This one went way under the radar, but definitely deserves a spot in hair metal history. Very slick production, the epitome of pop metal. Connor Shelton described it as one of the few bands from the era to bring a level of depth . Hericane Alice formed in Minnesota in the mid-'80s, and released their debut self-titled EP in 1986 under the properly spelled name of Hurricane Alice. Haha! Shotgun Messiah - s/t & Second Coming Michael Kelly Smiths guitar work was inspired, and as usual, Johnny Dee and Billy Childs were ever the capable rhythm section. Winger - In The Heart Of The Young (1990), McQueen Street should be in this discussion and in your collection. Poison's first two usually get more recognition, but this is their finest moment. A little funky, a little southern rock, Rat Race is catchy as hell . The vocals are really an obstacle moreso on the second album. Only time will tell. Harem Scarem - Mood Swings (1993) *this one is particularly good! Dripping with attitude. Looking back, though, this record is awesome. Most of their material follows a slower, pulsing paceat times leaning a touch more towards classic, traditional heavy metal than much of this list (notably during "On My Way," dueling leads 'n' all). (I can't help but feel like the epic power ballad, "Too Late," should've been a massive hit single.) One of the most underrated bands in the genre. Heavy Bones came relatively early in Hoey's professional career (having moved from Boston to Los Angeles in the late-'80s upon the recommendation of Ozzy Osbourne, after auditioning for the position that ultimately went to Zakk Wylde), and released but one self-titled album on Reprise Records in 1992. That Beau Nasty is kicking my ass right now! IMHO opinion, there is not a single bad track on Hollands Little Monsters! 03. 07. All bands were bred in Pennsylvania. Enter Lorraine Lewis, the frontwoman with an absolutely huge voice, who led the now mostly forgotten group Femme Fatale. Edit 20-04-2011: Deleted all albums with 60 ratings or higher. ), Bulletboys singer Marq Torien was Ozzys guitarist for a brief moment after Randy Rhodes death. Location: 39629. . Their No Rules album (produced by Dana Strum!) We know, we knowthats high praise for a lowly Hair Metal band, but if you dont believe me, go hunt a copy down and listen for yourself. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago. Vinyl Writer Musics principal Andrew Daly has released his list for the 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal Era Albums. Some remain underrated despite having done moderately well in their day, while others have been lost to near complete obscurity. Kickstart your hearts and shout at the devil because en route are more huge hooks, mighty guitar licks, and most importantly, more sleaze coming your way, faster and harder than ever. Love em, Leave emAs long as their breathin! -Love on the Run. So, if youre a fan, the summer of 2021 may finally be your chance to get a taste of some late 80s sleaze. Now, beyond that, what it also did was elicit plenty of comments and responses. In fact, I myself have only learned about the following groups within the last 10 years! That being said, their Facebook page indicates that they're back in action, having digitally issued their previously unreleased EP, Last Hand, sometime last year, but time will tell. 07. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Besides, doesn't "Love Of A Lifetime" make the perfect wedding song? Robert Sarzo (Hurricane guitarist and Rudy Sarzos brother) was to be Randys replacement in Blizzard Of Ozz, not Marq Torien. If you dont, I promise youll regret it later. Britny Fox is the only band to return from part one, and while they may have been the big winners last time around, not so much this time. By that point, oversaturation was just starting to set in, and so, if you werent truly aces, you werent going to make it. Kind of the Silverchair of hair metal, you'd be surprised at how mature these youngins sound on this, their only album. Ive never been the sex, drugs, rock n roll type, ha, ha. Do NOT pass this one up. Stay tuned for a potential part 3! The album is probably best known for its controversial cover, which featured a basically naked woman straddling a giant fishing hook. fans weren't really expecting may have only hindered this otherwise amazing release, which, coupled with other unfortunate circumstances, made the supporting tour for the album arrive 15 whole years too late. Man, for real??? As you might expect, it's extremely hard to find Joker's CDs, and even if you do, the prices will almost certainly