1132. Iron Maiden / Somewhere in Time. 1986. 5/5

Following the recruitment of Bruce Dickinson as the singer of the band, Iron Maiden had put together three albums that launched them from English pub band to worldwide sensation. The addition of Nicko McBrain on drums had only lifted this, and on the back of The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind and Powerslave, Maiden had then taken an 18 months trip around the world on the World Slavery Tour, conquering all corners of the globe and resulting in the amazing live album Live After Death.The band then agreed to take a long sabbatical in order to recharge and reload, and no doubt get to know their families and friends once again after such a long time away from home. Eventually, the time came for the band to put together their follow up to the Powerslave album and the tour it had spawned. No doubt they were under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task that faced them, trying to follow up the quality of albums that had preceded this.

Perhaps the biggest problem they faced was that Bruce Dickinson was facing a mini-crisis, or a slump. In both his own autobiography and in interviews about the album since, Bruce admitted that he had been completely burned out by the schedule the band had had over the recent years, and his ability to come up with material had been seriously compromised. The song ideas that he brought in for the new album had been based around acoustic instruments, as he felt at the time that the band had to make some changes to their sound if they were to remain relevant. The fact he came in with these radical ideas caught the band by surprise, and indeed Steve Harris was quoted in several interviews as saying they were ‘bollocks’. Steve admitted Bruce had suffered the most of their long touring schedule, but also rejected out of hand using any of the ideas Bruce had come in with. Bruce had even considered quitting at that point such was his reluctance to continue on.
Coming to the table as the saviour on the album was Adrian Smith. Adrian had often collaborated with Bruce and Steve on songs in the past, indeed some of Maiden’s best songs. With Bruce sidelined from the writing part, Adrian took on a much greater role, contributing three of the eight tracks on his own, and with Dave Murray helping out on one track as well, the album had its eight songs.
Though Bruce’s desire for change in the style of music the band produced was not carried forward, there was a significant change made by the band, as Dave and Adrian had been experimenting with guitar synthesisers during their down period, and for the first time on an Iron maiden album, they appeared heavily throughout the album that became Somewhere in Time.

It’s funny looking back on the kind of things some metal bands said they would ‘never do’ – Metallica would ‘never do a video for a single’, Iron Maiden would ‘never use keyboards’. Despite the fact they would do just that from their following album, the guitar synths here on Somewhere in Time added to the whole atmosphere of the album, and although the album was never meant to be a concept album, it is amazing how the songs seem to tie up to a slightly loose adaption of that. The opening track “Caught Somewhere in Time” does exactly that, and the mood set by the synths may well be different from barnstorming previous album openers like “Aces High” and “Where Eagles Dare” but it is no less effective in getting the album off on the right foot. Indeed, the opening of all of the tracks of the album is quite spectacular. The use of the synths mixes in perfectly with the guitars of both Adrian and Dave and gives these songs a unique sound in comparison to all the songs the bands had produced before this album, an even more melodic guitar sound than these two had achieved previously.
“Wasted Years” became the first single from the album, written by Adrian and becoming perhaps his best known and most recognisable Iron Maiden track. His intro riff to the song became the most played on guitar at our school during 1986 and 1987. Perhaps the best use of the guitar and guitar synth combination comes on his next song “Sea of Madness”, which switches easily between the two and also between the two moods of the song itself, in many ways giving the impression of the sea and the rolling swell such is the way the song also rises and falls in the same way. “Heaven Can Wait” is another of the best songs here, bursting with energy both musically and vocally with Bruce at the top of his form throughout, and with the crowd-inducing ‘whoa-oh-oh’ section in the middle that was perfect for when the song was played live and wanted to capture the crowd in the moment.

The second side opened with “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”, another of Steve’s songs based on films. The opening of the song finds Iron Maiden at their melodic best, just a beautiful serene way to open the track before blasting into the energetic dash for the line. This is followed by the second single from the album, Adrian’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”, brilliant in its simplicity yet technically terrific drumming and guitaring. “Deja-Vu” is the shortest song on the album and one that is often the most derided of the track on this album. In much the same way the “Quest for Fire” from the “Piece of Mind” album is often overlooked in any discussion on Iron Maiden songs, “Deja-Vu” sits apart from the discussion of the album in most conversations or interviews about the subject. It is not a bad song at all, but comparatively against some of the more brilliant tracks it seems a little out of its class.
Perhaps the piece de resistance is the closing track, “Alexander the Great”. Following on in the tradition of “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “To Tame a Land” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Alexander the Great” loses nothing in comparison to those three masterpieces. Like those songs it is the longest on the album and is not only the perfectly majestic way to conclude the album, it creates such an atmosphere that it is difficult not to just flip the album over and start all over again.

All albums are new to you at some stage of your life, but this was the first Iron Maiden studio album that I got to experience from the actual time of its release rather than catching up on them all a year or more afterwards. It was towards the end of Year 11 for me in 1986, and this album eclipsed those final few months of the school year. Everything was about this album, every single nuance of every single song, knowing every single word within the first couple of days, burned into my brain. It was a life defining moment, in that everything I did during those months are all brought back to me whenever I listen to this album, and that listening to this album triggers those memories. I used to take my portable cassette player with me to school, and we would listen to the album during recess and lunch every day. I took it with me when we walked to our school sport, and we would all sing along for the whole walk there and the whole walk back. On one particular day the conversation came around to which song would you leave off if taping the album to a C90 cassette in order to keep it on one side, and in trying to explain that if you left off “Sea of Madness” that would achieve that, it instead became about me hating “Sea of Madness” and believing that initially it was the worst song on the album, before expanding that to becoming the worst song Iron Maiden had written, to being the worst song ever written period. An injustice that continues to be repeated to the present day.

So it is safe to say that this album had an amazing impact on me. The changes in using synths seemed to not go down well with some people, fearing the mid-80’s influence that was being used in popular music at the time would infiltrate the band’s music further down the track. Like all bands, Maiden’s sound did change over the years since in accordance with what music trends were appearing, but they have never lost that quintessential Maiden attributes, and that is also true here. While some experts were less enamoured by the changes after the previous three amazing albums, for me and those of us in our generation, the awesomeness of Somewhere in Time is never in question. The anthemic lyrics of “Wasted Years”, “Heaven Can Wait” and “Stranger in a Strange Land” equal the emotional payoff of “Caught Somewhere in Time” and “Sea of Madness” and “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”. And when you have one of your best mates who gets stuck in an Ancient History exam, and to get out of it he simply expands on writing down the lyrics of “Alexander the Great”, and gets 3/10 for the essay, you know Iron Maiden are still being the most awesome band in the world.

Somewhere in Time is still a landmark in heavy metal music, because it showed that you could experiment with your sound without losing the essence of your music, and you could still produce a blockbuster album even without one of your main songwriters being able to contribute to it.

1122. Bon Jovi / Slippery When Wet. 1986. 4/5

By the time 1986 had come around, Bon Jovi had already been around for a few years, and had released two albums, the eponymous Bon Jovi released in 1984 and the follow up, 7800° Fahrenheit released in 1985. Both albums had been a moderate success and had managed to get themselves noticed by the, again, moderately successful singles, “Runaway” from the debut album and “In and Out of Love” from 7800° Fahrenheit. But the band was ambitious, and in their two main members, lead singer Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora, they had a pair of song writers who had the ideas to get them there. But they decided that they needed some help to get them started on their next album if it was to achieve what they were hoping. They were looking for a more mainstream sound than they had had on their first two albums – though, from a personal perspective in this instance, what they were actually looking for was material that struck a chord rather than looking to be more commercial. So in putting together their new album, they made some, in retrospect, canny decisions. Bruce Fairbairn was brought in to produce the album, man who had already had success with Loverboy and Aerosmith, and would do so after this with bands such as AC/DC, Scorpions and Van Halen. Bob Rock, who would produce mega albums from bands such as Motley Crue and Metallica following this, was brought in to mix the album. And a phone call was made to the man known as “The Hit-Maker", Desmond Child, to help collaborate with Bon Jovi and Sambora on a few tracks to help them get the kind of sound and appeal that they were looking for. From all reports and interviews, the band put together something like 30 songs in the writing process, and eventually auditioned them to locals to judge which songs would eventually go on the album.Did hiring Desmond Child have an influence? Well, you would have to judge that for yourself I guess. Child co-wrote four songs on the album, the balladesque “Without Love” and rock ballad “I’d Die For You”, and also two other songs you may know, “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer”. So yeah, I’d say he was worth whatever he got paid for helping out in the writing department.

