Mixing metal, punk, and glam, everything on this album just clicked perfectly. I would KILL to reissue the Tuff Luck album too. One of the most underrated bands in the genre. 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! I'm not being "ironic" here. http://. Enuff Z'Nuff is when the Beatles become a hair metal band. Less popular and less keyboardy than Slippery, but much better. Wildside did release one more album in 1995 (on an indie label), but had undergone some lineup changes and a complete shift in sound by that pointironically enough taking a stab at the grungier style that had destroyed their initial shot at success. IMHO opinion, there is not a single bad track on Hollands Little Monsters! Of course, there definitely were more than six '90s "glam" albums that deserve a second chance, so you're more than welcome to post further suggestions in the comments below. 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! Still, damn good sleaze metal. But Stained Glass is A-grade arena rock like they used to make before Nirvana came along and curled out a turd in the punchbowl. Ive never heard Cats in Boots or Harem Scarem so Ive got some Googling to do! Sure, it lacked big-budget gloss, and original singer Steevi Jaimz sounded like he was ready to chin anybody who dared look at his pint wrong, but Young And Crazy bristled with the kind of attitude every pack of Sunset Strip poodles would have sold their grannies to have. Aversionline 2000 - 2023. 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. (I can't help but feel like the epic power ballad, "Too Late," should've been a massive hit single.) Britny Fox Britny Fox was in the same league as Poison and Cinderella in the hair metal band corner of rock in the '80s. I got TT on 1st end LP and it's sumptuous! Best Song . Tesla had no gimmick. 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. Totally with you on many of your other suggestions. 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. 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. Not a year after their formation, their debut BulletBoys was climbing the charts, and by 1989, it had gone gold. I think Hooked was still a success, but Psycho City never got the attention it deserved. The album was critically panned and another commercial failure. Best Moment: The ambient breakdown in the title track, which leads to a gut-punch guitar solo whose final note resonates for almost 30 seconds. As far as I can tell they only made a music video for the lead track, "Wild, Young, and Crazy," but almost every song herein is better than good, and several are fucking outstanding. Thanks. It needs to be out there and readily available. However, make no mistake-their third record Bite Down Hard, is a rager. 08. It deserves love too, you know? Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Next > R79 Forum Resident Thread Starter. I didn't discover this album until a few years ago, and it, too, has slowly inched its way into my all-time hair metal Top 10. One of many other early 80's albums that influenced a whole generation of hair metalheads throughout the rest of the 80's. Cruella DVille - Showdown in Tinsel Town The album was recorded at Eddie Van Halen's 5150 home studio, and Wildside was the first band other than Van Halen to record there. 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). 3) This album was produced by Eddie Kramer, and it simply rocks. 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. Seriouslyher lead work is some of the best of the era, in my opinion. Appreciate the comment. Speaking of hooks, lets kick this thing off with. The result was a killer record that confused the shit out of thrashers and glammies alike. Looking back, though, this record is awesome. 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. Kix had kind of an AC/DC vibe, but this album is pure hair metal. all the bands on your list kick ass! One of my favorite albums of all time!!!! 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). So "glam" and/or "hair" it is.]. Probably everyone on Earth has heard "Rock You Like A Hurricane.". I can't tell if they're still active or not, but Wildside does have a Facebook page that's touting a remastered re-release of Under the Influence this year, and I'll be all over that if it becomes a reality. You probably remember them for their platinum and multiplatinum albums One Bitten and its 1989 follow-up Twice Shy, and with good reason, as these albums are classic but certainly are not underrated. It was on the LA rockers' sophomore studio album where Warrant began showing what it was capable of, and while "Cherry Pie" definitely got the attention it deserved, you couldn't say the same for its follow-up, 1992's "Dog Eat Dog", despite it being a much better album. One of the most underrated bands in the genre. We've decided to rank our 20 hair metal bands of all time. Enter Lorraine Lewis, the frontwoman with an absolutely huge voice, who led the now mostly forgotten group Femme Fatale. Extreme: The thinking person's hair metal band. The latter was gratifying and gave me a certain sense of mission accomplishment. A demo produced by Metallicas Kirk Hammett was followed by a self-titled debut album full of dirtier-than-a-used-hypodermic tracks like Doghouse, Too Much T-Bone and semi-immortal single Half The Way Valley. 