The Year in Metal: 1980

[Zzzptm]

Wikipedia gives us this list, and I can already see that we're going to pick it apart...

AC/DC - Back in Black
Accept - I'm a Rebel
Aerosmith – Greatest Hits
Alice Cooper - Flush the Fashion
Angel Witch - Angel Witch
Atomic Rooster – Atomic Rooster
A II Z - The Witch of Berkeley (live)
Beowulf - Slice of Life
Blackfoot - Tomcattin'
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Blue Öyster Cult - Cultösaurus Erectus
Bow Wow - Glorious Road
Bow Wow - Telephone
Budgie - If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting (EP)
Budgie - Power Supply
Chevy - The Taker
Cirith Ungol - Frost and Fire
Def Leppard - On Through the Night
Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nations
Ethel the Frog - Ethel the Frog
Fargo - No Limit
Fist (UK) - Turn the Hell On
Fist (Can) - Hot Spikes
Gamma - Gamma 2
Gillan - Glory Road
Girl - Sheer Greed
Girlschool - Demolition
Grand Prix - Grand Prix
The Hunt - Back on the Hunt
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Judas Priest - British Steel
Killer (Bel) - Ready for Hell
KISS - Unmasked
Krokus - Metal Rendez-vous
Limelight - Limelight
Magnum - Marauder (live)
Mama's Boys - Official Album
Manilla Road - Invasion
Metal for Muthas - (Compilation, various artists)
Metal for Muthas - Volume II - Cut Loud - (Compilation, various artists)
Muthas Pride - (Compilation, EP, various artists)
Metal Explosion - From The Friday Rock Show - (Compilation, various artists)
Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush - What's Next
Michael Schenker Group - The Michael Schenker Group
Molly Hatchet - Beatin' the Odds
Gary Moore - G-Force
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Mythra - Death & Destiny (EP)
Ted Nugent - Scream Dream
Ocean - "A" Live + B (side one is live)
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Pat Benatar - Crimes of Passion
Plasmatics - New Hope for the Wretched
Quartz - Stand Up and Fight
Rail - Arrival
Reckless - Reckless
The Rods - Rock Hard
Rush - Permanent Waves
Samson - Head On
Saxon - Wheels of Steel
Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law
Schoolboys – Singin' Shoutin' (EP)
Scorpions - Animal Magnetism
Shakin' Street - Shakin' Street
Snow - Snow (EP)
Speed Queen - Speed Queen
Thin Lizzy - Chinatown
Triumph - Progressions of Power
Trust - Répression
Tygers of Pan Tang - Wild Cat
UFO - No Place to Run
Van Halen - Women and Children First
Vardis - 100 M.P.H. (live)
Whitesnake - Ready an' Willing
Whitesnake - Live...in the Heart of the City
White Spirit - White Spirit
Wild Horses - Wild Horses, aka The First Album
Wishbone Ash - Just Testing
Witchfynde - Give 'Em Hell
Witchfynde - Stagefright

[Zzzptm]

How many of these are proper metal and how many just got on the list because they were louder than average? I mean, I *like* Pat Benetar, but... metal???  (Side note- she's still with her partner in music and love, Neil Giraldo, after all these years, way to go!)

OK, so my first job is to listen to Benetar's Crimes of Passion and compare to the rest... and, no, it's not Motorhead or Maiden or Priest. But it *is* hard rock, and there's definitely a lot in there that would get grabbed up by the pop-metal crowd yet to come. It's like Eagles and Fleetwood Mac with the amps cranked up and all that energy spent in sniping at fellow band members instead applied toward the music, giving it an aggressive, grabby edge. And there be ballads there, the likes of which just SCREAM for a late-80s MTV phenom to cover... but there's also an extra edge to the ones Benetar is doing that actually make them, well, more metal and less radio-friendly. I swear, Ozzy was TOTALLY listening to the ballads on this album when he wrote "Close My Eyes Forever." The last track basically sounds like the Dokken playbook... I had no idea I would ever say this, but Pat Benetar's "Crimes of Passion", while being very much in a power pop vein, is able to crank things up to the point where it also points the way to what "make it more radio friendly" will do to metal later in the decade.

