Tag Archives: 1985

Genre, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews, Thrash Metal

Anthrax – Lone Justice (Song Review)

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“Clear the streets as he rides into the town”

Lone Justice is one of the more mid-paced traditionally heavy metal songs on Anthrax’s second album, 1985’s Spreading The Disease. It doesn’t have the pummelling intensity of thrashers like A.I.R. or Gung-Ho and it’s fairly cartoony in terms of riffs and lyrics. But it’s still one of my favourite songs on the album. It’s got some great Steve Harris style bass going on and has a thumpingly hard-edged delivery, mainly due to Scott Ian’s hugely crunchy guitar tone. The track’s slower pace also allows the band’s (then) new vocalist Joey Belladonna to shine. He pushes a lot of air on the verses before settling in to a very cool melodic mode for the chorus. It’s so exhilarating that I don’t even mind constantly mishearing his description of the hero’s “stubbled chin” as the much less cool “double chin”.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Progressive Rock, Song Reviews

Rush – Marathon (Song Review)

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“In the long run”

It wouldn’t score a podium place in my list of favourite Rush songs but Marathon is definitely a standout from the band’s 80s era. Taken from 1985’s Power Windows, this is Rush at the peak of their pop-prog powers with funky basslines, enormodome guitar chords and a rousing chorus that builds to a climax of Olympian grandeur with the addition of a 25 piece choir. As always with Rush, this is high-performance stuff but Marathon is also uplifting and accessible. I never get tired of it.

Album Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal

Possessed – Seven Churches (Album Review)

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Possessed – Seven Churches (1985 Combat Records)

It came out of the Bay Area thrash scene but Possessed’s 1985 debut Seven Churches is now renowned for getting the death metal ball rolling. And quite right too: Jeff Becerra’s voice is demonic and cavernous; the riffing is brutal and relentless; and it closes with a song called… Death Metal! But it’s really more than that. As with other early efforts from the likes of Sodom, Kreator, Slayer and Celtic Frost there’s a primordial stew of dark extremity at work here that doesn’t fit neatly into any genre but has elements that can be extracted into loads of them. It’s not just the death metal guys that have worshipped at the altar of Seven Churches. And that’s why it still holds up today and always hits the spot, whatever kind of evil metal mood I might be in.

My 2008 Century Media reissue. Too black to take a good photo of, but it does fold out into an inverted cross!
Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

Gary Moore – Run For Cover (Album Review)

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Gary Moore – Run For Cover (10/Virgin 1985)

Gary Moore had a good voice but never quite at the same level as his fiery guitar playing so on 1985’s Run For Cover he enlists two legendary, but troubled, vocalists to help out. “Voice Of Rock” Glenn Hughes lends his powerful, soulful singing to four songs, most notably the classy Reach For The Sky which could have fit right in on his superb 1982 album Hughes/Thrall. And then Moore’s old Lizzy pal Phil Lynott basically steals the show with his larger-than-life presence: duetting on bullet-strewn hit Out In The Fields and contributing his own thumpingly macho, but characteristically vulnerable, Military Man. I enjoy the whole album but it’s these guest appearances that make Run For Cover a favourite.

My copy is from this box set. Good music, crappy packaging!
Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Progressive Rock, Song Reviews

Magnum – Les Morts Dansant (Song Review)

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“Gather round reluctant marksmen”

Magnum. The minute the weather starts getting cooler I reach for this veritable comfort-blanket of a band. Here’s Les Morts Dansant, the centrepiece from their excellent 1985 album On A Storyteller’s Night. Set in WWI, the song describes the execution of a British soldier who has refused to leave the trenches and go over the top. The song title translates as “the dancing dead” as it illustrates the pirouette of the dying soldier as he’s riddled with bullets from the firing squad. It’s a horrific topic but Magnum’s keen moral sense ensures the song is written and performed eloquently and compassionately. Bob Catley sings movingly with his heart on his sleeve as warm keyboards and celestial guitars gradually build to a climax of Baba O’Riley-style power chords. The album cover depicts a wizard relating a fireside tale to a bunch of captivated dwarfs and Les Morts Dansant is basically the musical equivalent. Spellbinding storytelling from a magical band.

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

Pentagram – Relentless (Song Review)

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“Take you to hell and won’t say hello”

Pentagram were formed in 1971 and are renowned as early doom pioneers but nearly 15 years passed before the cult US band was able to rise from the underground and put out their first album. It was worth the wait. The 1985 self-released debut was originally just called Pentagram but in 1993 it was reissued by Peaceville Records and renamed Relentless after this awesome track. Relentless was penned by charismatic guitarist Victor Griffin and has a walloping tone and simple, strident riff that fully lives up to the promise of the song’s title. The lyrics are a bit clunky but endearingly catchy and they’re a good vehicle for the ‘Ram’s wayward frontman Bobby Liebling to strut his swaggering, streetwise stuff. But the real joy here is the riffin’ of Griffin. His electric axe is gonna knock you on your back.