Slippery When Wet became a template for the most commercially successful albums through the second half of the 1980’s, and one that most hair metal bands in particular tried to follow to replicate this album’s success. It is a combined selection of rock tracks and unashamed soft rock ballads, of harder songs that don’t always get the attention of the million selling singles, and of slower tempo tracks. Because of the mega success of the singles released from the album, many people don’t even know half of the songs on the album, even though they probably have a copy of it at home.

The timing of the release of the singles from the album kept Slippery When Wet and Bon Jovi in the music charts and on the stereos of people worldwide for an 18 month period from mid-1986 through to the end of 1987 and beyond. Four singles were released, each spaced roughly four months apart so as not to step on the toes of each other. You know them all, and you know the words to them all as well. “You Give Love a Bad Name” was brought out a few weeks prior to the album’s release and immediately caught on radio and MTV which set up the album’s release perfectly. This was followed by “Livin’ on a Prayer” which is the song everyone still knows Bon Jovi for. It is the anthem that never stops being sung anywhere in the world, by the young and the young at heart. We’re always halfway there. It stayed on rotation on music video shows for a year, and feels as though it has never left radio rotation for the last 35 years. Six months later came “Wanted Dead or Alive”, a completely different tempo song with the acoustic guitars which again caught the attention of the 16-30 years olds and made them swoon over Bon Jovi and Sambora all over again. And the fourth and final single was the rock ballad “Never Say Goodbye”, surely always tagged as being a single and one they would have hoped would be a winner. And it did well but given the amazing success of the album’s first three singles it was probably always on a hiding to nothing.
On the back of these singles, the album was a raging success. Both “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” went to number one around the world including the US and Australia, while “Wanted Dead or Alive” reached top ten. This meant that Slippery When Wet became to the first album of the metal genre to have three top ten singles on it.

But an album can’t be considered great on the singles alone, and as much as I enjoy those three main singles released from the album, they aren’t what just makes this album terrific – because if you were only putting the album on for those songs you would eventually be sorely disappointed. You have to take a look at the rest of the contributors to realise what makes this album so special. The opening blast of “Let it Rock” actually is the perfect set up for the album, the mid-tempo anthemic chanting draws you in from the start, making you feel a part of the crowd and the experience itself. Once the two multi-million selling singles follow this you have “Social Disease” which is just as important in the scheme of the album and not far behind them regarding great Bon Jovi songs. “Raise Your Hands” is probably still my favourite song from the album, it is the hardest track on the album as far as I’m concerned, and in regard to getting the blood pumping it is the winner here.
For the lovers of the soft rock ballads, the back half of the album is where they are hiding, and if you enjoy that part of the genre then this is the money shot for you. “Without Love” is very much in this category, for me a little whiny on vocals. “I’d Die For You” harks back to the early Bon Jovi years, and indeed reminds me constantly of their first single “Runaway” such is the dominance of the keyboards here. Then the final single “Never Say Goodbye”, where the band goes into full-on soft ballad mode. The album is then concluded by the hard rocking “Wild in the Streets”, concluding the album the way it started on a positive note.

The album spanned musical tastes and the generations. Radio listeners loved it, pop fans loved it, rock fans loved it, metal fans loved it. The album was loved by primary school kids and adults from 20 to 50. Everyone could find something on here to their musical taste, and once the album had that in, it was able to drag them into enjoying the rest of it.
On the other side of the coin, I doubt that the album has the same impact on those that didn’t grow up with it at the time of its release. It’s popularity today is based more on the blanket warmth of memories that it inspires rather than the relevance and timelessness of the songs the album produced. Many from the following generations indeed appear bemused when this album is brought up in conversation as one of the great albums, and you can see why that would be. Not only have parts of this album dated over time, anchored to the decade that it was written and recorded, Bon Jovi’s recession into an almost easy-listening act in recent times does nothing when trying to articulate just how huge and important this album was back when it was released. Perhaps today, on the 35th anniversary of its release, it is a day for reflection on that. Because in its time it was an album that almost every music fan of every genre of music owned a copy of. And that more than anything else showed its importance of its age.

Rating:  "Oooohhhh, we're halfway there..."  4/5

1067. Motörhead / Orgasmatron. 1986. 3/5

It was a turbulent time for Motörhead through the middle part of the 1980’s. The band had lost guitarist Eddie Clarke, who had been replaced by Brian Robertson and who had then been dismissed himself after the tour following the previous album. This led to long term drummer Phil Taylor also handing in his resignation, and along with now no longer having a record contract they were tough times for a band that was being nominated as a major influence on every new heavy band coming into the market. By the time the smoke had cleared Motörhead had not one but two new guitarists along with a new drummer, and the album that came to fruition from all of this was Orgasmatron.

Given the differences in style that seemed to cruel the last album to the ears of fans and critics, you can probably understand the direction that this album went in. The addition of two guitarists increased the wall of noise coming out of the stereo speakers, and while it isn’t necessarily a fuller sound it most certainly is a different guitar sound again. In some songs it comes across as similar to many Motörhead classics, but in other places the phasing and distortion and pedal effects make themselves present right in the front of the mix. The title track and closing song “Orgasmatron” is one of the best examples of this. Not only is the tempo dropped to a slow crawl, the guitars are distorted and twisted and creating what is a unique sound for a Motörhead song, while Lemmy intones about his thoughts on the hypocrisy of religion, politics and war. It is unusual when you first hear it, and it does take some time to get used to it, but once you do it is enjoyable. “Doctor Rock” is a more straight forward rock song that the band likes to play, though is another where I find the unusual format hinders my liking of the song. Add to this “Claw”, which not only integrates the same sort of song arrangement but then has Lemmy screaming the title throughout the final third of the song. I still feel that on Another Perfect Day Lemmy’s vocals never sounded better. Here though, and especially on these two songs, it feels that he’s deliberately trying to steer clear of that, and to me it is an overreach.
There are some great classic tracks here though, even if most of them have been forgotten over the years by some fans. The opening track “Deaf Forever” is a beauty, cranking along in old school Motörhead style that is a pleasure to listen to. “Nothing Up My Sleeve” and “Ain’t My Crime” also get the album off to a great start. “Mean Machine” is one of the better songs and yet I have always felt that it could have been better, that it just lack a spark that could have lifted it even more. The opening to side two of the album is excellent, with the opening riff of “Built For Speed” reeling back in the doubters and producing a headbanging action with immediate effect. This is followed by “Ridin’ With the Driver” which is also at the right tempo and energy to keep the album moving, and then finished off with the aforementioned “Doctor Rock” and “Orgasmatron”.

This album is a grower, and like most of the albums Motörhead released in the 80’s and 90’s sometimes you have to be in the right mood to appreciate them. Another Perfect Day sounded great from all aspects but the songs didn’t quite resonate. On Orgasmatron the sound is perhaps closer to the base Motörhead sound but is still different enough to stand apart. I am still about 50/50 as to where this stands with me overall. As a first outing for the second coming of Motörhead the band it does promise more than it probably delivers in the end.

Rating: “March or croak, flame and smoke, burn forever in eternal pain”. 3/5

1030. Ozzy Osbourne / The Ultimate Sin. 1986. 5/5

By the time the mid-1980’s had rolled around, Ozzy Osbourne has already done just about everything there was to do in music. His storied past in outlandish behaviour was also well documented. Coming into 1986 he had three best-selling solo albums behind him and the music world at his feet. As with most of Ozzy’s albums during this decade (at least) there is the usual contention over who actually wrote the songs. At least here on The Ultimate Sin guitarist Jake E. Lee and oft-collaborator Bob Daisley have been given their dues. There’s little doubt that the pair of Lee and Daisley can write great songs. Apart from the great tracks on Bark at the Moon they write some cracking tunes here. The two videos released from the album show Ozzy in full 80’s regalia, in overblown sparkly coats and jewellery and that massively teased peroxided hair, but still singing up a storm no matter what the exterior was like.

