Vote For Your Five Best Metal/Hard Rock Albums From 1983

[Jack the Stripper]

1983 -  A time where traditional heavy metal reigned supreme and thrash emerged as a new force to be reckoned with.

Legends continued to release landmark albums and other legends in the making were just starting to make their mark. 1983 was one of the best years in heavy metal/hard rock that produced enduring albums.


Vote for what you consider to be the five best albums from 1983

Once this poll is done and we have a winner we'll move onto 1984 and so on...

Then we'll put all the winners from the years 80-89 up against each other to determine the greatest metal/hard rock album from the 80's.

Poll will run for five days before closing.

Vote away 

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Is that list complete? It seems a little short, you've definitely missed out Maiden's Peice of Mind, and Ozzy's Bark at the Moon.

[Jack the Stripper]

Duh! You don't say. I accidentally hit go on my iPad when I was hitting the backspace key   

In the process of editing it. Please don't vote yet.

[Edit] Ok good to go now  I got up to Fastway and as I said accidently hit go and it posted. I then made the mistake of hitting backwards and adding all the rest, then obviously it wouldn't post  I had to edit the poll and add everything again from Fastway onwards, all the while I had the missus screaming at me that dinner was on the table 

[Tyr66]

Motörhead - Another Perfect Day
Manowar - Into Glory Ride
Mercyful Fate - Melissa
Metallica - Kill 'em All
Slayer - Show No Mercy

special mention to :
Black Sabbath - Born Again
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at The Moon
Demon - The Plague
Saxon - Power and the Glory
Venom - Die Hard EP

[Jack the Stripper]

These polls are getting harder and harder to pick just five...

Voted for

Balls To The Wall - Accept
Holy Diver - Dio
Shout At The Devil - Mötley Crüe
Piece Of Mind - Iron Maiden
Kill 'Em All - Metallica

With a special mention to

Show No Mercy - Slayer
Another Perfect Day - Motörhead
Power & The Glory - Saxon
Satan - Court In The Act
Sirens - Savatage
Melissa - Mercyful Fate
Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac

[Zzzptm]

I feel confident in my picks.

Born Again
Holy Diver
Piece of Mind
Power and the Glory

Special love for Fastway, that's an album I played a ton of in 1986-7 when I was dating the future Missus. Been together 31 years and every time a track from that album comes up, I remember those days. Love the hell outta that album.

[Charger]

Oh boy...lots of GREAT albums came out in 1983...and something not so great came out that year too....ME!

Anyways...

4 were extremely easy to pick.

Born Again - Black Sabbath
Holy Diver - DIO
Sirens - Savatage
Piece Of Mind - Iron Maiden (eventhough it is far from my favourite Maiden album it has To Tame A Land which is one of my favourite Maiden tunes!)

For the 5th one there was quite the struggle..

Another Perfect Day but it got left out of the race because on Motörhead standards that record isn't great.
Shout At The Devil is something of a classic in it's genre as well so it was a contender
Friends Of Hell from Witchfinder General is a great album too but maybe not quite top 5 material though

But then there were these two:
Show No Mercy from Slayer which is a masterpiece in it's own right
and
Kill 'em All by Metallica which is fantastic, part from the production...

But in the end I had to go with Kill 'em All because...well...it just is the biggest classic out of these 5 I mentioned here.

[Zzzptm]

Kill 'em All by Metallica which is fantastic, part from the production...

That's why I left it off. I have never been able to get past the crappy production on that album. Same problem with the first Armored Saint album... Such are our choices, though.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Born Again - even though it is one of the weaker Sabbath albums it still rocks!

Holy Diver - along with The Last in Line essential listening.

Piece of Mind - Still a favourite of mine, indeed for many years it was my favourite Maiden album.

Another Perfect Day - Not Motorhead at their best but enough on it to get the nod.

Thunder and Lighning - The last Lizzy offering, again not their best but still some good stuff here.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Kill 'em All by Metallica which is fantastic, part from the production...

That's why I left it off. I have never been able to get past the crappy production on that album. Same problem with the first Armored Saint album... Such are our choices, though.

Musically it is solid, but yes, the production sucks and the vocals are attrocious.

[Vyn]

I didn't make my selections this go around based on how I felt about the music then, but now.

Tried and true disks like Holy Diver and Kill 'Em All just don't hold up as well now as they did then. But then, there's Show No Mercy...but I digress.

Accept - Balls to the Wall. Like a gut-punch from start to finish.

Saxon - Power & The Glory. Holy smokes Jethro!

Krokus - Headhunter. A little dated here and there, but anyone smart enough to get Rob Halford to sing on their record knows their metal.

Suicidal Tendencies - S/T. Yep. Massively influential punk served with a side of thrash.

Triumph - Never Surrender. A World of Fantasy earns them the nod here. Plus, their populist message is timeless.

[Jack the Stripper]

Interesting voting in this one. I like a man that just gets it when it comes to Accept^^

I suspect the Sabbath bias is gonna rear its head again though in this one.

No way is Born Again album of the year worthy imo 

[Charger]

No way is Born Again album of the year worthy imo 

Not it isn't...that would be Holy Diver all the way by a rather huuuuuuuuuuuge margin actually but top 5 for sure.

[Jack the Stripper]

^^It's definitely up there. 3 songs alone SUAS, title track and DTTS are better than Born Again in its entirety 

[Billy Underdog]

Sabbath, Ozzy, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Slayer, for the obvious reasons...