And taking her in context with BOC, Aerosmith, and Rush... well, it stands up well next to those bands in 1980, to the point where I now believe I've been sleeping on this album and should have bought it when I was a kid in 1980. So, yeah, that's a lesson learned for me. Time to sample some of the others on the list to see if they belong there or not.

[Zzzptm]

Trying out the album from Grand Prix... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj5wbQg5bTc (this is a 1980 release, even though the link says 1981)

WOW those are some synths you got there, huh? Hang on, that vocalist... whoa, it's Bernie Shaw! As in the guy that would go on to front Uriah Heep, that Bernie Shaw! Interesting first track with some really nice vocals.

I'm now in the second track, thinking this is Yes meets Judas Priest covering Rush songs. Like the Benetar album, there is a LOT in here that would be mid-80s metal radio, pretty much coming from the distorted guitars on top of rich keyboards with vocal harmonies - Night Ranger comes to mind now, front and center. So maybe we need to come up with a color scheme for different bands' styles. I want Motorhead in a TOTALLY different color from bands that have a stronger pop feel to them, like this one and Benetar.

Yes, it's a metal album. But, no, it's no Wheels of Steel.

[Zzzptm]

Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush: What's Next - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgopVVCjeAc

Goosebumps on that opening track, if you haven't heard this album, you need to do yourself a favor and get into it. It's hard rockin' metal, start to finish. I'm not going to sample around on this album like I did the other two. I know what's on it and I'm taking it from start to finish, damn this is such a sweet opening track!

It's a damn shame how this album didn't get more traction, but it didn't have synths or pop-friendly hooks. What it does have is a big block engine purring along with the bass and drums and great revs from the guitars and vox. Like Deep Purple's Machine Head, this one's a signpost on the road to stoner/desert metal.

Just finished it and I sure did savor the experience. It's albums like this one that act as rewards along the way for checking out other albums that aren't entirely to my liking as I go through the list o' albums from a year. What's Next may not be a monster album that dominated the scene, but it sure is a fun piece of metal that really knows its way around the track.

[Zzzptm]

Saw an album by Ethel the Frog... OK, I'll bite... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGz_y8LEstc

Starts with a NWOBHM cover of Eleanor Rigby. OK, I like the concept even if I'm not thrilled with their delivery. Production is muddy on this one. REALLY muddy. There's a range of styles that's consistent with NWOBHM bands, some boogie rockers, some harder-driving tunes, but yowzers that's some awful production... killing the joy for me...

And while there's a lot of mid-tempo muddling in the disc, there are a few fast rockers sprinkled around that get me to bang my head the way I like to. But at no point is it setting me on fire or anything like that. Sadly, most of the songs sound like each other. It's interesting because of the name, and if they were playing at a club, I'd be fine with them on the stage. But nothing here to grab my attention and make me really take notice.

[Jack the Stripper]

Wait I’m confused. Why you doing these 1980 albums again?

[Ted Sallis]

From the original list at top, these would be my picks for 1980 metal albums:

AC/DC - Back in Black
Angel Witch - Angel Witch
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Blue Öyster Cult - Cultösaurus Erectus
Def Leppard - On Through the Night
Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nations
Fist (UK) - Turn the Hell On
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Judas Priest - British Steel
Krokus - Metal Rendez-vous
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Saxon - Wheels of Steel
Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law
Scorpions - Animal Magnetism

Yes, there are a number of other titles in the list that could be considered metal albums but I'm not familiar (enough) with the material/artists, therefore I can't really consider them.  As for the remainder (i.e. Pat Benatar), I don't consider those albums/artists to be metal.

Ted

[Zzzptm]

Wait I’m confused. Why you doing these 1980 albums again?

I wanted to go back not to find the best albums, but to see more about the history of metal and how each year had its influences. I'm also going to play some of these discs that I haven't listened to before simply because nearly all of them are up on YouTube and I got time. It's like a voyage into reminiscence.

Yes, there are a number of other titles in the list that could be considered metal albums but I'm not familiar (enough) with the material/artists, therefore I can't really consider them.  As for the remainder (i.e. Pat Benatar), I don't consider those albums/artists to be metal.

