Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe (pt. 5)

Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe (pt. 4)

rofl, chuck picked Cold Lake?

Um...er...uh...I'll guess I'll go with Psychocandy.

how very metal of you KJB

Another very, very silly list.

pat benetar?

ace of spades it is...

Unbelievable.

rofl, chuck picked Cold Lake?

Boy, what was I thinking? Did I not realize people are supposed to pretend it's "bad" or something? Guess I should have checked with the "experts" first.

Record I miss owning most is the Fiends, but I think I'll vote for R.E.O., since "Golden Country" is something close to my favorite song in the universe. Lots of awesome competition up there though, obv.

dont need to pretend

Wait a minute, Chuck -- are you seriously defending Cold Lake?

Well, I was, until Herman pointed out its non-goodness. My mistake! Please explain what's so bad about it, then, fellows. I'd like to know, in order to prevent such stupid factual errors in the future!

Ooh, hit a nerve I see. I'll freely admit to not giving it a proper chance, being that it was the album wherein Tom Warrior "went glam." This from the man who fronted Hellhammer and wrote "Triumph of Death." Unacceptable. Taken on the strength of its content, however, it still packed a lot more of a wallop than, say, Britney Foxx or Cinderella or _______ (insert favorite by-the-numbers hair metal band here). But it just wasn't what I wanted/expected/needed/craved from the `Frost.

But, y'know, fuck do I know?

But no, Alex, you have a great point! "Glam" is bad. Really really bad! How could I not have thought of such a thing?? You guys are very helpful. I'll be sure to check with you before my next book!

christ

Easy.

I didn't say "glam" was bad (though my own opinion may lean that way). My point was that Celtic Frost was renowned for doing something that was *apart* from the Glam that was de rigeur of the era. That they attempted to hop on said bandwagon was something I frowned at.

Don't worry, Chuck, I'm not going to come to your home and confiscate your precious Pretty Boy Floyd records. Sheesh.

I don't have any. (Were they any good? I honestly don't know.) I just think "Oh my God, in this book he wrote 18 years ago, he picked different records than I would have, what was he thinking?" is a somewhat hilarious stance to take, that's all. And it's not exactly news that some people dislike Cold Lake, for God's sake. (For what it's worth, Martin Popoff gives it an 8 out 10, a higher score than any Celtic Frost album besides Vanity/Nemesis. So it's not like I'm a lone wolf out here.)

Far be it from me to align myself with popular consensus, but with all due respect to yourself and Mr. Popoff, I think Cold Lake is maligned for a reason.

That's you, Alex, always going with the popular consensus! (But hey, how about that Granicus album, huh?)

I should have kept all those Back From The Grave LPs too, right? Bet they're worth a bundle now.

albums i have never heard in their entirety from this list:

Mott The Hoople: Live
Red Cross: Born Innocent
James Blood Ulmer: Black Rock
Shakin' Street: Vampire Rock
Nazareth: Loun 'N' Proud
Various Artists: Back From The Grave, Volume 4
Buffalo: Volcanic Rock
Big Brother And The Holding Company: Live
Redd Kross: Neurotica
Hawklords: Hawklords
James Blood Ulmer: Freelancing
R.E.O. Speedwagon: R.E.O. T.W.O.
Dust: Dust
Rudimentary Peni: The Ep's Of RP: Dirges And Ditties
Budgie: In For The Kill
Bull Angus: Bull Angus
UFO: The Best Of UFO
Ted Nugent And The Amboy Dukes: Call Of The Wild
The New York Rock Ensemble: Roll Over
Dick Destiny And The Highway Kings: Brutality
Granicus: Granicus
Three-Man Army: A Third Of A Lifetime
Nitzinger: Nitzinger
Junkyard: Junkyard
Bang: Bang
Fiends: We've Come For Your Beer
Pat Benetar: Best Shots

Well, despite the riveting snark and dismiss of the Cold Lake discussion, I would like to point everyone to the essential No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith. One of Alex's favorite live albums, I believe. Consensus people!

