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A Hungry One, on a Birthday Cake Raid Our editor-in-chief at 14 refused to mow the lawn, take out the trash or tidy his room

The Top 100 Old-School Metal Albums of All Time

www.decibelmagazine.com Publisher

Alex Mulcahy

Editor-In-Chief

Albert Mudrian

albert@redflagmedia.com

managing Editor Andrew

Bonazelli

andrew@redflagmedia.com

art director

Bruno Guerreiro

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James Lewis

marketing/ promotion

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Megan Matuzak

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Chuck BB, Mark Rudolph

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Albert Mudrian

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540.878.5756 undertones section

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Online Deciblog editor

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from the editor

Contributing Writers

alex@redflagmedia.com

Andrew Bonazelli

andrew@redflagmedia.com

Ben Umanov

Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Shawn Bosler Brent Burton Liz Ciavarella-Brenner Chris Dick Jonathan K. Dick Sean Frasier Jeanne Fury Nick Green Jonathan Horsley Scott Koerber Daniel Lake Shawn Macomber Shane Mehling Justin M. Norton Dutch Pearce Forrest Pitts Rod Smith Matt Solis Kevin Stewart-Panko Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel Contributing photographers

Shimon Karmel Scott Kinkade Ester Segarra Josh Sisk Gene Smirnov Frank White

ben@blastbeatnetwork.com

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1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Tel: 215.625.9850 / Fax: 215.625.9967 www.decibelmagazine.com

Yeah, we know some of you are gonna be pissed. We understand—Decibel’s “Top 100 Issues” are intended to heap praise and shed light on some of the darker corners of our metal universe as much they are to spark lively debate. We’re prepared to deal with the consequences—which are primarily inciting 15-year-olds to call us “poser fagz” on Instagram. One thing that we can all agree on is that the term “Old-School Heavy Metal” is certainly up for interpretation. Here’s ours: Any metal album released prior to 1989 that doesn’t adhere to extreme subgenres of metal (i.e., thrash, death, black, doom, etc.). Spoiler alert: That means you won’t find Metallica or Slayer records here. We don’t have spots for the first six Sabbath albums. And we only have room for the first six Maiden albums. This criteria, however, does not account for the sizeable gray area where “hard rock” and “heavy metal” intersect. For the most part, traditional hard rock is left outside of our list, as it owes more to blues (which clearly has very little to do with those aforementioned Maiden LPs), but its heavier purveyors are indeed represented— particularly at #16. So, yeah, it’s a slippery slope that potentially ends with debating the old-school heavy metal merits of Jethro Tull. Maybe the Grammys were right. Despite that rambling disclaimer, I proudly stand behind the 100 albums— and the over 27,000 words about them—that follow. Not necessarily because I consider myself an expert on this particular genre of music; shit, I was like seven years old when our #1 album was released. Fortunately, long-toothed… er, longtime contributors Adem Tepedelen and Adrien Begrand’s metallic tastes were formed in the pre-extreme metal era, so the guidance they each provided during this issue’s assembly was invaluable. And one final helmet tip to all of the artists from past Decibel Top 100 and year-end lists who provided their own personal top 5 old-school faves. Hail to them. I’m leaving the hall.

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To order by phone: 1.215.625.9850 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST) To order by fax: 1.215.625.9967 To order online: www.decibelmagazine.com Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19107.

albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

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presents

here’s a reason why the two Def Leppard albums on this list conclude with bylines from the editor-inchief and yours truly, the managing editor. When the former lived in Philadelphia, circa 2006, we took it upon ourselves to beg a publicist for pavilion freebies to the Lep’s painfully titled Yeah! Tour stop in neighboring shitpit Camden, New Jersey. (Journey opened, but we sadly missed what had to have been a stirring rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”) Surrounded by 50-year-old women guzzling $15 daiquiris out of guitar-shaped souvenir glasses, we were among the fortunate elite to witness “Make Love Like a Man” live. And at least like three songs from High ‘n’ Dry and Pyromania, their actual good albums, immortalized herein alongside 98 other shredtastic, fist-pumping proto-metal curiosities. Decibel has a special dank, stalactite-ridden cavern in our lifeless, black hearts for nostalgia–specifically the authoritative documentation of the unique early history of extreme music–so fluff up whatever’s left on top of your dome and go deeper than you ever thought you would into the Top 100 Old-School Heavy Metal Albums of All-Time. —Andrew Bonazelli

