82. Anthrax / Attack Of The Killer B's. 1991. 3.5/5.

This was brought out following the highly successful Peresistence Of Time album and tour, and the success of Bring The Noise. This album, though not actually containing actual B side tracks, is full of that kind of material.

There is some good stuff on here. The update on S.O.D's Milk is better than the original. The update of their own I'm The Man is OK too. The live versions of Keep It In The Family and Belly Of The Beast are also good to hear.
The rest is all of novelty value, and worth a chuckle. Certainly, when I first purchased the album, I thought it was brilliant. Older age has brought a different version of events, and my earlier thoughts are now not as enthusiastic.

Still, it is above average in an age where there are an abundance of below average albums.

Memories : When this album came out, in our band days, we used to laugh ourselves silly at Starting Up A Posse and Dallabnikufesin. And though I can still see the humour, I don't laugh like that anymore when I listen to them. The advent of middle age...

Rating : Oddities and rareities. 3.5/5.

81. KISS / Asylum. 1985. 2.5/5.

Kiss of the 1980's is a very different beast to that which dominated the 1970's in a blaze of pyrotechnics, blood and makeup.
Their faces (the two originals remaining) had been opened up for public viewing, and the band was competing in a whole new market.

To a certain degree, it feels to me that the band are trying to find themselves in amongst the new changes. Some of the songs here are up with the usual Kiss quality stuff – King Of The Mountain, Anyway You Slice It and Tears Are Falling. But there is some 'filler' in there too, and it seems to me they were running out of ideas.

Rating : Not quite up there with some of their other stuff. 2.5/5

80. Michael Schenker Group / Assault Attack. 1982. 4/5.

Three years after leaving his successful gig in the British band UFO, Michael Schenker and his namesake band, the Michael Schenker Group, had released two studio albums and a live album to both critical and popular acclaim. Both albums had combined a number of popular heavy tracks alongside guitar-laden instrumentals and some songs that could be described as experimental and progressive.
It was at this point that Schenker, alongside drummer Cozy Powell and the band manager, felt that the band needed a different singer. Gary Barden had been the frontman, but it was his live performances that caused concern, with his voice not considered strong enough for the live setting. Cozy had put forward David Coverdale as the perfect man, though he was currently fronting his own band Whitesnake. Schenker himself however wanted to recruit Graham Bonnet, whose most recent gig had been on the brilliant Rainbow album “Down to Earth”. Schenker eventually won out, and Bonnet was brought in for the new album. Unfortunately, Cozy and former UFO member Paul Raymond then left the band at this point, with both being replaced by session musicians.
Also coming on board for the album was legendary producer Martin Birch, who came into this album straight off having finished producing the little known band Iron Maiden’s new album, an obscure album called “The Number of the Beast”. With a new powerful voice and co-writer out front, and one of the great producers in charge of the dials, the Michael Schenker Group went forth to produce an album that would stretch what they had produced before, and hope to make a deep impression on all who would listen to it.

There is no doubt that, from the very beginning this is a much heavier album than what the band had produced before. And several things contribute to that. The first immediate one is Bonnet’s vocals. The imposing and strong presence from the start of the opening track “Assault Attack” are the kickstart to the album, and at the time must have been a real eye opener for the fans. This is exacerbated by the heavier tone in the song from what had come from most of the preceding two albums. And then we have Schenker’s guitar, which becomes the focal piece as it should be in this band. Later down the track it seemed to fade into the background as the band chased a more commercial sound, but here on “Assault Attack”, where the band was looking to bring a much harder and heavier presence to their music, Schenker’s guitar becomes as prominent as it should be. With these three focuses combining on this album, it draws together exactly as it should.
The first side of the album brings together a varying array of this revamped style of the MSG music. “Assault Attack” is essentially as the title suggests, an assault and attack both vocally and with the shredding guitar. “Rock You to the Ground” dials back the tempo to a more blues-based riff that is still ramped up by Schenker throughout, and Bonnet gives a great performance on hard core vocals. “Dancer” is a lighter tune, in fact has more in common with Bonnet’s future band Alcatrazz, before we delve into “Samurai”.
The second side opens up with what for me is still one of the best songs ever written. The brilliant “Desert Song” tops this album and most others with the MSG insignia on it. It is one of the most amazingly moody tracks ever written, building from the sublime to that first brilliant Schenker guitar riff, into the verse and bridge, and Bonnet’s vocals just supreme throughout. It is probably the highlight of Bonnet’s career, along with “Eyes of the World” from his Rainbow days. This is the star attraction of the album, one of legendary status. “Broken Promises” is followed by the song that feels like it should have been the single released from the album, “Searching for a Reason”, as it has the right lyrical content without compromising the heart of the album, and again showcases the best parts of the band in the process. While you can understand why “Dancer” was the single released from the album, I’ve always felt this would have been a better option. The album then closes with the Schenker instrumental “Ulcer”, something he excels at throughout his career in producing.

My introduction to this album was in fact back in the cassette sharing days – surprise surprise. My metal music dealer had recorded Dio’s “Holy Diver” for me, but with space remaining on the C60 tape, he put down three tracks from the “Assault Attack” album – the title track, “Desert Song” and “Samurai”. And – as much as “Holy Diver” is still one of the greatest ten albums ever released – those three songs blew my mind. And, as you will have guessed by now, it was “Desert Song” that just stuck out like a sore thumb. The switch to getting a copy of the whole album followed, and it was another album that was played to death over the following couple of years. There is a certain day that sticks in my mind, sometime when I had started Uni back in 1988. And in those mid-year days I was less than enthused about the tasks at hand nor attending the campus at all. The result was, during a five hour break I had between lectures, driving my car to Wollongong Harbour up near the lighthouse, buying $2 worth of chips, and playing this album and the following album, “Built to Destroy”, over and over, at a very loud volume, for three hours or so, looking out at the water and eating my chips, and wondering just where I was going in life. And that afternoon often comes back to me, not only through what I was feeling at the time, but how much this album made me feel so much about where I was at during that time. And it still does to today, reminds me of how much this album in particular at that time was a constant in my life.
Sadly, it was the only album Bonnet produced with the band. At the first gig they played to promote “Assault Attack”, a drunken Bonnet decided to expose himself to the crowd on stage, and was pretty much immediately fired, with Gary Barden returning to the fold in his place. And that remains a real shame, because given how terrific this album is with his writing and vocals, just wat would a follow up have produced?

79. B L A Z E / As Live As It Gets. 2003. 4.5/5.

Though this was not my first taste of B LA Z E (I had a couple of songs off their debut album, Silicon Messiah), it was the first lengthy listen I had had of the band, and of most of their songs. And it is a worthy first listen.

This was recorded on the Tenth Dimension tour, and is a veritable best-of the band's two albums released to that point, as well as some Iron Maiden songs from Blaze Bayley's era, and a Wolfsbane song as well!

The band are excellent, and the live versions of all these songs are awesome. Blaze sings his stuff fantastically well. The whole double album is a tribute to a band that have found a niche in the metal market, and filled it admirably.

Rating : Great live album, that would also act as a great starting point for the unindoctrinated. 4.5/5.

78. Michael Schenker Group / Armed And Ready : The Best Of The Michael Schenker Group. 1994. 4/5.

Releasing this in 1994, the title of the album conveniently allows the releasers to avoid anything from the latter day McAuley Schenker group – which is a shame, as there was a lot of good music that came from that partnership.

As such, this album concentrates on the early years of the group, which is not such a bad thing anyway. It was strange to sit down and listen to this again. Sometimes, if you are only looking at a track list, you can think “I can think of a dozen better songs that should be on this!” - which, of course, is what i did. And, then, you listen to the album, singing along to every song, and saying “Yeah – this rocks!”

Still, there are a couple of songs I would have exchanged with others. Overall though, a good collection of MSG favourites. Attack Of The Mad Axeman, Assault Attack, Desert Song. These are just great songs, and hold a lot of memories.

Rating : A collection of 80's memorabilia. 4/5.

77. Anthrax / Armed And Dangerous (EP). 1985. 4/5.

This was released prior to Spreading The Disease coming out, I guess primarily to introduce Joey Belladonna to the masses as Anthrax's new lead singer.

It contains the single and another track that didn't end up making the album (Raise Hell), re-recordings of Metal Thrashing Mad and Panic, as well as God Save The Queen and a couple of B-sides from the very first Anthrax single.

Hey, for an EP, it's good. The two songs at the start are great, God Save The Queen is OK, the remakes of the songs off A Fistful Of Metal are great, and so are the original B-sides. Can't be faulted for quality!

Rating : A good lead-in to the Joey era. 4/5.

76. Fear Factory / Archetype. 2004. 4/5.

Though I had heard a little Fear Factory before this, Archetype was the first album I really sat down and listened to. And perhaps I like it because it was the first.

