Manilla Road - Metal

1982

     The way this one starts, the drums on the first song, the mix, the production...it feels so disjointed. The album has a theatrical vibe. There's still a little bit of hard rock. They've tightened things up since the first album. A couple songs get the epic Metal going. This is really rough and raw. My first impression was I prefer the first album, but this was growing on me after another listen.

Kiss - Creatures Of The Night

1982

The last Kiss make up album. Huge production. Possibly the biggest sounding metal album of the early 80's.
     Paul gives some inspired vocal performances on this record.
     Huge, huge drum sounds.
     Kiss craziness here with the album cover featuring Ace Frehley who doesn't even play on the album. They say Vinnie Vincent probably play guitar on 70% of the album. Later in 1985 when the album was re issued Bruce Kulick is on the cover with the band, but he didn't play on the album either! No less than seven guitar players participated during the recording of the album although they all may not have made the final cut for the album.
     Eric Carr plays bass on I Still Love You?! Plus a couple other guys play bass on here, other than Gene.
     Several co-writers were involved. It took an army of people behind the scenes both credited and un-credited but this undoubtedly is the heaviest Kiss record.
     Overall this album just has a heavy plodding sound/feel.
   
   

Raven - Wiped Out

On their first album they got some rock mixed in with their metal. On this, Ravens' second album it's all Metal all the time. Falling somewhere between Priest and Maiden. Lots of shredding going on. Metal to the bone.

Van Halen - Diver Down

I was in high school when this album came out. The good news. A new Van Halen record! The bad news. It's not very good.

Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing

Exact same drum beat over and over in every song with exact same vocals sang the same way in every song. The guitar is going off and it still makes me want to start a pit. Old school punk rock. I would have to do some research to see if these guys are cutting new ground in 1982, 'cuz a million bands have sounded just like this since then.

-Supposed to be all extreme like Motorhead/Venom.

-This is a classic hardcore album. You can blame a lot of shit on these guys.

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

Guitar, harmonica and vocals. Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash type thing going on. Mellow and depressing. Probably more like John Cougar than Bob Dylan, but you get the idea. Doesn't sound anything like the popular Bruce Springsteen that people hear on the radio.

Anvil - Metal On Metal

Without checking what else came out, this has got to be one of the best metal records of 1982. Similar to Judas Priest, but it sounds like they grew up on Ted Nugent, Kiss, ect...

Fist - Back With A Vengeance

Raw Judas Priest early Sammy Hagar Tank. If Def Leppards' little brothers started a metal band. There's a ton of cool metal stuff on here that 80's metal bands would go on to make un-cool, but believe me it's cool when Fist do it.

-Not unlike early Dokken, if Don Dokken was tougher.
Fist Wikipedia.

Aerosmith - Rock In A Hard Place

Almost non descript. Sounds like Aerosmith, but not as bad as they would go on to become.

-I put this on while working on the house. Still sounds like Aerosmith, If I wasn't doing other things I probably would have turned it off. At least half of this sounds like generic Aerosmith filler. It like these should all be bonus tracks on the re-release of the album that came before or after that...whatever those were.

The Who - It's Hard

Not sure what's going on here. It must be a reflection of popular music in 1982 as interpreted by The Who.

Saxon - The Eagle Has Landed Live

1982

You can hear the influence Saxon had on early Metallica. Unfortunately you can also hear the influence Saxon had on the Scorpions going on to write crappy pop love metal songs. That maybe is unfair, this was '81 so they were working within certain boundries I suppose. I don't really care for the sing a long anthem type stuff. They seem to be walking the line of wanting to be a successful commercial band (which is what they were in the UK) and being a metal band. Sometimes you might forget your not listening to Iron Maiden and that's a good thing. A couple really good songs a clunker and some middle of the road stuff.

Fun Facts: This album may have been recorded while they were an opening act for an Ozzy tour of the UK and Europe in 1981.