That Mott The Hoople live album is pretty sweet.

when the hell will the James Blood Ulmer stuff get reissued???

xxp

i voted for it...

albums i have never heard in their entirety from this list

Me too!! (Just kidding. The only one I might not have heard in entirety, though I think I did, is Granicus, which somebody taped for me. For all I know, they might have left off a song or two. It's definitely the only album up there that I've never actually seen a copy of.)

(Buffalo was reviewed from a hometaped cassette too, actually. But I have a CD reissue now.)

Motorhead, that is.

i kinda liked Cold Lake way back when, too. almost wish i had kept a copy even.

I've actually never heard Seize the Rainbow. What's it like? Guitar placed higher, right? That's one of the best albums ever. Weirdly, I don't think I've heard Black Rock either, though I love Ulmer.

I totally forgot Evol was in this book! That's gotta be one of their least 'metal' albums. I still love it like I did when I was 16.

Love all of these:
Voivod: Nothingface
Redd Kross: Neurotica
Rush: Moving Pictures
James Blood Ulmer: Freelancing
Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin
Husker Du: New Day Rising
Sonic Youth: Evol

Guitar is prettier. Seize The Rainbow is funkier. I haven't owned copies of either for years. (I bet everybody's getting sick of hearing that.)

heh, i have never mistaken you for R. Mettzer, Chuck.

Redd Kross: Neurotica

You're missing out by not hearing it.

For certain!

NY Rock and Roll Ensemble is heavy prog/fusion? Will look for it.

xp Actually, kind of surprised I didn't include any Ronald Shannon Jackson LPs in the book -- he's a drummer, but he had lots of metal guitars (often by Vernon Reid) on his albums. (Just rebought $1 copies of Mandance and When Colors Play -- the latter of which, like Guitar, made my Pazz & Jop Top 10 in 1987! -- so he's on my mind. They're real good -- When Colors Play has more user-friendly melodies, but Mandance is more muscular, with rhythms that alternately bring to mind the Contortions and marching bands.) (Well, I guess he's on that Power Tools LP at #479 though.)

loved those. Barbecue Dog was probably my fave.

I've actually never heard Seize the Rainbow. What's it like?

You can actually stream it on myspace. I haven't listened to it yet myself (the electric piano killed Highlife for me, though).

Thanks!

Redd Kross: Neurotica

You're missing out by not hearing it.

i heard a live performance by these guys around the time of this, and i absolutely hated them. also, the TALL bastards stood in right in front of me at a Sonic Youth show a year or so later! #!%@#&$%!!!

NY Rock and Roll Ensemble is heavy prog/fusion?

Well, except for the prog and fusion parts; that's stretching it, I think. Definitely some long songs, though. "Gravedigger" is absolutely worth hearing -- Somewhere around here I have a review that Crocus Behemoth or was it Peter Laughner* wrote in the mid '70s, where whichever Ubu it was raved about that song and Nazareth's version of "The Ballad Of Hollis Brown" as these extended examples of heavy heavy doom. (NYRE still shows up in $1 bins, btw.

[* -- Countdown until some moron copies this onto the "pretend forgetfulness" thread: 10, 9, 8, 7...]

extended examples of heavy heavy doom

"Golden Country" an even more killer example of that subgenre, to my ears. (A few Hawkwind and Alice Cooper songs fit too, of course. Not to mention "Final Solution" and "30 Seconds Over Tokyo.")

I voted Junkyard. Talk about "hopping on bandwagons", A Big Boy and a Minor Threat make some G'n'r style hard rock. It's got good songs and guitars. I might have gone with Highway to Hell, New Day Rising, Red Cross, Redd Kross, or Seize the Rainbow, but that Junkyard lp really fit my life when it came out.

I've got their second one, but I've always hesitated to listen to it. They cover Tex and the Horseheads on it, so that's a plus.

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Ronald Shannon Jackson's Red Warrior is all kinds of free form metal, iirc.

