Skull_Kollektor

Lately I picked up the debut by Darkness. It sucks. I already had their third album and it sucked too, but I knew that beforehand because you can read it all over the Internet. However, their first record does get some praise here and there... I can appreciate the intentions, say, but not the results... It's close to early Tankard. Thin guitars. I picked up Grinder too. They're better than Darkness, but still nothing to write home about. I'm glad to own their first two albums, though. It makes perfect sense that they toured with Blind Guardian, being label mates. Some minor german thrash that I do like, although it borders on Speed Metal, is Angel Dust!

Guys, like I said in some other thread, I recently bought the first album by Great White, which came out in 1982, and I was shocked to hear that they had a song whose intro sounds ridiculously close to the intro of "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"! Check it out: I knew beforehand that the rest of "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" had been lifted from this other tune, but I used to think that at least the opening arrangement was Metallica's... man, was I wrong!

Yesss! Noddy nods.

My favorite are these two: Gods Of Metal 2006 (Milan, Italy): Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Motorhead, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Stratovarius, Angra, Edguy, Sonata Arctica, Crucified Barbara. I wasn't (and still am not) too keen on most of the power metal bands, but the top three headliners in a row were a real nice treat! I was 18! Frontiers Fest 2014 (Milan, Italy): Night Ranger, Winger, Danger Danger, John Waite, Jeff Scott Soto, some other AOR band whose name I do not know. This was crazy! I drank ridiculous amounts of beer (which I barely ever do) the whole day, but managed to make it straightish through the whole set. What a night. Brad Gillis, the Night Ranger fella who played with Ozzy and is also featured on the "Stars" single by Hear n Aid, ROCKED the hell out of that theater. He and his whammy tremolo bar are a single entity.

Ahah good one! Gotta admit that I enjoy "X Factor" every now and then. I probably give it a spin every two or three years. Maybe tonight and tomorrow on the way to work! I do despise "Virtual XI", though

I think you may want to check out their track called "OUT OF THE NIGHT". And also give a listen to a tune called "STRETKILLER", if you have the time. The intro is incredibly close to Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" a coupla years earlier, but the rest ain't no ballad!

Of course it's unhelpful, I didn't mean to help anyone, I'm a selfish fuck! Somebody has got to tell it like it is. Dio is Dio, man. Some things, you just don't mess. And don't forget to gather the wind, though the wind won't help you fly at all. Your back's to the wall.

Because he is no Ronnie James Dio, nor Rob Halford, nor Eric Adams, nor Bruce Dickinson, nor Lemmy, nor Alice Cooper, nor Blackie Lawless. Having seen all of the above live, save for Eric Adams (but I hope I will), I have no doubt that they are my favorite front men (which is not the same as best singers, but in some cases it comes in pairs).

GREAT WHITE - ST (1983)

Ciao!

Jesus! I just received the first two Great White albums and I am listening to the first one for the first time. IT R.O.C.K.S.! It's pretty straightforward outright HEAVY METAL. Choruses are catchy, but it's Judas Priest-heavy. Amazing.

I used Discogs to fill a few gaps: Great White st (debut album, US first press cd) Great White "shot in the dark" (second album, US first press cd) Great White "recovery live" (US Edition which includes the very first ep by Great White) Enuff Znuff st (CaNadian first press cd) Enuff Znuff "Animals with human intelligence" (Canadian first press) Bullet "The Road to Hell" (Angel Air UK cd with the unreleased album of the band of ex Atomic Rooster and Quartermass fellas that became Hard Stuff) Sadus "A vision of Misery" (metal mind reissue) I'm trying to get the first two Sadus cds on MetalMind, but they are too expensive... I am offering 35€, but the buy it now tag says 70something! Let's see if I get rejected...

Yesterday I had to drive for 5 hours. The top 3 albums of the trip were: 1- New York Dolls - Too Much Too Soon 2- Slade - Slayed 3 Sweet - Desolation Boulevard Man, I love proper glam. And some of those tunes are very HEAVY. Among the heaviest wildest rock and roll of the first half of the seventies.

Ahah you're right, techno thrash is a demented definition, but like you said it's gotta be an European (bad) habit! Here in Italy everybody uses the expression, cannot really say about other European countries, though... "Energetic Disassembly" is another classic thrash CD I am currently missing! Gotta get ahold of it. I do have their sophomore. I like it, but I barely ever listen to it. I have the old Noise CD with a punch hole. My recollection of it is that is sounds more "progressive" than, say, Toxik or Realm. Save for a few exceptions Toxik and Realm, especially on their respective debuts, were firing on all cylinders 95% of the time, hence their songs are short and to the point. Their sheer technicality being condensed in the impossibly crazy speed of the riffs and the quick changes. Watchtower sounded more mature to me... which in my case is not necessarily a plus! Being the completist I am, I gotta say I have two Cd's by Alan Tecchio's band before WT, Hades. Tecchio being the singer on "Control and Resistance" who replaced Jason McMaster. They are decent, but with inferior production. I can't deny that I am a much bigger fan of Dangerous Toys, McMaster's hair metal band after WT. In Lemmy's bio he recalls touring on a Sony package tour with Dangerous Toys, Metal Church, Judas Priest and Alice Cooper. How freaking cool was that? Oh and isn't it ironic that the last track on Watchtower's second LP is called DANGEROUS TOY? I wonder if it's a reference to McMaster.