There is no denying the musicianship of the lads. How the drummer has any legs to stand on is a constant source of amazement to me, such speed does he expel behind that kit of his.
The songs are raw and aggressive, but with melody as well. Though, I must admit, I have tried to understand what was behind the recording of Ascension, and am still at a loss. It sounds like 7+ minutes of silence. Am I mistaken? What was behind this?

Fear Factory had had some dramas leading up to this album, but Archetype puts them right back at the top of their game.

Rating : A great return to form. 4/5.

75. Michael Schenker Group / Arachnophobiac. 2003. 4/5.

Yet another formation of the old MSG, with Schenker himself the only person to retain his position. On this occasion, it doesn't detract from the music.

On first listen, in fact, I swore it was Chris Cornell singing. Of course, I was mistaken (his name is Chris Logan), but the songs themselves are great. This is almost like it has been taken straight from the golden years of MSG, in the 1980's. The style of the album is straight from that era, which of course means it incorperates Schenker guitar style perfectly. Rather than trying to update and upbeat this album to the new millenium, the band has stuck to their strengths, and come up with an excellent album. So long as you like that style, of course!

I am impressed with it. The vocals are great, Schenker's guitaring is as good as ever, and the songs are good (for a change...). Overall – an impressive effort.

Rating : MSG back in force. 4/5.

74. Guns N' Roses / Appetite For Destruction. 1987. 5/5.

Where the hell did Guns N’ Roses appear from? It’s an interesting story, but my intention is not to go through the entire history of the lead up to the band coming together. In short, the members of two bands, Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns, came together to form a new band, taking a piece from each of the band's names to create a new name – Guns N’ Roses. As the band progressed, all of the members of L.A. Guns moved on back to their original grouping (and of course did their own thing with some success), and as each member left, another former member of Hollywood Rose came in to replace them. As it turned out, a number of Hollywood Rose songs would turn up on releases by Guns N’ Roses, including on their debut album, “Appetite for Destruction”.
The band eventually signed on to Geffen Records for less money than they were offered by other record companies, but with Geffen they were offered the ability to do their own things, whereas other companies had wanted to change the band and image and music to their own terms. Having signed in March 1986, the band had released a four track EP, “Live Like a Suicide” in December of that year, in order to keep peace with their record company as well as keep their name in the minds of the fans out there, as Geffen had feared that the band didn’t have enough material to release a full album. The writing and recording of “Appetite for Destruction” took place over the first six months of 1987. Several producers came in and help produce songs, in order to gauge their suitability to work with the band. In the long run Mike Clink was the man who got the job, a producer with a wide experience and with different genres of bands. With songs from a wide variety of timelines of the band and its members, in hindsight it probably always boded well for the album to have a varied and interesting progression. The album was eventually released on July 21 1987, to the massive sound... of crickets...

For an album that has become one of the biggest sellers of all time, it is amazing how little anyone knew about it for so long. There’s little doubt that much of the album was uncommercial, songs whose subject matter and explicit language made them impossible to play on the radio. It was also one of those albums that had the ‘explicit language’ sticker prominently displayed on the cover, which may or may not have hindered its sales.
Eventually, it was two singles that broke the band firstly into the mainstream, and then into the stratosphere. The alternative flavoured “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, not a ballad but with lyrics that makes radio stations stand up and think ‘that’s a hit’, was the first to make a splash, with Slash’s uniquely harmonic guitar riff to open the song, and then his solo later on, making a song that atmospherically made the band marketable on the basis of it being a great track that ticked all those commercial boxes without being the atypical radio hit. This was the song that powered the album sales, such that it finally reached top ten around the world, a year after its release. Six months on from that, the band then released “Paradise City” as its next single, and this sent sales soaring again. “Paradise City” had a film clip of Guns N’ Roses playing live, and the song drew on that to continue the sales surge of the album, with its repeatable lyrics and rock sensibilities, giving kids of all ages a chorus that they could cling on to. These two songs were the driving force that propelled the sales of the album well into two years after its initial release.
And the thing is, once people bought the album, they discovered that the rest of the songs on the album weren’t really like those two songs at all. Some found disappointment in this, but many found the true joy of what Guns N’ Roses had compiled for their debut opus. The incredible energy of the tracks throughout is something to behold. The lyrical content and in your face style of each song is like a freight train, or perhaps even a Nightrain, bearing down on you. Both the album opener “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Nightrain” were released as singles, but both had more impact on people once they began buying the album. The opening trio of songs in “Welcome to the Jungle”, the hard rock jingle “It’s so Easy” and the rollicking “Nightrain” make for a terrific start. “Out Ta Get Me” and “Mr Brownstone” leave nothing to the imagination as to their lyrical content, and the excitable enjoyment that they are performed at both musically and by Axl’s vocals make them fantastic songs to sing along to. Both have such brilliant riffs, and the groove of “Mr Brownstone” is awesome. After the lengthy overhaul of “Paradise City”, the two songs sandwiched between it and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” are probably my favourites on the album. “My Michelle” and “Think About You” are arguably the most unlikely songs to appear on this album, and perhaps that’s why they attract me so much. At opposite ends of the scale when it comes to the lyrical aspects of singing about the ‘girl in your life’, for me they have always picked up that middle part of the album. And of course, once we’ve crossed over “Sweet Child O’ Mine” you have the three closing tracks, with the fast paced “You’re Crazy”, the hard jumping of “Anything Goes” and the lengthy extolling of “Rocket Queen”, a song I’ve always felt may have fit better on one of the Illusion albums. But what it does do is close out a most remarkable album given the circumstances of its release and growth over the years.

I know full well I didn’t have this album until well into 1988, because no one in my high school had this album, to my recollection, in our final year of high school. I know I had this on cassette recorded for me by someone in the first half of 1988, and I don’t think I bought this until sometime in that year, probably at the time they really began to get noticed. I remember seeing the album in record shops that I frequented in those days, with the big warning sticker on the front, but because I hadn’t heard anyone who listened to them, or heard any of the songs off the album, I ignored it and looked at the other wares in the racks. And I guess I followed the crowd a little when it came to finding and enjoying this album. I don’t feel any problem with that. Sometimes being a sheep is a good thing and leads you to something you may otherwise have missed, and I think this album in particular is a good example of that. I know the band toured Australia at the end of 1988 and I didn’t feel overwhelmed to attend, so I know my feelings on the album were still ambivalent at that stage, some 18 months after it had been released. One of my funniest memories of the time is when one of my best mates bought the UK 12” single of “Welcome to the Jungle” because he loved that song, but found that “Nightrain” was on the B side, and he claimed he was going to go home, and drag a razor blade right across the B side to make it unplayable, because he hated that song so much. Of course, within a few months he then claimed that he did actually enjoy the song after all. Funny times.
It is an eclectic and unique album that has crossed genres, and indeed is one that cannot be categorised into any one format as a result. It’s a metal album, and hard rock album, a rock album, an alternative album, a post punk rock album... and probably another half a dozen genres rolled into that as well. One thing that I’ve always attested to is that I love the album much more than those two songs that drove its eventual popularity, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise City”. They are good songs, but not in the best half of songs that appear on this album. They did their job in getting the album airplay, and for me it was discovering everything else here that is the real bonus.
In the years since this album has held up surprisingly well, perhaps because there has been so little other material released beyond 1991, that it doesn’t have much to stand up against in the GNR discography. Maybe that’s it. Or maybe this is just a unique album that stands the test of time because it had to fight so hard to be recognised in its time. Whatever the reason, 35 years on – or in reality I guess 34 years on, from the time most of us actually discovered it – this album is still a pretty damned good listen.

73. Anthrax / Anthrology : No Hit Wonders 1985-1991. 2005. 5/5

In line with the Big Reunion Tour of 2005, Anthrax brought out this double CD compilation of the best of their years together - basically, the albums Spreading The Disease, Among The Living, State Of Euphoria and Persistence Of Time.

The song selection is perfect (I mean, they condensed 4 albums into 2, and added a couple of extra tracks, so you should certainly have the best!), and the remastered editions have great sound quality.

There is little else really to say. Great songs, great performances. Of course, if you already have the albums, as most people will, it is money spent on items already procured.

Rating : You can't beat it. 5/5

72. Brian May / Another World. 1998. 2.5/5

Brian's second solo album is, in my opinion, not as solid as his first. Having moved on from Queen and its retirement, he has put together an album that seems to move away from the elements that made Brian May a great guitarist.

Don't get me wrong. It isn't a bad album. But it is different from anything he has released before, and it struggles to hold my enthusiasm for the entire album. It doesn't contain the same Brian May guitar pieces that I remember, and while his vocals are still good, the songs to me are not as strong as in the past.

Memories : Seeing Brian May in Sydney on this tour. Having never seen Queen (unlike some corkheads like Kearo...) it was brilliant to see him. Not only doing his own stuff, but Queen stuff as well. Terrific live performance.

