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). "Don't Close Your Eyes" is one of the best ballads ever written. W.A.S.P. 07. 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. The Tear the House Down lineup briefly regrouped for a 25th anniversary reunion last summer, but Bruce Naumann is now working with yet another all-new lineup. Listen to the record, and these performances, and prove me wrong. * Aside from the Ozzy connections with the Rough Cutt and Britny Fox albums, heres anotherAside from being the original guitarist in Ratt(! ConflictAddict 4 yr. ago. Their take on nu metal at the time brought the machine gun precision of a band like Fear Factory, but also a . 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 . Were much better - especially live. The Welsh wonders second album, 1990s Berzerk, is a stone-cold classic featuring the greatest pop-metal anthem of the era in Love Bomb Baby. The whole damn thing. 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. 09. Posted on March 17, 2021 by Olivier in Uncategorized // 0 Comments. Another 14-times platinum-selling album, and it's one of the great debut records of all time. Queensryche is not a hair band per se, but this album bordered on pop metal and would fit right in with the genre. Record labels, radio stations, and the mainstream audience themselves all got very tired of this approach and embraced the Seattle underground sound instead, which led to a lot of bands who were all the rage only years before disband and/or become highly irrelevant. 10. If he doesnt belong at the top of this list, I dont know who does. We've decided to rank our 20 hair metal bands of all time. I got TT on 1st end LP and it's sumptuous! The Nelson brothers could write a hell of a song, because every one on this album is catchy and loaded with hooks. In fact, I myself have only learned about the following groups within the last 10 years! 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. An incredibly underrated disc. I think Hooked was still a success, but Psycho City never got the attention it deserved. Steeler Steeler (1983) 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. - In my personal opinion, two of the best damn sleaze bands nobody has ever heard of England and Wales company registration number 2008885. 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. Other bands just because I am biased, but from Divebomb - SARGANT FURY, DIMAGE and CASANOVA. In truth, this record is not the first one that people think of when they consider albums that define the 80s. Femme Fatale simply wasnt meant to be, it seems. I cant explain it, but every time I listen to it, I just see scenes from that film running through my head; its not a curse, but a blessing. Also, weve added in a few that we feel could have, or maybe even should have, been on the first list as well. Put a smile on my face and Ill make sure he sees it. So, lets flip the script, dont scramble to turn off your radio when You Give Love a Bad Name comes on, out of fear of being thought of as unworthy of your snobby friends musical respect. Thrash and hair metal made for strange bedfellows, though nobody told Two-Bit Thief. Sure, it was shallower than a puddle after a midnight shower on the Sunset Strip, but that was the point: what the hell else do you want from a band with a singer called Steve Sex Summers? In fact, I expected it and embrace it, so much so that I almost took it to heart, right up until the moment that I gave legendary KISS guitarist Ace Frehley top placement on this list. Their recordings were reissued on CD several years ago by Retrospect Records, howevergranted the disc is already out of print and fetching overly expensive prices on eBay. Although they werent truly a hair metal band, Leatherwolfs Street Ready album has many of those kinds of sonic qualities and is packed with killer songs. Looking back, though, this record is awesome. They had Michael Angelo Batio on guitar. I know I'm not alone in crossing my fingers that the band will agree to have their recordings properly reissued on CD at some point! SPREAD EAGLE (SELF TITLED) Start to finish is frigging beast mode appetite for destruction part 2, Hell yeahhhhhhhh cant wait for that to wake people up to the best or atleast 2nd best album of that era!!! I also noticed that not too many loved my placement of Asylum, and I am good with all of that. 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. Dont believe me? Overseas, things were slightly better, with the albums final single Never Gonna Die managing to reach number 21 on the Australian charts. This, their best album contains the song "Metal Health" which is, according to Kevin DuBrow, the original FU song. Aversionline 2000 - 2023. Man could Nuno shred! Ace Frehley Frehleys Comet (1987) 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). BulletBoys BulletBoys (1988) Exhibit A: the debut album New York gypsy-bohos The Throbs. While that sentiment still rings true for me, as I know all too well that many will say, Hair Metal sucks as a default response to the opening chords of Dr. Man, for real??? Bon Jovi 7800 Fahrenheit (1985) Unfortunately, in most cases, the label stuck like a nasty coffee stain, while the attempts of self-reinventing usually didn't go well. And I still think Sole Survivor is just one of the greatest rock songs ever (despite the ear-splitting treble caused by a shitty mix at the end of the song). A great early 90's pop metal album. Oh, man, yeah, checking out Leatherwolf now and I need this for sure! That's a long time. The production is flawless. You'll find this album at at least the top five of any hair metal list, and mine is no different. It was formed by the same dude who invented the most popular and inherently-flawed-leaving-endless-bullshit-marketing-for-upgrades-rather-than-just-make-a-great-product-in-the-first-place piece of guitar technology, Mr. Floyd Rose, who, although he did an acceptable job of producing and engineering both Q5 albums overall, did an unacceptable job of engineering the guitar sounds for both albums, and did not have enough finesse as a lead player to make his solos sound pleasing (although he wasnt awkward like Steve Howe, he was no George Lynch). 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 band got started in Los Angeles in the late-'80s as Young Gunns; signed a seven-album (!? Swingin Thing - Desperate Living. Underrated metal albums. Brighton Rock - Love Machine In 1991 while Metallica and Guns 'N Roses were sliding into mediocrity, Skid Row move into legendary status, improving leaps and bounds over their debut. Thanks. Full of sleaze and attitude, one of the better hair metal albums to come out at the tail end of the 80's. Metal albums that I like and that don't have much ratings: consists of the albums I currently rate 4.5* or 5* that have roughly 50 ratings or lower. The band's debut album spawned two respectable hits - "Waiting for the Big One" and "Falling In and Out of Love" - but went largely unnoticed otherwise, which led to Femme Fatale only releasing a. It deserves love too, you know? There's a great snarl to the vocals, loads of gritty riffs (and excellent guitar playing in general), etc. 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. It bombed, leaving the group with a million-dollar debt to the label, and that was that. They had stars at every position and deviated from the traditional fun hair bands at the time. Femme Fatale - Femme Fatale (1988) 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. The albums got better after their sales peak - Dog Eat Dog, and especially Ultraphobic. One of the most underrated bands in the genre. Tom Beaujour, Richard Bienstock, Chuck Eddy, Reed Fischer, Kory Grow, Maura Johnston, Christopher R . 04. They sound like Toto, Journey or Asia. 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. If not, let me jog your memory. A shameless throwback or the start of a hair metal revival? A list by TukkerPride. Not sure why Ann from NRR sits on it to this day. In Winger's case, "Pull" ended up being surprisingly good and instantly became a favorite among the band's fans. Copyright All rights reserved Care to elaborate? (Harem Scarem is sounding AMAZING so far, pretty damn sure Ill be scooping that up as soon as I can!) Winger epitomized late 80's pop metal, and seemed to be the pinup boys for all the hatred towards hair metal with the dawning of grunge.