The first side of the album I feel is underrated, and is often cited by those who aren’t as keen on the album as the reason why. I think it more than holds its own. It may not have any of the most revered Ozzy songs of his career on it, but neither are they the weakest. The self-titled opening track starts off with a thumping drum beat from Randy Castillo before the rhythmic bass and guitar riff kicks in. the tempo sticks to a solid beat, energised through the middle of the song by Jake’s solo. This moves straight into the guitar riffing beginning of “Secret Loser”, one of my favourite Ozzy tracks. The faster pace pulls you along in its wake, joining in as Ozzy serenades you with “Loser, I’m a secret loser!” The Lee solo is followed by a great piece in the middle of the song where Randy plays along on his toms with barely a ripple from the guitars while Ozzy sings over the top, only to crash back into the chorus through the guitar and bass riffing back in hard and heavy. Great stuff.
“Never Know Why” settles in the same tempo that most of the album resides in, with the heavy 2/4 beat on the drums allowing Ozzy to follow the tempo vocally over the top of the simple riff structure. It sounds simple enough and doesn’t require much effort, but is effective In that it allows the guitar solo to be hero of the song while the rhythm is prominent throughout. The anti-war song “Thank God for the Bomb” follows, and uses a similar technique in the middle of the song with the tom roll followed by the guitar solo, and is just as enjoyable. “Never” rounds out the first side of the album – and really, who was doing the titles of these songs? “Never Know Why” closely followed by “Never”? Isn’t that confusing?
The second half of the album is where the real money shots reside. It starts off with the excellent “Lightning Strikes” which is prefaced by a great entry guitar riff from Jake before Ozzy gives it all on vocals. This is a quintessential Ozzy song from the era, and anyone who has seen the video for it, with Ozzy in all his glory, will know it. The lyrics sum it all up as well, and that Jake solo in the middle is just fantastic. This is followed by what is arguably the best song on the album, “Killer of Giants”. The opening guitar, bass and keys sequence, followed by Ozzy’s perfect vocal for the lyrics, before crashing into the harder edge of the song itself, is one of the best moments in all of Ozzy’s solo material. The second anti-war song on the album also brings to notice the tension that was in the air around the world at this point in the decade.
“Fool Like You” and “Shot in the Dark” complete the album in style. “Fool Like You” was the perfect song for singing at fellow students back in high school when they questioned what you were doing and how you were going about it. One of the problems of being a heavy metal nerd, there were plenty of ‘cool’ people who wanted to have a go at you. I loved singing this song at them. Jake’s solo again is top shelf. “Shot in the Dark”, co-written by bass guitarist Phil Soussan, was the first single from the album and got regular airplay on music video programs. It is a great way to finish off the album.

The question could well then be asked – why do I love this album so much when others will find its simplicity to be boring and uninteresting? It’s a fair question, and the answer will reside on the fact that I grew up with the album from the time of its release. It was one that my friends and I lived off, and it speaks as much about my youth as it does about whether the songs on the album sound simplistic or awesomely technical. The three musicians in Jake E. Lee, Bob Daisley and Randy Castillo are just terrific here, and it is somewhat of a pity that they didn’t collaborate and play together more. Music speaks to different people in different ways. I still find this as enjoyable and entertaining as I did thirty years ago.

Best Songs: "The Ultimate Sin", "Secret Loser", "Lightning Strikes", "Killer of Giants", "Fool Like You", "Shot in the Dark"

Rating:  “If none of us believe in war, then can you tell me what the weapons are for?”   5/5

981. Megadeth / Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? 1986. 5/5

My introduction to Megadeth’s sophomore album was inevitably through the magic of music video, and their appearance on music shows such as Rage on ABCTV late on Friday and Saturday nights. Both videos for “Peace Sells” and “Wake Up Dead” were excellent, and the songs even better. My problem living in Australia in 1986 was that it was almost impossible to find this album. It wasn’t until I finally discovered Utopia Records in Sydney that this became easier. As it was, it was a miracle when I finally found this on vinyl in a rack at Wilson’s Records in Wollongong in early 1988, and I finally was able to experience the album of Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? rather than just the two songs I knew so well by that time.

Is there a finer opening song to an album than “Wake Up Dead”? It would be far too difficult to nail down an exact answer to that, but I have always felt that while there would be many songs that could be rated as an equal, certainly none is better than this. The needle would hit the vinyl, and then BANG, we are straight into the album, with Dave explaining to us about his sneak entry into his own house that evening. The difference between the opening thirty seconds of this song and everything that appeared on their debut opus is startling. That album was raw thrash just thrown out there, a wall of noise coming at you at a rush of speed. “Wake Up Dead” is heavy – fucking heavy – but refined in a way those early songs were not. The band is tight, the music is hammered together and the production is a hundred times better without stripping back any of the anger and fury that is pouring out of the speakers. This is a classic, and Dave being able to come up with songs about particular relationships was something that he can still draw on. “The Conjuring” is the follow up, and continues in a similar vein. However, though it is fast and heavy it doesn’t come across as frantic as the band’s earlier material. It is full of great riffs and fast and heavy material, but it is not in a frenzy. It is a real triumph as to how quickly the band matured in writing and playing, and about how better production can tighten songs that are pliable due to their strength.
“Peace Sells” is a classic in its simplicity, beautifully held together by Dave Ellefson’s wonderful bass line rumbling along underneath the simple by effective drum and guitar riff, while Mustaine stands on his soap box and pontificates on his vision of the world as he sees it. It also comes with the perfect lines for crowds to cry back at the band during concerts, an easy form of hero worship through the lyrics. The music video exacerbated this through its clever depiction of world events, and it spoke to the teenage generation at their hearts. Combine politics and anger in a song. It’s a winner. This then crashes straight into “Devil’s Island”, with Ellefson again flying along on bass guitar throughout while Mustaine and Chris Poland have a ball in their selected category. It’s amazing how fast a five minute song can go when it goes at this pace. Great stuff.
The opening to the second side of the album is “Good Mourning / Black Friday”. Good Mourning is just that, a slower mournful opening with Dave’s spoken feelings, before we suddenly fall downhill into Good Friday, which holds the torch for speed metal high and proud on this album. This flays along at what Dark Helmet in Spaceballs would call Ludicrous Speed. It is almost impossible for the listener to keep up with the song, and I can’t imagine how on earth Mustaine and Poland managed to pick their guitar strings at this speed. This is just awesomely fantastic, and even though it will rick your neck completely you can’t help but thrash along in time. Brilliant stuff. “Bad Omen” starts off in a similar vein to Good Mourning, but maintains a more attainable speed once the song starts, before careering over the edge as well in the final third of the song.
If there is an issue to be had, then it is with “I Ain’t Superstitious”, a cover version of the song originally recorded by blues artist Howlin’ Wolf. This version is (of course) a lot different from the original, but it is still noticeable that it doesn’t completely fit the vibe of the rest of this album. It is listenable, yes. And it must be said, even perfect albums can have a slight flaw in them (yes I know that is basically a contradiction, but I don’t care). Everything is forgiven by the closing track “My Last Words” which again starts with a slower riff before bursting into the heart of the song at speed, and Mustaine taking the bull by the horns and letting it charge. This is a terrific closing track, leaving you just as high and blazing as you are by the opening of the album. Just scintillating.

Apart from any reservations raised by “I Ain’t Superstitious”, it is practically impossible to find any weaknesses in this album. While Gar Samuelson’s drumming is sometimes criticised, his work here is solid and builds the basis for the other three musicians to weave their spell. Dave Ellefson is tremendous, and his bass guides throughout are a major component of what makes these songs so heavy in the bottom end. Chris Poland and Mustaine himself once again show a wonderful combination in their guitaring, and it is a disappointment that Poland was dismissed following this album (along with Samuelson) for excessive drug use as their partnership is just fantastic here. On top of all of this, Mustaine’s vocals continued to suit his songs, and with a deepening political and social bent in his lyrics the album ticks all of the boxes. Even as a stepping stone to further great albums to come, this still holds its own and stands the test of time some 30 years on.

