Tag Archives: 1983

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

Queensrÿche – The Lady Wore Black (Song Review)

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“And I listened, remembering all I heard”

It’s rare for a band to arrive as fully formed as Queensrÿche did on their self-titled debut EP. They sound absolutely world-beating, and in a year as strong as 1983 that was no mean feat. But, of the four songs on Queensrÿche, the one that sounds most like the ‘rÿche of the future is the closing track The Lady Wore Black. Geoff Tate’s high-flying yet melodic vocals and the tastefully restrained, emotive guitar solo are the stuff of metal legends and the gothic clean guitar and attacking, angular, textured riffing bear the hallmarks of the band’s best material yet to come. It’s hard to imagine a more attention-grabbing, anticipation-building career launchpad than The Lady Wore Black.

Album Reviews, Doom Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal

Manowar – Into Glory Ride (Album Review)

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Manowar – Into Glory Ride (Music For Nations -1983)

Titter at the cover and giggle at the video for Gloves Of Metal if you must. We’ve all done it. But the seething Hatred, the awe-inspiring Gates Of Valhalla and the equal parts murderous and heartrending March For Revenge (By The Soldiers Of Death) are some of the most monumental epic doom tracks you will ever hear. And if that drop-tuned intro riff to Gloves Of Metal doesn’t send you into a paroxysm of true metal joy then you are not my friend. Into Glory Ride will crush your bones and kill your face. So wipe that smile off it.

Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Genre, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM

Iron Maiden – Piece Of Mind (Album Review)

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Iron Maiden – Piece Of Mind (1983 – EMI, 2014 Reissue)

When you’re in a “back to basics” metal mood, like I am today, classic Maiden is just a no-brainer. For the first six songs, 1983’s Piece Of Mind is basically metal perfection with rousing boy’s-own stuff like Where Eagles Dare and The Trooper, the soaring Flight Of Icarus and more progressive fare like Still Life and Revelations which lend the album a dark, gothic aspect. Maiden were hitting the tour/record cycle hard in the 80s so, inevitably, the quality starts to get inconsistent towards the end but it would take more than a slightly silly song about cavemen to take down a beast like this.

Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

Dio – Holy Diver [Joe Barresi Remix] (Album Review)

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Dio – Holy Diver: Super Deluxe Edition (Warner Records 2022)

I can’t say that Joe Barresi’s 2022 remix of Dio’s Holy Diver is a revelation exactly but it’s a tasteful update. It loses a bit of ambience but adds punch and it’s great to hear a fresh new version of an album I’ve listened to a gazillion times. And because the remix lets us hear beyond the original’s fade-outs we get to hear more of Vivian Campbell’s inspired guitar playing. Holy Diver was always one of my favourite-sounding metal albums though, so when I find myself thinking “this sounds fucking great” I also remember… it always did.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

Europe – In The Future To Come (Song Review)

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“I’ll cover my pain, or I’ll go insane”

This kind of stately Euro metal should be right up my street but In The Future To Come, the track that kicked off Europe’s career in 1983, doesn’t quite cut it for me. The regal riffing and ripping solo are impressive and it’s very melodic and listenable. But for all its proficiency, it’s just a bit too naïve and mild-mannered for my liking. When I listen to this kind of stuff I want blood and thunder. FIRE! Yowww. In The Future To Come doesn’t rouse enough of that manly passion for me to rate it as anything other than mildly pleasing.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, Song Reviews

Tyrant – Hold Back The Lightning (Song Review)

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“Ride out in midnight”

Tyrant were like lightning: they only struck once. Like so many other New Wave Of British Heavy Metal hopefuls, the Gloucestershire band only released a solitary 7″ single in 1983 before riding off into obscurity. It’s a shame the band never did more because the A-Side track Hold Back The Lightning is totally righteous: galloping power metal with anthemic, folky vocals that are a larynx-shredding mix of High ‘N’ Dry Joe Elliott and Trouble’s Eric Wagner. This was the first song I listened to in 2023 because I wanted to start my year off in suitably heroic and chest-beating fashion. Mission accomplished.