Rating : Worth a listen, and to decide for yourself. 2.5/5

71. Motörhead / Another Perfect Day. 1983. 3/5

I’m sure that after the success that Motörhead had had with their first five albums that it was an unexpected occurrence when ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke decided to move on just after the tour to support the Iron Fist album began. Given that the band seemed to find plenty of faults with that album almost immediately, perhaps it wasn’t unexpected. It did give drummer Phil Taylor the opportunity to coerce Lemmy into agreeing to hire former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson as his replacement, who then went on to help write and record the follow up, Another Perfect Day.

The most obvious thing to say about this album is… it is different. For everyone who has heard the first five studio albums, the style is immediately different. But all of those five albums had a degree of change along the way, none of them were an exact match for the previous one, so if you take this album as just a natural progression and not focus too much on the different guitaring styles of the previous guitarist and the new guitarist, you are halfway there to being able to appreciate this album for what it is rather than just dismissing it offhand because of the change. I know that I initially went down this path, completely put off by the change in guitar style especially. But once I sat down and just listened to it as an album, and not an album that Clarke had had no part of, I found a lot to like. Indeed, having been a fan of sections of Thin Lizzy’s work over the years I admired most of what Robertson has to offer here. I don’t think it always works, and I don’t think it really settles into what you would call a Motörhead sound, but there’s no denying it is catchy. There is almost none of the typical Lemmy bass lines and even the drumming appears much less frantic and rebellious.
Was the world ready for piano on a Motörhead album? Robertson contributes this on the songs “Shine” and “Rock It”, and while it isn’t a big thing it is a noticeable thing. Opening track “Back at the Funny Farm” has that classic bass sound to start, as does the closing track “Die You Bastard!”, but apart from that there is little that makes it stand out. “Dancing on Your Grave” is probably the closest this album has to a song that fits in with the past.
The most irritating song on the album is “One Track Mind” which closes out the first side of the album. It feels like five and a half minutes of the track title being repeated over and over and over again, and it is so different to most of the other material on the album. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Both “Just Another Day” and “Marching Off to War” are dominated by long instrumental breaks, including long solo sections from Robertson. The length of these is another point of difference between earlier albums. While Clarke had solo breaks they didn’t dominate songs by their length. That is not the case here, Robertson seems to have plenty of time to ensure he is noticed. It’s not unlikeable at all, in fact for the most point they are enjoyable, except maybe they just sound a bit too similar to each other? Perhaps. “I Got Mine" follows on a similar vein, with plenty of upbeat tempo, while “Tales of Glory” is a short, sharp burst of what has come before.
By the end of the album, and in real comparison to the other albums that preceded it, what really pulls this back just a little bit ends up being those extended solo breaks from Robertson. It feels a bit formula-oriented, a bit too try-hard for what would make it a better or equal album to the first albums. They are not bad or Malmsteen-esque in the show-off department, but they do perhaps tend to over dominate which was not a trademark of the earlier material. Overall the songs are good. Lemmy’s vocals are as good here as they probably ever got, and Taylor’s drumming sounds good as well, though it feels as though it has lost its intensity and is more interested in just keep time in places. Robertson is excellent, but his style eventually holds firm that it is indeed a different era that the band has moved into. Given that it was the only album he played on, no doubt the other extenuating factors proved to be a problem as well.

I enjoy this album more now than I did when I first listened to Motörhead and that probably has more to do with my maturing years and willingness to accept change than I used to in my youth. This is a good album (barring one notable song), but you need to take it on trust to get the most out of it.

Rating: “Let me hear it 'til the end of time”. 3/5

70. Sevendust / Animosity. 2001. 3/5.

This again was a pleasant surprise when I first heard it. Having been pestered by young cricketers (21 year olds...) that I play cricket with of a Saturday that I should listen to this album, I finally got around to getting a copy of it.

What I heard was not what I had expected. Indeed, it was in fact an album that immediately showed the various strengths of this band, and their versatility in the music they produce.
The early songs are very raucous (along with some of the trademark screaming that bands used at the turn of the century). As the album moves along, the songs flatten out into a more melodic metal sound, that is pleasing to the ear (at least, more pleasing to the ears of those who came in to work tonight when I was playing it at 1000 decibels).

In some ways, they are an updated, perhaps heavier version of Faith No More. They share a lot of similar characteristics with them, which certainly come through to me in songs such as Redefine.

I was very impressed with both this album, and the band as a whole. Great stuff from a more modern metal band than this dinosaur is used to listening to.

Rating : One of the better recent arrivals. 3/5.

69. KISS / Animalize. 1984. 3/5.

This falls into the exact same category as album #68.

Kiss had by this time moved on without Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and were delving into the part of the career where they decided make-up was no longer necessary.

This album is no frills. It has no standout songs. There is no new direction for the album, it is an a-typical Kiss album in every regard. Well, except perhaps that there is no song here that jumps out at you and says - “We Are Kiss!!!”

Again, this is not to say it isn't enjoyable. It is just that nothing makes in unusual from a billion other albums out there in the universe.

Rating : Average for the game. 3/5.

68. Scorpions / Animal Magnetism. 1980. 3/5.

Following up the brilliant Lovedrive was always going to be dodgy. Whether the boys meant to or not, they have moved direction a little here again, in order not to have the style compared to their previous release.

This is your good, everyday, type of album release. There are no surprises, no out-of-the-ordinary tracks. Just nine solid Scorpions songs, some better than others. The tempo is probably a bit slower than I would like, but a lot of Scorps stuff is like that.

I particularly like The Zoo, Make It Real and Animal Magnetism. They, for me, are the strongest songs on the album.

Rating : It sits right there in the middle. 3/5.

67. Dio / Angry Machines. 1996. 1.5/5.

Seriously – what the hell was Dio thinking when he released this album? It is, in general, one of the vilest pieces of junk it has ever been my misfortune to spend money on. I never imagined that I would ever say that about something that involved Ronnie, but Angry Machines has done it.

The direction of Dio's music had been heading towards slow and grunge for a while, but this took it too far. And it is a shame, as some of the songs could probably have been saved by a half decent producer with a love of Dio and the ability to deal with the man himself!

The lyrics are not the typical Dio, but the music is nothing like it was at this band's peak in the 80's. There are songs with some merit here, but not enough to save it. This is what I would consider to be the unfortunate black mark in Ronnie James Dio's stellar career.

Rating : It only got this much because of my undying respect for the man. 1.5/5

66. Judas Priest / Angel Of Retribution. 2005. 3.5/5

Much as had been the reaction in 1999 when Iron Maiden had announced the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith to the band after a lengthy absence, when Judas Priest had announced the return of Rob Halford to the band in 2004 the masses went wild. The experiment with Ripper Owens had passed, and now that the band was back together again everyone could expect a massive new album and world tour. Not only that, Roy Z had come on board to produce the new album, and after what he had done for the solo releases of both Dickinson and Halford, you could only expect that the album was going to be outstanding. Well… no…

Hey, I can admit it. I got way too excited and was looking forward to this far too much. I hyped it up in my head so much that I didn’t see where problems could lie until they had already passed. And they were there, no doubt. Because so many people had problems with the two albums that were done without Halford, it was almost forgotten that they had been almost completely written by both Downing and Tipton, and they were again two-thirds of the writing team for this new album. OK, so Halford had returned to bring back the triumvirate that had composed so many legendary tracks in the past, but still, his recently released second album under the Halford banner Crucible was in my opinion very hit and miss. Mostly miss. So the recent history of song writing wasn’t in the most popular class.
Did I want something comparable to Painkiller? Yep, I’m not ashamed to admit it. That’s what I wanted. I wanted Roy Z to make sure this band produced another album exactly the same as that. They did not. Is it all bad? No, and far from it. It’s just that the best songs on the album in no way approach the great songs from previous albums.
“Judas Rising” is a good starting point, giving us a little bit of everything we were looking for – a Halford scream, fast drums, heavy guitar. “Deal With the Devil” comes back to the heart of the best Judas Priest songs with a great drum back beat, perfect bass line running underneath while Downing and Tipton riff over the top, and Halford gives a great vocal performance. It’s a hard rocking song that grabs your attention. “Revolution” sounds like it is trying to parallel the T-Rex song “Children of the Revolution”. It has a very 70’s sound to it and is not what you would call a typical Priest sound. To be honest I can’t say I love it, but it isn’t the worst available here. On the other hand, “Worth Fighting For” is very understated, and I love the mood that the music creates for the song, along with Halford’s moody vocals. It’s a real changer for Judas Priest, it doesn’t hit you with speed or heavy attitude or off the scale guitars, but it has a great heavy and brooding mood about it all the way through, and the solo break adds so much to the atmosphere. This is probably my favourite song on the album which is a surprise to me, but it works.
“Demonizer” comes with a rush, full of that great Scott Travis double kick and Rob Halford screaming vocals all overlaying the hard ripping riff and a super solo section from Tipton and Downing. Honestly, if the whole song had been like this it would have been a classic. As it stands it is one of the better songs through the back half of the album, even though I feel it could have been so much better if it started like it finished. “Wheels on Fire” doesn’t do anything fancy and doesn’t proclaim itself to be the fastest or heaviest track around. Indeed, it is a solid Judas Priest track that sticks to its own pace throughout while Rob discerns his vocals in a sedate but forthright manner. It seems pretty standard, but I think its simplicity is its strength. It’s a good song that can sometimes be glossed over. “Hellrider” leaves nothing in the bag, giving us more screams and energy in the vocals than “Demonizer” does which probably lifts it above that song for me.
“Angel”, “Eulogy” and “Lochness” are three of the final four songs on the album, and this is where I think there is a huge letdown. “Angel” is very much the power ballad of the album, and while it isn’t terrible I just think it doesn’t fit with what has come before it. But this doesn’t even compare when you talk about the closing tracks. “Eulogy” is the quiet contemplative song that feels so out of place. I know bands feel as though they have to do songs like this, but this is where other artists fall down, because they get trapped thinking this is a great move. This segues slowly and quietly into the final track, the ‘epic’ track “Lochness”. I have ‘epic’ in quotes, because to me this is a poor finish. The track is thirteen and a half minutes long, it meanders along like a slow moving stream, lazily trying to gain momentum without ever able to do it. This is not “Beyond the Realms of Death” or “Victim of Changes”. This is a somewhat painful way to end the album. It was probably a great idea in the studio, but for me it really does not work.