Rating:  “I want to watch the news….. this IS the news!”  5/5

976. Europe / The Final Countdown. 1986. 3.5/5

Imagine if you will that you grew up through the 1980’s, those magical teenage years and high school years taking up the middle of that decade. Consider the music that purveyed most of that time – New Romantic, Pop, Post Pop. The influx of the synthesizer, the infusion of the saxophone. The many forms that the genre of heavy metal took in this time, from NWOBHN to thrash to hair. Now imagine that at a time when Bon Jovi had made their massive breakthrough into every corner of music listeners with their release of Slippery When Wet there was also another band that released an album that at the time was just as big with singles that produced just as much fervour as those from Bon Jovi. And now come back to the present, thirty years on, where while Slippery When Wet is still held in the highest regard amongst those of the generation and even of those generations that have come since, The Final Countdown is more often ridiculed by all. I’m here to tell you that it deserves the same amount of respect that Slippery When Wet has.

There is no comparison to the two albums, and I don’t want to do that, because that is unfair to both. Europe’s third studio release may have ridden on the back of the major single release that came to promote it, but that doesn’t make it a one trick pony. I also don’t want to pretend that the empathy and love I have of this album is not directly related to the memories it brings back of my final high school years every time I put it on to listen to it. But that is one of the greatest properties of music, and in this respect it has a heavy influence. No doubt there are thousands – probably millions - of people out there who loved this album when it was released who either find it so sappy or cheesy now that they can’t listen to it, or just don’t want to admit that they still find it entertaining. There’s no doubt it is rooted to its era. But that doesn’t make it bad.
Europe was one of the precursors to the European hard rock and heavy metal sound. The heavy influence of the synth and keyboards on this album can be directly related to bands such as Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica through the 1990’s and into the next century. The brilliant guitar of John Norum – which so often gets overlooked because ‘he plays in Europe’ – finds the perfect time in each song to make its influence felt to the maximum degree. Joey Tempest’s vocals are as clear and precise as you could hope for. The rest of the band - John Levén on bass, Mic Michaeli on keyboards and Ian Haugland on drums – are also superb. And the hair, the hair of 1986 just makes it all the more joyous.
No, this is not a perfect album, but I never suggested it was. Even back in 1986 I was struggling to get through the power ballads that bands would release, and would then gain radio airplay over and over again, driving you insane at the idea that the better and heavier songs could never gain that kind of radio exposure. “Carrie” of course is the major example. It is sugar syrupy sweet, and while it is an occupational hazard when listening to European metal bands of this type that you must put up with this kind of track, I would so much like not to. I can bear it because it brings back 1986, but that is all. Those that tend to turn their back on this album cite the title track, the mega-hit “The Final Countdown” as ‘too 80’s’. Well yes, that’s kind of the idea. But even though they may deny liking it, all of my kids know the song and the words, so it must be catchy, mustn’t it? And who doesn’t still air guitar to John Norum’s solo? Ditto with “Rock the Night”, a great follow up and still as toe tapping as it was in the day. “Danger on the Track”, “Ninja” and “Cherokee” all still have that simple pleasure that Europe could deliver. “Time Has Come” and “Heart of Stone” are mid-range rock songs, while “On the Loose” picks things up again before the album closes out with “Love Chaser”.

I won’t even pretend that people who grew up in the decades following the release of this album will mostly turn up their nose and wonder how it could ever have been as popular as it was when it was recorded. It was a different era and music changed quickly during those years. But if you ever hear one of these songs being played, take a look around at the people in the vicinity and check out which ones are tapping their foot or bobbing their head. They are the ones from my generation, from the heady days of 1986, when the world was still a simple place and and everyone still had hair.

Rating:  “We’re heading for Venus (‘Venus!’), and still we stand tall”.  3.5/5

967. Accept / Russian Roulette. 1986. 3/5

After the mixed response that radiated from the previous album, Accept came back here with Russian Roulette which was going to be their attempt to not embrace the creeping commercialism that they were somewhat branded with on that album, but to retain the production values that the album had provided.

The opening songs all come at you with a great running bass and double kick rhythm, allowing their natural momentum to pull you into the album. “T.V. War” is a smooth regulated train travelling down the tracks, with an easy to abide chorus and vocal line. This is followed by the curiously appealing “Monsterman” which gains your trust easily and without any qualms. “Russian Roulette” has that slightly uneasy shift in tempo that can kill an album, but it is done well here on this song, and still invokes the crowd chant chorus that tends to improve songs when loud and in groups. These three songs make another solid start to the album.
“It’s Hard to Find a Way” is a hard rock ballad, and perhaps the best thing I can say about it is that at least it isn’t a power metal ballad that grew out of this era of metal. It isn’t a ballad in the sense of the word, but lyrically and musically it has moved in that direction, and I still can’t come at things like that. The first side is recovered by “Aiming High” which is an atypical “I love hard rock” raise your fist kinda song, again replete with chanting vocals and guitar solos. Songs like “Heaven is Hell” utilise that tried and trusted method that AC/DC had popularised during the 1980’s, and this is very much in that mould, a slow tempo built around a solid rhythm and moving along in that style for the whole seven plus minutes. It’s either too slow or too long. Perhaps a little of both.
“Another Second to Be” returns us to that faster paced rocking tempo, lifting the mood of the album significantly once again. Udo’s vocals have returned to that higher register again along with the feel of excitement of the album. Perhaps it is only because of the songs like the previous one that makes these kind of tracks stand out, but if that is the case it should be a warning sign. “Walking in the Shadow” again changes that mood, but retains enough of the band’s real character to pull it through. “Man Enough to Cry” is similar in slightly different ways, but now just feels like they are overdoing the chance to find a chorus which appeals to the masses. The album concludes with “Stand Tight” which again builds on this idea of construction a song, which by this stage of the album just feels like it is well overdone.
This isn’t a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the kind of album you have on in the background and barely notice as it runs through its repertoire. The formula is set from the opening songs and followed throughout, and it’s a very ‘easy listening’ kind of album. Sure the lyrics might be taking on the world, but the easy flow of slow 2/4 drums and rhythm that follows it isn’t inspiring great vertical leaps of excitement. It incites a slow bobbing of the head and a smile of enjoyment that touches the sides of the mouth without eliciting a break for the teeth to shine through. There is little of the commercialism that could be said to have been infused in the music on Metal Heart, but there just needed to be more songs such as “Another Second to Be” on here to bring it to life.

Rather than coming to life with a raging album that sets the precedence, this instead finds itself struggling for air amongst the rising steel of the American invasion of Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer, along with fellow Germans Helloween who had taken on the example set by the guitars of early Accept albums and transformed them into what would be the inspiration for European bands for the next 20 years. This album treads the water of the hard rock line, the comfortable section which they shared with AC/DC. They do what they do well, but whereas they once appeared to be the leaders in what was coming, they by this stage had conformed to settle on the calm waters whilst other took on the storm.

Rating:  “For love I had to give you up”.  3/5

924. Nuclear Assault / Game Over. 1986. 3.5/5

Perhaps the greatest component about thrash metal - and certainly this is probably more relevant to the early origins of the genre and not necessarily the latter day proponents - is that it is just FUN! What's not to like about drums that are flying along at an indelible speed, careering almost out of control, as the guitars riff and crush along at the same tempo, whilst the front man sings and screams his/her lyrics over the top. And who cares what the lyrics are about? Death? Satan? War? It's not a contest to become the most poignantly relevant band in the world you know! (well, not for everyone). It's about enjoyment of the music and how that music makes you feel when it comes on.

Nuclear Assault grew out of the dismissal of bass guitarist Danny Lilker from Anthrax, and his decision to not only put together another band, but one that wanted to go in a more aggressive fashion than his previous band was heading. Bringing together John Connolly, Anthony Bramante and Glenn Evans, the band released the EP Brain Death before releasing their debut album Game Over two months later.
This is a ripping album. There is no pretence about its origins or the lyrical content. If there was a textbook on how to produce thrash metal albums, this would be the template. The drums are precise, with double kick almost all the way throughout. The guitars fly along at great speed, and emit their highpitched solos on cue. The lyrics cover those topics that are not unusual to bands that wanted to shock in the mid-eighties - the devil, hell, war, death. The fact that opponents to this music always cite the topics of the lyrics as the main reason they should be banned or worse is always the most amusing part. No one takes them seriously, surely, neither the lyrics or the people who form groups to ban such songs/bands. It's all a big game, laughable, and makes the songs enjoyable because the lyrics don't take themselves seriously.
The brilliant instrumental "Live, Suffer, Die" opens the album on the right note, before crashing in to "Sin" and "Cold Steel". Numerous mentions of Lucifer and evil in these first two songs no doubt tickled the fancy of PMRC back in the day. "Betrayal" and "Letter After the Holocaust" continue the ride in glee.
There is no let up throughout the album. Each song kicks in and takes the album back up a notch. The simplistic and effectively short sharp attack of "Hang the Pope..." is a highlight, being as it is so very angry and yet ludicrously silly in the same 45 seconds. "Radiation Sickness" and "Nuclear War" are impossible to avoid your head banging in time with. The short break for "My America" is followed by the scintillating "Vengeance" before the final change up of "Brain Death" brings the album to a brilliant conclusion.