be total bullshit. Pure attitude from a band that actually lived it. Bon Jovi 7800 Fahrenheit (1985) Its also remembered as the official debut of the now-iconic Bon Jovi logo that we have all come to know and love, and while there arent too many songs that would make a standard greatest hits list, save for In and Out of Love, this record is filled with heavy-hitting deep cuts that are sure to satiate your appetite for sleazecakes. So being that I grew up on this stuff and have been doing a hair metal podcast for 20 years Ill lay on a few more underrated jems: BANG TANGO Psycho Cafe, DANGEROUS TOYS self-titled debut, LYNCH MOB Wicked Sensation, DON DOKKEN Up From the Ashes, FIREHOUSE self-titled debut, KIX Hot Wire, XYZ Hungry, ICON self-titled debut, BANYLON A.D. self-titled debut, CHILDS PLAY Rat Race, EXTREME self-titled debut, RACER X Second Heat, SLEEZE BEEZ Screwed, Blued, & Tattooed, and lastly Y&T, they have so many underrated albums it is mind blowing. While its not a pure Hair/Glam record, and the band did begin to experiment a little, at the end of the day, its grimy, its sleazy, and it slays. I don't consider Van Halen a hair band per se, but I swear, every guitarist in the 80's wanted to be Eddie Van Halen, and their songs would fit right into the hair metal genre. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! Mixing metal, punk, and glam, everything on this album just clicked perfectly. Underrated hair metal songs. The internet would suggest that they also released a 7" and a full-length cassette, but I can't find any real evidence of such. I wasnt a fan at all. Not a year after their formation, their debut BulletBoys was climbing the charts, and by 1989, it had gone gold. From there, Warner Brothers gave Rough Cutt one last shot, and the group recorded their next record in 1986, called Want You!, which also completely stalled. Most people will recall this as The record that came out after The Final Countdown, or The record that came out after John Norum left the band. For many reasons, this is a pretty sad state of affairs, as this record is really, honestly nearly as good as The Final Countdown, if not, dare I say itbetter. It kinda sucks when your biggest hit is a cover song, although probably nobody knew that back in 1989. While she may not have been a pure speed shredder, she more than made up for it with tasteful and melodic licks, which always fit Vixens songs like a glove. You'll find this album at at least the top five of any hair metal list, and mine is no different. Def Leppard officially stepped into pop metal territory with this one. The result? Packed with more hits than Illusion 1, I prefer this one over that one. They should have been huge! All across the board, there are just too damn many to choose from: And all of this barely scratches the surface, so please include your own recommendations in the comments below! Here is where people will start screaming. This is an album that was completely buried by the Alt-Rock and Grunge craze that was sweeping the nation in the early 90s. ), $2.1 million dollar record deal with Capitol Records in 1990; then ended up changing their name to Wildside due to a cease and desist related to the Young Guns movies. They did tend to fall just a tad short with their ballads, but for each of those you've got a counterbalance such as the bluesy vibrato, nasty pinch harmonics, and big chorus of "Clock Strikes." But their debut album was pop-metal perfection what featherweight party anthems Toast Of The Town, Rock And Roll Outlaws and shoulda-been-massive single Rock & Roll (Is Gonna Set The Night On Fire) lacked in heaviosity they made up for in pleather-trousered attitude. East Coast glam metal was darker and weirder than its Californian cousin. Fun Fact: Lorraine Lewis would revive Femme Fatale in 2013, this time with a truly all-female line-up, only to fold the band once again to join Vixen in 2019. Some will say their success is attributed to the novelty of women playing Metal. Alleycat Scratch - Deadboys in Trash City At that time their songs were a little longer and less good time/party oriented, but they ended up relocating to Los Angeles in the late-'80s, and eventually vocalist Bruce Naumann (who had been the last member to join the group) was working with an entirely new lineup. Well, in the wake of the Hot In The Shade screw-job, the band still managed to book a nice tour of well-paying gigs and were set to depart, when Dean The Diva Davidson decided to split and make a go of it on his own. When I wrote Return to the Sunset Strip: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal-Era