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. However, that doesn't mean that there was no glam-labeled music being released at the time. To be honest, by rights, Warrant really had no business releasing a Hair Metal album in late 1992, but they did it anyway, and the results are perhaps their best record. A great early 90's pop metal album. 06. These are the forgotten heroes of hair metal. 07. Bon Jovi 7800 Fahrenheit (1985) Oh, man, yeah, checking out Leatherwolf now and I need this for sure! Not quite as big a seller as "Lean Into It," "Mr. Big" is the debut from a band that should have ruled the world. A good snotty, snarly album. April 6, 2021 Connor Shelton Features, KTRM-FM, Music, Reviews. 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." To nobody's surprise, "III Sides to Every Story" followed that labeling trend as well, but what you could hear on that album was anything but stereotypical glam. It caused enough friction that eventually they produced alternate covers, which featured the womens body dipped into the water, covering up her cleavage and effectively de-sleazing this record. So, that does itI think. Many bands would have given up right then and there, and no one would have blamed Britny Fox for packing it in, but after all, they had been through, I suppose that wasnt an option. Wait, what? I loved this kind of music when I was a kid, and I still love it now. Shortly after the Retrospect Records reissue, Real Steel performed at Rocklahoma 2008 and were talking about working on new material, but it would appear nothing much came of that. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago. Davy Vain made his name producing Bay Area thrashers Death Angel, but he had a glam metal heart. Its worth every second. Early 90's pop metal at it's finest, this is a hair metal fest from start to finish. Ah, Tigertailz: the band the Manic Street Preachers could have been. . (Harem Scarem is sounding AMAZING so far, pretty damn sure Ill be scooping that up as soon as I can!) 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. 06. This one also gave birth to the tern "pop metal," and made metal accessible to screaming girls everywhere. Southgang - Tainted Angel If theyd been born 30 years earlier, Station would have been as big as Def Leppard, or at least Trixter. Bon Jovi's best selling album. Location: 39629. . During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! I listen to tons of bands that I dont agree with lyrically, though (christian bands, satanic bands, krishna bands, etc.). Erotic Suicide - Abusement Park & Perseverance Then again, "Heat Me Up" is a prime cut of typically structured hair metal with a raspier snarl to the vocals; while "She's Untouchable" combines crunchy rhythms, fluid melodies, and slick vocal harmonies. This is a band that was supremely talented but simply didnt hang around long enough to really make any waves. As for the comments, they ranged from things like, This album sucks all the way to, This is awesome! is fantastic. 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. Sunset Strip: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal-Era Albums didnt really garner a whole lot of harsh words per se, but I did see a great many surmise that I, Must be a big KISS fan, which is true. Categories: Genre [List226813] | +37. Tommy Paris filled some big shoes and did so with grace and ease. 1. This, along with a few other releases in 1983, blew the door wide open for metal to gain mainstream success. #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. Copyright All rights reserved Were much better - especially live. You can read Dalys comments for each album at Vinyl Writer Musics website. Now, beyond that, what it also did was elicit plenty of comments and responses. http:// Powerful, but still memorable. I wasnt a fan at all. In his time with Carmine Appices King Kobra, Mick had learned a thing or two and had turned himself into a true songsmith, and by the time he formed BulletBoys, he was raring and ready to go. 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. 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. 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. 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 second album shouldve just been the actual soundtrack to Bloodsport. Remember Rough Cutt? The perfect hair metal album, and one of the last ones before the glory days came to an end. Gotta do some digging there. Google, here I come! Surprised to see this at Number One? Love/Hate - Blackout In The Red Room (1990) Well, I am here to tell you that those people are assholes. 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. In retrospect, the tone and style of the record truly are the last of what we have come to know as Glam Metal styling, as not too many albums like it came out afterward if any did at all. While the late Meat Loaf was a true showman with a near-operatic voice, Bat Out of Hell featured an . It sent the glam cognoscenti into a tizzy, even if the rest of humanity remained heroically indifferent. Their No Rules album (produced by Dana Strum!) The Nelson brothers could write a hell of a song, because every one on this album is catchy and loaded with hooks. Now, this album did end up going gold at some point, but over time, its fallen into complete obscurity for anyone besides truly devout fans of the band, which is a sad thing. Another decent glam band that came out of Chicago was Holland. 