100

Helloween Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 1 Noise (1987)

aybe it’s a growing-up-stateside thing, but I can’t honestly say I’ve ever met a single headbanger who got into metal through Helloween. As a young teenager in the late ’80s/early ’90s, however, copies of Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 1 were damn near ubiquitous amongst the black plastic cassette towers and dilapidated bedroom floors of sonically like-minded friends and acquaintances. It just seemed to be one of those purchases aspiring connoisseurs of riffs ‘n’ pageantry heavy music made once they’d acquired all the requisite Priest and Maiden records.

Picture

Diamond Dreamer Backdoor (1982)

Back in the days before Eindhoven’s Dynamo Festival, when the guilder was the currency of national use before the Euro, international knowledge of Dutch rock music was limited to Golden Ear-

And while manifestly not as instantly iconic as the seminal jams from either of those bands, Seven Keys, Part I is nonetheless a multilayered, vital offering that rewards engagement—the gallop-gallop-pause-to-pumpfist-gallop-gallop riffage, operatic vox, general swagger and otherworldly, epic-rager-at-the-Elysian-Fields vibe are all seriously on point. “Listen now, we are calling you,” Michael Kiske croons during the breakdown of “Halloween” before wailing, “And there is magic in the air!” It is a beckoning and a boast that holds up even after all these years. Heed the call, brothers and sisters. —Shawn Macomber

ring and—maybe—Diesel. When it came to heavy metal in the late ’70s/ early ’80s, the landscape was pretty barren, despite the existence of a solid homegrown scene. Hailing from a small town in northern Holland, Picture—often credited with being the first Dutch metal band to score a record deal—managed to catch the attention of metalheads with their ears to the ground who knew that things didn’t start with America and end with the NWOBHM. Limited distribution outside their homeland meant that the quartet from Hilversum may not have set the world on fire, but their powerful stomp, sculpted twist on the harder side of the blues, and bursts of proto-speed metal (complete with double bass!) demonstrated an acumen and creative understanding of heavy sounds, and showed that metal was alive and well, even in remote outposts.

Twisted Sister

You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll Atlantic (1983)

Like the Pete Carroll-era Seahawks, Twisted Sister succeeded as much for the chip on its collective shoulder as talent.

—Kevin Stewart-Panko

No one was gonna tell them what to do: how to look, how to play, what to play. So, there was no compromise on 1983’s You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll, their first album for Atlantic. The production was better than debut Under the Blade, but their amped-up Alice Cooper-meets-Judas Priest attack remained as potent as ever. One of the greatest things about YCSRNR is that instead of opening with the title track—a typical TS statement of intent—they close the album with it, as if to say, “there’s more where this came from; we’re not going anywhere.” The band-against-the-world attitude pervades the entire record, and tracks like “The Kids Are Back,” “Like a Knife in the Back” and “We’re Gonna Make It” foreshadow a certain track on Stay Hungry that would change the band’s fortunes forever. But this is the most complete, aggressive and raw album of the band’s career. It was their Super Bowl LXVIII. —Adem Tepedelen

Jag Panzer

Ample Destruction Azra (1984)

When kids cite American heavy metal bands—new or old—they rarely give props to Colorado ragers Jag Panzer. That’s probably because Ample Destruction was issued on an underground label, and it was the group’s first and only album until 1994, some 10 years after the debut hit indie shops and traders. Nevertheless, “Warfare,” “Licensed to Kill” and “Symphony of Terror”— basically Side A—crushed, quietly setting the standard for aggro-heavy metal (mostly in Europe). Frontman Harry Conklin had an untouchable range, and his passion was also unrivaled. Likewise, guitarists Mark Briody and Joey Tafolla were also talented, if unsung players and songwriters. One spin of album closer “The Crucifix” is enough to experience Jag Panzer’s indelible power. One spin of “Warfare” is enough to hear Jag Panzer’s potential. Sadly, both were lost after Ample Destruction. Not that Jag Panzer disappeared entirely— they demoed through to 1988—but whatever momentum was gained on their debut didn’t translate to much on ’90s revival albums Dissident Alliance, The Fourth Judgement and The Age of Mastery. —Chris Dick

