Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe (pt. 1)

according to a really old version of Outburst I played recently, B.O.C. and Bon Jovi are heavy metal. Must be in part 2.

In what universe are Funkadelic and Beastie Boys heavy metal??!

the Eddyverse, natch.

My Favorite Rock Book. I think I'm going to go with New York Dolls this time. "Melody for an Unknown Girl" disqualifies Paul Revere and the Raiders.

In what universe are Funkadelic and Beastie Boys heavy metal??!

Can we make sure Teena Marie wins so Tuomas will have his mind blown?

yeah, i love it, too; it's def in my top 10 music books ever. funny as hell.

xp

yes!

Silliest choice above: Electric Angels. Guess I was trying to be "current" with that one. (Though I did find a cassette copy again for $1 last year, and it's not bad. Had to get Scott Seward to re-tape me Gettovetts, with Hawklords on the C-90's flipside.)

Voting for Shakin' Street, because it's the one I'd most like to put on right now, if 99% of my vinyl collection wasn't still in boxes beneath the stairs.

Boy I wish rapidshare, etc. was around when this was first published just as I'm overjoyed it, etc. was around for Scott Seward's thud rock list. Would've saved me tons of $ on that Crappy McCrapperson Captain Beyond record with the fancy scratchy cover. Or Bang or Mountain or 1994 or Black Heat or Celtic Frost or Venom or Leather Nun or Voivod or Silver Metre or SRC or Raszebrae or Three-Man Army or Atomic Rooster or Dan Reed Network (gawd xhuxk you at least owe me a very strong drink).

But the first 50 is mostly fine by me although I still don't get Kix, can't hear Emerald City past the great "Lips 2 Find U," think the Castor review is waaaay more fun than the godawful album itself, can't recall a single Precious Metal moment, and am no longer aching to hear Shakin' Street.

I voted for the Dolls.

Did anyone read the charming reviews of the book in Black to Comm?

beneath the stairs

Oops, beneath the STAIRWAY, I meant. Duh.

Voting for Shakin' Street, because it's the one I'd most like to put on right now

Uh oh...

Dan Reed Network (gawd xhuxk you at least owe me a very strong drink)

They're just in the book with a single, though! (But yeah, they sucked eggs.)

Strangely, Blog To Comm is one of my very favorite blogs now. Don't tell Stigliano, though.

http://black2com.blogspot.com/

heh--i've never forgiven you for inducing me to get that Electric Angels record, Chuck. (cute salesgirl at Tower looked at me like i was out of my mind.)

I picked up the Love/Hate LP about a year ago (STILL tracking down a select few from this book that I've never heard ... and I never had any luck tracking down the cassette of Phil Durr's pre-Giant Brain band Motorhome) .. It's really good! Definitely one of the better hair metal LPs from the era.

This album blog is soooo Stairway to Hell (never heard of Sound Barrier until this very moment)

http://alocacoc-blog.blogspot.com/

The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe (pt. 1)The 500 Best Heavy Rock Albums in the Universe (pt. 1)

I voted for the Dolls in the xgau poll, so this time I'm voting for Mott the Hoople, another band from which I have no critical distance. I love them, and they need a hug.

I can't find that Love/Hate album anywhere on the Internet, although I've been able to find a good chunk of the rest of the book on download sites (considering how much of it is ridiculously hard to find in stores).

Err, that should be "a good chunk of the rest of the albums in the book."

I can't find that Love/Hate album anywhere on the Internet...considering how much of it is ridiculously hard to find in stores).

Really? I'm kind of oblivious to that. I found both of the first two Love/Hate CDs in used record stores, for cheapo prices, in the past five years or so, without even especially looking for them. (They're both excellent, too -- despite being as "current" as Electric Angels. Who were at least better than, uh, Lock Up or Exteme's Pornograffiti -- those were the only three '90s albums in the original edition, I'm pretty sure. Haven't heard Extreme or Lock Up in forever; assume they still stink as bad as they did last time I checked.)

Don't think I owned any of those on CD at the time, by the way. Though I won't know for sure until somebody invents a time machine. Almost positive I had Love/Hate on vinyl then, and Extreme on cassette. (Turn of the '90s was such a weird-assed era, format-cusp wise. I'd guess that, in the course of rock history, obscure stuff from that time will ultimately be as obscure as any time-period ever, given that cassettes were the biggest format, hence CD and LP pressings both relatively limited.)

