[vile8r]

I was posting this in my blog, Vile8r's Guide To The Galaxy, but decided perhaps it was better to post here in the music forum.

Ten Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums Of 1980.
This list is compiled not in any particular order. They are not necessarily what I consider as the “best” albums of 1980, but albums that are just favorites of mine, that I listened to a lot and hold special memories for me.


Black Sabbath- Heaven and Hell  ( Sabbath discovered there WAS life after Ozzy!)

Blue Oyster Cult- Cultosaurus Erectus  (Great album and a great cover! One of their finest! )

ACDC- Back In Black  ( Need I say more! )

Judas Priest- British Steel  ( Judas Priest served notice that the '80s would be their decade!)

Iron Maiden- Iron Maiden  (The newcomers on the block, kicking ass and taking names! )

Scorpions- Animal Magnetism  ( Another awesome album cover and one of the Scorpions finest albums. Don't tell me you've never played air guitar to 'The Zoo'!)

Def Leppard- On Through The Night  ( the debut of another classic band! )

Van Halen- Women and Children First ( Everybody wants some! )
 
Saxon- Strong Arm Of The Law  ( Classic metal from a very underrated band )

Motorhead- Ace Of Spades  ( Lemmy, Fast Eddie, and Philthy Animal Taylor! You don't get much dirtier and sleazier than this album! )

[vile8r]

Ten Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums Of 1981.

Black Sabbath- Mob Rules ( one of my all-time favorite Sabbath albums )

Blue Oyster Cult- Fire Of Unknown Origin ( and my all-time favorite BOC album )

Rush- Moving Pictures ( classic Can-rock )

Iron Maiden- Killers ( great pre-Bruce Dickinson album! a metal classic for sure! )

Van Halen- Fair Warning ( Van Halen at their finest in my view! )

Saxon- Denim And Leather ( another under-rated classic )

Ozzy Osbourne- Diary Of A Madman ( Ozzy's best solo album, I still maintain. Randy's solo on the song Diary of A Madman is classic! )

Triumph- Allied Forces ( more great Can-rock. They hit their peak with this album.)

Def Leppard- High N’ Dry ( giving us a taste of greatness to come )

April Wine- Nature Of The Beast ( This was one of April Wine's most commercially successful albums, but not necessarily their 'best' album! But it was still damn good and I think their career peaked right around this time.)

[vile8r]

Some Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums of 1982

Scorpions- Blackout ( Great, great album! Their best of the 80s in my opinion! Holds some extra sentimental value in that I saw the Scorpions on this tour and it was my very first rock concert!)

Iron Maiden- Number Of The Beast ( The awesome debut of Bruce Dickinson with Iron Maiden. One of the greatest metal albums of all time!)

Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance ( JP at their finest! )

Anvil- Metal On Metal ( one of this Canadian metal band's best )

Rush- Signals  ( a very worthy follow-up to Moving Pictures, although you could see they were already starting to move towards the less guitar-heavy sound that would dominate their music through the 1980s.)

Krokus- One Vice At A Time  ( who said the Swiss could only make cheese and good watches?)

Fist- Fleet Street ( these Canadian rockers were very under-rated in my view. The track, "Thunder In Rock".should be a Canadian rock anthem right up there with "Takin' Care Of Business" and "Tom Sawyer", but it ain't! )

Accept- Restless And Wild  ( Restless and Wild, indeed! Non-stop energy on this album! )

Riot- Restless Breed  ( these guys were definitely under-appreciated on the American metal scene. Just never got the big break they deserved.)

Michael Schenker Group- Assault Attack ( he never made it quite as big as his brother Rudolf in the Scorpions, but this was one of his group's finest efforts )

That is some seriously great music there

[vile8r]

Some Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums of 1983

Def Leppard- Pyromania ( if you’ve never rocked out to this album, you haven’t lived!)

Iron Maiden- Piece Of Mind ( follow-up to Number of The Beast and more great British metal )

Quiet Riot- Metal Health ( never was a big fan of Kevin Dubrow’s singing but this album did indeed rock! )

Saxon- Power and the Glory ( more great stuff from these Brit-rockers. Actually one of my all-time favorites from these guys.)

Krokus- Headhunter ( their best in my opinion )

Black Sabbath – Live Evil ( was released December 1982 but was my fave live album through 1983.)

Dio – Holy Diver ( Ronnie goes solo and it was a classic! )

Twisted Sister- You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll ( You couldn’t stop Dee and the boys either! Great early album from TS )

Motley Crue- Shout At The Devil ( Still their best! )

Zebra- Zebra ( These guys were hard to define, maybe that’s why they never really hit it big. But they still made some fine music.)