This is another of those albums that I am eternally disappointed that I didn't discover in my teenage years when it was released. I can only imagine that my enjoyment of it now would only have been increased if I had had in during those final years in high school, singing and screaming along to it in the school yard like a madman. The fact that my enjoyment of it today is still so high makes me believe that if it had grown into my subconscious in those days, it would be an almost indispensable album for me now. Despite this, it still ranks highly among those early purveyors of the original thrash metal sound.

Rating:  "All of those who oppressed me, are about to meet their end"   3.5/5

909. Billy Joel / The Bridge. 1986. 3.5/5

After the longest break between albums in his career - straddled only by the release of Greatest Hits: Volume I & Volume II - The Bridge brings yet another marked change in the genre and synopsis of Billy Joel's music. While his previous album An Innocent Man channelled the past in his writing, The Bridge goes for a more modern sound, incorporating the synth pop that proliferated the decade of the 1980's into his own unique brand of music to produce an album of varying degrees.

Would you like to know a secret? Thirty years ago, as much as I really loved An Innocent Man, I was really disappointed with what Billy had given us on this album. Go figure, huh? To be honest though, by the time this was released I was listening almost totally to heavy metal music, and albums like this did get short shrift at the time. There was recognition of some songs, but overall I was nonplussed by its contents. Once again though, as the years have passed and I have rediscovered albums such as this and recovered my equilibrium in regards to all genres of music, I can appreciate it much better than in years past.
The good songs here outweigh the average, and the 'current' sound they have compared to the predecessor album makes it more accessible in this way. "Running on Ice" sets up the album nicely, clipping along at a zippy pace that brings immediate enthusiasm to the album. This is followed by the slower, more reflective yet catchy "This is the Time", where Billy's emotive vocals make the best of the song. "A Matter of Trust" and "Modern Woman" were both big singles off this album, and as such they do tend to dominate the first half of the track list. "Modern Woman" is the epitome of an 80's single for Billy Joel, it has that keyboard that makes itself known through the track, and with its lively vibe it is rooted to the decade in which it was written.
"Baby Grand" is a duet performed with Ray Charles, and indeed could well be mistaken for a Ray Charles song. "Big Man On Mulberry Street" is a big number jazz track with horns and all, making it a performance piece that certainly seems grander than the other songs played on the album. "Temptation" brings the mood back, Billy crooning over his piano in a style he did more often in his middle-albums career.
"Code of Silence" was co-written with Cyndi Lauper, who also contributed vocals to the track. It actually comes across really well. It's nice to hear the urgency in Billy's vocals throughout, and Cyndi's co-operative backing vocals add to the song as well. This is probably my favourite song on the album. The closing track "Getting Closer" does enough to make this an excellent collection of similarly good songs.

I'm not sure what I would have given this all those years ago when it was released. Probably no more than a two. It was a different era for me, and a different time of my life. In the years since this, I have certainly come to appreciate this much more, to the point where I find this at least as entertaining as I do the previous album, and with that as the case then the rating has to be similar.

Rating:  "You don't want to lose a friendship, there's nothing that you have to hide".  3.5/5

894. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Trilogy. 1986. 4.5/5

Whether you love him or hate him, there is no denying the fact that Yngwie Malmsteen is an absolute freak on the guitar. While many who admire this fact are also vocal about the mainstream way Yngwie approached his career, citing that looked for a commercial bent in his song writing to reflect an ambition beyond just being a superb guitar player, I can only say that, for the first few albums of his career at least, I loved every single aspect of it.

Trilogy continues along the same path that was started with Marching Out. Instrumental pieces featuring Yngwie's amazing talent are mixed with fully fledged songs that combine lyrics with guitar and keyboard solos all structure within the fabric of the tracks. Some suggested they had a commercial bent. I prefer to describe them as catchy pieces with simplified lyrics. None of the songs here have the slightly more complicated story-telling tales that accompanied the tracks on the previous album. They are simple, and designed one would suggest for the sing-along aspect that they actually encourage.
For the most part this album isn't as furious as Marching Out, but it is no less enjoyable. New vocalist Mark Boals has an impressive set of pipes on him, and the music almost feels as though it has been put in that mid-tempo range to allow him to croon over the top and not feel rushed. The major tracks such as "You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget" and "Queen in Love" use this to their advantage. They aren't fast, but Boals uses his range to deftly create the mood of the song, which is then replicated during Yngwie's guitar solo break. "Dark Ages" is a slower and darker mood than these songs, but uses similar techniques.
The faster tracks such as "Liar" and "Fury" enhance the upbeat tempo by being fuelled by the double kick drum of Anders Johansson throughout the length of the song, which again is replicated by a faster paced fretboard action from Yngwie during his break. His duelled solos with Jens Johansson's keyboards generate the highlight of these songs, a nice touch that is a hallmark of most of the best Yngwie Malmsteen songs. "Fire" is probably the heaviest song on the album, using conventional drumming but with a heavier emphasis on the guitars and vocals. "Magic Mirror" is a more power metal styled faster paced song again.
As will always be the case with Yngwie, he still has his instrumental pieces, where he can structure his guitar to maximise its exposure while the rest of the instruments are generally there to enhance rather than take centre stage. "Crying" is a good example of this, while the closing track "Trilogy Suite Op: 5" showcases the best that he has to offer.

Yngwie Malmsteen is a wonderful guitarist, and more than handy on just about every other instrument as well. He once again takes on all roles here apart from the Johansson brothers on keyboards and drums. Mark Boals brought a less frenetic style of vocals to the album, which is probably also reflected in the music itself. I still love this album, and think it is a great testament to Yngwie's talent and the growing European power metal sound that this was a forerunner to.

Rating:   "I now will tell you all a story, that no one ever heard before".  4.5/5

892. Judas Priest / Turbo. 1986. 3.5/5

It is somewhat remarkable just how maligned this album is in the core of the Judas Priest discography. Trying to follow up the mostly brilliant Defenders of the Faith is no mean feat, let alone mentioning those albums that came before that. It was also a changing time in metal, with the 1980's staple, the keyboard synthesiser, beginning to drift into many band's curricular as a progression in their music. Any change was often confused for being a sell out. In these instances, surely a case by case basis should be used to determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.

While on the surface there may appear to be a change in the style of the metal played here, the usual Judas Priest elements are all to the for - the solid rhythm section, the twin guitar attack of Downing and Tipton, and the vocal talents of Rob Halford. You can successfully argue that the immediate heaviness of the music is not as prevalent, that the songs have a more mainstream feel, and that the synth has progressed in its influence that began on the previous album. All of those things can be held to be accurate. The qualities of a song such as, for instance, "Parental Guidance" can be debated, that it's simplicity in both structure musically and lyrically is a come down from what truly sets Judas Priest apart from the pack. Perhaps, and perhaps not. Without trying to suggest which song is better, surely "Breaking the Law" is similarly structured, and similar arguments could be raised against it? Diehard fans of course would never accede to such arguments, and like most I agree that "Breaking the Law" is a classic whereas "Parental Guidance" is more of an average Priest track.
There are a few tracks on Turbo that fall into this category. "Private Property", "Rock You All Around the World" and "Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days" are also simplistic and straight forward tracks, which doesn't mean they are bad songs, it just means they are... easy listening...
"Hot For Love" sounds great, the underlying guitar riff itself drives the song along nicely, but just tends to get a bit repetitive in the chorus line to fully enjoy it more than the average. Still has a great dual guitar solo section though. "Locked In" too is a good song, keeping the drive of the album going following on from the opening song. The closing song "Reckless" settles within this framework as well.
The obvious killer track here is the title track and lead off song, "Turbo Lover". It has been a classic since its release, along with its music video which was played to death on music video shows on its release. It is the stand out on this album. Personally I also really enjoy "Out in the Cold", though this may well have more to do with the live version of the song that leads off the Priest... Live! album which was released after this. Either way, I love to moody pace of the song and Rob's mournful vocals, and is a great way to start of side two of the album.

