Vote For Your Five Best Metal/Hard Rock Albums From 1984

[Jack the Stripper]

1984 - As metal continued to evolve and the classic bands continued to step it up, thrash was starting to truly take its shape and the first wave of black metal was hitting its stride. On the prettier side of things, the love-it-or-hate-it genre of glam metal was on the rise in Los Angeles, which would soon spread to the world. 1984 was a year where metal was furthering its horizons on the global scene and entrenching itself in the underground. The year became a major turning point where sub-genres also came to be, as things were no longer simply just  called 'metal.' 1984 was undoubtedly a pivotal year in the history of metal and hard rock.



Vote for what you consider to be the five best albums from 1984

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 

P.S. I haven't been including EP's or live albums but have included two important 6 song EP's in this year.

[Tyr66]

... So much nostalgia in checking this list, incredible to contemplate nearly a quarter of a century later.

Bathory - Bathory
Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath
Metallica - Ride The Lightning

Special Mention to :
Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Manowar - Hail To England
Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Rising Force
Queensrÿche - The Warning

and I want to add these others '84 great releases :
Hellhammer - Apocalyptic Raids EP
UFO - Making Contact . No Schenker , No Way but Neil Carter is a underrated musician.
Waysted - Vices. All is in the title album. 
Motörhead - No Remorse :this one despite it's a compilation but the four news tracks deserve to be nominated.

[Jack the Stripper]

^^Thought about adding Motörhead, Waysted and Hellhammer but unless it's at least a six track EP I'm gonna leave it out. Making Contact is from 83.

[Tyr66]

^^Thought about adding Motörhead, Waysted and Hellhammer but unless it's at least a six track EP I'm gonna leave it out. Making Contact is from 83.

My bad for Making Contact , you're right !

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I went with:

The Last In Line - along with Holy Diver essential... but I don't think I've listened to either for a while! Note to self dig them out and play them NOW!!!
Grace Under Pressure - My favourite from this era of Rush
This Is Spinal Tap - loved the film, loved the music
Powerslave - probably stands up better than the rest of the early Maiden albums
Ride the Lightning - This and Master of Puppets are Metallica at their peak.

[Jack the Stripper]

I voted:

Ride The Lightning - A total game changer and one of the great metal releases from the 80’s.
Defenders Of The Faith - The pinnacle of Priest’s 80’s output. They would never be this good again.
Powerslave - Maiden raised the bar yet again with this album to a height they would never beat.
The Last In Line - Impeccable follow-up to the masterful Holy Diver. Besides Mystery not a bad song to be found. Just a great metal album from go to woe.
W.A.S.P. - The ultimate sadomasochistic balls out sleaze metal album.

Special mention to:
Tank - Honour & Blood
Metal Church - Metal Church
Dokken - Tooth and Nail
Ratt - Out Of The Cellar
Exciter - Violence & Force
Mercyful Fate - Don’t Break The Oath

^^All dominated my turntable in 84 and still spun to this day along with quite a few others from this list.

Great year for metal.

[Charger]

Pretty darn easy votes for me..

DIO - The Last In Line
Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Savatage - The Dungeons Are Calling
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

Metallica's Ride The Lightning was the first killer album forced to be left out...but I just couldn't bring myself to drop any of my first picks...it's a fantastic record...and as a whole it is actually better than Perfect Strangers BUT the two iconic Purple tracks Perfect Strangers and Knocking At Your Back Door are better than anything on Ride so that made the case.

Gotta mention Metal Church's debut as well...eventhough I prefer Mike Howe (A LOT) over Wayne it's still a killer album.

Like I've stated in the past musically Fistful Of Metal is brilliant but Turbin's vocals are horrible.

Venom's At War With Satan is also a classic in it's own right but nowhere near the level of the 5...

But lots of great albums came out in 84 that's for sure. Golden age of metal!!

[Zzzptm]

Ride the Lightning, Perfect Strangers, The Last in Line, Powerslave - four strong releases, no question here and not surprised to see them leading things.

I was split between Spinal Tap and Crusader. I went with Saxon's Crusader because of that amazing opening track, "Sailing to America". That one gives me goosebumps and tears, with those soaring vocals and major chords in with sustained notes. Beautiful, beautiful song.

[Thelemech]

Morbid Tales - Celtic Frost
King Of The Dead - Cirith Ungol
Powerslave - Iron Maiden
Animalize – Kiss
Ride The Lightning – Metallica

 

[Billy Underdog]

This seems like where the 80's is starting to kick off, and not the 80's most people remember today.
My votes went for Bathory, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate and Metallica. Was thinking about a token vote for TNT, being it's their "best" album and they're Norwegian and all, but the token went to Spinal Tap instead. This one goes to eleven... How much more Metal can you get? 

[Vyn]

Metallica - Ride the Lightning: Their sophomore release owned it like no other. Quality production showcases an evolving musicianship while retraining a certain rawness. They may have matured and executed on more complex tones and lyrics over the years, and certainly achieved more commercial success, but to me RTL was their high point.

Iron Maiden - Powerslave: Egypt seemed to be a theme amongst metal bands around this time, but The Irons did it better than anyone.

Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath: I wrote about this one somewhere else on the internet. It is a damn fine collection of music.

Voivod - War and Pain: Thrash and punk gets me everytime.

Metal Church - Metal Church: Hard hitting and well produced. It took the obvious occult/anti-christian meme and did a non-cartoonish job with it. Even with a name like "Metal Church" lol.

[Zzzptm]

I'll save my Metal Church vote for their second album, which was a true monster of rock.

[Jack the Stripper]

I'll save my Metal Church vote for their second album, which was a true monster of rock.

Indeed. 1986 was a strong year for for thrash. Maybe the best!

Only 9 voters in this one? C'mon people.

[discman69]

Still working on it. I am down to 8

Ok so top 3 hands down no problem

Powerslave......Might be there best. Not a bad song
Ride The Lightning....Not a huge Metallica fan but all songs epic on here
Stay Hungry....May be cheesy but it rocked with most of the songs

Last 2 were tougher. Between Last in Line, Perfect Strangers, 1984, Love at first Sting and Defenders of the faith.

Went with Last in Line and Perfect Strangers. While IMO both albums aren't perfect, they each have 1 great killer, fantastic song on them that won them over the others.

[BOGBLAST]

Went with:

Deep Purple

Ratt

Yngwie… Was this the Marching Out album Jack?

Metallica

Van Halen