noting that this album is a bit of a grower with each listen opening up new surprises so I wouldn't be surprised if I end up bumping up my rating a little later on down the track.

"Cold Day Memory" is a very solid (although highly predictable) collection of radio metal anthems that oozes class but ultimately proves to be fairly formulaic. The production is immaculate as you might expect from a major label heavyweight act such as Sevendust & all of the instrumentalists put in fine performances. The guitar sound is very chunky & I was particularly impressed by how the drums & bass work so tightly in unison to create a rhythm section in the truest sense of the term. There are also no soppy ballads like you usually hear on these sort of releases which was certainly a pleasant surprise.

Vocalist Lajon Witherspoon can really sing & the vocal hooks come at you thick & fast from the first track. In fact, my major gripe with "Cold Day Memory" is probably it's biggest drawcard. Every track has a big radio-friendly chorus that just sounds too commercial for someone who despises radio playlists like I do. I must admit that the tracks tend to be difficult to tell apart after a while because they re all based on the same concept of making a big radio rock/metal anthem. Sevendust certainly succeed in this quest & tracks like "Karma" (my clear personal favourite) have some great song-along potential.

Overall, I couldn't help but enjoy "Cold Day Memory" even though I did a cringe on occasions. Sevendust just do this stuff so well that you have to admire them for it. This album won't change your life but it could brighten your day.

"Cosmology" is essentially some very messy sounding mathcore that lacks the songwriting, production & melody of class acts like the Dillinger Escape Plan. I found it to be quite a grating & uneasy listening experience. The screaming vocals are very ordinary. I think Rolo need to concentrate more on writing catchy riffs than being clever & chaotic all the time. It just doesn't work as listenable music.

This is the debut album from these US Sabbath worshippers. I usually love this style of traditional doom metal & this record is not bad at all but the production unfortunately lets it down a bit as it's quite muddy & lacks brightness. Also, the musicianship is not terribly wonderful. The guitars are not perfectly in tune at times (especially in the opening track). The vocals are in the Ozzy Osbourne/Warning style & I quite like them most of the time. They're a bit further back in the mix than you would expect but that's not such a bad thing as it adds emphasis to the riffs which should definitely be the focus here. You can expect plenty of those beautiful early Cathedral-style guitar harmonies here which is always a good thing. Overall, "Sorrow & Extinction" is certainly heavy & I think Pallbearer would be great live. If the result of this debut album is any indication then they can only improve from here.

Well this is certainly a bit different. I'd say it's Darkthrone-style black metal mixed with classic rock influences. I can't say I'm a big fan. The musicianship isn't exactly inspiring with the guitar solos being particularly ordinary. The rock influence is very obvious in the song structures as the band tries to write sing-along choruses for black metal which seems like a lost cause in my opinion. But at least they're trying something different. There are some nice moments where they leave the weird shit to the side & just concentrate on the pure black metal. But overall this isn't really my bag.

This is a really great album. The German's had a really solid year when it came to black metal & I find this release to have a freshness & originality that took me by surprise. The jazz interludes are nice & the shoegaze influence works particularly well. The extra melodic element is still quite deep & keeps me interested throughout. The faster drumming sections could with a bit of tightening up & the production is not brilliant but that doesn't take away from the overall atmosphere. Closer "Neon" is the highlight. It would be interesting to see what Lantlos could do with a bigger production. This was definitely amongst the best black metal album I heard in 2010.

Some really chunky doom death metal with obvious early Cathedral influences. The guitar sound is heavily down-tuned & sludgy. Vocalist Lasse's Cookie Monster vocals are pretty unconvincing & the overall sound is a bit primitive. There are some really heavy chugging moments spoiled by some really bad groovy ones. The guitar solos are particularly average. This whole CD sounds a bit dated in today's environment.

There's some serious metal going on for most of this album & I quite like it. It's about time someone put out some melodic death metal with balls & the At The Gates influence is strong here. The vocals are the highlight as they are extremely powerful for the most part. I can excuse the occasional flourish of metalcore when there are such strong metal riffs on display. There are also no wanky guitar solos to be found. Even the weaker, more melodic sections only appear for short periods before being overtaken by something more substantial. Unfortunately the last few tracks are very disappointing, especially "Of Forsaken Poets" which is just plain terrible. But overall this is worth a good listen or two.

These guys play an undeniably 1980's style of thrash metal. This one's a bit more mid-paced than I remember 2011's more energetic "Time Is Up" album to be. The production & musicianship are excellent here. The bass sound & performance stands out in particular & the guitar solos sound vibrant & fresh. Unfortunately (as I find with most modern thrash metal) the songs just aren't there. Plus there's little to no originality so you could easily be listening to the latest Exodus or Overkill records. Not a bad record if you like that kind of thing but I got bored pretty quickly.

More very well written & executed but thoroughly uninteresting US thrash metal. I've got some shocking news for you people. The "thrash metal revival" is a myth. For a revival to actually take place there has to be bands that are taking the genre forward. If Havok's "Time Is Up" is the best that's out there then I remain unconvinced. This is basically an Exodus tribute album. There is plenty of energy & some good production & musicianship but ultimately I've heard it all done before a thousand times. I have nothing against Havok who are doing what they love & do it very well but I can't rate an album like this higher than three stars. It may be the best of the current pack but I still find I would rather be listening to "Bonded By Blood". Oh ...and for the record gang vocals don't cut it in modern times.

I'm not really sure what to make of A Forest Of Stars. They're quite different to your average black metal band in that they incorporate a lot of alternative instruments. However they just don't really pull it off all that effectively. The vocals are disappointing. Some of the ambient interludes are nice. I find the drumming to be a bit sloppy during the faster sections. There is some atmosphere but the whole experience is a bit wishy washy & I can't really get into it much. It seems to lack some focus.

Neck & neck with the new Sigh for CD for worst metal release of 2010. These guys should stand trial for unforgivable crimes against metal.