[vile8r]

Some Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums of 1984

Iron Maiden- Powerslave ( Wow! “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”! I won’t say anymore! )

Judas Priest – Defenders Of The Faith ( JP kept on meltin’ our ears! Great ‘80s metal! )

Ratt- Out of the Cellar ( Critics called them a cheap rip-off of Aerosmith, but then back in the ‘70s, critics used to say Aerosmith was a Rolling Stones knock-off.  So there! )

Twisted Sister- Stay Hungry ( my favorite album from TS )

Rush- Grace Under Pressure ( didn’t like this one as much as Moving Pictures or Signals, but over the years, it’s grown on me.)

Scorpions- Love At First Sting ( lacked the raw energy of Blackout, I felt, but no doubt about it, their most successful album)

Deep Purple- Perfect Strangers ( a fine reunion by the most successful lineup of the band )
 
Dio- Last In Line ( follow up to Holy Diver and he didn’t disappoint )

Mercyful Fate- Don’t Break The Oath ( King Diamond’s voice just sends shivers up my spine)

Metallica- Ride The Lightning ( back when they were REAL metal )

[vile8r]

Some Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums of 1985

Iron Maiden- Live After Death ( these guys were at their finest back in the mid 80s! )

Scorpions- Worldwide Live ( maybe not their best live album, I personally think Tokyo Tapes is better, but perfectly captures the band in their most successful period )

Rush- Power Windows ( some great mid-80s prog-rock from Canada’s best )

Dio- Sacred Heart ( a little more commercial than his previous two albums, but this still rocked! And the tour was awesome! )

Accept- Metal Heart ( this was Accept at their peak! )

Loudness- Thunder In The East ( excellent Japanese metal! )

Keel- The Right To Rock ( excellent album all around and they did a great job of Let’s Spend The Night Together )

Motley Crue- Theatre Of Pain ( Motley Crue showed that Shout At The Devil was no fluke )

Ratt- Invasion Of Your Privacy ( I almost like this one a little better than Out Of The Cellar. )

Rough Cutt- Rough Cutt ( a great under-rated LA  metal band )

[vile8r]

Some Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums of 1986

Iron Maiden- Somewhere In Time ( wow, just wow! Stranger in A Strange Land…one of their best songs ever! )

Judas Priest- Turbo ( JP tried to go a little synth on us with this album. It didn’t quite work, but still a damn good album. )

Ozzy Osbourne- The Ultimate Sin ( One of my personal faves from Ozzy, although I still won’t forgive him for cancelling his concert I was going to see him at on this tour…..because he had the “flu”. Yeah right! )

Metallica- Master Of Puppets ( Yeah! The Thing That Should Not Be! Cliff Burton’s last album before he died and one of Metallica’s best! )

Europe- The Final Countdown ( Some good Swedish rock. Yeah it was pretty slick and over-produced, but good music! )

Vinnie Vincent Invasion-Vinnie Vincent Invasion ( KISS made a big mistake letting this guy go, but hey, he was better off for it! Loved this album. )

Van Halen- 5150  ( the beginning of the Sammy era. Pretty decent VH album )

Slayer- Reign In Blood ( one of the few Slayer albums I ever really got into )

Cinderella – Night Songs ( great debut album from these guys )

Boston- Third Stage ( only took them 8 years to get it made! Didn’t quite live up to expectations, but I still liked it. )

[vile8r]

An underrated ( and forgotten ) hit of the '80s!

That is a good one. Forgot about that one myself.

[vile8r]

A great song from one of my favorite new wave bands of the '80s. Quite tragic that two of the original members of this band, James Honeyman-Scott and Peter Farndon, both died barely a year apart after the release of this album. James in April 1982, Peter in June of 1983. Chrissie Hynde rebounded and brought in two new members and released the album 'Learning To Crawl' in 1984, and the Pretenders were bigger and better than ever! Kudos to a real rock n' roll survivor! It was funny, I always thought she was a British chick, then just a few years ago, discovered she's actually American, born and raised in Akron, Ohio! She moved to the UK in the late '70s and formed The Pretenders there. The song 'My City Was Gone" from the "Learning To Crawl' album is written about Akron!  Hence the line in the song, "I went back, back to Ohio, but my city was gone."  Duh! only took me a few years to figure that one out! LOL

Loved their music.  Chrissy was indeed from my state of Ohio and we proudly claim her.

This thread deserves a merit top quality Vile8r

[vile8r]

This is one of my guilty pleasures of the '80s and I have always loved this video. Belfegore was a German new wave group and this was the one hit they had in about 1984, I think it was. I had this whole album and it was actually quite good. They were, in my view, a very underrated band, and even though they did tour with U2 in 1985 on the European leg of 'The Unforgettable Fire' tour, they never really caught on in North America. I was first exposed to this video on the Canadian music channel, MuchMusic, but I'm not sure if it ever received much airplay on MTV in the States.

Wow!!! Very energetic. Never heard of them but will check them out. Thanks for sharing