Rock and Metal's heyday: the 80s

As the second part of my music reminiscence session (find the first one about ballads here), I chose a time that I hardly remember as I was not born or too young, but in my opinion spawned some of the best music the planet has ever seen. Of course, I am talking about the 80s. For various strange reasons, musically I even like that era of pop music with its overuse of synthesizers. Let's call it my pet peeve.
But back to the good stuff. 80s metal is awesome, the stuff they wore not so much. One striking feature that they all wore (all the way to the early 90s, by the way) apart from jeans or leather is bright white trainers. I kid you not, I will try and find the original video clips of the songs and you can see for yourself. Of course, Lemmy from Motörhead is an exception... he had white cowboy boots.

I found (and still find) it very hard to choose just a couple of songs representing the music that I listened to*.  Metallica alone had at least a dozen songs from that time, spanning several albums that I could mention. I settled for excluding songs that I will most likely mention in a different category (such as the German Powermetal Bands). This time, a couple of hits entered the favorites, too (unbelievable, I know). I have to, however, disappoint all the Glam Rock and Hair Metal fans. I was never into it and I find nothing manly about dressing as a woman. I listened to Twisted Sister very occasionally, but that genre never appealed to me.

Anyhow, enough waffling, let's hit it off. I'll start with a man that was partially responsible for the development of metal, good ole Ozzy Osbourne! This was after he left Black Sabbath to follow his own projects. Embarrassingly, I associate this song most with GTA and the Vice City series, as I heard it on V-ROCK. Still a fantastic song and the video shows an Ozzy that is not yet marked by his drug overuse. Fantastic track!

"Bark at the Moon" from the Album "Bark at the Moon"

I'll best carry on with Metallica's "Master of Puppets" Album. The monumental album written in 1985. This album is epic. I could have also mentioned a track from "Kill Em All", "Ride the Lightning" or "...And Justice For All" each with iconic tracks that I listened, but personally "Master of Puppets" was an album I actively listened to for days on end. The sheer aggression in James Hetfield's voice, the driving rhythm guitar and drums with Cliff Burton's virtuoso bass playing (the last recording before his tragic death), it all fascinated me and I couldn't stop listening to it. I find the opening track to be a splendid representation of the whole album.

"Battery" from the album "Master of Puppets"

How could I write such a list without the mighty Motörhead. The most prominent representative of the 'Heavy Metal Umlaut' (Mötley Crüe being another notable member). Strangely, I hardly ever listened to them at home, but during my time studying in Glasgow and Manchester, they toured pretty much every year and I saw them at least once a year, but usually more often as they also were at the festivals I went to. Live there is so much energy in the room (well on Open Air Festivals in the field, I guess). It's already a miracle that Lemmy is still alive, that chain smoking, coke snorting son of a gun. An idol and someone to look up to? Hardly. A remarkable human being? No doubt!

Of course, I chose "Ace of Spades" as it is the song that defines them best. Here the video with the original band with Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, "Fast" Eddie Clarke and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. Enjoy!

"Ace of Spades" from the album "Ace of Spades"

Now to a man that I admired quite a bit: Ronnie James Dio. What a voice, he had. He was known for being a cornerstone of the Heavy Metal scene ever since he sang for Rainbow. They say, he was the first person to sing about fantasy themes (thus sparking the Powermetal movement; I will always be thankful to him for that) in the Song "Stargazer". Apparently he was popular among fans and fellow artists alike. His appearance in the film "The Pick of Destiny", that was born from the joke song "Dio" by Tenacious D is a great example of that.

I listened to the song 'Holy Diver' for the first time in the car of my older brother (6 years my senior) who usually is a big Hip Hop aficionado (something I forgive him for introducing me to Dio). It shows everything that is awesome about this style of music. A voice that just takes you out of your seat and great melodies (both keyboard and guitars). Ronnie James Dio was a true pioneer of the music and until his death in 2010 at 67 years of age, he defined and inspired Heavy Metal music as it is today. Dio, I salute you.

"Holy Diver" from the album "Holy Diver"

Already four songs and so many more to go! I only just realised "how much" I was influenced by the music from that period! Incredible!