Albums, I didnt really know what to expect. Blue Murder Blue Murder (1989) That said, there is another piece to this entire feedback puzzle, and thats the comments that went something like, You forgot this album, or, How could you leave out this or that one? So, we listened, and we took a great many of your suggestions to heart, and Ive added some of them to this latest edition. Total nostalgia trip for me. One of many other early 80's albums that influenced a whole generation of hair metalheads throughout the rest of the 80's. 1. Saigon Kick was a band that knew how to write one hell of a hook. Some of the artists below released albums on major labels and may have done alright in their day, but they certainly don't get spoken of in the same regard as biggies like Mtley Cre, Skid Row, etc. It sent the glam cognoscenti into a tizzy, even if the rest of humanity remained heroically indifferent. Now, in the 80s, you basically had two types of Guitar Gods: the Neo-Classical speed shredders, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Vincent, Mark St. John, and Vito Bratta, and on the other side of the spectrum were the players who were more rooted in the 70s Classic Rock and Blues, such as Slash, CC Deville, Bruce Kulick and of course, Mick Sweda. Who ever thought that Def Leppard could make an album that would outsell Pyromania? Other tracks worth calling out include "4:AM T.M." Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by R79, Jan 27, 2022. BulletBoys came with a pedigree right from the start, as the band was founded by Mick Sweda (guitar), who had already starred in the also underrated King Kobra. The worlds biggest and best metal magazine, (Image credit: Getty Images/Scott Dudelson/Brian Rasic), Robb Flynn: "This gang threatened to throw grenades onstage while I played". Never heard of Oney but Im intrigued by what I hear on YouTube. - Next to Under the Influence by Wildside, this is the best debut album not called Appetite for Destruction. I mean, come on, it's impossible not to sing along to "Mackinaw Avenue" or "Change"the latter of which is practically a full-on pop song, though the quality of the writing and musicianship gives it an edge that avoids the overly pristine sheen of lesser (yet more successful) outfits like Danger Danger or Firehouse. First off, Extreme wasn't all that big on the glam thing despite being labeled as such for most of their active years, and this labeling can be even more baffling nowadays when the first Extreme song that comes to your average Joe's mind ends up being "More Than Words" in the vast majority of cases. Original Scorpions albums sound A-OK so can't see why yaow'd bovver wiv reworkings. Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Next > R79 Forum Resident Thread Starter. It bombed, leaving the group with a million-dollar debt to the label, and that was that. The album was well-received critically, but sadly, the band was unable to reward Warners confidence in them, and the album never made a dent in the US charts. Perhaps more than any other group on this list, Wildside truly should have been "the next big thing" given the circumstances surrounding their debut album. If youre one of them, stop reading now and beat it. It's also worth noting that their early tracks as Young Gunns were equally awesome, and the B-sides from Under the Influence are pretty incredible (to the point of being significantly better than some of the album tracks, not that it would've made a difference in the end, sadly). Davy Vain made his name producing Bay Area thrashers Death Angel, but he had a glam metal heart. They had a couple of songwriting contributions from Jim Vallance and Kiss' Paul Stanley (the former having co-written hits such as Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" and Aerosmith's "Rag Doll"). This is easily their greatest album. Theme: The Road to The Roxy: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal-Era Albums Part II, Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), My fingers feel possessed on the EC-1000! Rounding out this powerhouse line-up was Share Ross on bass and the thunderous Roxy Petrucci on drums, who is as hard a hitting drummer as youll ever hear. That's a long time. A shameless throwback or the start of a hair metal revival? Contains one of the mostly widely recognized power ballads "More Than Words," but "Decadence Dance" is the albums killer cut. Great article, as usual! Real Steel (well done for resisting Reel) are the pick of the bunch for me, almost hints of Manowar circa Fighting The World on there 2 thumbs