They cover Tex and the Horseheads

Really? Wow, I had no idea. (Not that I'd recognize many Tex and the Horseheads songs; have been meaning to ketchup with them for a long time.) The Junkyard CD I have, Sixes, Sevens & Nines from 1991, is good but doesn't seem to have any cover versions on it, at least judging from the songwriting credits.

"Clean the Dirt" by Martt/Gates?/Roach? (they must have added something) is by Mike Martt from Tex and the Horsehead's first lp.

Mike Martt is still around, he put out a roots rock LA type album in 2002 Tomorrow Shines Bright with Benmont Tench, Zander Schloss, Will Sexton etc. on it.

I voted Led Zeppelin but mostly because I somehow didn't see Ace of Spades.

Redd Kross: Neurotica

You're missing out by not hearing it.

Cosign. Love that record, esp. side one. I spent many fruitless hours trying to play "Frosted Flake" on guitar. I think you need effect pedals or something.

Was Teen Babes From Monsanto ever released on compact disc?

It's on an Australian only CDEP with a couple of singles. I have it.

http://www.amazon.com/Trance-Australian-Tour-Redd-Kross/dp/B000OSXLO0/ref=sr_1_12/180-4858079-1019301?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1240957606&sr=1-12
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41tJHE4My2L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

I also picked up the vinyl cheap on ebay four or five years ago. But I got that cd in 92/93 in Tower Records in Glasgow for £10

I have the vinyl, but no turntable :(

Thanks for the tip -- I'll search that out!

I would hope you can find it cheaper than the two on that amazon link that's $99

Eek!

haha

here's a poll for you alex
REDD KROSS - Best Album/EP: The Re-Run

On it.

Oh, Seize the Rainbow is really good!

you bet. (the band is basically the same as Last Exit on that one, innit? still need to get all those. sigh.)

meanwhile: ULMER! ULMER! ULMER!

Dust!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

after some soul searching, Queen barely edges out Zep and Ace of Spades. and maybe with a tiny dose of worry that no one else would vote for it.

Oh yeah, I like Sheer Heart Attack a lot too.

Love all the first-wave-of-metal self-titled debuts and middle-aged-jazzmen w/guitars, but there's no way I can vote for anything but Ace of Spades.

When you see UFO getting one vote, that's me.

That UFO best-of only covers their first two (pre-Schenker) albums, right?

Yep. When they still sounded kinda Stoogey.

It's kind of kraut-rockish, which is weird because it's before they got the kraut in the band.

Yeah, good point! Flying really sttrreettcches 'em out.

Yeah, I call "Galactic Love" and "Silver Bird" "your usual Can/Duul/Hawkwind fuzz-stuck-in-a-groove illogicalness" in the book, pointing out that the band is named after a flying saucer (a pretty Kraut-rock thing to do when you think about it), but I seem to like other cuts (for instance "C'Mon Everybody" and "Timothy," which I refer to as "accidental Detroitism," and Paul Butterfield cover "Loving Cup," which I compare to Dust) more. As I recall, those first couple albums were pretty big in Germany (where I bought my copy, probably, seeing how I call it a "Nova German import.")

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

xp Fwiw, I never heard anybody actually use the phrase "Kraut-rock" until after this book came out. So, just like with what wasn't yet called "Seattle grunge," I had to come up with my own names for it then. (Apparently the phrase "Kraut rock" existed; I'd just never seen it with my own eyes. I only knew I bought lots of weird droney records in Germany.)

Man, fuck a Funkadelic.

I couldn't not vote for Evol.

xpost Oh wow, tied for third.

xp Come to think of it, I even refer to Kraut rock as "unidentified flying rock" elsewhere in the book (Hapsash and the Coloured Coat review)!

Pretty sure Popoff mentions the UFO-big-in-Germany-early-on thing in one of his books.

(I love the idea of "Secret Girl" and "Green Light" being on one of the best heavy metal albums in the universe.)

good results

Popoff also rates those first two UFO albums 1/10 and 0/10 (dis)respectively!

xxpost