It's more than our religion. It's the only way to live.

Yeah Coroner is the shit. Not my favourite (by any stretch), but undoubtedly awesome. I missed the Sadus reissues when they came out in 2007 (MetalMind and also on Displeased), but now they are way too expensive. I can kick myself in my fucking head for skipping them... at the very least I did buy most of the other RoadRacer titles... I just wish I got the two Sadus instead of the two Blessed Death cd's ahah At least I have both cd's by both Realm and Toxik. Crazy bands with impossibly high pitched vocals. A cool rare album of techno thrash is the first by SIEGES EVEN. Later albums should be progressive metal, but the first one is proper thrash. A few years back I found it in the used bin for less than 10 euros. Mekong Delta and Deathrow also fly the flag of German techno thrash! In contrast I gotta say that I was somehow let down by "time does not heal". It's a case of quantity over quality, to me. What do you guys think?

You see? It's the Deep Purple thing! The whole heavy metal universe revolves around Deep Purple.

I'm a lazy fuck, sorry about that pic thang... but thanks for appreciating! I have that Hollywood Rocks box too, plus I have the Hollywood Rocks companion book, which is great! It's not the box booklet (which is great in its own right), it's a hard cover book filled with band pics and vintage fliers. Also quite mandatory are the Hair Metal book and Marc Cantner's photo book about early Guns N Roses. As Hollywood as it gets!

Very nice collections everyone!

Twisted Sister is very interesting. Basically they started out as yet another New York Dolls wannabe, prior to Dee Snider entering the picture. When he did, what he brought to the table, once again, were the Birmingham influences: Black Sabbath and, above all, Judas Priest! Check out "Club Daze Vol. 1" and the track "Come Back" in particular. It's a 1978 or 1979 (can't really remember) demo that was produced by none other than Eddie Kramer, so it ends up sounding better than "Under the Blade". That "Come Back" track screams for vengeance! Proper (early) Priest galore! His Judas Priest obsession is so evident that on Twisted Sister's debut album there's a tune called "SIN AFTER SIN"... Amazing how he literally took over Twisted Sister to became its exclusive songwriter. Thank you Judas Priest for bringing heavy metal to the masses. What about their "Love Is for Suckers" album? That's as hair metal as it gets! Complete with ghost soloing by Reb Beach of Winger fame because, let's admit it, both Jay Jay French and Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda might have had the charisma, but definitely not the chops (see Hear n Aid "Stars" and compare Ojeda's solo with those of pretty much anybody else apart from Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser).

I do not have "BTRM", nor the one that precedes it... so I never heard a note of both! I might get them soon, though. These day you can grab the ltd editions for about 10 euros. I might even grab them today when I come home from work eheh Alright, I'm gonna give "Twist" another chance! It sure sounds different... Even the album sleeve stands apart! See when it comes to being a nerd, I'm more into the actual Tolkien BOOKS, than computer video games ahah

YESSS!!! Kiss has a shitload of cool records. What would I do? I'd cheat. I'd say I'd go with the Deep Purple extended family back catalogue. They have liens with any band I love. For instance, this would allow me to sneak ManOwaR and KISS and Twisted Sister. ManOwaR were formed when Dio introduced Ross The Boss to Joey De Maio, who was then a technician for Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath definitely belongs to the extended Deep Purple family (via the Dio-Blackmore-Rainbow connection, the Gillan-connection and the Glenn Hughes-connection). Once you get Black Sabbath into the picture you can throw Kiss into the family via the Eric Singer-connection. You can throw Alice Cooper via the very same connection. You can throw Queen, still because of Eric Singer but also because of May guesting on "When Death Calls" by Black Sabbath. You can throw Anthrax into the fold via Dave Spitz being the brother of Dan Spitz. Once you have Anthrax you can go back to ManOwaR, because Ross the Boss produced Anthrax! Seriously, you can pick ANY relevant band using Deep Purple connections at large. Judas Priest! Roger Glover produced "Sin After Sin", so they belong. Halford sung for Black Sabbath, so they belong even more. Led Zeppelin... Blackmore and Page shared the same guitar instructor and both played with Screaming Lord Sutch. It's a never ending game. It feels good to be on an island with all my records.