Classic Rock, Doom Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews

Black Sabbath – Zero The Hero (Song Review)

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“With a magic in their music as they eat raw liver”

I’m reliably informed that, while I was listening to Black Sabbath’s Zero The Hero in the office today, I gurned. Like Phil Anselmo feeling the money riff. Specifically about a minute in, when Ian Gillan’s vocals kick in for the first verse. It’s a sure fire sign a song is a winner. And Zero The Hero is a winner. Creepy crawly riff, spooky FX and pure attitude from Gillan as he vents his ire on some mediocre unfortunate. I usually prefer Sabbath songs to have a bit more of a riff journey going on. This song is more of a vibe. But what a vibe, capped off with a great atmospheric guitar solo from Tony Iommi. It’s popular nowadays to point out the riff similarity with GnR’s Paradise City but that song never makes me gurn like Zero The Hero does. I guess the Gunners just didn’t eat enough raw liver.

Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews, Thrash Metal

The Misfits – Wolf’s Blood (Song Review)

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“And I know I’m not a man”

Back when I reviewed The Misfits’ Earth A.D. album you might have noticed the post’s full title was Earth A.D./Wolf’s Blood. The Misfits’ back catalogue is a bit complicated… the album as a whole is usually just referred to as Earth A.D. That’s what it’s called on the band’s official website and also in their box set (which is the copy I have). But when it was originally released on vinyl it was viewed more like two mini albums and each side had a different title. The first side was Earth A.D. which was loosely post-apocalyptic slasher kinda stuff and the second was called Wolf’s Blood and had a lycanthropic theme running through it. Here’s the title track from that side. It’s neither the craziest or the catchiest song on the album. The verses are generally incomprehensible shouting, like a fight outside a pub. But the chorus is more memorable and sounds deliciously ominous and threatening: very much in the vein of Glenn Danzig’s next band Samhain. I doubt you’ll be humming this one after the album’s finished but its lyrics and mood make it a dangerous deep cut that adds to Earth A.D./Wolf’s Blood‘s hellish and violent impact.

Album Reviews, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal

The Misfits – Earth A.D./Wolf’s Blood (Album Review)

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The Misfits – Earth A.D./Wolf’s Blood (1983)

Backs blown out by shotgun blasts, skulls ripped out, eyes plucked from heads, hellhound dogs and warrior wasps. Welcome to Earth A.D. Released in 1983, this was the second and last album of The Misfits’ original run with Glenn Danzig at the helm. And they went out with a bang: ripping through eight songs in just under 15 minutes. The album is attacked with such ferocity that it’s often seen as inferior to their catchier debut album Walk Among Us. The 50’s horror and sci-fi fun of the debut had become dark, brutal and unhinged. And the hardcore speed, massive thrash metal guitar tones and shouted vocals all served to bludgeon the debut’s melody to a bloody pulp. But, while Earth A.D. doesn’t quite have any top-tier singalongs like Skulls or Astro Zombies, it still has plenty of hooks. You won’t be able to forget the bouncy chorus of Death Comes Ripping, the ominous croon of Bloodfeast or the gang vocals of the title track. And there’s a real glee in the album’s demented, vehement delivery. From Green Hell‘s muscular metal chugging to Devilock‘s slashing riff, this record gets the blood pumping like no other. In more ways than one. Earth A.D. is the musical equivalent of a killing spree. And if you think that sounds hellish… well, you’re really gonna like it here.

Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

Alcatrazz – No Parole From Rock N’ Roll (Album Review)

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Alcatrazz – No Parole From Rock N’ Roll (1983)

Following short-lived but inspired stints with both the volatile Ritchie Blackmore and the mad axeman Michael Schenker, vocalist Graham Bonnet decided to form his own band, Alcatrazz, with hot, upcoming guitarist… Yngwie M. F. Malmsteen. Talk about “out of the frying pan and into the fire”. Unsurprisingly this pairing proved just as short-lived, ending in a blaze of egos and fisticuffs, but it also proved equally inspired with both musicians delivering at their peak on Alcatrazz’s superb debut album, 1983’s No Parole From Rock N’ Roll.

Alcatrazz was conceived as a Rainbow-style outfit. And with songs like the parpy AOR opener Island In The Sun and the Spotlight Kid rerun Jet To Jet, their debut definitely fits the bill. But there’s something more sophisticated at work here. Yngwie’s neo-classical riffing adds an intricate, frosty edge and his soloing on tracks like Kree Nakoorie is impossibly exciting. And Bonnet responds with a forceful and acrobatic vocal performance that thrills on tracks like General Hospital as well as contributing to the album’s cerebral edge with intelligent, quirky lyrics on tracks like the phenomenal Hiroshima Mon Amour (“the fireball that shamed the sun”). The languid Big Foot drags a bit and the bluesy Suffer Me is a little anti-climatic but there is no escaping the fact that No Parole From Rock N’ Roll is a dazzling, state-of-the-art, riot in the dungeon.