The fact that this album and the follow up are thought of so negatively in many parts is probably more to do with the band looking to blend other influences into their music, and the fact that the younger bands who had looked up to Priest and been heavily influenced them were beginning to rise and take on the world with their own sound. Eventually it was they who influenced Priest to revitalise and record what is arguably their finest album after that.
Putting that aside however, there is still more than enough here to love. It may not be a classic, and it may not have many songs that could be categorised as their most brilliant, but the Judas Priest sound is still there, and it still holds the flame high.

Rating:  "We hold each other closer as we shift to overdrive". 3.5/5

861. Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone / Fighting Back. 1986. 3.5/5

Following on from several attempts to reboot his career after his parting with Iron Maiden, Paul Di'anno put together another set of musicians and the new band Battlezone was formed, though it became popularly known as Paul Di'anno's Battlezone, no doubt by the record company to cash in on the lead singer's renown. Given the changing route of the music he had produced in the previous projects he had been involved in, there was little to go on as to what direction this new project would take.

It stars off on the right foot with "(Forever) Fighting Back" and "Welcome to the Battlezone", both hard rocking anthems that place immediate focus on Di'anno's best vocal characteristics, and some clean guitaring skills from John Hurley and John Wiggins. Leading on after this is "Warchild", which amplifies the faster tempo track that dominates the album, along with an anthemic lyric that attempts to draw you in and sing along with the band. "Into the Darkness" drops into a settled riff and tempo pushed song that while it sounds simplified and repetitive is rendered unnoticeable by Di'anno's vocals again, and another suitable solo break, both of which again highlight the strengths of the band being able to overwrite any perceived weaknesses. "The Land God Gave to Cain" is the closer of the first side on the album, and suffers from being long-winded in length and also of overusing the same riff for far too long to make this a completely satisfying conclusion to proceedings.
The second side opens with "Running Blind" which starts off with clear guitar and the Di'anno soft vocals, before bursting out after the initial intro to a hard rock beat similar to the opening track and again a solid solo section by the dual guitars. "Too Much to Heart" takes some liberties with the vibe of the album, making a hard rock 'ballad' that isn't really compromising what has gone before. "Voice on the Radio" utilises the backup vocals of the other members of the band more than the majority of the songs on the album, while sticking with that hard rock theme formula with a solo thrown in for good measure. "Welfare Warriors" is a ripper track, again combining the dual guitars with Di'anno's vocals at an up tempo click. "Feel the Rock" is a simplified hard rock track to end the album, if not in a brilliant way then at least in a somewhat fitting way.
Though in truth this is probably a very formula driven album, almost 'rock by numbers', it is catchy enough to make you sit up and enjoy it for what it is. The band is really quite good, solid in all respects, and while the riffs tend to come from that same school of 'how to write a hard rock song', there is enough to distinguish this from the ordinary o make it worthy of listening to. The guitar solos too add the flavour to the songs to help them rise above the average. To top all of this off, Di'anno's vocals still sound great, even if they do tend not to change tone too often, and probably still show the lack of variation that was a contributing factor to his being moved on from his pervious high profile band. Still his voice is distinctive and enjoyable, and still is here.

As a mid-80's hard rock album there is enough here to make it worth the while of the average punter to have a listen, and see what Di'anno could do with a different writing team around him.

Rating:  Goodbye, guys we don't need you.  3.5/5

826. Metallica / Master of Puppets. 1986. 5/5

There are some moments in life that will stick with you forever, no matter what you go through and no matter how insignificant they may appear at the time, or to others later on when you relate it to them. They aren't always life-changing moments per se, but more often than not they will be. When it comes to music and albums, I have a number of these moments. As it turns out, I remember with clarity the first time I heard Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind, the day I bought their Powerslave album, the moment I first picked up Gamma Ray's debut Heading for Tomorrow, amongst others. Along with these, I remember the first time that the band Metallica was mentioned to me, and the first time I heard the name of the album Master of Puppets.

I had returned to school for the start of Year 11, on one of the first days of March 1986. My friends and I had started on a quest towards discovering the love of heavy metal music. Some had started earlier than others, and my own initiation had only really begun towards the end of the previous school year. On this day, we were discussing what we had all done on our summer holidays, when one of our number said he had heard of this band called Metallica, and had read good things of them. Another of our group concurred that he had heard similar things, and that we should try and get some of their music. It was then that the first informant did a deal with his accomplice, suggesting that if one of them went out and bought an album called Ride the Lightning that he would go out and buy the album entitled Master of Puppets. And so it was agreed. That morning conversation, sitting on plastic school chairs gathered in a circle underneath the trees in a corner of the seniors common area, is still crystal clear in my brain. I can still see and hear it all now. Within the week, through the magic of two people each buying a vinyl album and the rest of us throwing blank cassettes at them to record them for us, we all had these albums, and a life long love affair with a brilliant album had begun.
How do you properly review an album that isn't just one of my favourite releases of all time, but is as much a part of who I am and how I have become that way over the years? Music takes on different roles for different people. Many people just like music and enjoy it when they listen to it. It means more to me than that. I wouldn't go so far as to proclaim that Master of Puppets changed my life and opened my eyes in any sort of biblical sense, but it did become an amazing tool over the years as I grew from awkward teenage geeky nerd to awkward twenty-something geeky nerd to slightly awkward forty-something husband-father geeky nerd. It became an album that I could listen to no matter what mood I was in, and it would almost instantly transform me from that mood into whatever mood I wanted to be in. I have other albums like that too, but this is one of the best, in almost every regard.

"Battery" is a monster of an opening track, lulling you in as it does with its clear guitar, almost classical, before the single drum beat and riff flay into the frenzied start of the song. I'll never forget the number of times you could sneak this album onto the stereo at a party, and people would comment on how lovely the opening bit is, and then start screaming for the album to be replaced the moment the song cut in to its heart.
"Master of Puppets" is arguably the finest heavy metal song ever composed and written. It immediately caught my attention and imagination when I first heard it, and along with "Fade to Black" was the first song to draw me into the Metallica fold. Why? Probably the fact that Metallica could mix this brilliant high energy fast guitar and drum aggression with the amazing clear melodic guitars that make the middle break of this song and so much of "Fade to Black" from the previous album, and all without tarnishing the quality or the integrity of the song. This song has everything, and I will still sing every damn word at the top of my voice with the correct amount of aggression every single time it comes on.
"The Thing That Should Not Be" is a different animal entirely from the opening two tracks. A rumbling, creeping bass line and guitar riff sludges along with Lars' mid-tempo drum work to create an unbelievably atmospheric song. Back in the days when vinyl was transferred to cassette to listen to on portable tape players, to fit this album on one side of a 90 minute cassette I had to forgo one of the tracks. This was the one I chose, in deference to most of my friends who chose another song (see below for further explanation). This wasn't because I disliked the song - completely the opposite in fact. But as a teenager, looking to have the fiercest vibe as possible in my music, this was the song I felt could be abandoned in this instance. It's still brilliant, and the days of CDs and digital tracks means no choice now has to be made.
"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" is another classic, and one where Metallica broke the mould on song composition. Again, it has elements that set it apart from a typical heavy metal song, without losing the roots of what they play. The intro to the song is just fantastic, and in many ways it defines how Metallica (at this point in their career) stood apart from all other metal bands.
"Disposable Heroes" opens up side two of the album in a panicked frenzy, bringing out the best in brilliant riffage, supersonic drums and anguished, angry vocals. The war cry of "BACK TO THE FRONT!" and "I WAS BORN FOR DYIIIIIIING!" is spine chilling stuff, and still brings goosebumps whenever I listen to the album. There's nothing much left unsaid here.
"Leper Messiah" follows, and again doesn't leave anything to the imagination on the subject matter of the song. Great riffs abound, and the drumming here is terrific. This is the song my friends had missing from their cassette copy rather than "The Thing That Should Not Be". Coming home to Kiama from a road trip to Bega with two mates whose band I was in at the time, I played my copy of this album, and when this song came on they asked "What's this?!?" They'd never heard it before, didn't even know it existed. Having played and repeated it about twenty times during the course of the trip home, I got a phone call the following day to tell me to start practicing it, because we were playing it in the band. The power of the song is right there.
"Orion" is the instrumental of the album, and almost steals the show. This is an amazing piece of music, building and flowing all the way through, changing its mood as it does, and utilising every member's talents in the process. Cliff Burton's sensational bass playing, which is the crux of the song, James and Kirk's mournful guitaring through the middle section before breaking out into the solo section to conclude the song, while Lars' drums just hold it all together. Magnificent.
"Damage Inc." concludes the album with brutality, speed and power, reminiscent of the band's earliest work. There's no time to breath through this track, with Lars ripping through drum rolls as the others blaze along on their guitars with ridiculous triplet picking. Sure the other songs here reek of a maturity from the speed and thrash metal roots from which the band emerged, but it's pretty much thrown overboard here as they shred their way through the final five and a half minutes of the album, just to remind everyone that they can still do it.