Try here, J3ff T.

Excellent site, thanks! Lots of (out of print) stuff I've been looking for on there, including other stuff from Stairway.

only three '90s albums in the original edition

Only four I mean, obv. (And pretty sure I found one of the Love/Hate CDs in a thrift store not record store.) Also, my early '90s obscurity theory may have some major logical flaws. Still would love to see the pressings #s for the three formats at the time, for a no-sell major label band like Love/Hate or Electric Angels (the former album peaked at #154; latter didn't chart) -- I assume way more cassettes wound up in the trashcan than CDs or LPs generally have. And once they're gone, they can't come back.)

Holy crap, that blog has both Pet Hate albums. And Wrathchild's Stakk Attack!

I'll follow the author's lead and vote for the one I'd most like to hear NOW: Go Girl Crazy!

Kix, Love/Hate and Hysteria all left me absolutely cold.

Can we make sure Teena Marie wins so Tuomas will have his mind blown?

And then Miles Davis and the Chambers Brothers should finish the job

1. Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny

went for "maggot brain" on the basis of it being awesome w/o regards to metal-ness

there are just too many fucking albums i haven't heard/listened to enough... i got the sabbath box probably around a year ago and still haven't gotten around to sabotage..

there are better records here but i voted for the first Kix. maybe you dudes need to see them live to get it.

I decided I should wait until part 7 to discuss Lord Tracy. (?)

The two Kix albums in the top 11 are great though. Are they as great as Mott or Rust Never Sleeps? No,

But I enjoy reading (and rereading) a book where the argument is made and backed up consistently.

and xXP, if I was writing a book with that title I would have put some Judas Priest in there. (when I write my version, it won't be called that, so there may not be any Judas Priest in there)

I can't find that Love/Hate album anywhere on the Internet...

until recently, love/hate offered all of their albums for free download on their own site. sadly, the links seem to have expired now.

'blackout's a decent lunkhead record, but 'wasted in america' is an incredible - a psychedelic and twisted and poptastic piece of work.

pls to ignore superfluous 'an'.

Fwiw, if I was writing a book with that title now, I'd put Judas Priest's Sin After Sin in. Though probably nowhere near the Top 50.

Also agree that Mott's album above is better than the Kix albums above. So are a couple other Mott albums. So is Neil Young's Decade (which isn't in the book). Not so sure about Rust Never Sleeps, though it's still good.

Unleashed in The East is THE Priest album to get, chuck - it's like their No Sleep 'til Hammersmith.

So I've heard, but I'm severely prejudiced against live albums (95 percent of the time).

Me too! But I consider it part of the 5% exception to the rule.

So what are the additions/subtractions in the 2nd (?) edition? I only have the red original with Zep on the cover.

The second edition has the text of the first edition plus a long essay about the state of things and 100 new 90's entries of recent reissues and releases.

100 new reviews the length of the entries in the first edition???

yeah. although i think Chuck excised the one closing piece about the inevitable disco-metal union, iirc?

The disco-metal piece is still there.

xpost

Holy S! I'll have to get that now.

Because it never occurred to me until yesterday to get free Stairway to Hell records (and because I apparently dig displeasuring myself), I downloaded some of the hard-to-find 1980s stuff. Angus = abysmal. But that Electric Peace record wails mightily with some hair-blowing organ (I think) work. Awful vocals, though.

Caveat, if you care: Additional 100 reviews are definitely not metal enough; way way way too Lollapaloozy, for the most part. What the heck was I thinking? Lots of quality rock en espanol though. (And the '90s essay might be pretty good.)

Ha ha, I haven't heard those Angus or Electric Peace records for, like 22 years or however long it's been since they came out. Definitely a few years before the book -- Both reviews were basically just retoolings of spiels I'd written in Creem Metal. You should track down Miss Daisy's Pizza Connection next! Wish I still had that record; totally hard to believe it ever actually existed.

It's real!

http://horriblenoise.blogspot.com/2009/03/miss-daisy-pizza-connection-lp.html

I dig both the Electric Peace records

Nothing on that list moves me more than Sabbath's Sabotage. I've got Superztar in my head right now!

Additional 100 reviews are definitely not metal enough

Then I'm buying it today! :)

You should track down Miss Daisy's Pizza Connection next!

