Any 80's Hard Rock/ Metal Fans? (1 Viewer)

This Spring has seen the release of new albums by Whitesnake, White Lion, Def Leppard, Dokken and House of Lords, just to name a few. With new albums still on the Summer horizon for Judas Priest, Harem Scarem, etc. I am in music heaven with all this. I grew up listening to all these bands and some haven't released an album in a good many years. It's a genre of music that just speaks to me. Fist pumping anthems, power ballads, catchey hooks and amazing choruses. Shredding guitars, bass drums, and sometimes keyboards. If you don't like it, you just don't like it. The ones into it know exactly what I mean. I hope I'm not the only one on the forum who cranks their stereo and rocks out every once in awhile.

The Whitesnake and Def Leppard albums are pretty good. The new Whitesnake has a feel of some of the early days with a spattering of their most successful years.

If your a Savatage fan, Jon Oliva has a new album out last week with his band Jon Oliva's Pain. First listen through, it doesn't knock me off my feet, but their albums take a few listens to really understand the feel of the music.

Paul

Paul, my first introduction to Savatage was "Gutter Ballet." Truely awesome stuff. I'll definately check out Jon's band. Recently, I've been listening to Sixx A.M. and love that cd.

I'm hoping to check out the new Def Leppard album. I really liked many 80's rock bands like Def Leppard, Whitesnake, and especially Europe (I still think "Prisoners in Paradise" (1990) is criminally underrated).

Europe have also reappeared and released two new albums recently, "Start From the Dark" (2004) and "Secret Society" (2006), with plans for another album within the next year. Both have a harder, rougher edge than some of their more polished rock in the late 80's. I like "Secret Society" the best and it's probably the easiest to find. I've never seen "Start from the Dark" as a single CD, only as a double pack with the concert DVD.

Malcolm, Europe is another great band that I should have included in my list and there are others. On the Prisoners in Paradise album "Halfway to Heaven" came out of nowhere on me and to this day I think that song is a jammin' tune. I own Start from the Dark and wasn't as impressed with that album. I picked that up at the same time with Winger 4 and Strypers Reborn albums. I liked them all, but, felt at times they were going in a new direction. This latest crop of releases from the 80's bands is a throw back to the old sound that made them great. I hope that Europe's new cd is a revisit to their old sound as well. Don't get me wrong, I like it when bands experiment with new direction. I just ask that they give me some of the original style with the new as a transition rather than a shock to the system. Kinda like every time you buy an AC/DC cd you know what you're getting. They never change and that's a good thing. There's also been alot of new bands that have come out over the years. I follow AOR and when the new and old bands drop cds I love em' for the most part. Newer bands that have impressed the hell out of me are Jaded Heart, Evidence One, Jorn, Wig Wam, Gotthard and Adrain Gale. Now, some of these bands have been around since the mid 90's and have released albums from then to current. They came after the grunge takeover that many of us suffered through. Alot of the current bands come from overseas, nothing new about that. About 7 years ago I discovered alot of these bands and to my surprise the hard rock scene had not died. I've been a follower ever since and have rebuilt alot of what I had on cassette on cds that I ordered through Ebay at a hefty cost for some. Ya gotta love this stuff.

My son has really gotten into heavy metal lately. He's quite a fan of Iron Maiden (loves Powerslave), Led Zeppelin, and Stryper. I'll have to introduce him to Whitesnake. He's not really into Kiss yet, but that may change.

Get him Creatures of the Night. That leads in with some seriously heavy drums that any boy would love. The MTV Unplugged disc should make him a fan, too.

I loved most of these band in high school, but I must be honest that I was one of the people who was drawn to the dark side by the like of Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pantera, etc....

I now look upon my music tastes in high school as being rather embarassing. That said, I still have a few guilty pleasures and in fact have purchase several CDs in recent months. While I still can't stand the bands that were about appearance first and music second (Poison, Britney Fox, Winger etc...) there are several that I still like. I feel that a number of these bands did themselves in with the over the top hair and make-up. If you take some of these bands and strip them of that stuff, they would not have disappeared so rapidly.

Here is some stuff that I still like.

Ratt - Several great songs and at least one "Round and Round" that will continue to stick around.

Motley Crue - For pure fun rock & roll, it's hard to beat the Crue. "Wildside", "Girls Girls Girls", & "Dr. Feelgood" are legendary.

Cinderella - This is a band that without the make-up would have been a solid blues rock band. They tried to take that route with "Heartbreak Station", but alas it was too late.

Tesla - These guys passed on the absurd make-up and such and hence had a solid career. I re-purchased "The Great Radio Controversy" recently and enjoyed it almost as much as the first time.

Kix - Another solid band that never really got their due. They were pioneers in this genre, but Poison and several others stole it from underneath them. I recently re-purchased "Blow Your Fuse" and it's a solid album with several anthemic songs. Very AC/DC!!!

I was going to pick up Def Leppard's greatest hits, but realized that I really only need "Pyromania", so at some point I will probably pick that up. I listened to "Hysteria" so many times in Highschool that I think a re-listen to any of those songs would bring on a case of nausea.