up! Warrant has had the unfortunate fate of being arguably one of the best hair metal bands out there and arrive at the scene too late for what it wanted to do. There are tons and tons of other glam/hair metal bands that never quite received their due (hell, I'd argue that bands like Lynch Mob and Vain still deserve a little more love). I still dont really know what makes something good or bad, and I really dont think I am qualified to tell you what you should like or dislike. It's a very solid record, though, highlighted by the superb "Dead End St." (included above)a dark, brooding power ballad complete with emotive leads and vocals. Tuff arrived on the scene about 3 years too late when hair metal was just about dead. It did away with the bland glam-like stuff Kiss adopted during the '80s in order to get in line with the mainstream sound of the time, and with powerful tracks such as "Unholy", "Domino", and "Heart of Chrome", it reintroduced the hard rock element in Kiss' sound in a very original and appealing way. Especially the song Gotta Run. 06. A good snotty, snarly album. But their debut is way more fun: a rough-arsed glam-punk gem that came on like Poison, if Brett Michaels had grown up in Cardiff and spent every Saturday night getting in a fight down Bogiez. The McAuley/Schenker albums don't get much love in general but, though they do indeed sound very late-80s, they're full of good songs and feature both main men in excellent form For every Axl Rose or Nikki Sixx, there were hundreds of also-rans, buffoons and no-hopers who crashed and burned before they had a chance to leave any lasting mark. Bon Jovi's best selling album. 13 Most Underrated Hair Metal Albums Of All Time!! 01. The best LPs from the age of Aqua Net. Wanna know the details? 5 Underrated Hair Metal Albums - YouTube A response to the article on the Goldminemag website about 5 Underrated Hair Metal Albums that every record collector should. Marq did, however, play guitar with Ratt in their early days. Ah, Tigertailz: the band the Manic Street Preachers could have been. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Maybe even an old T-shirt laying around! When I was talking about the Warrant line-up, I just meant the classic line-up. 02. The one that gave birth to the entire genre. You couldn't go two hours without seeing a Whitesnake video on MTV back in '87. Its no joke that their debut was produced by Paul Northfield, the inimitable force behind Moving Pictures and the song Empire by Queensryche (just a couple of my favorites in a cool career), two completely different examples of dark rock sounding fantastic. King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew released his most successful solo album while he was playing arenas around the world as the musical director for David Bowie's . More straight hard rock, than pop metal. And while the album's lyrical content never really departed from the usual glam topics, the sheer power and utter lack of compromise found on songs such as "Monkey Busyness", "Slave to the Grind", and "Wasted Time" managed to win audiences over on their own, propelling the album to the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart. I listen to tons of bands that I dont agree with lyrically, though (christian bands, satanic bands, krishna bands, etc.). I wouldnt exactly call them glam. Problem was the masses didnt want smart or classy, so they just went and bought their zillionth copy of Appetite For Destruction instead. The follow-up album "Blood from Stone" was released in 1991. Fans of Heavy Bones might also want to check out vocalist Joel Ellis previous band Cats In Boots (specifically the 1989 album Kicked And Klawed). Real Steel opened for the Bulletboys, Bang Tango, and Gorky Park in their day, and apparently had interest from several labels (almost signing with Warner Bros.). They hired Tommy Paris as their new lead singer, called up Zakk Wylde and Rikki Rockett to guest star, and proceeded to make a balls-to-the-wall Glam Metal album. 