Got a sealed copy for like a buck. Hated it. But I'll thank you for ever for Dust and Sir Lord Baltimore.

And yet you didn't care for Bang! Oh well, whatevs.

kjb dont like metal

you're gonna hate the Nirvana reviews, Kevin.

I refuse to participate in this one, as all it'll do is make me say something dismissive about Kix and Teena Marie, and then I'll get all nostalgic for the mid-2000's, when I took this ILX crap more seriously.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I still listen to 1984. A lot.

Various Artists: Nuggets, Volume One: The Hits

was 'babes in arms' only released on tape?

By the time Stairway came out, probably yes. But I've got a CD of it copywrite 1998.

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

Tuomas's fave metal album wins!

What's weird is that nobody ever really whines about Funkadelic being in the book, even though they're in there way more than Teena Marie or the Osmonds (both of whom people whine about all the time.)

I played Crazy Horses for a few of my metal friends one afternoon and told them to guess who it was. Sabbath, they said. Oh yes they did.

ILM hates metal, Sabbath get a free pass, film at ten.

Crazy Horses is the sweetest song ever devised but the vocals sound not one shit like Ozzy.

Maggot Brain has screaming guitar solos, Teena Marie and the Osmonds don't.

Have you HEARD Crazy Horses?

And Teena Marie?

Yeah, I was gonna say -- The guitars in "Crazy Horses" and "Lips 2 Find U" sure as hell aren't whispering. (And if extended solos were a requirement, metal fans never would have accepted Motorhead.)

knew someone was gonna jump on me for that. probably should've known 3 people would jump on me for that.

Funkadelic rock, have screaming guitar solos and are fucking awesome. Hurrah for Funkadelic winning!

hey, where are all of ilx's Hysteria fans??

voted Rocks, myself. wish i had voted Toys in the Attic now (my fave record in da whole wide world when i wuz 14).

xps

the Teena Marie pick has always made a lot more sense than the Adverts pick for me, tbh; '80s hair-metal riff-raff and hooks vs. '70s My Bloody Valentine as fronted by a Mick Jones sound-alike? (j/k, btw)

the adverts album is one of my fave albums ever.

I played Crazy Horses for a few of my metal friends one afternoon and told them to guess who it was. Sabbath, they said. Oh yes they did.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 8 April 2009 00:15 (11 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OK, how old can anyone be that likes Sabbath and has never heard Crazy Horses?

Younger than you I guess. Crazy Horses was out the year before I was born. I don't remember hearing it until late 80s/early 90s.

probably around the time I first heard Paranoid.

Parliament fans vote in Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe (pt. 2)

the Adverts = '70s My Bloody Valentine as fronted by a Mick Jones sound-alike

Wow, if you could remotely convince me of this, I might actually turn out to like MBV. Except the Adverts had so many things MBV didn't -- great hooks and great songs and a great singer, for starters. (Not sure though why MBV shouldn't be in a metal book. They've certainly influenced enough metal by now. And they had loud noisy guitars. The reason they wouldn't have made Stairway isn't 'cause they weren't metal enough; it's 'cause they weren't good enough. Just like Iron Maiden. I did put a Jesus & Mary Chain album in there, though -- and they do sound like MBV with hooks.)

"What's weird is that nobody ever really whines about Funkadelic being in the book, even though they're in there way more than Teena Marie or the Osmonds"

Because Funkadelic actually played some metal, whearas the other two didn't. Standing on the Verge is metal, and Super Stupid from MB is one of the great metal songs of all time. Kix wouldn't know Rock if one was thrown through its tour van's windshield.

gotta love bill magill

JaMC WAY more metal than MBV, imo! the hooks make all the difference.

xp

Kix were about as metal as early-Kinks, so no problem there.

Kix are as metal as girls aloud but who cares anyway

The American Idol episode I unfortunately watched last night is as metal as Kix.

Kix are as metal as The Lex.

i said nothing when they came for Kix...

Kix the breakfast cereal is more metal than Kix the band.

OK, how old can anyone be that likes Sabbath and has never heard Crazy Horses?

I was well into my twenties when I first heard Crazy Horses. By contrast, I had an (atypical?) Sabbath-drenched youth. In fact, I was so young when I first heard Sabbath that I thought the spooky gal on the cover of the debut was my sister.

I thought you grew up listening to the village people