Legendary Bands Who Still Kick Ass!

[Jack the Stripper]

Some good picks here from Popoff and Pardo from the Sea of Tranquility. And some love for DP Morse era for Z and Charger in there. Some fair points were made overall particularly on how much you ingested albums back then compared to these days.

Love their love for Overkill. Spot on with that assessment.

So what are some of the legendary/Classic 70’s or 80’s bands you think are still kicking ass?

Some of mine made their lists in the video in Iron Maiden, Overkill, Testament and Motörhead but I’d like to add Accept and W.A.S.P. Both are all time Top 10 favourite bands of mine and have consistently been putting out great albums in the the last 10-20 years that can stand proud along side their classic 80’s output. Still great live also. Judas Priest have also shown they’ve still got a lot to offer.

[Charger]

Deep Purple for sure...they're still a great live band too.

Iron Maiden

Alice Cooper

And to some extent Judas Priest...although their live form has been very spotty for years now...ever more so now with Glenn gone. But they do seem to be able to deliver the goods still in the studio...atleast they did for Firepower.
Rob should do what Ian did years ago and just forget trying to hit those high notes...if you can't you can't and trying and failing night after night is just borderline embarrasing...as just with Ian Rob's middle range is still great.

I'm not sure including 80s bands is relevent yet but I will throw out one name....

METAL CHURCH. They are stellar still both in studio and live...and Mike Howe hasn't lost a beat of his voice...which is somewhat incredible considering his very demanding singing style.

[Jack the Stripper]

Not really sure about Alice Cooper, live yes he still puts out a great performance with his younger band in tow, but not sure that his studio output has been consistently great over the last 10-20 years.

I think Rob Halford is still great, he’s probably been a victim of his own high standards and the way he sung on those earlier albums. Even for years he sung some songs with extra vigour and screams which wasn’t on the original recording so he probably didn’t need to but he did it with such ease and it really added to certain songs so he just did it. His mid and low range is still really strong, even his higher range on some songs is really good, it’s just his super high range where he struggles.

Also the 80’s bands should very much qualify. A lot of them have been around nearly 40 years now.

[Zzzptm]

My thought on this was to wonder about what bands aren't still kicking around? What bands are still going, but it's just to milk an oldies or festival circuit. Ritchie Blackmore comes to mind... Same for Lynyrd Skynyrd, really. Van Halen - does it even exist anymore? David Coverdale, isn't he now sticking to the oldies and just running through the hits from back in the day?

I think Glenn Hughes is still out there and making new stuff. I know he's not everyone's cuppa tea, but *I* like him and he's got some consistently listenable albums out there. The guy keeps going, for sure.

Dio is dead, but he certainly kicked ass up to the day he passed. Maybe his strongest material was in his 80s, but he came back in the 2000s with some strong solo sets, well worth noticing and playing.

Forget Grand Funk, they exist, but they're just a cruise ship band, even if Mark Farner sings with them.

Are the Scorpions still kicking around? Haven't heard from them or about them in a long, long time.

***

I hear them talking about Uriah Heep - I think I do owe them a revisit from Sonic Origami forward, I heard good stuff about that one album for sure. EDIT: Just started it and WOW we gotta have a thread for it!

Good call on Cheap Trick - those guys are unstoppable, and they go way back as musicians. WAY WAY back. But yeah, they're still kicking around.

They mention Overkill - I'd add Russian thrashmasters Master as well. They've been playing thrash in Russia since it was legal and have been doing so consistently well over the decades. Give them a listen if you don't mind lyrics in Russian.

Deep Purple on the list. Amazing how stable a band can be when Blackmore is no longer heading up the HR department.

Did not expect ZZ Top... now I need to check out Rhythmeen and Mescalero...

[Charger]

Not really sure about Alice Cooper, live yes he still puts out a great performance with his younger band in tow, but not sure that his studio output has been consistently great over the last 10-20 years.

Alice has released some of his best albums in recent years... Along Came A Spider is a masterpiece, Welcome 2 My Nighmare is great and Paranormal is Fantastic! So most certainly AC belong into the list...especially considering his live form is stellar still.

[Jack the Stripper]

Not really sure about Alice Cooper, live yes he still puts out a great performance with his younger band in tow, but not sure that his studio output has been consistently great over the last 10-20 years.

Alice has released some of his best albums in recent years... Along Came A Spider is a masterpiece, Welcome 2 My Nighmare is great and Paranormal is Fantastic! So most certainly AC belong into the list...especially considering his live form is stellar still.

Quite enjoyed his last album Paranormal but I found a lot of his other stuff in the last 20 years a little hit and miss. Along Came A Spider was rather weak and uninspired and mostly forgettable, plods too much and the drums sound so dead on it. Some of W2 s pretty good but the album’s a bit disjointed and just doesn’t flow very well with a lot of varied styles going on and like a lot of his later stuff is way over-produced. I like Dirty Diamonds the most out of all his albums from the last 10-20 years. That album was a great throwback to his classic 70’s era with the simplified catchy songs and much rawer sound.

[Charger]

Hehheh...funny how it goes...I consider Along Came A Spider one of Alice's all time best works...the story is brilliant and the music is top notch.

We can agree on Dirty Diamonds though....I enjoy that one a lot too and yes it is a nice throwback to the 70s indeed.

[Zzzptm]

OK, so you like the throwback stuff... is there any of his newer sounds that worked for you?

[Charger]

BRUTAL PLANET is still my all time favourite Coop album so I guess that counts for his "newer" sounds then as it's only 20 years old...