05. Every song on here is just infectious. KISS Asylum (1985) 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). Im sure I can get my hands on recordings for you if youd like. With a much harder edge than the previous release, the second album was produced in Los Angeles by renowned Keith Olsen. One of the many albums in the early 80's that helped bring metal to the mainstream. The only thing louder than the clack of high heels on the pavement outside the Rainbow was the ker-ching of cash registers as Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Poison, Cinderella, Ratt, Slaughter and the rest hoovered up the record sales. Love it or hate it, but you cant deny that Superstitious slays and it might just be Europes greatest ever track. Never heard of Oney but Im intrigued by what I hear on YouTube. Some good and some bad, which I am OK with, as it comes with the territory of writing, especially when it comes to this topic. With Kiss being one of the biggest names from rock's history that continued kicking in a (more or less) healthy manner to this day, I'm not sure you could really call any Kiss album underrated. You couldn't go two hours without seeing a Whitesnake video on MTV back in '87. - In my personal opinion, two of the best damn sleaze bands nobody has ever heard of 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! I'll never understand what it is that makes some bands "click" while others that are just as good if not better simply fade away into relative obscurity. An around pop metal romp in the early 90's, one of the last bands to come out of the genre successfully before the ship sank. Stay up to date with in depth music reviews, exclusive interviews and widespread coverage of whats happening from your favourite music genre. Say what you will about KISS or my placement of this record, but there is no denying its greatness. Shotgun Messiah - s/t & Second Coming 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. Thanks so much for the comment! Ironically, this record is probably regarded as Warrants strongest record from a critical standpoint, whatever thats worth. 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. Now that weve got my justification out of the way lets talk significance. A list by TukkerPride. Wake Me When It's Over (1989) Full of sleaze and attitude, one of the better hair metal albums to come out at the tail end of the 80's. Had a minor hit with "House of Pain," but never really went anywhere. Britny Fox were doing lines of coke off of Elton Johns piano while in the studio making Bite Down Hard. But the music on this album is so infectious, you really won't care if they had no gimmick. I totally agree with Q5 and Heavy Pettin for sure! 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. There's an additional layer of irony to this since Warrant's main arranger and vocalist Jani Lane admitted that he wasn't exactly fond of "Cherry Pie", and that the whole album ended up being a dollop of glam cheese (although the cheese in question must have been some gourmet shit) simply because that's what was selling at the time. 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.). A bit more polished and focused than their debut, which I personally prefer over this one, but this is the album that blew the door open for the entire 80's hair metal genre. The hair came down, the makeup came off, and Poison actually started to write music with a message. Overseas, things were slightly better, with the albums final single Never Gonna Die managing to reach number 21 on the Australian charts. 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). This album is one that was sort of at odds with itself upon its release. 03. should be legally required to record a cover version of "Party for Your Life" (embedded above)! Britny Fox Bite Down Hard (1991) Simple answer underrated yes. East Coast glam metal was darker and weirder than its Californian cousin. 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). Blackie Friggin Lawless. 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White Tiger White Tiger (1986) The guitar tone is annoying, but When the Mirror Cracks has some KILLER songs. 04. The band's debut album, "Out of the Silence", was recorded at Joni Mitchell's private studio in Beverly Hills, and released in 1988 on A&M Records. Packed with more hits than Illusion 1, I prefer this one over that one. People didnt give a shit then either. If not, youre not alone. I also noticed that not too many loved my placement of Asylum, and I am good with all of that. Yes. 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. You remember Great White, right? 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. Whereas Skid Row got marketed as your run-of-the-mill pretty boy glam metal outfit from the get-go, their self-titled debut showed that they were capable of much more than providing quick and cheap amusement for the masses, and their sophomore album "Slave to the Grind" made the most of the band's prodigious potential. All of that aside, this is an album where Great White was truly able to allow their undisputed talent to shine, and if you didnt know any better, you might actually think it was Robert Plant singing in place of Jack Russel on some of these tracks. Dripping with attitude. Been meaning to pick up the first McQueen Street CD for some time now, but havent quite found the right price yet. 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.