Skull_Kollektor

I actually love all of "Painkiller", I just wish "Touch of Evil" wasn't the other single  
I like what you said about "Thundersteel" being a "Painkiller" prophecy of sorts...
...but there is ONE record that is the absolute clairvoyant of that kind of heavy metal (as in shitloads of double bass and fast riffing) and tha record is... "REIGN OF TERROR" by the Wild Dogs, featuring one Dean Castronovo on drums.
 
Oh and I cannot refrain myself from saying that the "Thundersteel" riff was firstly featured in this track (seriously, this is CRAZY... it's the one...):
 

This is super hard... Off the top of my head... in no particular order...
Judas Priest - "Stained Class"
Iron Maiden - "Number of the Beast"
ManOwaR - "Battle Hymns"
Dio - "Holy Diver"
Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Blizzard of Ozz"
Riot - "Fire Down Under"
Saxon - "Strong Arm of the Law"
Mercyful Fate - "Melissa"
Motorhead - "Ace of Spades"
The thing is... 10 is not enough...
 
Here is a top 10 list of "MINOR" pure heavy metal classics (with the occasional EPIC overtone):
Sword - "Metalized"
Armored Saint - "March of the Saint"
Quartz - "Stand Up and Fight"
Omen - "Battle Cry"
Manilla Road - "Crystal Logic"
Warlord - "Deliver Us"
Running Wild - "Gates to Purgatory"
Grave Digger -  "Heavy Metal Breakdown"
Savatage - "Power of the Night" (a close tie with "Hall of the Mountain King")
Warrior - "Fighting for the Earth"

Well done, amico mio! 
Your list is very focused on the late era, which is the one of the mega huge monster successes... hard to argue with the monster best seller that you have put in your list... BUT when we are talking post 1986 hair metal there is one major seller that HAS to be featured... and that is White Lion's "PRIDE" (indeed). Vito Bratta's melodic solos are unmatched. The tunes are great in their own right too, but it's his mesmerizing playing that really sets the record apart! 
It's impossibly hard for me to come up with a list... so what I can do now is pay tribute to the first movers in the scene. Without these bands, there would be no Poison, no Warrant, no Guns, no Skid, no Cinderella, and so on. No nothing!
Here are the most relevant records that spawned the whole movement in the early 80's, IMHO (which might not be so humble, but most certainly is mine).
1. Motley Crue - "Too Fast for Love". The real KICKSTARTER. The one on Leathur records. Nuff said.
2. WASP - "WASP". Sure, it came out in 1984, but Blackie had been a stapler for quite a while, crossing his path with Nikki and bringing New York to LA alongside his fellow former band mate in the NY Dolls and Killer Kane, Mr. Arthur Kane (who used to be the boyfriend of Stacia, the tall naked dancer that was featured as part of Hawkwind's stage show in their Lemmy days). Kickass.
3. Quiet Riot - "Metal Health". Famously known as the first heavy metal record to top the Billboard Pop Chart. If you ask me, it is not. Led Zeppelin did that multiple times, but obviously Led Zeppelin would be offended if you called them heavy metal. So it shall go down as the first heavy metal album in history to top the Billboard Chart and take pride in it! In 1983 they jumped ahead of competition. They made it to the Us Festival alongside Ozzy, Ratt, the Scorps, Motley, Triumph from Canada and the kings of the Strip, Van Halen (whose performance on that occasion was sub par... The best were The Scorpions, closely followed by Quiet Riot... Triumph ruled too, but their repertoire is inferior... Ozzy was coked outta his mind, which is good, but the Jake E Lee incarnation of his band was still warming up). Motormouth Dubrow lost momentum right away bad mouthing every other musician on the planet. In their Randy Rhoads days were part of the Starwood scene that also featured the self proclaimed "American Deep Purple" aka Legs Diamond, Starz, Angel (whenever they were in LA) and bands like Xciter (with George Lynch) and Dante Fox (soon to become Great White). BTW it is fairly obvious that VAN HALEN is the single most important hard rock band to come out of Los Angeles in the 70's.
4. Ratt - "Out of the Cellar". This record initially outsold "Shout at the Devil"! First example of the typical Beau Hill production. He went on to do every other band. Roxx Gang, the Storm, Warrant, Europe, Kix (check out "Midnite Dynamite", he used the exact same vocals processing that he used on Stephen Pearcy's vocals), you fucking name it! Huge seller. Super solid band and charismatic singer... up until then, of course. Pearcy overnight became notorious as THE OTHER asshole on the Strip (right next to Vince, of course). The songs were mostly courtesy of the big man, Robbin Crosby, also known as THE KING. Rightfully so, he is sorely missed. The Ratt EP is also mandatory to understand the early Strip scene.
5. Great White - Same. A wonderful record with loads of heavy metal guitars, amazing arrangements and the outstanding vocal talent of Jack Russell. I said it before, I will say it again. Had he had the looks of a Vince Neil or a Bret Michaels, GW would have been the winners and, to quote Dubrow, WINNERS TAKE ALL. He looked like the ugly motherfucker he is, so Motley Crue got the Lion's share.
6. Dokken - "Tooth and Nail". The debut album, "Breaking the Chains", showed some promise, but this one totally outshines (RIP Chris Cornell) it! Lynch gave all the Ozzy gunslingers and Van Halen wannabes a run for their money with his ingeniously constructed tapping master class in the title track. It's not about overcomplexity, it's about goddamn TASTE! And power too! Also check out the riff of "When Heaven Comes Down". Kiss already had a song with that riff ("Not for the Innocent" on the "Lick it Up" record), but it went on to become the typical Lynch riff. Funnily enough, musicians refer to those descending semitones as chromatic... but in Italy a journalist was inspired by the word to apply the concept of CHROME to basic hard rock. For that reason, Italian hair metal connoisseurs (yes, I am not the only one, there's many) refer to the sort of hard rock that leans on the heavy metal side as CHROMED hard rock (as in covered by an extra layer of slick metal). "When Heaven Comes Down" is like a blueprint for CHROMED HARD ROCK. Want more? Check out "Unchain the Night" from Dokken's follow up record, "Under Lock and Key".
7. Steeler - Same. Ron Keel teams up with Yngwie Malmsteen under Mike Varney's supervision. "Cold day in Hell" is a classic. Rik Fox on bass had ties with both WASP and Angel.
8. Stryper - "The Yellow and Black attack". I'm not the biggest Stryper fan on Earth, but when I saw them play live some 8 or 9 years ago they blew the place to the ground! They are gifted, God has been kind on them. Tim Gaines used to play in STORMER, one of the first Strip bands to use the pentagram. Then he found Christ (or the other way around), quit booze, drugs and witchery... The music was still wicked, though!
9. Black n Blue - Same. Hailing from Portland, Oregon. They came to Los Angeles with two fellow Portland bands: Wild Dogs and Malice. B'n'B were the most melodic of the three. "Hold on to 18" shoud have been HUGE. Dieter Dierks at the helm for this first record. Solid heavy metal. Tommy Thayer was good here.
10. Rough Cutt - Same. It only came out in 1985, but Rough Cutt definitely belong to the first wave of southern Californian heavy metal. Born from a rib of Ratt, the Paul Shortino led band found its place in the heart of Ronnie James and Wendy Dio. In later years a succession of singers tried out for them, including none other than Joe Leste of Bango Tango fame. Rough Cutt were very good, but just not as good as the above nine bands.
 