The following band, Savatage, is one of those bands where I only ever listened to very specific songs. I had the pleasure of being able to watch them at the Wacken Open Air before they split up for good. The gig was fantastic and pretty much a Best Of of their songs up to that date. I still remember Jon Oliva's quote after an error in the keyboard intro to the first encore, "Edge of Thorns". Calm as daisies, he mumbled into the mike: "Man, thirty thousand people watching and I f*#! up."

By that time (W:O:A 2002), the tragic death of the founding member and lead guitarist, Criss Oliva (he was killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver in Oct. 1993), already happened and arguably the band's creative zentith had passed. Afterwards, brother Jon Oliva, the other founding member, formed Jon Oliva's Pain and the focus shifted to that band and to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

The song "Hall of the Mountain King" from the same album is a great track, showboating all of what made Savatage a great band. There were other songs, I could have mentioned, but these were written in the early 90s, so I opted for this one.

"Hall of the Mountain King" from the album "Hall of the Mountain King"

Ah, Iron Maiden. There isn't really much to be said about them. I add them here, because many of their best tracks were written in the 80s, but admittedly I will cheat here slightly. I chose Fear of the Dark as the song. It is easily my favourite Iron Maiden Song, but it actually came out in 1992. I could have chosen songs from "The Number of the Beast", "Powerslave", "Piece of Mind" or "Somewhere in Time", but I feel that "Fear of the Dark" still fits into this category and its just such a honking great tune. Maybe, I shall write a piece about the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and will mention it there again ;)

I must say here, I am also very impressed by Bruce Dickinson. The man is just so busy. In his freetime, he used to "work" as a trained airline pilot and he is/was quite regularly on British television in shows such "Nevermind the Buzzcocks". He makes it look like the day has more than 24 hours. Just impressive.

"Fear of the Dark" from the album "Fear of the Dark"

How could I have a list of 80s metal songs without including at least one of Manowar's songs. Despite all their rather fake, macho-antics (mostly by band leader Joey DeMaio... nnaise) that I found deterring ever since, I dunno, since I am 16 or so, their music remains pillar of my musical education. I listened to almost all their albums up and down for hours on end. I could have chosen a song from "Battle Hymns", "Hail to England", "Sign of the Hammer", the monumental "Kings of Metal" or "Fighting the World", they all would deservedly be in that list. It was hard, but I settled for the title track of "Sign of the Hammer" (I chose a lot of title tracks, I noticed...) as it is not as well-known nowadays and showcases Eric "Scream Evil" Adam's great voice and the band's unique song writing.

"Sign of the Hammer" from the album "Sign of the Hammer"

Ok, last song and how can I finish it off without mentioning Judas Priest? This band's history makes me smile. Due to Rob Halford's leather and studs attire, the band influenced what fans of the genre would wear for years to come. I find this one of music history's cruel but funny jokes. It was portrayed as very manly to wear this sort of clothes, while listening to metal. Unbeknownst, to his fans, however, Rob Halford wore it, because he is a homosexual man (he came out of the closet shortly before the millenium) and among that scene, it was a well-known way of dressing. Thus, a "homosexual" man defined how to dress very manly to show one's "heterosexuality". I really hope, I am not the only one who finds this hilarious.

What is more important for Judas Priest's music, however, is their constant will to experiment. Driven by Glenn Tipton's and K. K. Downing's guitar work rounded off by Halford's impressive vocal achievements, the band re-invented itself many times over and survived many a changing musical environment and always came out on top.

Admittedly, I mostly listened to the album Painkiller, where every song was a killer, but since it came out in 1990, I decided to go with one of their classics, to stick with the theme (One exception is ok, but two is really pushing it)

"Breaking the Law" from the album "British Steel"

This concludes my selection of the 80s metal scene. Unfortunately, I didn't show as many white trainers as I hoped, but trust me, they were part of it. I would like to, hereby, also give honorary mentions to bands such as Slayer, Megadeth and Alice Cooper who I've listened to, as well, but they never really were strong influences. I mostly listened to them, because friends listened to it at their place. So that doesn't really count. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did compiling it...

*For those who don't know the origin of these articles. It's not about the most influential songs of that era, but the bands that I listened for a long time.