Lyrically, there have been few albums that have been so coherently and explicitly and expressively belligerent as Master of Puppets. Hetfield's lyrics paint portraits here that are impossible not to see in full Technicolour vision. In the good old days of vinyl, when you could open the gatefold or pull out the insert, put the record on the player, and sit cross legged on the floor and read and memorise all of the lyrics on the album, I would at times not necessarily take in the full power of the lyrics, but just make sure I knew every word to sing along to. But on Master of Puppets it is impossible to steer away from the stories being told by the amazing invective thrust upon you. Even just taking a few lines from each song is not enough to give the full picture, but it is a start.

"Lashing out the action, returning the reaction, weak are ripped and torn away"
"Pain monopoly, ritual misery, chop your breakfast on a mirror"
"Messenger of fear in sight, dark deception kills the light"
"Whisper things into my brain, assuring me that I'm insane"
"Barking of machine gun fire does nothing to me now, Sounding of the clock that ticks, get used to it somehow"
"Marvel at his tricks, need your Sunday fix, blind devotion came, rotting your brain"
"Fuck it all and fucking no regrets, never happy endings only dark threats"

The band is at the peak of their theoretical powers. Not only that, Hetfield's vocals are the finest on this album than any other - they have matured from the high pierced screams from the first albums, and have not devolved into the lower register he was forced to take once he blew out his vocal chords on later albums. This is where they are at their best, and it falls in with everything else this album provides.

I have lived and breathed, headbanged and moshed, air guitared and lap drummed, and air-raid siren sung this album for almost thirty years now, and it never gets tired and it never gets old. It forms a major part of my final school years, my short-lived university years, my work life, my marriage and my family life. The band I was once a part of played four of these eight songs, and probably would have played all of them if we'd been together longer. It still brings together my small circle of lifelong friends whenever we put it on. It brings out some of the best moments of my life, because it always seemed to be played at those moments. This remains for me one of the finest three albums ever written and recorded. It is an all time classic and an absolute masterpiece

Rating:  Drain you of your sanity, face the thing that should not be!  5/5.

808. Queensrÿche / Rage for Order. 1986. 4/5

It took me a relatively long time to get around to ever listening to Rage for Order, letting alone owning a copy of the album. I had gone straight from "Queen of the Reich" to Operation: Mindcrime, and then Empire, and amongst the other hundreds of albums I was discovering and listening to I didn't make the journey backwards until some years later. That began with The Warning, but it wasn't until the disappointment of their albums released in the mid-to-late 1990's that I actually went to find this album, merely for the hope of hearing something like the Queensrÿche I knew and loved.

The subtle change in style that occurred with the first two albums progresses again here on Rage for Order. After a quite heavy and fast EP, The Warning was a much more mid-tempo and progressive album. You can hear on this album that the band has matured its sound again, still utilising all of the bells and whistles they have been picking up along their journey, but moving their music into a clear and defined direction. Listen to these early albums after each other and you can hear how their sound develops and refines over that period. Rage for Order sits comfortably in the middle ground between the progressive elements of The Warning and the heavier brilliance that comes forth on Operation: Mindcrime.
The strongest material on this album still holds its own in the Queensrÿche machine. It starts off with the brilliant "Walk in the Shadows", still one of my favourite Queensrÿche songs. Terrific harmonic vocals along with a brilliant riff and solo, it kicks off the album in killer style. This leaps into "I Dream in Infrared" where the real maturity of the band comes to life. This segues beautifully into "The Whisper" where Tate really hits those high notes that make it almost impossible to sing along with him while listening to the song.
I wasn't aware that "Gonna Get Close to You" was a cover of a Dalbello song. I still don't really know nor have I heard any of Dalbello's music, so I can't judge it on that. To be honest this song has never done a lot for me, and the fact it was the first single off the album is also a little mystifying. This is followed by "The Killing Words" which also fails to grab me on both arms and shake me. I think it's the vocal arrangement here that isn't quite right here, it comes off as repeated moaning more than a calculated vocal string. The songs aren't bad but they instil in me a sense of boredom more than anything else.
The album lifts again with the duo of "Surgical Strike" and "Neue Regel". "Surgical Strike" was the closing song of Side A on the vinyl release, and does a great job of completing that half of the album. The B side comes at you with some killer material, starting off with the harder "Neue Regel" and the faster pace of "Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion)", with a great chorus and then a final fade out of guitar solo over a brilliant rolling drum beat. From here the slow chanting of "London" thumps its way through the bass of your speakers, before the seminal "Screaming in Digital" crashes out of the stereo, harnessing all of the progressive nature the band has built up, and all of the tricks and detail they have been throwing out there and meshing them into this three and a half minutes of total majesty. Just magnificent. The only downside for me is that the album then finishes with  "I Will Remember" which loses all of the impact the previous five songs have made on you. Sure, write this song, and play this song. But why place it here when there was so much energy and passion running through most of the rest of the album, only to have the ballad at the end to wipe away some of that good feeling that had been engineered. If anything, it should have come after "The Killing Words" and allowed the second half of the album to be ruled by those other songs.

Rage for Order is an eclectic mix of the powerful and the thoughtful, the hard and the mellow, the electric and the clear. The progressive metal nature of the album means that you will be faced by songs that you may not be able to totally invest in. Certainly for me that includes those songs I have mentioned as being on the lesser side of my enjoyment. But when you hear the cream here, songs such as "Walk in the Shadows", "I Dream in Infrared", "Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion)" and "Screaming in Digital", then you can fully appreciated the brilliance of this band. It may not be perfect, but it is full of material that is impossible not to enjoy.

Rating:  I can cure the hunger that burns in your heart.  4/5

796. Stryper / To Hell With the Devil. 1986. 4/5

To be completely honest, I have absolutely zero idea exactly how I first came to hear of this band, and this album in particular. It was 1987, it was my final year of high school, and I was trying to grab any piece of hard rock/heavy metal music I could find. Stryper announced a tour of Australia, and about of dozen of my group got tickets to go. I'm hazy on whether I had heard this album before that moment, but I certainly listened to it a lot in those months leading up to the tour. I know the band appeared on the "Midday Show" on Channel 9 with the Rev. Fred Nile, who tried to denounce them on live TV, and they were able to win the crowd over in attendance (Nile even had his photo taken with them wearing a leather jacket). So I knew they were a Christian band before getting into the album, that much is somewhat clear. Given my non-religious views and that of my parents, it must have confused them slightly at the time. It probably confused me as well.