So here you go. These are the Top 10 albums of the Very First Wave of Southern Californian Hair Metal! Save this post for posterity, it's PLATINUM.
 
 
 
 
Very nice list, but this is a capital sin! "Back for the Attack" is Dokken's FOURTH! 
1 Breaking the Chains
2 Tooth and Nail
3 Under Lock and Key
4 Back for the Attack
 
Also... I LOVE the Neil Kernon produced "Under Lock and Key"! It does have some UBER heavy and fast tunes. "When The Lightning Strikes Again", for instance. They opened the Judas Priest "Turbo" tour while promoting this record... Lucky for them that the Priest toned down their heaviness for this tour, so there wouldn't be so much of a starking contrast! Imagine Dokken opening the "Painkiller" promotional tour!

Nu metal = utter shit
Though I did enjoy ROLLIN by Limp Bizkit when I was 13.

80s hard rock in preparation for Sebastian Bach in a couple of hours. @Skull_Kollektor I’m talking Skids, Jovi, Warrant, Crüe, Panther. 17 girls in a row baby, Rainbow style #lalife #greedisgood

Saturday I went to our local extreme metal shop called SOUNDCAVE.
I bought this stuff:
Incubus st demo (early death metal Morbid Angel style)
Autopsy Severed Survival 20th anniversary 2 CD
Hexx Morbid Reality
Sacred Reich Independent
Hawaii One Nation Underground
 
I'm in a proper death metal mood. A friend of mine said Autopsy were like death metal's Motorhead. In a way I think he has a point.

