Iron Maiden
The release of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son showed me that Maiden were not just going to churn out the same fucking album over and over again. It was very different to what we were used to and it was awesome, in some parts it was even starting to sound a bit like Jethro Tull which was quite a departure from the albums before. The evolution of sound was quite radical, so radical in fact that when it appeared they may have got cold feet and tried to get back to their more classic sound with No Prayer For the Dying, guitarist Adrian Smith decided it was time to leave. His view was that Seventh Son was more in line with where they should be heading even if it wasn’t as successful commercially.
Judas Priest
Priest released Ram It Down in 1988 at the same time as Maiden released Seventh Son. I was over the moon about getting these two albums but the rest of the world seemed to receive them differently, almost with a resigned sense of boredom. Something was happening and it wasn’t going to be pretty for Hair Metal bands. Grunge was coming and only a new breed of Metal bands, Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, Megadeth and Sepultura would survive. Thank fuck Priest saw the threat and reacted with the magnificent Painkiller.
Slayer
I confess that when I first heard Slayer I didn’t get it. Reign In Blood was just too fast and too atonal, basically too shouty. I wanted to like it but I like melody and harmony and this just seemed like fast noise. ‘Angel of Death’ is a metal masterpiece but at the time it was just too brutal for me, the subject matter was a bit nauseating. I wanted to love Slayer but just was having a hard time finding a way in. The way in was South of Heaven on high volume at the Irish Club in Hillbrow in 1988.
Megadeth
Megadeth are pound for pound a better band than Metallica. They have released consistently high quality albums for over 30 years. In my opinion there has never been a bad Megadeth album. Dave Mustaine is a true rock god, love him or hate him it cannot be denied that he is ‘Far Beyond Driven’ and his energy, determination and drive are an inspiration to us all..
Pantera
Nothing could compare with the power and aggression of Pantera. When Cowboys From Hell came out in 1990 they literally saved metal. Dime and Vinnie were still old school Van Halen style rocks stars but Phil was an anti-hero and arguably changed the whole metal frontman image from long haired good looking poser to brutal street fighter. No more spandex or even leather, now it was baggy pants and lumberjack shirts or no shirt. No-more long hair, now it was shaven heads and muscles. His vocal style was totally different to the guys that had preceeded him and the lyrics were about hate rather than love. Phil was not a happy guy and it shone through beautifully.
Metallica
Nothing could compare with the power and aggression of Pantera. When Cowboys From Hell came out in 1990 they literally saved metal. Dime and Vinnie were still old school Van Halen style rocks stars but Phil was an anti-hero and arguably changed the whole metal frontman image from long haired good looking poser to brutal street fighter. No more spandex or even leather, now it was baggy pants and lumberjack shirts or no shirt. No-more long hair, now it was shaven heads and muscles. His vocal style was totally different to the guys that had preceeded him and the lyrics were about hate rather than love. Phil was not a happy guy and it shone through beautifully.
Guns ‘n Roses
People, and rightly so, will hail Appetite For Destruction as one of the greatest Rock albums of all time. Personally I enjoyed the Use Your Illusion twins even more. Given what would happen to G ‘n’ R I am just so fucking grateful that they managed to get this amount of material out before it was too late. Axl was starting to get his hooks into the song writing process and the slower stuff like ‘November Rain’ and ‘Estranged’ were just incredibly good. I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say that of the 20 or so hours a week I spent studying in 1991 around half of them would have been spent with these two masterpieces playing in the background.
Ozzy Osbourne
Without a doubt one of the strongest albums Ozzy has ever made. In my view largely as a result of Zakk Wylde. Once again Ozzy managed to find the best guitarist around. When Ozzy dumped jake E. lee I was a bit surprised. Jake had done the heavy lifting as the guy who replaced the god that was Randy Rhoads and he had settled in or so I thought. Zakk however was a revalation and once the released No More Tears it was clear that like with Randy they were writing great songs together.
Nirvana
Nirvana were impossible to ignore, one day they just arrived on our radio’s. It was like an alien spaceship had landed. One day they were not there and the next they were and the world would have to deal with it. With the release of Nevermind Nirvana took off like a rocket and unintentionally laid waste to pretty much everything else that was going on in the Rock and Metal world at the time. Their impact and influence was huge. Seemingly overnight Grunge was all the rage. The last person who wanted all this attention was the junkie, nihilistic uber charismatic Kurt Cobain. Once ‘Teen Spirit’ got airplay the genie was well and truly out the bottle.
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam were great, more than any other band at the time they symbolised the whole Seattle vibe and the type of kids who couldn’t identify with spandex and make-up and just wanted to get back to a more down-to-earth sound and play music. Just like Punk, Grunge became a whole genre that affected everything from fashion to films. These genres never really last because the record companies get onto it and all their A&R people change overnight from wearing tight jeans and big hair to long shorts and lumberjack shirts. They are fickle mother fuckers and once they find the next big thing there is blood in the water and a whole lot of bands who are not very good jump in. The beauty of it is that the really good bands go on to become timeless classics.
Sound Garden
Sound Garden put out some really good stuff, their sound started to morph into something other than grunge in the later albums and it started to become clear that Chris Cornell would have to do other stuff like solo albums and Audioslave. Badmotorfinger was actually their 3rd album and they really started to hit their stride with Superunkown getting a No1 position on the Billboard Hot 200. Superunknown is esential listening
Alice in Chains
One of my favorite albums the Grunge years. Dust is simply put an absolutely perfect album in space and time. Just like Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, it would seem that Jerry Cantrell didn’t get the memo about no guitar solo’s in grunge. Dirt is jam packed with awesome guitar solo’s and riffs. Alice in Chains just got it all right and the songs are so strong they could never get better in my opinion: ‘Down in a Hole’, ‘Angry Chair’, ‘Rooster’ and the incredible ‘Godsmack’. In the end when it came to Layne Staley the words ”And God’s name is smack for some” turned out to be as much for him as it was for Andy Wood. Fucking tragic man 🙁
U2
If this seems a bit out of place here then bear with me because it was ahuge release in 1991 which was such a good year for music and I gave it huge airtime. I am not a big fan of U2 generally, I read a review for their debut album Boy in Scope magazine in early 1981 and the reviewer raved and wrote about it in a way that made me believe this would be my next great discovery. Sadly that was not the case and I remember being bitterly disappointed and trying harder to like it than I should have. They have some absoluely amazing stuff so I tend to pull that out of the rest of the more ‘Unforgettable’ songs. Achtung Baby however is different, it’s all good.