Grim Reaper See You in Hell Ebony (1983)

The chain of events following victory in a Battle of the Bands contest doesn’t usually end up in any amount of real success, let alone the sort of success that gets fondly looked back upon some 35 years later. However, back in the early ’80s, Worcestershire’s Grim Reaper won studio time in just such a showdown. The demo that emerged led to a deal with then-powerhouse label Ebony, and the result was the issuing of one of 1983’s most iconic albums. Featuring the rocket-powered, skyscraping vocal range of Steve Grimmett and the prodigious, fleet-fingered axeslinging of local legend Nick Bowcott, See You in Hell grabs the listener by the throat from the off. Grimmett shatters glass 30 seconds into the title track, while Bowcott complements the robust riffs in songs like “Dead on Arrival,” “Wrath of the Ripper,” and “All Hell Let Loose” with a melodic darkness and panache that exudes indirect lines of influence to Metallica and Megadeth albums to come. —Kevin Stewart-Panko

my top 5 King

Michael Schenker Group, MSG

Deceased

Y&T, Mean Streak

Fowley

Uriah Heep, Abominog

Lizzy Borden

Earthshaker In the late ’70s, Bay Area band Yesterday & Today released two mostly unremarkable hard rock albums before shortening their name to Y&T and unleashing this NWOBHM-influenced masterpiece in 1981. Like Riot’s Fire Down Under, issued the same year, Earthshaker offered evidence that there was a sea change happening in the U.S. metal scene. Basically, shit was becoming more “metallic,” with an increased emphasis on faster tempos and heavier/gnarlier riffs. It was impossible not to see a direct influence from the U.K. Earthshaker stumbles a bit with overly long power ballads “Rescue Me” and “I Believe in You,” but more than compensates with some of the most savage and aggressive material in Y&T’s (admittedly spotty) career. “Hungry for Rock” thumps like old-school Raven; “Squeeze” unleashes a nonstop of torrent of squealy riffs; “Hurricane” could have been on Metal for Muthas or one of the many Neat Records compilations of that era. The songwriting and playing are razorsharp, and the production is rock solid. Y&T followed up with two more decent albums, but utterly lost the plot by ’85. Their later missteps, however, shouldn’t overshadow the brilliance of Earthshaker.

Take a moment to study the album art for Lizzy Borden’s debut LP and, as you do, know that I forgive you for passing this one by. But also understand that while you were off making rational choices, you were missing out on a fascinating exercise in West Coast power metal. Love You to Pieces is counterweighted between a blue-collar adaptation of the NWOBHM playbook and Lizzy Borden’s own off-color, Hollywood eccentricities, giving their early Maidenand-Raven-style fastball a little Alice Cooper-esque topspin. While opener “Council for the Cauldron” asserts Borden’s batshit belligerence and technical command, it’s the ensuing track, “Psychopath,” that first alludes to their ambition. (Imagine Maiden’s “Still Life,” only with pit-stain-discolored sleeves and mascara running down its cheeks.) The following tracks only improve on this design, all the while flaunting the fantastic rhythm section Borden had at their disposal, which freckles every riff with offhand intricacies that few American outfits—outside, say, Megadeth and Riot—could even conceptualize, let alone absolutely nail. Sure, Lizzy Borden’s bird-of-prey vocals will continue to disenfranchise some, just as they should. They draw an appropriately crude and defiant tattoo on that classic album you passed up.

—Adem Tepedelen

—Forrest Pitts

Y&T

A&M (1981)

Black Sabbath, Mob Rules

Blue Öyster Cult, Fire of Unknown Origin

Love You to Pieces Metal Blade (1985)