My opinion of Angel of Retribution has mellowed over the years. In 2005 I had great reservations about it and was probably overly harsh in my rating of it. I have played it twenty times over recent days in revisiting it and I find that the first half of the album is much better now that I probably thought it was a decade ago. My opinion of the close of the album hasn’t changed, but as an album overall this is above average. The plus marks are the rediscovering of the Judas Priest sound that wasn’t overly prevalent on the two Ripper-era albums. It won’t rank as one of their best ever but it still has plenty to offer to fans of the band.

Rating: “From what I knew before, some things are worth fighting for”. 3.5/5

65. Faith No More / Angel Dust. 1992. 4/5.

I guess after The Real Thing, Faith No More had to sit down and wonder, “Where do we go from here?”.
The answer is Angel Dust, an album that quickly sorted out who was a fan of the band, and who had just come on for the popularity of the previous release.

Full of great guitar riffs from Jim Martin, the 'maturing' vocals of Mike Patton and the pounding drum beats of Mike Bordin, this is as far away from The Real Thing as this band could muster. There was no doubting their intentions. They wanted to shake things up.

This is a real shock to the senses. From Land Of Sunshine, Midlife Crisis and Everything's Ruined, to Be Aggressive, Crack Hitler and Jizzlobber, this is an album that you literally either love, or abhore to the depths of hell.

Memories : In 1992, friends of mine were living in a house in Kiama Downs. I walked in one day to hear this insane album being played at a million decibels upstairs. It was my indoctrination to Angel Dust.

Rating : Madness. Absolute madness. 4/5.

64. John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess / An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess. 2004. 1/5

Well, this certainly wasn't what I expected. I was hoping for some drilling solos and fast driving music. Instead, what you get here is mainly classical.
And don't get me wrong. What they play is brilliant. There is no doubt both are brilliant musicians, who are just unbelievable at what they do.

The problem here is – I was expecting something completely different when I acquired it.
And even now, listening to it again, and knowing what it was, I was unable to like it.

Rating : Ooooohhh...nasty. 1/5.

63. Anthrax / Among The Living 1987. 5/5.

A lot of bands tend to find their feet by the time they come around to writing and recording their third album. Think about it, think about your favourite bands, and think what their third album is, and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Everything just seems to come together. And that is exactly what occurred for New York thrash legends Anthrax when they released their third studio album “Among the Living”, an album built on the kind of live and life experience that can only come from both touring with a band at their peak, and the tragedy that can sometimes follow it.

Anthrax had made quite a jump in quality from their debut album “Fistful of Metal” to their follow up “Spreading the Disease”, not just from the acquisition of Joey Belladonna as lead singer, but in the refinement of their sound and the tightening of their music. On the rise at the same time as bands of their ilk like Exodus, Slayer and Metallica, you get the feeling that they were learning on the go, and by being around these bands they found a way to improve their own skills in order to get to that next level.
No doubt being asked by Metallica to support them on their European tour promoting “Master of Puppets” must have been eye opening, seeing that band as they were hitting their theoretical peak, and watching them destroy audiences night after night. And who wouldn’t have wanted to see that tour, with Anthrax thrashing serious carnage as the support act? The amount that the band must have improved on that tour is immense. And then the tragedy struck, with the bus crash that killed Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, and the shock that came with that, and how the members of Anthrax rallied around the members of Metallica in the days and weeks afterwards.
How does something like that change you? How do you cope with it? How do you move on deal with the consequences. For Anthrax, with the remainder of that tour cancelled, they entered the studio to record their follow up to “Spreading the Disease”, and the emotions that had built up over recent weeks all went in with them. But that wasn’t all. There was a fury in the new songs, something that had begun on “Spreading the Disease” but had reached a whole new level on the new album. There was fury in the guitaring and drumming and there was anger and emotion that mixed in with that as well. In a 2012 interview, Scott Ian was quoted as saying that part of the reason the album sounds so angry is because Cliff died. They’d lost a friend and it was so wrong and unfair. The album itself is dedicated to Cliff Burton’s memory, and there seems little doubt he would have been proud of what the band produced. Indeed, it became one of the greatest thrash metal albums ever released.

The more you listen to this album, and the more you break it down, the better and more impressive it becomes. Each song has its own ability to build the tension and momentum, to drive the speed of each song and to draw the listener in to participate in the while process. The way that the songs are structured lyrically are the crowning jewel of the production, because not only are they designed in a way that they become instant crowd favourites, but they utilise that to get the fan involved just by listening to the album at home, or in the car, or on their way to work. And it is literally impossible not to join in. With Joey Belladonna creating the lead vocals, and guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Frankie Bello chanting in the back up lyrics, the whole album comes across like you are listening to it in a live setting.
From the opening bars of the title track “Among the Living”, you are dragged in, and it is still an anticipatory exchange that collectively occurs as the song builds to the beginning of the vocals.
And the subject matter of the songs is just brilliant. From riffing on their love of Stephen King novels with “Among the Living”, which is based on the antagonist of The Stand, and with “A Skeleton in the Closet” which is based on the novella “Apt Pupil”, to their love of comic book literature with “I Am the Law” based on the Judge Dredd character in the graphic novels. All of this is mixed in with social conscience issues such as “Indians” which harps on the plight of the native North American Indians, to “One World” which talks about the risk of nuclear war, to NFL (Efilnikufesin) which deals with drug abuse which from a 2019 interview was inspired by the death of John Belushi. All of the lyrics are terrifically written, serious when they have to be, laced with humour when they don’t have to be. It all helps make the mixture of songs so interesting and intricate in developing the mood of the album.
And that mood? Well, it is fast, furious and generally without a resting point. “Among the Living” kicks it off in style, scintillating guitars and Charlie Benante’s hard hitting drum beats. And there is no way you can’t chant along to “I’m the Walkin’ Dude!, I can see all the world”, and the at the end once Joey has said “follow me or die”, and Scott and Frankie chant along “Among! Among! Among! Among!” through to the song's conclusion. Truly awesome. This is then followed by the headbangers anthem “Caught in a Mosh” which takes this to a different level. Frank’s brilliant solo bass riff into the main guitar riffs, before Charlie’s solo drum smashing launches the song proper is a fantastic way to give every member of the band a piece of the action so early in the album. And of course, the chorus again unleashes the crowd participation chanting with the duelling vocals of “Ain’t gonna live my life this way” and “STOMP STOMP STOMP!”, before the chorus of “What is it?” “Caught in a mosh”. Brilliant. And we leap into the opening riff of “I Am the Law” which again showcases everything the band has to offer and the crowd surfing chants and lyrics again enhance the song from the outset.
“NFL (Efilnikufesin)”, apart from hilariously having some people believe it is a song about American Football, and “A Skeleton in the Closet” both close out the first side of the album superbly, ripping lyrics that confused those that believed all heavy metal music was about the devil, instead being thoughtful, provocative and meaningful while the music was fast and thrashing.
“Indians” opens the second half of the album and is probably the least thrash song on the album but one where the heart is the lyrics. And then you get to the middle of the song, and Scott Ian starts stomping along to the drums and cries out “WAR DANCE!” and the song leaps to another level. Charlie’s drumming throughout this song is also just superb, it truly sets the mood perfectly for the subject matter at hand. And it doesn’t let up there. “One World” is ridiculously thrashing, and then climbs into “Horror of it All”, which was written about Cliff Burton, and having to deal with his death, before “Imitation of Life” concludes an album that, even for 1987, was an absolute triumph.