Ironically, I didn't care for the heavier fare at the time, but I'm now a big fan of "Iron Maiden", "Savatage", "Slayer", "Megadeth", etc.... For a long time "Metallica" would have been in that group, but they've become nothing less than a full-on embarassment.

I love this music but I haven't bought anything new by any of these bands since the early 90's because I felt the music changed too much. I guess I'll try some of these new offerings out.

Ockegham, the first concert I ever went to was Iron Maiden's Powerslave tour. Accept opened for them. Awesome show. I saw them again on the Somewhere in Time tour but it wasn't the same. Powerslave is a truly excellent album.

When it comes to the Crue, for me it's Too Fast for Love and Shout at the Devil. I missed the SatD tour but saw them on Theater of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls. Lots of fun but not the Crue that I fell in love with. I still listen to Too Fast for Love on a somewhat regular basis. Live Wire, Take Me to the Top, aw yeah baby!

I didn't see the Crue live until around 2000 (it was the original lineup, shortly after Tommy Lee's release from jail) and they were AWESOME.

Anyone seen their new Blu-Ray? The DVD got kinda mixed reviews and I'm wondering how the BD is. That could be a good show.

You should all be aware of this already, but the Powerslave tour/ Live After Death show is now available on DVD (along with a second disc of various & sundry other things).

Yeah, I didn't care for "Start..." too much either. I guess it's supposed to be more of a throwback to their style before the big hits. I enjoy "Secret Society" though, and hope the next album is even better.

I'll have to make an effort to pick up the new Def Leppard. I've kind of avoided them in recent years as they moved away from the sound that made me a fan in the first place.

Jim,

I've heard this (about the Powerslave album). In fact, I don't know an Iron Maiden fan who doesn't rank this one as their best. That was the first Iron Maiden album I bought for him, too.

Iron Maiden is a great band too. I love the guitar intro on "wasted years" off the "Somewhere in Time" album. They just released "Somewhere Back in Time" which I believe is a best of cd. "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" is also damn good. Another band that deserves mention is SCORPIONS.

Oh, hell yeah. Love at First Sting is great back to front, just to mention their biggie from the '80s. Love Blackout, too.

Rainbow doesn't get a lot of love after Dio's departure, but I really like Bent Out of Shape.

I can go as far back as "lovin you Sunday mornin" from the Scorps. My brothers were listening to everything back in the late 70's early 80's. From Kiss to AC/DC and Rainbow among others. One in particular that stood out strong at the time was Van Halen. I guess it rubbed off on me in the 80's as hard rock was my flavor of choice. To this day I love this stuff. My girlfriend on the other hand....well....she likes country. I spend my day in the car with various bands and I get home and that country stuff is playin on the system and it kills my buzz. Oh well, we have some very different tastes to be sure.

Hey man if you want to check it out before you buy you can sample tracks from the whole album here: Def Leppard It has a few newer feeling tracks, but, there's enough Leppard comin through for me that I can deal with it. So far my favorite track off the cd is "hallucinate".

Greg, I remember from another thread that you're a Tesla fan too. How far back? Mechanical.. or Great Radio..?

I really didn't think too highly of the hair bands--Poison, Winger, Warrant, etc.--when they came around. I like them a little better now, but they kind of opened the door for the death of rock and the rise of grunge. I think Extreme and maybe Mr. Big and some others were trying to scale back from the excesses of the average hair band, but it was too little too late.

Bands that really shined in that time were Tesla, Queensryche, Skid Row and Guns N Roses. GNR came in like a bomb with Appetite, which is still one of the best albums of the '80s IMO. I never really liked anything they did afterwards, but that one dropped on the scene like the first Aerosmith album. It didn't particularly break new ground, but it sounded so fresh for the time.

I didn't really listen to Judas Priest at the time, but they did some great stuff in the '80s. I know that period isn't held in as high regard as their '70s work, but Screaming is particularly good.


I was pretty much a slave to radio, MTV (or Night Tracks), and before that, what my parents liked, so I didn't know about Tesla until Great Radio Controversy. :frowning:

I do credit my sister for introducing me to stuff like the Scorpions, Sammy Hagar, and some other harder stuff. She listened to KZEW, which was the big hard rock station in Dallas at the time. It's still sorely missed by many in the area.

Anybody know the song "Walk On Fire" by Little America? It's kind of an overlooked gem of the '80s.

YouTube - Little America - Walk On Fire

I also listen to Jimmy Davis and Junction's Kick the Wall almost every day. It's probably more pop than this thread, though. Same is probably true of Walk On Fire.

Oh! And, gotta love Triumph! Another of my sister's bands. I love their earlier stuff, but I got introduced through the Thunder Seven album.

Greg, you hit it on the head there. It seemed like for every one good band that was trying to come up like "Leatherwolf", "Y&T" and "Bonfire". You had 10 to 12 cock rock bands in the vain of "Poison", "Pretty Boy Floyd", "Tuff", etc. Some bands got through the mess, at least for me, like "Killer Dwarfs", "Blue Murder" and another one of my all time favorite 80's rock bands "HURRICANE".