Ted

There's some exploration to do, for sure, to see if there were any cool things I overlooked when I was a kid because I had only odd job money and had to be choosey. Plus, I was also building my collection of 70s rock at the time, so a lot of albums just went by the wayside. Now they can be heard on YT for free and I got time as I do my work, typing away and stuff.

Pat Benetar ain't metal, I agree 100%. But there's stuff in that 1980 album of hers that absolutely would make it to metal albums later in the decade, with a slightly slower tempo and some blond-haired guy with way too much hairspray singing it out in front of drums with fireworks and oh hey it's another metal ballad we got here!

[Charger]

Yeah the list is bit off as there are few that surely aren't metal...so I think some trimming could have been done there....remove the Aerosmiths, Nugents and Penatars and Gary Moores and such as they really have no place on the list when talking about metal.

Band called Mama's Boys though... now that's a name straight out of the 1980s!

I wish I had the energy and the time to start going through some of these obscure bands and listen to some of those albums but honestly I do not...at the moment anyways.

Ted picked out some of the most obvious best ones I think...although some of those are albums I've never listened to as well...

As far as influences go I think Whitesnake and UFO should be mentioned as well as they surely made an impact in the 80s...BUT one might also argue that neither are metal though...

The top for me would be

Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell
Motörhead - Ace Of Spades
Judas Priest - British Steel
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Gillan - Glory Road
AC / DC - Back In Black
and
Ozzy's Blizzard of Oz

Out of the bands that I recognize I am rather surprised to see Krokus having an album out already in 1980. I thought they were a Thrash band and thus came to the scene about 5 years later.


Alice Cooper's Flush The Fashion isn't among his finest...not by a long shot...in fact none of his early 80s albums are.


Then if we want to talk about influence, the big ones obviously are Heaven And Hell, British Steel and Iron Maiden all which lead the charge of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in the biggest possible way...one might add Blizzard into it as well. And those albums are also widely considered all time classics....Maiden bit less I suppose as their best work was yet to come and ofcourse a slight change in direction as well with Bruce.

Motörhead had already established their sound with Overkill and as such there was very little to no change in the sound what so ever so I'm inclined to say that they started their influencing with the previous album...


I do not actually know which of these albums was the biggest commercial success...I'm assuming either Heaven And Hell or British Steel...or Back In Black?
I guess I could google it but right now I'm so far into this post already I'm running out of juice.

Someone should find out the Top 5 albums that sold the most copies as well...that would be an interesting addition to the whole topic.

[Vyn]

According to information I dug up, Back in Black not only was the best selling album of 1980, but the 2nd best selling for the entire decade, across all genres. Michael Jackson's Thriller beat it (haha, pun) for the #1 spot for the decade.

Edited to add, 2nd best selling record, across genres, for -all time-.

https://bestsellingalbums.org/overall/

[Jack the Stripper]

I would say without even googling it the top 5 selling albums in 1980 would've been

1. AC/DC - Back In Black
2. Van Halen - Women and Children First
3. Ozzy - Blizzard of Ozz
4. Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
5. Judas Priest - British Steel

In the years since you would only flip Van Halen with Ozzy in sales numbers and the rest of the list would stay the same. I think last time I checked Blizzard of Ozz was at 5 x platinum in the U.S. and obviously Back in Black blows them all out of the water with 25 x Platinum.

*Not including Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits in this.

[Jack the Stripper]

Actually just thinking about it, Blizzard wasn’t officially released in the States until 1981 but taking the normal 12 month period from release date I’d say its position would be the same. Obviously albums get released early in a calendar year and some later giving the earlier release more months of album sales and subsequent hype and building from touring and single releases.

[Charger]

It seems to be really hard to find actual numbers from 1980. Most sites that I found have the total sales up to 2020 or something like that but not actual sales from 1980...

But yeah Back In Black seems to be the very clear #1...I had no idea they were THAT popular already at that point.

Blizzard also seems to be way more popular than I thought. Again I thought Diary was the moment Ozzy got it going and that Blizzard might have gone bit under the radar but I guess it was quite well hyped in the press at the time.

Sabbath's hype I guess wasn't quite that strong, especially in the US as Rainbow wasn't that big in the US....Europe and Japan things were quite different.

But this just shows that THE best albums are almost never the most Popular albums...and ofcourse the press has a lot to do with that...