It will forever be one of those dark questions that hangs over my head until it is my time to leave this existence as to how I did not find either this band or this album until about 18 months after this had been released. 1987 was my final year of high school and it was during this and the preceding year that I had been exposed to and experience so many new and exciting bands and albums, that it is really quite remarkable that Anthrax and “Among the Living” was not one of them. And I often wonder to myself just how much that final year of high school would have been significantly improved if I HAD had that album to help me through those final few months.
Instead, it wasn’t until mid the following year that I bought my first Anthrax album (which happened to be ‘Spreading the Disease’) before picking up this album after that. And to say that I had my mind blown would be an understatement. At that point in time the peak of thrash for me had been Metallica, but this just went way beyond that. Songs such as “Caught in a Mosh” and “Skeleton in the Closet” and “Horror of it All” were just amazing, there is no restraint, those drums just fly and drag the guitars along with them, and somehow Joey not only has to keep up, but then hit those high notes in the same instance. I still can’t get over “Horror of it All”, it is just an amazing song.
And like I said, the ability of these songs to draw out crowd participation is immense. Driving to Sydney or just around our hometown with four people in the car, singing these at the top of our voices, is still such a strong memory, as well as seeing the band for the first time at the Hordern Pavilion in 1990 and jumping around like madmen at these songs.
All five members star on this album. It is still incredible at times to think that Charlie not only plays the drums as amazingly as he does, but creates the guitar riff and melodies as well for the majority of Anthrax’s songs.


As with the majority of bands who were labelled as thrash metal in the early to mid-1980's, Anthrax’s sound did revert to a more traditional heavy metal appearance over time. But this album, this moment in time, when they were on the ascendancy and when they were firing and when they had fury and anger to deal with, stands as a testament to the greatness of the band and the joy of thrash metal. Because this is pure unadulterated genius, where the combination of live interaction onto a studio album to create a perfect moment in time cannot be faulted. Except that I didn’t discover it until 18 months later.

62. The Offspring / Americana. 1998. 4/5.

Following on from the spectacular success of their previous two albums, The Offspring released Americana, which came with the outrageously popular single-made-popular-by-video (Pretty Fly For A White Guy), and the popular single used in humour by all walks of life (Why Don't You Get A Job).

However, apart from and including these two, the album again has a great feel and tempo. The songs just keep coming without respite, and the raucous Offspring beat keeps the mood swinging. Have You Ever, Staring At The Sun and The Kids Aren't Alright are the usual tip-top Offspring tunes, with the right amount of angst in the lyrics, without ever dragging the mood down.

The album continues the formula used in their previous efforts, and once again they have produced a great slab. The infectious groove is always easy to put on and infuse.

Rating : Great for all tastes. 4/5.

61. L.A. Guns / American Hardcore. 1996. 3.5/5.

When you first hear this album, it is quite amazing the change that L.A. Guns have made from their first two releases. If you didn't know their history, you would be hard pressed to be convinced that they began their lives in the heyday of L.A glam metal.

American Hardcore is the name of the album, and the direction they have taken their music. And some of these songs really rock. And yet, there is the classic 'metal' ballad (a slight contradiction in terms I know, but you know what I'm getting at) with Hey World, which, given my usual contempt of such songs, isn't bad.

What I've Become, Pissed and I Am Alive are great tracks, that are the norm on an album that is a significant release in the order of a band who came from an era of glam, and has transformed themselves into a band of higher standing on a different plane.

Rating : Still a pleasant surprise to be had. 3.5/5.

60. Fozzy / All That Remains. 2005. 4/5

After two albums that were generally laden with great metal covers, Fozzy got serious, and put out this album full of only originals.

The combined talents of wrestler Chris Jericho and former members of Stuck Mojo have put together a great 'debut' album. Special guests such as Marty Friedman and Zakk Wylde appear here also, but the songs the band has written and performed hold up well.

Nameless Faceless, Enemy, It's A Lie and Born Of Anger are just some of my favourires from the album. It's interesting to see that, despite what could have been made of the 'novelty factor' of a wrestler doing an album, that the success of this has nothing to do with that at all. The songs are good, Jericho's vocals are good, and the whole package comes together well.

Rating : We knew they could play, but they proved a whole lot more with this. 4/5.

59. KISS / Alive! 1975. 4/5.

This was probably the album that started it all for Kiss. The double live blast of the band live on stage caught the imagination of the world, along with the make-up and the pyrotechnics and the stageshow. But being captured in their element – the live music – was what transformed their popularity to skyrocketing proportions.

This contains the best of their material that they had released to that time, and most of them are classics that are still so to this day. Any KISS best-of would have Deuce, Strutter, C'mon And Love Me, Parasite, Cold Gin and Rock 'N' Roll All Nite on it.

I don't believe it holds up today as well as other live albums of the period, but for the time, it was something...

Memories : My older cousin David was a mad Kiss freak, back when I was just a kid. At one stage, he was living at our grandmother's when he first got work in Newcastle. I well remember his collection of Kiss records at Nan's house whenever we went up there for the holidays, and was exposed to them at a rather early age as a result.

Rating : Not too shabby. 4/5.

58. Bruce Dickinson / Alive In Studio A. 1998. 4/5.

This actually contains two live albums – the titled Alive In Studio A, which features Bruce and his band playing live in the studio, and Alive At The Marquee which, surprisingly, features Bruce and his band playing live at The Marquee – this time in front of an audience. Both albums contain the same songs, in a different order, and with a different vibe.

The Studio A live recordings sound great, and have no outside audience interference or noise. As such, it comes across as an excellent live sound, with the live interpretation of his early songs.
The Marquee live recordings are like most other live recordings. The audience is loud and grateful, Bruce interacts during and between songs, and you get that real grunt that you get when pumping out the music through amps and p.a's.

Both discs have their benefits, and are successful in showing the strengths of Bruce's live capabilities. How he can sing that well live is still beyond me. Songs like Tattooed Millionaire, Son Of A Gun and Tears Of The Dragon are just sensational in these two sets.

Rating : Good to hear Bruce's early songs given the justice they deserve live. 4/5.

57. Iced Earth / Alive In Athens. 1999. 4/5.

It must be unusual (it is within my knowledge of the subject) to release a live album over three discs. Not only is it a lot of work, you have to have played three hours worth of music live in order to do it!

This is just a great live album. It covers the entire span of Iced Earth's career to this point, and does it live. From this you learn that :

1. Iced Earth's back catalogue contains a truckload of great material.
2. It sounds better live
3. Iced Earth can play.

As an introduction to Iced Earth, if you haven't heard them before, this is your best bet. If you know their stuff, then this is just as necessary, to hear how much better the songs sound in a live environment. If you have it all, you already know what I'm talking about.

Memories : Standing in Utopia in 2001, looking through the Iced Earth section, trying to decide on the first album of theirs that I should buy, having never heard any of their music before. I pick up Alive In Athens, and remark to Kearo that, with three CDs, this should be value for money ($44.95 I believe it was). He agreed, and remarked that it would certainly give a good overview of the band. In the end, I baulked at the price, and went for the newly released Horror Show instead.

Rating : An excellent live 'history' of the band. 4/5.

56. Motörhead / Ace Of Spades. 1980. 5/5.

There would be a fair majority of people who have listened to Motörhead that would cite Ace of Spades as their introduction to the band. Not just the album but no doubt the title track. This is pretty much true for myself. My first taste was of the band playing this song of the “Bambi” episode of the irreverent British comedy “The Young Ones” back in the mid-1980’s. That raucous and amusing two and a half minutes eventually led to looking for more of the band and with it this album itself.

Like many bands there is a period where you need to become acquainted with the music that they produce, a timeframe to get used to the style and the nuances of the music. Motörhead are no different, and this album for me was one where I came in too amped up and initially left disappointed. I wanted everything to be a repeat of “Ace of Spades”, to be high octane and breathlessly easy to jump around to, and not everything here is like that. So I would listen to it for awhile and then put it away and forget about it. It wasn’t until I had left it for a couple of years and gravitated back that I came to realise just how good an album it really is. Because it’s not really a heavy metal album in the classic sense of either a Black Sabbath poise or an Iron Maiden machine gunning. It’s a rock album, but it is a heavier version of that without pushing itself into that easily defined category of ‘metal’. And for me that’s what really gives it the extra kick.
Away from the utter glory that still revolves around “Ace of Spades”, there is so much more here to catch your ear. “Love Me Like a Reptile” has a great groove and pace about it and is the perfect follow up song to the opening track. I love Eddie’s riff in this song, it comes across as guttural in places, and is followed by his perfect foil of a solo. “Shoot You in the Back” slots into a perfect tempo and rocks along jauntily. The pace and tempo jumps up enthusiastically with “Live to Win” which is one of my all-time favourite Motörhead songs with a great riff from Eddie and Lemmy’s vocals. “(We Are) The Road Crew” is a classic, a great tribute to the band’s roadies and to roadie’s everywhere. “Jailbait” is driven by a great drum fill from Phil and solid riffing from Eddie again. “The Chase is Better Than the Catch” slugs along on a constant momentum while Lemmy croons over the top, and the album ends with the fury of “The Hammer” that fires all the way to its conclusion.
The three members are at the top of their form. Lemmy’s rumbling bass and grating vocals never sounded better than they do here. Phil’s drumming is terrific, and even when he sounds like he is just playing along and keeping the band in time he is doing it with a style and a presence. Eddie guitaring is street core, mixing the great rhythm riffs with fast paced and high energy solos that cut through the middle of the songs. Such is the sound the band creates on this album it is hard at times to believe that it is just a three piece.