Yeah..I have often though that too, travelled miles and miles to see bands. Never regretted it once!  You'll be buzzing when you are home and have your memories! Have a great time and happy travelling  

Up until recently I would have answered BAY AREA without hesitation! Now I would still say BAY AREA but I would feel very guilty towards Canadian excellences such as INFERNAL MAJESTY (put an Umlaut somewhere) and German born but Oakland sounding musos VENDETTA! 
The second lp by Vendetta and the first one by Infernal Majesty are the best thrash records I picked up in a very long time!
Did I tell you that in July I went to a (mostly thrash) metal fest in Brescia called Colony Open Air that featured Death Angel, Exciter, Kreator, Demolition Hammer, Asphyx, Loudness, Hell and Wintersun (dunno why they threw them in the lot). Italian heavy metal band Skanners was also in the bill, but I came too late to see them. Very good festival overall. Demolition Hammer were the best, I'd say.

Up until recently I would have answered BAY AREA without hesitation! Now I would still say BAY AREA but I would feel very guilty towards Canadian excellences such as INFERNAL MAJESTY (put an Umlaut somewhere) and German born but Oakland sounding musos VENDETTA! 
The second lp by Vendetta and the first one by Infernal Majesty are the best thrash records I picked up in a very long time!
Did I tell you that in July I went to a (mostly thrash) metal fest in Brescia called Colony Open Air that featured Death Angel, Exciter, Kreator, Demolition Hammer, Asphyx, Loudness, Hell and Wintersun (dunno why they threw them in the lot). Italian heavy metal band Skanners was also in the bill, but I came too late to see them. Very good festival overall. Demolition Hammer were the best, I'd say.

Skull nice to see you  I go to gigs by myself sometimes, quite enjoy it actually.

Welcome back skully 

Hey - you're back. Moonspell are amazing. Not very Sunset Strip though...

Today I went to the local Heavy Metal record store (called Mariposa Duomo) in the underground here in Milan and the guy on the right insisted on taking a picture with me.

Too bad our respective HAIR metal days are behind us...

A metal hearted man... Mr. Wolf Hoffman, ACCEPT lead guitarist and musical mastermind.
SK: "Hi Wolf, I wanna thank you for all the incredible riffs, solos and melodies that you've created. Your music has been a part of my life for 15 years and I'm deeply grateful".
WH: "Thank you, I appreciate".
SK: "You're from Solingen (German city), right?"
WH: "Yes indeed".
SK: "Now let me tell you this. Solingen is very famous for its blades, but the sharpest thing that ever came out of Solingen is YOUR MUSIC. Sharp as steel!".
WH: "Ahah thank you, but that is not true. NOTHING IS SHARPER THAN THE BLADES OF SOLINGEN".
He's a great guy! Very polite and humble. He smiled all the time and took time to sign and take pics with every metalhead around. He asked me what my name was and shook my hands twice. Being the cheesy defender of the faith I have always been and always will be, I was starstruck and in awe of him. 
I mean, he is the man that threw Beethoven's "FUR ELISE" in the middle of the "Metal Heart" solo. THE STUFF OF LEGEND.

Thats awesome!! And I love your shirt mate! Need to get an Overkill one.

Life's full of tragedies isn't it...
I recently purchased tickets to Primordial next month and Paradise Lost in December. Once the credit card ticks over next month I'll buy a ticket to Sebastian Bach who I think is here in October.

A metal hearted man... Mr. Wolf Hoffman, ACCEPT lead guitarist and musical mastermind.
SK: "Hi Wolf, I wanna thank you for all the incredible riffs, solos and melodies that you've created. Your music has been a part of my life for 15 years and I'm deeply grateful".
WH: "Thank you, I appreciate".
SK: "You're from Solingen (German city), right?"
WH: "Yes indeed".
SK: "Now let me tell you this. Solingen is very famous for its blades, but the sharpest thing that ever came out of Solingen is YOUR MUSIC. Sharp as steel!".
WH: "Ahah thank you, but that is not true. NOTHING IS SHARPER THAN THE BLADES OF SOLINGEN".
He's a great guy! Very polite and humble. He smiled all the time and took time to sign and take pics with every metalhead around. He asked me what my name was and shook my hands twice. Being the cheesy defender of the faith I have always been and always will be, I was starstruck and in awe of him. 
I mean, he is the man that threw Beethoven's "FUR ELISE" in the middle of the "Metal Heart" solo. THE STUFF OF LEGEND.

I use Discogs a lot!
Sometimes I get disappointed, though.
Like the one time a dude listed a UK version of Great White's "Recovery Live" as the US version... I bought it and when I got it I was devastated ahah
Got a partial refund, though.

