DaHun72

O me o my Geoff you are one stubborn rocker! Hey I've got 3 young'uns so the stubborn is strong with me also. Let's let the music do the talking shall we? This whole thread starts with Axelinger voicing his disappointment at Swedish power metal band Falconer releasing an album in their native tongue after releasing 6 albums sung in English. The problem here is not the language, it's the band never being able to match their amazing debut from 2001! Speaking of the debut album, here is a folk track sung in Swedish off that very album. I'd argue the lyrics and their delivery make this so much more interesting, melodic than the track would be in English. https://youtu.be/CkegVVoG4IM After you've listened to it and interested in knowing what it's about then check this out: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6res_d%C3%B6ttrar_i_W%C3%A4nge

Yeah but the writing is not everything. GnR for example - Slash gave them that undeniable sleazy guitar and Duff ups the punk feel and sound. Hell, even Steven gives them a different feel compared to Matt and the other drummers.

Not understanding the lyrics and therefore not listening to a song or band is similar to not holidaying overseas because you don't know the language. It's just music, just a holiday, enjoy. If you want to find out more, delve further, you always can.

...Vince Neil and Motley stayed together and recorded an album in the mould of Primal Scream? ...Patty Smyth (from Scandal) had said yes and replaced DLR in Van Halen? ...Coverdale was easy to work with and we got a proper Sykes follow up to 1987? ...Axl wasn't such a wanker with so many issues? ...There was no smells like teen spirit? ...Randy Rhoads never got on that plane? ...Ray Gillen never slept with that man or woman? ...Bon Scott never got drunk that night? ...Dave and Cliff were both in Metallica through the 80s and early 90s. others???

A band is no longer a band when the heart has been ripped out. The heart is different for every band tho - could be the sound (vocals, guitars etc.), the songwriting and so on. For example look at Whitesnake, still has the vocals and some of the songwriting but it's never been the same or consistent since Slide It In. I'm a huge fan of 1987 but that's a once off. I can understand why fans of the band from it's creation up until Slide It In were disappointed as the early albums have the same style, line up, songwriting etc. So for some that band died after Slide It in. Looking back now I tend to agree as everything after that point was different from album to album (except Coverdale's lyrics and vocals). I wonder what would have happened if Motley chose a singer more in keeping with their style prior to the 1994 album. Vince whilst highly recognizable in his delivery was never the heart of that band. It was always Nikki and Tommy. I guess we'll never know.

Half the album is woeful, the other half is very good to excellent imo especially the covers - Hang On St. Christopher & Talk To Your Daughter. Not a good sign when the covers are the highlight tho! Funny, looking at the CDs and the titles there is a similarity to Jettblack. Check out the song titles on the first 3 bulletboys CD and then on Acid Monkey. We all picked up on that on the new Jettblack album. I guess that means it's curtains for them!!!

I'd give za za a higher rating. As good as the debut but very different. Freak show is awesome in parts and terrible in others. I've grown to like it more over the years as I listen to a cut down version if it.

Zakk Wylde on no more tears. Anything by Brian May

Agree with Geoff, love the band but their albums are littered with fillers. This is probably why I go back often to Good Acoustics (and the missus digs it) and Full Circle.

Zzzzz poor Timo, he used to be so important in the power metal scene. Never been the same since his breakdown. I'd only pick this one up if there was a sealed section in the middle of the booklet!

Welcome aboard, on the board, whatever have a great time!

OK song but they peaked imo with hard impact which was a long time ago. Not a bad band but just way too safe, need to take some chances and really push the songwriting etc.

Here's my take on 1988. I was buying heaps of stuff this year but the funny thing is I don't rate a lot of the albums highly. There are a heap of albums not listed here with songs I absolute love and I own crap loads of releases from this year but the list of Classic and Awesome titles is vastly smaller than what I did for 1989 (and I suspect 1987 when I get to it). CLASSICS Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime - Masterpiece, pity Geoff is such a wanker and that the band kept chasing the $$ after Empire. Maybe they were always chasing the $$ and writing what they thought would sell? Kuni – Lookin’ for Action - How was this not massive in 1988? Warrant – Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin’ Rich - This is my favorite from the band and the style I really think suited them. AWESOME Bon Jovi - New Jersey - As mentioned previously, thought it was a letdown after their earlier releases (which it is) but I grew to appreciate it more over time. BulletBoys - BulletBoys - Love Mick Sweda's playing and I don't mind Torien's raspy vocals. Circus of Power - Circus of Power - Some nice crunch on this and a few of the bluesy hard rock CDs I go back to. House of Lords - House of Lords - Many people rate this their best but I preferred the next 2. Don't like the production either. Hurricane - Over the Edge - How good are the vocals on this? The production is top notch also. Kingdom Come - Kingdom Come - Better than I remembered. Kings of the Sun - Kings of the Sun - Very underrated Aussie band, great live. Lots of music in each of their songs, a real grower. Ozzy - No Rest for the Wicked - The coming of Zakk, cool album and a nice lead up to the great No More Tears but ultimately this is the end of the classic Ozzy era. Hurry Scuary - Break It Up - Solid album that was a good find back in the day. Riot – Thundersteel - Consistent band who delivered a few really good CDs in a row. Talk Of The Town – Talk Of The Town - Love Vikstrom! Vixen – Vixen - Originally wrote this off a one of those with lots of fillers but has really grown on me over the past 10 years. Scanner – Hypertrace - German melodic power metal. Not many stick with me but this one did! Lillian Axe – Lillian Axe - You get lots of hints of the masterpiece to come. Niagara – Now or Never - One of those I grabbed about a decade ago. Need to check out more of their other stuff! Looking over the list and the bands that I didn't list it seems like a year of transition with bands trying to make it huge with big producers, major label backing, egos and in-fighting etc. In short feels like lots of stuff was rushed out to cash in the preceding year (Hysteria, 1987 & Apetite) and there’s lots of bad albums/albums that should have been better. Way too much filler on lots of CDs this year e.g. Malsteen – Odyssey Quiet Riot – Quiet Riot David Lee Roth – Skyscraper Roxx Gang – Things You’ve Never Done Before Stryper – In God We Trust Vinnie Vincent Invasion – All Systems Go Poison – Open Up and Say Ahh… Van Halen – OU812 King Kobra – III Cinderella – Long Cold Winter Lots more............ 1987 next I think to see if this was the dud of the golden years of commercial hard rock in my collection.