I’m not sure the band want people to cite this as their favourite Motörhead album. In many ways it changed people’s opinions of the albums that were to come throughout the rest of the decade, in that they were constantly compared to this one. It’s a tough call as this is a hard act to follow. It might seem like I climbed aboard the bandwagon myself when I say this is what I consider Motörhead’s finest album, but for overall strength of songs and their arrangement on the album, and the fantastic production which brings every element of the band out in front of the mix and not hiding in the background, this is the one where it all comes together the best.

Rating: “Read ‘em and weep, the Deadman’s hand again”. 5/5

55. Motörhead / 1916. 1991. 2.5/5

By this stage Motörhead had reached middle age as a heavy metal band. With so many classic albums behind them, coming up with albums that could stand up in comparison to them was always going to be a difficult thing.

1916 contains and mixes some different styles for the band, which can be either seen as a bold statement of intent, to show that the band can grow and is not afraid to show another side to it, or that the band had run out of ideas and had sold out in regards to the material it was writing. I admit I don't really know whether either of those ideas are correct, but I know that I have always had a problem trying to reconcile this with other releases by the band. There are still the songs which are unashamedly Motörhead, those like "No Voices in the Sky" and "I'm So Bad (Baby, I Don't Care). The cracking tribute to The Ramones, simply titled "R.A.M.O.N.E.S", is a ripper, which amusingly was eventually covered by The Ramones themselves.
Then there are the tracks where changes have come, and for me they just don't work. "Love Me Forever" is a ballad, but more than a ballad written and performed by the plethora or European power metal bands, this is sung by Lemmy, who - and let's face it, there is no getting around this - does not have the voice for such a song. Combined with the stereotypical ballad solo, it is so NOT Motörhead that it feels like a slap in the face. You can't begrudge the band from doing this kind of song, given the credits they have built up over the years, but it really is almost on the Metallica scale of debauchery and betrayal. No, no, no. "1916", which closes the album, also falls into this category, and while I admire a track such as this, being it is a tribute to the fallen in the war of the title, it is just not what you go looking for when you put a Motörhead album on.
As a result of some of this experimentation, this album is fairly tame compared to what had come before it. It was Motörhead's first studio album for four years, for various reasons. To be honest you would have hoped that the length of time between releases would have allowed a volume of work to have been collated and the best parts brought together to produce a ripping album. The time though appears to have gone into other ideas creeping in, and perhaps watering down the album's effectiveness.

For me, 1916 was a disappointment. Motörhead toured Australia on this album back in June 1991. Unfortunately, the night they played Sydney, I was about to fly out for Bali, and as such missed them. That was a disappointment as well. But moreover, the music just doesn't grab me on this album. It was a changing time in the metal world, and this album for me fell on the wrong side of the line.

Rating:   "Black leather, knee-hole pants, can't play no high school dance"   2.5/5.

54. KISS / Alive III. 1993. 3.5/5

It is generally accepted that what brought Kiss to recognition and accelerated their burgeoning fame was the release of “Alive” back in 1975, a double live album that showcased the brilliance of how the band sounded in that live environment. This was fortified by the release of “Alive II” in 1977, and marked the point where many consider the first era of Kiss came to its conclusion.
So why did it take so long for the band to release a third live compilation? To be honest, I don’t know the answer to that question, but the band certainly had several episodes going on during the time frame that may have contributed to the fact. The band all went and released solo albums in 1978, then moved in several different directions over the course of their next few albums, which included dabbling in disco and pop, writing a concept album that generally bombed, the rotation of new members of the band to replace both Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, the ditching of makeup and their on stage personas for their live shows, and eventually Kiss becoming more of a second job than a main priority for Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. On top of all of this, touring became less a part of the band than it had been in the 1970’s. Because their interests began to lie elsewhere than music, Paul and Gene had less time and perhaps less interest in doing long tours which would have been necessary in order to set up recording a live show for release.
All of this probably added up to the point that they reached on the tour to promote the album “Revenge”, and episode of which you can find in Season 2 of this podcast. With the huge worldwide reaction in particular to their cover version of “God Gave Rock n Roll To You”, and the solid sales of the “Revenge” album, no doubt the band felt it was the perfect time to take advantage of this, and come out with a new live album, and thus, “Alive III” came to fruition.

There are several conversations that are often held about this album, and all of the points of view aired are worthy of consideration. As per usual, when it comes to a live album, it should always rank highly, as it will contain the best songs of the band in that era of its release, as well as its best known songs. What Kiss did differently on “Alive II” however was that they didn’t repeat any tracks that they had released from the “Alive” album, something that, I at least feel was a great decision. Here on “Alive III” though, they have felt compelled to add three songs that came from either of those first two live albums - “Deuce”, “Rock and Roll All Night” and “Detroit Rock City”. And – all three are great live versions of those songs, and they do add a familiar and comfortable feeling to this live album.
Some were disappointed that this was not a double live album like those first two albums, but in the age CDs over vinyl, there really wasn’t much difference in actual play time. Both “Alive” and “Alive II” have a run time of approximately 75 minutes, while “Alive III” clocks in at 67 minutes. The difference is negligible. Also, “Alive II” included new studio tracks to pad it out, so on that score “Alive III” holds its own.
What certainly is different is that both “Alive” and “Alive II” covered just three studio albums each, giving them a unique sound and an important place in the band’s history. “Alive III” had to cover TEN studio albums, and despite this still felt it necessary to include those three songs from before this era in order to ensure older fans wanted to buy them. And the result is that several albums miss out on having even one song represented on this album. Given the austerity of the first two live albums, this always felt as though it was a missed opportunity.
Not only that, in my opinion, some of the song choices are poor. Given the band was touring on the “Revenge” album, it only makes sense that several songs from that album appear as a result. “I Still Love You” and “Forever” in particular are average ballads that if you want to play live, fine, but don’t put them on a live album. And there are a lot of other great songs that could have made the cut but for some reason didn’t. And no doubt the set list was cultivated for the tour, not to try and cover ten albums worth of material for a live album. And while that does not detract from the final product here, it does come as a slight disappointment to many, including myself.

Like I’ve a dozen times before on this podcast, I love a good live album. Many can be iconic, trapping moments in time that can never be repeated, and others are just great productions of a band in their element. For me, “Alive III” is a very good live album, with lots of great singular Kiss tracks that are known by fans of numerous generations. Having great Kiss tracks such as “Creatures of the Night”, “Unholy”, “I Was Made for Lovin’ You”, “Lick it Up” and “I Love it Loud” given the live treatment is excellent, and all of those tracks stand up brilliantly here. The way they always do.
But what a lost opportunity it was to not have any songs from “Crazy Nights” and “Asylum” represented here, something I feel harder about as “Crazy Nights”, as I’m sure many of you know, is one of my favourite Kiss albums. To be honest, I wonder if Paul in particular was worried that he couldn’t sing them, even at this point in his career. Never mind.
Many people vetoed this album, but I still love it. It’s great to hear Eric Singer’s drumming and Bruce Kulick’s guitar in the live setting, and that the whole band is on song here. I was lucky enough to take my 14 year old son Josh to see Kiss last year on their 4th or 5th End of the Road tour, where they were still great to hear, and I listened to this a fair bit leading up to it, as well as over the last month again. It still sounds great. Kulick’s guitaring is just sensational.

53. KISS / Alive II. 1977. 3.5/5

The album “Alive” had been the point where Kiss became a worldwide phenomenon. The success of that album in showcasing their songs in a live setting, without seeing the gimmick of make up and stage dressing that had been their call sign to that point, was where the songs became the selling point. The popularity garnered from that release then seeped into their next studio album, the one that many still believe is their greatest, “Destroyer”. On the back of the mega sales of that album, Kiss then toured and recorded on repeat, bringing out “Rock and Roll Over” and “Love Gun” to wide acclaim.
The sanctioning of a second live album to follow up the success of that first album was also seen as a way of buying the band some time when it came to recording their next album. They had tried this with recording in Japan in April 1977, but the resulting recordings were seen as unusable and therefore not publishable. Eventually the majority of the album came from recordings made in August on the “Love Gun” tour.
The band’s decision, which was to only include songs that had been written since “Alive” was released, in essence only from “Destroyer”, “Rock and Roll Over” and “Love Gun”, left people’s opinion divided. Many felt that it restricted the enjoyment and marketability of the album, and that releasing one live show of the band at that time would have been a better option. Others feel that because of the way it was put together, it acts as a compendium piece with “Alive”, in that so many songs now had published live versions of them over the course of those two albums, and that it made it more collectable. Either way, it also contained four new studio tracks, just to up the ante when it came to the fan deciding whether or not it was worth their cash to buy it. Millions felt that it was.