04. Just great guitar shredding all over this album. Wait, what? White Lion are actually my second favorite hair band, but I know they won't rank high on any all time list simply because they were considered wimpy, mainly because they loaded their albums with love songs. This is a band that was supremely talented but simply didnt hang around long enough to really make any waves. Jani Lane, Joey Allen and Steven Sweet are not original members of Warrant. Good lists. If anyone at all loves Cock Rock, No Respect by Vain should be in their collection, and Davy Vains subsequent efforts have all been respectable. At the end of the day, time hasnt ever been kind to this record, and it can be had for cheap. Care to elaborate? No filler and great guitar playing. Simply put, if you want to put your art out into the world, you better be prepared to take some heat, which is something any self-respecting hair metal artist can certainly understand. Vinyl Writer MusicsThe Road to The Roxy: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal Era Albums Part II: Now, let's begin. Warrant's biggest seller, though not quite their best (see Dog Eat Dog), but this album is what early 90's hair metal was all about. If not, let me jog your memory. I had forgotten about that band! The former is annoying and yet also expected. As grunge became all the rage during the early '90s, these albums never got the attention they really deserved. Britny Fox were doing lines of coke off of Elton Johns piano while in the studio making Bite Down Hard. Coverdale & Co. best selling album. Best selling and most recognizable of TS's output, it is also their best. The album that kind of fused metal and glam into one. The 1990s started out with DS-1 distortion pedal grunge bands viciously stomping on the global spandex-wearing hair-metal movement from the decade before and ceremoniously ended with the rise. Contraband - s/t The album was critically panned and another commercial failure. The band itself was formed in 1982, and the original Mk.1 lineup actually featured legendary guitar hero Jake E. Lee, while Lee would leave Rough Cutt in 1983, to join Ozzy Osbourne as a replacement for the recently deceased Randy Rhodes (freak plane crash), soon to sign on were former members of Ratt in Chris Hager (guitar) and Matt Thorr (bass). 50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums of All Time. You can read Dalys comments for each album at Vinyl Writer Musics website. THE TWILIGHT OF HAIR METAL: FIVE UNDERRATED & MUST OWN ALBUMS " billy hardaway says: March 23, 2018 at 10:26 am. Yes. You simply live in a cave if you have not heard at least one song from this album. I just have to say that I typed their breathin instead of theyre breathin after a marathon of not sleeping. However, in 2019, Mick did rejoin BulletBoys. i hung around with Joker in the old days and went to High school with the guitarist.I hope they do come back. Slaughter were hair metal and were damn proud to be hair metal. 08. After even more line-up shuffling, the group finally settled into what would be known as their Mk.3 line-up, which would also come to be their most successful. It was this line-up that recorded the now dusty gem Rough Cutt for the major label, Warner Brother Records. And yeah, anyone unfamiliar, Divebomb has reissued some GOLD in this realm, so pick them up while you still can: They had stars at every position and deviated from the traditional fun hair bands at the time. Roxy Blue. Underrated metal albums. Ive never heard Cats in Boots or Harem Scarem so Ive got some Googling to do! However, as the Grunge revolution came about in the early '90s, Kiss albums saw a significant decrease in sales numbers, and "Revenge" was no exception. Theyre the bands were raising a large Jack Daniels and coke to here the ones who never got their time in the neon glare of fame despite making at least one killer record. Less than two years later, they had already been dropped by Capitol before the end of 1993, in large part due to the fact that grunge was taking over. Other notables: [deleted] 3 yr. ago. Stay up to date with in depth music reviews, exclusive interviews and widespread coverage of whats happening from your favourite music genre. Bath Full of sleaze and attitude, one of the better hair metal albums to come out at the tail end of the 80's. Yes the vocals are an acquired taste, but, hell, I got used to Scott Jeffreys once, and I was able to get used to Steve Hayman after that. Excellent article. Back then, pretty much anyone with a can of Aquanet hairspray and a guitar could bag themselves a platinum record and free entry to any strip club in town. Completely badass feel, and I really think they wouldve ruled the rock world if the vocalist had made a better style choice. "Headed For A Heartbreak" is an awesome ballad. . Brighton Rock - Love Machine Man could Nuno shred! Copyright All rights reserved 10. However, it also proved to be not very radio-friendly in a couple of ways 1) for being a record by a "glam" band, and 2) for having rather mature lyrical content. #shorts, Imagining the World Through the Eyes of John Lennon, I Love It Loud: 20 of Gene Simmonss Most Overlooked