I love it all. And own (almost) it all. I have a hard time picking up a single favorite glam metal band... but I have no doubt about the single most relevant album of the era. "Appetite for Destruction". The great thing about that record is that if you are a casual listener, someone who doesn't know shit about rock and roll, you're gonna love it. Again, if you are someone who has done all the homework, someone who owns all the "hip" wild rock and roll records (the first two NY Dolls, the Pistols, the first run of Aerosmith records, all the stuff by Hanoi Rocks, by Nazareth, the punk shit Duff loves) as well as all the records of those who preceded Guns on the strip (Motley, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Dokken, Great White, Shark Island, Odin, London, Stryper, you name it), came along Guns (LA Guns, Tesla, Faster Pussycat, Poison, Warrant, Rock City Angels) or followed in their wake (Bang Tango, Asphalt Ballet, Circus of Power, Skid Row, Spread Eagle - although these two heralded from the East Coast), YOU ARE STILL GONNA ACKNOWLEDGE the superiority and the be-all-end-all-ness of "Appetite". Let's face it... it's the ultimate badass street-wise yet major backed record. It has been noted here that a lot of these bands differ quite a lot from each other. Of course they do! But so did Saxon, Priest, Motorhead, Maiden, and the other british bands that defined the NWOBHM. Yet, there definitely exists a common ground between, say, Poison and Guns N Roses. Slash even auditioned for Poison, but ended up in Black Sheep instead (replacing Paul Gilbert!). And no matter how these bands tried to downplay the "metal" factor and stress their rock and roll roots, they ALL came from HEAVY METAL. Come think of it: many a Crue riff stemmed directly from "British Steel" ("Knock Em Dead" IS "Grinder" under the verses) and "Breaker" (Accept... "Use it or Lose it" on "Theatre of Pain" is "Breaker" itself, a bit twisted!) and "Wheels of Steel" (listen to the first few seconds of "Street Fighting Gang" and "Wild Side" in a row). Warrant used to cover "Living After Midnight" in their set. The first known band to have featured the vocal talents of Axl Rose was named... RAPID FIRE! British Steel is the matrix of all things metal for the whole 80's decade. Wanna thrash? Go "Rapid Fire" and "Steeler". Wanna glam? Go "Living After Midnight"! Wanna power metal? Go "Breaking the Law"! JUDAS PRIEST RULES!

Am I going crazy or their third LP, "Tales from the Twilight World" is entirely absent from this list (and any other post in this thread)? That's criminal, if you ask me! I have all their CD's (first press, no reissue BS here) up until "Twist" (included), save for "A Night... Opera". How dare they call an album like that? That's a sacred title. It's as if, say, Helloween had put out a record and named it "The Number of the Beast". Some things you just don't do. You wanna reference? Alright, put a twist to it, then (see my joke?). Like "A night at the Movies" or "A Night Behind the Red Opera". Just kidding. If I had to single out their best all around record I'd pick "Imaginations". The songs are there, the flow is there, the shitty useless covers are not and the production is there too (courtesy of none other that Fleming "I did a Rainbow record in Denmark, so Lars picked me up to Ride the Lightining" Rasmussen). At the same time, I cannot deny that the one record of theirs that I enjoy the most is... "Follow the Blind"! It's even got Kai Hansen on it! It's cool to think how the whole late 80's early 90's power metal revolves around Kai Hansen. Hell, even Brazil's Angra... they flew to Hamburg and recorded their debut at Kai's studio! Hamburg is to power metal what Hollywood is to hair metal. The undisputed Mecca. I always have a hard time sitting through "Nightfall". Even skipping intros and outros doesn't help me much. I do not like "Twist". The drum sound sucks and the single "Fly something" was very bad. As for Hansi's vocals... I don't mind them. They fit the band, but I cannot certainly say that I consider him a great singer. I have their DVD... he truly sucks live. He nails it on "Tokyo Tales" (talk about picking a title and twisting it with humour to great effect done RIGHT this time... see The Scorps "Tokyo Tapes"), but that's because the whole record is unashamedly studio overdubbed (and he'll be the first to admit it). That record also benefits from the fact that you're not actually seeing him while delivering his vocals on stage. He is so UNFIT to be a frontman. Should enroll to a David Lee Roth masterclass. Even a Jack Russell masterclass could help... He is so incapable of OWNING the stage... but again, his tone and "drama" fit the music just fine for their studio releases. And kudos to them for covering Demon. "Don't Break the Circle" is a decent cover of an amazing song.

I was 6! But I mostly buy records that date waaaay BEFORE 1994 and when I buy reissues with booklets filled with history, trivia and reprints of old articles, they always feature stuff like Kerrang, Sounds, Metal Forces, Rolling Stone, Creem, Hit Parader, Circus, Enfer, Rock Hard and the occasional local zine from back in the day. Besides, records that came out from 1994 onwards are very unlikely to be reissued of at least it is much more likely for me to have the original press, which obviously does not feature articles. So... I still cannot consider Popoff relevant, I'm sorry. And what about the pics in his books? I believe he is constantly infringing copyright, I seriously doubt he pays royalties, let alone own rights to any. ? To me Popoff is like a russian bootleg greatest hits. Oh and DIO RULES! Ozzy does too. Black Sabbath is the shit.