The original 2LP of this album could almost have been released as one side for each album that the songs were drawn from, and one side for the new tracks. Still, it is amazing when you listen to this album just how many great Kiss songs came from these three albums that they were drawn from. And just like the three album span that “Alive” was drawn from, it shows that the no-repeat policy of songs chosen here is actually a wise one.
It leads off with the great duo of “Detroit Rock City” and “King of the Night Time World”, a brilliant way to lead off the “Destroyer” album and it does the same job here. Other songs drawn from that album here are the always brilliant Gene Simmons hard rocker “God of Thunder”, the crowd pleaser “Shout it out Loud”, and the still-incomprehensible live staple of “Beth” sung by Peter Criss. I’ve never understood the necessity of always having this in the set list, apart from allowing whichever drummer is currently in the band the chance to sing a song.
The songs drawn from “Rock and Roll Over”, for me, aren’t in the same class, but are certainly the best songs from the album, with “Ladies Room”, “Making Love”, the always fun “Calling Dr Love” (another Gene song... go figure...) “Hard Luck Woman” with Peter Criss again on vocals, and “I Want You”. And the songs that come from “Love Gun”, which for me is still a slightly underrated album, are just as fun, with the great opening track “I Stole Your Love”, title track “Love Gun”, “Christine Sixteen”, Ace Frehley’s “Shock Me” and “Tomorrow and Tonight”.
Side four contains the five new studio tracks to round out the album, and none of them are particularly outstanding, or hold much value for the discerning listener. I wonder if most owners of this album do the same as I do whenever I pull it out to listen to it, and just put it back in its cover once we have reached the end of the live part of the album with “Shout it out Loud”. Don’t reckon I would have listened to those songs before this last couple of weeks for 30 years.

While I always seemed to have Kiss around me growing up, whether it was my older cousin or friends around the school yard or eventually at parties that I rarely got invited to but would show up at anyway, I didn’t own this album for many years after its release. I certainly heard the album on different occasions as mentioned before, but I just never got around to owning a copy of the album until many years later. In fact, it was when my first daughter was born back in 2003, and when I had been kicked out of the birthing unit for the downtime for mothers and new born child, I had walked into town and gone to one of my favourite places, Illawarra Books and Records, and let my fingers do the walking. And there in front of me, in great condition and a bargain price, were both “Alive!” and “Alive II”. How convenient. And exciting for me, as I then went home that evening after visiting hours had again sent me out into the world, and went home and listened to both of those albums back to back, probably for the first time ever in full. I still remember that to this day... I just don’t mention it to the wife... as she would say “Is THAT what you remember from that time?!?!” Well yes, it is.
In many ways I love this more than “Alive” which I know most Kiss fans will say is sacrilege. That first album and the records it draws from is brilliant, but I think the second version is better. At least, up when the new songs come in. Those I can happily ignore altogether.
Many years later of course we got Alive III and even Alive IV with backing orchestra, but it will always be these two albums that are the stars, and Alive II does have one of the greatest Kiss songs ever on it.

52. Gamma Ray / Alive '95. 1995. 5/5.

Gamma Ray had been a growing entity within the metal world over the past five years since its inception, and had had its fair share of personnel changes along the way, including the major one before the release of Land of the Free, with lead vocalist Ralf Scheepers moving on. History records that after much decision making, band leader Kai Hansen took over the reigns of lead singer as well as guitarist, recorded that Land of the Free album, and the rest became history. Thankfully, this live album was recorded on that tour, which meant that a significant moment in the history of the band was recorded for future posterity.

This is a terrific live album, even more so because it is not bereft of any little errors. Hindsight also allows us to note that even though his singing on this album is fantastic, it also shows how much it has matured and probably even improved over the years since this was released. It was his first tour in a decade where he was expected to carry the full dual roles, and in many places he was still discovering how to sing these songs in a live environment, especially those that had previously been performed by Ralf. To be honest, it is a triumph.
The album covers most of the ages of the band, though the only disappointment for me is that there is nothing from the brilliant Sigh No More album. The songs from the Land of the Free album are superb, kicking off from the outset with "Land of the Free", then into "Man on a Mission" and "Rebellion in Dreamland". All three are tremendous live songs, with anthemic choruses and verses that allow the crowd to be fully involved from the beginning of the gig. This is also true of "The Saviour" which leads into "Abyss of the Void". Kai sets the crowd up nicely into "The Abyss", before crashing into the brilliant "Abyss of the Void", again with those anthemic chanting lyrics that make it such a gem in a live concert.
The songs from the Scheepers era are all done excellently by Kai on vocals too. "Space Eater" is a perfect live song, able to be played heavier and with greater enthusiasm. Given how wonderfully Ralf used to sing this song, Kai does an awesome job on this track. The same goes for "Tribute to the Past", in which Kai surpasses Ralf's vocals, and which the band here just tear it apart, leaving the studio version for dead. The other song from Insanity and Genius is "Heal Me", which Kai sang on anyway. "Heal Me" has never been one of my favourite Gamma Ray songs, it just has never had those qualities that endear me to it, though a always this version is adequate.
Into the back half of the album, and we have two favourite Helloween covers/tracks. My favourite Helloween song of all time is "Ride the Sky", and this version is perhaps the ultimate version ever. Kai revs up the crowd, and then the band crack into this at lightning speed and enthusiasm. And can Kai still hit those notes? My bloody oath he can!! Absolutely sensational. I still get goosebumps every single time I listen to it. This is followed by crowd favourite "Future World", complete with crowd participation section. Finally, to end the album the band does a cracking version of Holocaust's "Heavy Metal Mania" which top sit all off excellently.

This really is a brilliant live album, showcasing not only how good this band is, but how far it had come in such a short space of time. All the evidence is here as to why they have been, and remain, one of my favourite bands of all time.

Rating:  Give me wiiiiiiiiiiiiiings to fly!  5/5

51. Anthrax / Alive 2. 2005. 4/5.

One day, someone will come out with a definitive answer as to why John Bush and his other mates were given the flick so easily...

Anyway, here it is. The Reunion Tour, with Joey and Frank and Dan all back in the fold, and less than six months later, this live album appears. Which is fine. There is nothing wrong with the guys playing abilities, and Joey's voice still holds out as well as one can expect. The songs are great songs, and they still sound great.

It is interesting to hear Joey trying to sing the “new” version of Deathrider, as John sang it. It doesn't work. Very interesting. But when it comes to Time, Be All End All, Medusa and In My World, Joey is just the king (though, strangely, he doesn't receive the vocal support he used to get from Frankie...).

This is an excellent recording from the reunion tour. One does wonder, though, where Anthrax The Band will go to from here...

Rating : A blast from the past. 4/5.

50. Strapping Young Lad / Alien. 2005. 2/5

I do get the feeling this is a little too extreme for my tastes.
I was recommended this artist and album by Holzy, who insisted that “Devin Townsend is a freak!”. In that comment, he is completely correct. Though I have some extreme metal in my collection, it still didn't prepare me for this album.

This is the only album I have of Strapping Young Lad, and I have actually only had it for about six weeks. It has therefore had little listening to discern my actual taste for it.

On tonight's listening, I can say this. I can see merit in it. It may also not be to my taste. At present, I am 50/50 as to whether I like it or not.

Rating : As the above says, I'm not sure. 2/5.

49. Alice In Chains / Alice In Chains. 1995. 2/5.

Let's say this from the top. This album was a major disappointment for me. It was just one of those albums that I had built myself up so much for, and was then let down really badly.

When this was released, there was obviously trouble in the ranks, mainly to do with Layne's drug problems. That's not to say that this affected the album. To me, though, the balance of the album seems to have swayed away from what it was on the first two albums.

The songs on this album slowed down considerably, grunged even further, and don't seem to have the magic that earlier compositions do.

Is it just me? Am I just a negative nelly, who has failed to see the whole picture? Perhaps. But I really tried to like this album, and really couldn't do it.

Memories : Driving out to Hill End and Sofala, me in the back seat of the car with Helen and Jodie in the front, playing this album twice in a row to see if I could like it, and listen to it that frequently. It came off on the second time after three songs, and something of Helen's went on instead – which, dreadfully, I enjoyed more!

Rating : A shame after their previous efforts, and a shame to finish their recording careers together. 2/5.

48. Black Label Society / Alcohol Fueled Brewtality Live + 5. 2002. 4.5/5.

Oooohhh! This was the first taste I had of Black Label Society live, and it just enhances their reputation.
As if the albums themselves hadn't been enough. Once you hear Zakk and the boys playing them live, you can never listen to them the same way again. This is the way Black Label Society songs are supposed to be heard – live, loud and heavy.