Tracks, Traversing the Abyss: A Guide to Obscure 70s Rock. He seems to be singing about an octave and a half lower on the first one, and the overall energy on Lettin Loose is far greater. Having seen him live several times over the years, I can attest that he still packs the house, and his fans still love these tracks. I am well aware that Bon Jovi is not underrated, but I wouldnt be doing my job with this list, if I didnt create a little controversy by stirring the pot, so welcome to Jersey, heres Jon Bon Jovi and his band of merry minstrels. DLR's full length debut (after a 4 song EP in 1985). Blackie Friggin Lawless. This album should be the focal point for Jani Lane's legacy, NOT Cherry Pie. Then others like RAZORMAID, PHANTOM BLUE, COLD SWEAT, GREAT KING RAT, 220 VOLT, SKAGARACK, TRASH, MASS, AMERICAN ANGEL etc. 05. Were much better - especially live. I got TT on 1st end LP and it's sumptuous! When it comes down to it, the 1980s was an interesting time in general. If he doesnt belong at the top of this list, I dont know who does. Overseas, things were slightly better, with the albums final single Never Gonna Die managing to reach number 21 on the Australian charts. And yet, "Revenge" did stand out among its predecessors in several ways. You remember Great White, right? If Tear the House Down had hit the streets just two years earlier, I bet Hericane Alice would've been at least as successful as the Bulletboys, so it's a shame they never got the chance. While the era of 80s Hair Metal and Glam is mostly known as being predominantly male, several females infiltrated the scene and staked their claim as well. Another 14-times platinum-selling album, and it's one of the great debut records of all time. 09. And while the album never saw a significant spike in the number of copies sold, "Revenge" did manage to draw enough attention to give Kiss a new lease on life, effectively saving the NYC iconic band from drifting into obscurity. Posted on March 17, 2021 by Olivier in Uncategorized // 0 Comments. Yeah, the Chicago bands none-more-unique selling point was perma-squinting frontman Stanley who, when he wasnt spitting out genius fuck-you anthems Jawohl Asshole and Fuckin Shit-Ass, lived on the street and had the malodorous clothes and propensity for shitting in public to prove it. And how many comparable artists had successful tracks along the lines of "Stand Up, Shout it Out" or "Say Yeah!"!? But the public proved resistant to the hard sell, and Vain were left sitting forlorn and alone on the sidewalk while lesser groups were whisked behind the velvet rope of fame. This album kicks so much ass I had a really hard time selecting which track to highlight above, but the fast-paced energy and raging, bluesy riffing of the album's title track brought it home in the end. Its like Dee Snider said, Were Not Gonna Take It, and for Hair-Metalheads, we wouldnt have it any other way. SPREAD EAGLE, GREAT ALBUM = TO APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION. By 1991, most hair bands had removed the hairspray and makeup and it seems Stevie Rachelle and Co. were trying to revive it. Q5s first album is a classic but the second one was tragic. But before we go on, bands like Def. However, make no mistake-their third record Bite Down Hard, is a rager. Looking back, its hard to pinpoint why this record failed, as it seemingly had all the ingredients to ascend to great heights. Andrew, my cousin Scott Smalley is/was lead vocals/bass for Real Steel! The hard rock "Thriller." (Harem Scarem is sounding AMAZING so far, pretty damn sure Ill be scooping that up as soon as I can!) They quickly rose through the ranks and paid their dues through club gigs and were noticed pretty quickly, and in relatively short order, signed with MCA Records and recorded their eponymous debut record, Femme Fatale. Yeah, thats pretty much it. "Their punk rock attitude took sleaze/hair metal in a refreshing direction that was dangerous. Femme Fatale simply wasnt meant to be, it seems. Vain was less poppy than most cock rock bands, and they just had a serious vibe in their sound. Mick parlayed the cache he had built up into a major label deal, with Warner Brothers Records, and with Marq Torien (vocals), Lonnie Vincent (bass), and Jimmy DAnda (drums), the BulletBoys were born. While there's a good handful of underrated bands of this ilk that do still get mild exposure here and there, I'm for the most part trying to stick with personal favorites that I've never even encountered on satellite radio channels such as Hair Nation, etc.
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