A metal hearted man... Mr. Wolf Hoffman, ACCEPT lead guitarist and musical mastermind.
SK: "Hi Wolf, I wanna thank you for all the incredible riffs, solos and melodies that you've created. Your music has been a part of my life for 15 years and I'm deeply grateful".
WH: "Thank you, I appreciate".
SK: "You're from Solingen (German city), right?"
WH: "Yes indeed".
SK: "Now let me tell you this. Solingen is very famous for its blades, but the sharpest thing that ever came out of Solingen is YOUR MUSIC. Sharp as steel!".
WH: "Ahah thank you, but that is not true. NOTHING IS SHARPER THAN THE BLADES OF SOLINGEN".
He's a great guy! Very polite and humble. He smiled all the time and took time to sign and take pics with every metalhead around. He asked me what my name was and shook my hands twice. Being the cheesy defender of the faith I have always been and always will be, I was starstruck and in awe of him. 
I mean, he is the man that threw Beethoven's "FUR ELISE" in the middle of the "Metal Heart" solo. THE STUFF OF LEGEND.

A metal hearted man... Mr. Wolf Hoffman, ACCEPT lead guitarist and musical mastermind.
SK: "Hi Wolf, I wanna thank you for all the incredible riffs, solos and melodies that you've created. Your music has been a part of my life for 15 years and I'm deeply grateful".
WH: "Thank you, I appreciate".
SK: "You're from Solingen (German city), right?"
WH: "Yes indeed".
SK: "Now let me tell you this. Solingen is very famous for its blades, but the sharpest thing that ever came out of Solingen is YOUR MUSIC. Sharp as steel!".
WH: "Ahah thank you, but that is not true. NOTHING IS SHARPER THAN THE BLADES OF SOLINGEN".
He's a great guy! Very polite and humble. He smiled all the time and took time to sign and take pics with every metalhead around. He asked me what my name was and shook my hands twice. Being the cheesy defender of the faith I have always been and always will be, I was starstruck and in awe of him. 
I mean, he is the man that threw Beethoven's "FUR ELISE" in the middle of the "Metal Heart" solo. THE STUFF OF LEGEND.

A metal hearted man... Mr. Wolf Hoffman, ACCEPT lead guitarist and musical mastermind.
SK: "Hi Wolf, I wanna thank you for all the incredible riffs, solos and melodies that you've created. Your music has been a part of my life for 15 years and I'm deeply grateful".
WH: "Thank you, I appreciate".
SK: "You're from Solingen (German city), right?"
WH: "Yes indeed".
SK: "Now let me tell you this. Solingen is very famous for its blades, but the sharpest thing that ever came out of Solingen is YOUR MUSIC. Sharp as steel!".
WH: "Ahah thank you, but that is not true. NOTHING IS SHARPER THAN THE BLADES OF SOLINGEN".
He's a great guy! Very polite and humble. He smiled all the time and took time to sign and take pics with every metalhead around. He asked me what my name was and shook my hands twice. Being the cheesy defender of the faith I have always been and always will be, I was starstruck and in awe of him. 
I mean, he is the man that threw Beethoven's "FUR ELISE" in the middle of the "Metal Heart" solo. THE STUFF OF LEGEND.

A metal hearted man... Mr. Wolf Hoffman, ACCEPT lead guitarist and musical mastermind.
SK: "Hi Wolf, I wanna thank you for all the incredible riffs, solos and melodies that you've created. Your music has been a part of my life for 15 years and I'm deeply grateful".
WH: "Thank you, I appreciate".
SK: "You're from Solingen (German city), right?"
WH: "Yes indeed".
SK: "Now let me tell you this. Solingen is very famous for its blades, but the sharpest thing that ever came out of Solingen is YOUR MUSIC. Sharp as steel!".
WH: "Ahah thank you, but that is not true. NOTHING IS SHARPER THAN THE BLADES OF SOLINGEN".
He's a great guy! Very polite and humble. He smiled all the time and took time to sign and take pics with every metalhead around. He asked me what my name was and shook my hands twice. Being the cheesy defender of the faith I have always been and always will be, I was starstruck and in awe of him. 
I mean, he is the man that threw Beethoven's "FUR ELISE" in the middle of the "Metal Heart" solo. THE STUFF OF LEGEND.

One of you is the immortal Skull Kollector, but who's the other geezer? 

Today I went to the local Heavy Metal record store (called Mariposa Duomo) in the underground here in Milan and the guy on the right insisted on taking a picture with me.

Too bad our respective HAIR metal days are behind us...

Metal reading in the shade of the garden.
 
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Necromancer staying out of the sun.
 
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