I must admit that I would never have expected Zakk's vocals to sound so good live, but they are just perfect for his songs, and he doesn't miss a beat singing and playing. His guitaring, as always, is just brilliant.

Not to forget the “+5” here as well. Zakk's version of Snowblind is a classic in itself. Just bloody brilliant!

Rating : You gain an even greater appreciation for this band when you have heard them live. 4.5/5.

47. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Alchemy. 1999. 3.5/5.

Here is another artist I abandoned after a particularly dreadful album (Eclipse), and did not rediscover until much later on.
Alchemy is another typical Yngwie album. There are lots of instrumentals, showing off his (and his band's) obvious talents. There are also some excellent songs here showcasing the vocals of Mark Boals.

The great thing about Yngwie is that you know it is him as soon as you hear the music start. His style is unique. So, chances are that if you like his music, you will like most things he does. Maybe even more so now that he has gotten that need to be commercially successful out of his system.

Rating : This is a pretty good example of what Yngwie can do. 3.5/5.

46. Faith No More / Album Of The Year. 1997. 2.5/5.

Following on from the tour that had promoted their “King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime” album, the band members all split up and continued on with their lives. It seemed that almost all of the band had side projects they were working on, and their schedules were crazy busy. Mike Patton was still touring with Mr Bungle while the others wrote and demo’d material for the new album, but when Patton returned and listened to it he claimed he only liked half the songs, and only felt as though he could sing on half of the songs. If it had been me I would have suggested that if he had been around for the writing process perhaps he’d have felt better about it! From here guitarist Dean Menta was fired (Billy Gould suggested it wasn’t his playing but his writing which contributed to this) and Jon Hudson was hired to replace him. However, Bordin went off to drum for Black Sabbath, Roddy Bottum went off on tour with his side project Imperial Teen, and Patton went off to join his wife in Italy, while Billy Gould went touring Europe for 4-6 months. In the end the album was dubbed the ‘miracle baby’ as it was a miracle anything was recorded.
The album began being recorded in early 1997, though the band was never all together to do so, with members coming in at different times to record their parts or learn new songs that had been written in their absence. And the long absences between the points where all of the band members were in the studio at the same time helped to produce rumours that the band was on the point of separation. These were rubbished by the band at the time, but the somewhat haphazard way that the album had been compiled gave the impression that the group was on limited time.

It is interesting to me that this album has been coined as both a ‘heavy metal’ album, which of course Faith No More have never been labelled as doing before, and a ‘latter day grunge’ album, something else they have never done before. Indeed, trying to label this album as any particular genre is a futile gesture. It’s just a typical out and out strange arse Faith No More album, which is the best way to classify it. The first two singles are perhaps the most accessible songs on the album, which is no doubt why they released them as singles, but even they have their strange quirks about their composition. “Ashes to Ashes” made top ten in Australia, but the follow up “Last Cup of Sorrow” did not have the same effect, and sank in most markets. Given the success of the band in Australia – this album did go to number 1 on their charts – the lack of success for the singles can perhaps be seen to be directly related to the way the band wrote for this album compared to the preceding album.
The songs overall are slower than the band has produced before. The tempo in about half of the songs sits in the slow crawl category, occasionally intensified by a burst of energy either from Patton’s vocals of from a guitar riff. There is an experimentalist atmosphere throughout, that steals from different music genres without activating the best parts of those genres. There are punk tendencies without the speed or pure anger that the best punk bands expel. There are heavy metal riffs that don’t ring through true because they are held back in the mix so as not to have the songs fully integrate that part of the music. Bordin’s drums sound like they are about bust out and really take control at times, but they refrain from breaking out of the bubble and instead hold their pattern within that.
This is not to completely criticise the songs here, but to point out that there has never felt as though there is any rhyme and reason to the tracks on this album, compared say to “The Real Thing” and “Angel Dust”. Those albums flow, they don’t have to sound the same all the way through but they flow from one song to the next. This doesn’t have that. And the overall sludgier pace of the album tends to hinder that as well. There are songs like “She Loves Me Not” that I’m not sure really appeal to anyone in the band’s audience. It sounds like it should be a Stevie Wonder song. And if it does then they probably won’t like the follow up song “Got That Feeling” because of the opposite end of the spectrum it is at. In the long run, with hindsight, perhaps it is easy to be critical and suggest that the method of writing and recording the album may have brought about this haphazard way the album moves between moods and pace. Whatever it is, it is certainly a ride of some description.

I have loved Faith No More since I was first introduced to them back in 1989, and I saw them on every tour from that point on, right up until this album. I bought this album in its first week of release, and had it rotation for about a month, and then it slipped back onto the shelves. My opinion at the time? Well, to say I was disappointed would have been accurate. I’d seen them twice on the previous album’s tours and the band was still great live and all of the songs from that album sounded awesome live. This album was far enough removed from that, that I wasn’t sure just where my enjoyment for it stuck. The band then toured later in 1997 and I saw them at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney that night... and, wasn’t shocked so much as... bored shitless. The band was rigid, unexcited. The songs from this album were average, and they played cover versions of “Easy” and “Midnight Cowboy” and “I Started a Joke” and “This Guy’s in Love With You”. It was so far from the other gigs I had seen them play over the years it just wasn’t funny. I walked out feeling ripped off, and that was pretty much what I felt about this album too. I felt everything had changed, and that the band just didn’t have their heart in it anymore. And as it turned out, this was exactly the case, as they eventually went through with the break up of the band. And I know at the time I felt that was the right decision, because if “Album of the Year” was the best that they could come up with at this time of their career, then it was time to have a little rest and see if they could do something else on their own.

45. Various Artists / Airheads : Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. 1994. 2.5/5.

I saw this movie in Sydney when it was released, and loved it from the first moment. For an obsessed, frustrated rock star like myself, it was one of those perfect movies for the time.

The music through the movie didn't outright grab me, except for the song over the opening credits (Born To Raise Hell), the 'original' song by the band, The Lone Rangers (Degenerated), and one they played on the radio, that I later discovered was actually a The Smith's song, London, covered by Anthrax. So buy the soundtrack I did. And surprise surprise – these were the best three songs on there.

The problem with a lot of soundtracks is that they will contain songs that never actually make the cut in the film. This appears to be the case here. A bit of filler. Overall, though, worth a listen.

Memories : Watching the film in the Hoyts Centre in Sydney with Helen and Joel. I laughed all the way through. Helen was less over the moon.

Rating : An average movie soundtrack. 2.5/5

44. Stryper / Against The Law. 1990. 1/5.

Well, I'm not sure what possessed them to go down this track. They had a successful following, both of Christian fans and metal fans. They had two excellent and two good albums behind them. Then they released this.

At the time of release, there had been murmurings that Stryper were going to head in a less-religious vein, in order (they hoped) to reap more commercial success. I'm still not sure if this is true or not, but I do know that the songs and song-writing certainly changed in this effort.

There is practically nothing on here that is catchy to the ear. All the things that make Stryper great – Michael Sweet's vocals, Oz Fox's riff's, Rob Sweet's drumming – all seem to be missing. The one possible exemption is Caught In The Middle, which is as close to a song that may fit on one of their great albums as they come. But it isn't enough to lift this above mediocre.

Rating : Is it any wonder they split after this? 1/5.

43. Gary Moore / After The War. 1989. 4/5.

This ended up being the final ‘rock’ album Gary released, and at least it was a good one to go out on. It has plenty of great songs on it, and proved he still had the knack from writing and recording such material.

After The War was actually written to use Phil Lynott as he had for an earlier hit, Out In The Fields. Lynott had died not long before this. The song Led Clones, which had Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, was written in protest against the number of bands coming out and writing songs with almost identical riffs to Led Zeppelin (Kingdom Come – you know he meant you!). So, the album has great songs, and also lyrics that touched on issues of the day.

It’s a great shame (to me) that Gary stopped doing rock after this album. In fact, he even went as far as to distance himself from it in future years. Still – he left us with some great tunes.

Rating : This album was a pearler, and contains the best of Gary Moore as singer, songwriter and guitarist. 4/5.

42. Gary Moore / After Hours. 1992. 3/5.

Who the hell would have thought? A ‘blues’ album that is worth a rating such as this?!!

Well, it must be said, Gary Moore does a great job on this one. The follow up to his Still Got The Blues release is a bit more of a return to his guitar roots, with good songs and good guitaring. And most of it is catchy stuff. Certainly the first half of the album has passed, and I was thinking, “Why don’t I remember it as being this good?”. Is it because I am older, and more appreciative of the art form? Or was I just ignoring it when it was released, because it wasn’t metal?

Whatever the reason, come the second half of the album, it does move back into the traditional blues stuff that doesn’t grab me as much. And perhaps this is what I remember of it.

Despite this, not a bad album at all. Cold Day In Hell would fit on any early Gary Moore album, despite its blues tendencies. That is a pretty good mark in itself.

Rating : This is an enjoyable listen, when in the right mood. 3/5.