So how to take this album? I take it the same way I take albums like Slayer's Hell Awaits or Morbid Angel's Covenant or Mercyful Fate's Melissa. All great albums and all with lyrics that aren't anything I consider important to me or to be a way of leading my life. I love all of these albums on their musical merit and not on anything that the lyrics in the songs may be trying to represent. It is fine that Stryper is a Christian band, and that they are trying to spread their message in their music. Good for them, go right ahead. I'll pass on the message thanks, but I will enjoy some ripping tunes all the same, and try to ignore some rather dreadful ones at the same time.
If I was to focus on the ballads here, I wouldn't get more than a fifth of a second into the album before frisbeeing it across the room into a wall at a thousand miles an hour. Hair metal bands breed power ballads like rabbits, and most of them are just awful. There's no hiding from them here either. "Honestly" is a travesty, that keyboard-based touch-your-heart kind of puking vomit that makes some people feel good about themselves, but which just makes me want to gouge my own eyes out. Michael Sweet can sing, but oh please no more of this! Of course, there is more, because "All of Me" is the Side 2 equivalent of this. It could conceivably be its twin, and they both terribly corrupt the great music that is otherwise prevalent on the album. I can tell you that it was a painful act on my original vinyl copy of this album having to get up and lift the needle off these tracks each time they came on and replacing it at the start of the next good song. Transferring it to cassette for the car took that problem out, as did they 'skip' button when the CD version was purchased, and also now that it has been transferred to a digital copy as well.
Let's get to the important stuff. The opening track "To Hell With the Devil" is a balltearer, and was my first taste of Michael Sweet's pipes - bloody hell, this guy can SING! Then get a load of those twin guitars of Sweet and Oz Fox. Awesome, and more was to come. "Calling On You" falls back to a more basic hard rock track, but is still impressive. "Free" falls into the same category, good solid songs with great harmony vocals throughout. Then after the moroseness of "Honestly" you get the gem of "The Way", a charging metal track highlighted by Michael's amazing vocals. Those notes he hits at the end of the song are just amazing. Even more so when you hear him sing it live, because yes, he does it just as well and note perfect. Ridiculous.
Side 2 commences with "Sing-Along Song", which seems to be a metaphor for a kids song - surely it had to be when they came up with the title. "Holding On" is a straight forward, less convincing track that could have done with a little more power when they wrote it. "Rockin' the World" is much better, faster, heavier and with a more enjoyable beat to it. After the second abominable track, the album finishes with the hard rocking "More Than a Man".

As I mentioned, I saw Stryper when they toured Australia on this album. 28 years later and it is still the loudest concert I have ever seen. The band was brilliant, and Michael Sweet sings everything the same live as he does in the studio. The memory of that brilliant gig probably continues to prop up my enjoyment of this album. I still think the positives far outweigh the negatives here, though it will always held in higher esteem with me through the tinge of nostalgia it will always bring whenever I listen to it, I think it still holds most of that of its own accord.

Rating:  You want it, we got it, rock that lifts you up it doesn't bring you down.  4/5

777. Slayer / Reign in Blood. 1986. 5/5

Given the prestige in which this album is held, it becomes a difficult thing to write a review that can live up to that reputation. A review that can adequately convey just how amazing this album is, and how defining it was, and how inspiring it was to so many fans and bands. To be honest there is no way I could do it justice, and so you will have to take my words on face value or simply just listen to the album yourself and come to your own conclusions.

The first thing that is noticeable is the production of Reign in Blood. Both of Slayer's first two albums, Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits are terrific albums, but both suffer on the side of production, and sometimes the guitars can feel as though they blend or blur into each other. Here though, every note played is crisp and clear, and can be determined apart from every other note. As well as showcasing each brilliant song, it also shows just how precise and magnificent both Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King are in their guitar playing, especially in those scintillating solos, because you can hear each note played, and can only listen in awe at how perfect their playing is, at that incredible speed. Then you only have to try and keep up with Dave Lombardo's drumming, which is just ludicrous. He is quite magnificent here, his timing is immaculate and every snare, tom, kick, cymbal and hi-hat motion is caught perfectly here. Tom Araya's vocals are clear, concise and above all understandable, even at the speed he has to sing at to keep up with his bandmates. This is magnificently put together.

I love the way that the album is constructed, book-ended by two of their all-time classic songs, and with barely a pause for breath throughout the whole album.
"Piece By Piece" is two minutes of mayhem, that has a half-second pause of silence before motoring straight into "Necrophobic", which careers along at a barely believable speed for half the song, before a five second respite at normal double time before we're back off at lightning speed for the rest of the song, a whole minute and 38 seconds in total. Pause for a (short) breath, and off we go again with "Altar of Sacrifice". There is no time for rest, no time to catch your breath. Sure, "Altar of Sacrifice" does actually slow down as we approach the end of the song, as it flows almost undetected into the awesome heavy riff of "Jesus Saves", which for the first sixty seconds allows you to resume normal headbanging duties, before the accelerator is pushed to the floor again. Awesome stuff.
"Criminally Insane" is the slowest start to a song on the album, but soon builds back to that double time drumming and riffing that binds this album together. "Reborn" may well be the simplest song here, but again at that devastating speed, which is followed by "Epidemic" which is highlighted by magnificent drum work from Dave, whose ability to throw in little rolls and fills between the frightful speed of his normal drumming is remarkable. "Postmortem" concludes things here at an amazingly sublime pace considering everything that has gone on before it.
Bookending all of this are the timeless "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood". "Angel of Death" starts the album, at a breakneck speed. It is a sensational way to start this album, with fire and fury. "Raining Blood" is perhaps still my favourite Slayer song. I love the first 60 seconds of the song too, that rarely gets a mention in the live set - not that that concerns me. When you get to the break with the rain and thunder, that is where anticipation is in its element, before we break back into the song and the elemental riff and the drums, and Tom's vocals, before the two solo breaks... oooohhhh it is just awesome. In almost thirty years I have never gotten sick of hearing this song. Genius. Immortality. Brilliance.

At a tick under 29 minutes in length, this is a half hour that never gets boring, never gets stale, and ticks every box in heavy metal greatness. All four members of the band are on song, it sounds brilliant, and it is just fast and freaking heavy. It is at the top of the tree for thrash albums, and whether it is universally loved or not, it cannot be denied that its influence goes beyond the heavy metal community. This is a beacon.

Rating:  Raining blood, from a lacerated sky, bleeding its horror, creating my structure, now I shall reign in blood!  5/5

Listen to full album here

731. Poison / Look What the Cat Dragged In. 1986. 3.5/5

At a time when it was almost mandatory to wear makeup and have teased hair if you were going to make the scene (ala bands such as Motley Crue, Ratt, Bon Jovi and W.A.S.P.), Poison came forth with their debut album Look What the Cat Dragged In, hoping to break into an already saturated market where MTV and sugar coated power ballads seemed to be the only way to make an impact. Winding back to those days, and if you ignored the physical features as they were presented to you (I was from the denim-jacketed Maiden/Metallica side of metal rather than the spandex/glam side) you could generally find something on the vinyl that caught your interest from such bands. If you could do that, you could hopefully see past the syrup-dripping ballads that came as part-and-parcel of albums like this, and enjoy it for what they were, and concentrate on those songs that had some balls about them.
When this was released it was almost impossible to ignore given the airplay on music video shows that the singles received. What was tougher was finding anything gritty enough to make it worthy of purchase. In the days where you hoped one of your mates bought the album so you could tape it to cassette for your own use, no one was jumping at this on the basis of the singles that were released. Eventually, the purveyor of all to those kids with no income, the second hand record store, provided my first vinyl copy of this album, and I was able to finally experience what was beyond the money-spinning singles.

Fast forward back to the present day, and listening to the album now still reminds me of those days in the late 1980's. It also shows the double edged sword that most hair metal / glam metal bands were working under. You could write and play the harder, faster songs, the ones that made teenagers jump around their bedrooms playing air guitar (something that it always looked like CC DeVille was doing on stage anyway). But to get on the radio, you had to have a ballad, or a pop song, thus singles such as "I Won't Forget You". Ugh. You also had to have a video to support that power ballad, in order to get heavy rotation on the music video shows.
As an album, I still get a lot of enjoyment from this. The songs are mostly up-tempo teenage anthems, preaching good times and anti-parent themes with the usual sexual innuendo thrown in. Get past some of the lyrical content, and you have some fairly impressive happy guitaring from C.C. DeVille, while the rest of the band are tight and precise. Rikki Rockett's drumming is excellent, as is Bobby Dall's bass work. There can be no complaints about the quality of the musicianship. Bret Michaels vocals convey each song's message to a nicety.
Still, some songs for me are of a better quality than others. The high energy songs such as "Look What the Cat Dragged In", "Talk Dirty to Me", "Want Some, Need Some" and "Let Me Go to the Show" are my favourites, and given they all feature on the second half of the album it probably helps my enjoyment of the album as a whole. I'm not as enamoured with songs such as "Cry Tough", "I Want Action" and "I Won't Forget You". They don't really do anything for me lyrically or musically.
There's no doubt I probably enjoy this album more now than I did back in the late 1980's, and most of that is because of nostalgia for the end of those teenage years, and what they represent. If it was only to be represented by that, this could even rate higher.

Rating: The night rolls up and I do it again. 3.5/5