Black Metal, Death Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal, Song Reviews, Thrash Metal

Sepultura – Necromancer (Song Review)

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“Can feel the presence of death”

It’s almost unrecognisable as the band that became a major force in metal years later but the early Sepultura stuff is still pretty remarkable. Brazil wasn’t a corner of the globe where anyone was expecting a metal scene to pop up and when the band recorded their 1985 debut EP Bestial Devastation (a split release with fellow countrymen Overdose) it was just emerging from decades as a military dictatorship. Musically it’s not the most amazing stuff you’ll hear from the era but the band were pretty impressive considering they were all still in their mid-teens. And they got in early enough and extreme enough that their raw, filthy undergound thrash was also a primordial stew of nascent black and death metal.

My favourite track from the EP is Necromancer, with its naive evil lyrics, grinding Celtic Frost riffs, blasts of Discharge-like speed and a wild “all notes matter” guitar solo right out of Slayer. Fun stuff. Unfortunately, my favourite part of the song is a bit that I always mishear and misremember. One of the great metal mondegreens. After the chaotic solo the song returns to a slow sludge as vocalist Max “Possessed” Cavalera sings “necromancer, dead’s invoker”. But in my world this line has always been “necromancer, dirty fucker”. And it always will be! And it’s about time they just ‘fess up and admit that’s what the lyrics really were all along.

Black Metal, Genre, Thrash Metal

Sodom – In The Sign Of Evil (Album Review)

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Sodom – In The Sign Of Evil (1985)

After the U.S. the most important country in the story of thrash metal has to be Germany. And in Germany it all started with the debut EP from Sodom. Where German thrash initially differentiated itself from its American counterpart was in crude, primitive blackness. And it doesn’t get much cruder, blacker or more primitive than 1985’s In The Sign Of Evil. It’s all very Venom-inspired with similar levels of punkish ineptitude. Most songs alternate between two caveman riffs and the performance, even on stupidly basic riffs like those in Sepulchral Voice, often unravels. But it was all chaotically evil enough to ensure that Sodom played a crucial role in the “first wave” of black metal and countless black metal bands still draw from this well. Outbreak Of Evil and Witching Metal are catchy-as-hell bruisers, Burst Command ‘Til War predates war metal with its howling pack of dogs chaos and Blasphemer ramps up the evil with Vincent Price laughs and entertainingly crap satanic lyrics… “masturbate to kill myself”. It’s the kind of entry-level simplicity that means new bands still fancy their chances at emulating it. But few have. In The Sign Of Evil is still a cut above with songs that live in the memory and in the band’s set-list to this day.

Album Reviews, Black Metal, Genre, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal

Bulldozer – The Day Of Wrath (Album Review)

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Bulldozer – The Day Of Wrath (1985)

“Welcome all you fuckers/seeking evil excitements/yeah! You want to be cool” Of course you do! Then why not impress all your friends by listening to Bulldozer’s excellent debut album The Day Of Wrath. The Italian band was often written off as Venom clones but they were a more musically capable outfit (check out the maniacal guitar soloing throughout Mad Man) and edged very close to the crude Teutonic thrash of bands like Destruction and Kreator. And even if it didn’t exactly break new ground, Bulldozer’s debut endures on the strength of its songs and its attitude. The album is laden with killer riffs and hooks: from the sacreligious darkness of Welcome Death, the marauding Cut-Throat, the seductive Great Deciever and the unforgettable party-banger Whisky Time (“It’s fucking whisky time!”). Falls short of full points due to skippable intro/outro shenanigans but make no mistake! If you’re an uncool fucker, seeking evil excitement… it’s fucking Bulldozer time!

[Bulldozer – Whisky Time]

FOAD Deluxe Edition
Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, Song Reviews

Saxon – Krakatoa (Song Review)

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“Blasting chunks of magma into the atmosphere”

Saxon’s Krakatoa is an explosive B-Side from their 1985 single Rock N’ Roll Gypsy. It’s a lively old-school banger very much along the lines of their classic Power And The Glory. Probably a bit too much like it… which might explain why it never made it on to an album. But even if it is Saxon-by-numbers, it’s got more fire and grit than a lot of the stuff that made it on that year’s Innocence Is No Excuse. And if you’re one of those fans that found that album a bit too Def Lep for your liking, this track will be right up your alley.