@ Geoff, agreed D2 are an awesome band. Can see the fillers got in the way of Screw It rating higher. I've put my ratings next to yours just out of interests sake...and a few notes. 1. - 1. Four The Hard Way - 1997 - 89 - So solid, awesome disc. 2. - 4. Danger Danger - 1989 - 86 - For me got a little lost in the shuffle of classics released in 89. 3. - 3. Cockroach - 1993 - 85 - Love it but prefer to put on FTHW. 4. - 7. Revolve - 2009 - 85 - Got it, never played it much, should revisit. 5. - 2. Screw It! - 1991 - 84 - Great CD even though a few tracks have to be skipped. 6. - 5. The Return Of The Great Gildersleeves - 2000 - 83 - Very good but letdown by some filler. 7. - 6. Rare Cuts - 1988 - 79 - Good one for the collection. 8. - 8. Dawn - 1995 - 60 - Shit!

Seventh son, hmm not as good as the trailer. Was hoping for a no brainer fantasy action flick..... Which is what I got, just not very good.

@ Geoff, agreed I'm no stoner. D2 is a great band but I love FTHW for a few reasons: - There was nowhere near as much competition when it was released so I really had time to love the crap out of it. - I prefer Laine to Poley. Poley is definitely not bad just that Laine has a more manly delivery which I prefer. - FTHW has aged better than the earlier Poley stuff, maybe it's coz I'm in my 40s and the lyrics etc. - I like heavier and the production job is awesome also. Can u post ur D2 ratings?

Here's my take on 1989...I don't do the % thing so broke albums up into Classics and Awesome. My preference of music is hard rock first and metal second. AOR is OK but I really like the harder or metal tinged hard rock style the best. CLASSICS Blue Murder – Blue Murder: John Sykes is probably my favourite guitarist. I think this would have been huge if it wasn’t as heavy and the songs as long, or even if the tracklist was reversed. Some great bass and drums on here also. Big album in every way but I wonder if they would have struck it rich with Ray Gillen? Bonfire – Point Blank: This is like a fully stuffed xmas stocking. So many songs but no real fillers. Perhaps should have held 5 songs back and released another album in 1990 and taken over the world? Anyway, avoid the yesterrock reissue and grab the original – the bonus live tracks were recorded by some kid on his cassette Walkman and it was the only time in over 20 years that I went to the CD player to turn this disc off! The Cult – Sonic Temple: Ever changing band that released an AC/DC clone previous and then pulls this one out. This for me blows everything they ever did away. Huge guitar sound, original vocalist and not a single filler. Has a great ballad in Edie Ciao Baby but leads off with probably the weakest track in Sun King. Fabulous album and a real grower and deserves more praise. Kingdom Come – In Your Face: After a heap of bad Led Zep clone press following their debut they return with what is easily their best album. Lead single Do You Like It is simple yet fast and melodic as is Overrated. There’s Led Zep touches throughout but it’s mainly in the delivery of the vocals by Lenny and not at all in the celtic artsy fartsy stuff that Led Zep did. This is 80s hard rock through and through. Ends with the great Stargazer. Leatherwolf – Street Ready: Personally for me the perfect blend of metal and hard rock. Lots of guitars that could still have been higher in the mix (production is a bit lame) and an awesome vocalist. The singles Street Ready and Hideaway sum this one up but there are better songs on the album. Even the instrumental kicks ass. The Japan release had the bonus track Alone In The Night which is up to par with the other tracks and worth hunting down if you love this album. I think it appeared as a bonus on one of reissues of their earlier CDs. Oh, and their hair was always longer than most of the other bands which can only be a good thing! Lillian Axe – Love & War: I remember thinking how edgy and dangerous this felt. Sure they were singing about the same stuff every other band was singing about at the time (getting laid) but they seem genuine. Maybe it was the mood and production of the album as it has a darker tinge to the rest of the pack. Some awesome riffs throughout, catchy and well produced. Little Angels – Don’t Prey For Me: Not sure why people don’t rate this band. The releases after this one were very safe and slick but this one is diverse, long and chock full of quality. Some of it is quite poppy, some of it is very heavy and there’s a fair share of ballads that never get tiresome. Check out Radical Your Lover, Don’t Prey For Me…hell the whole album is great! Savatage – Gutter Ballet: This is the mix between the band’s original sound (heavy metal) and the new (rock opera/broadway). I’m one of those that dig both styles and this ranks as one of their 3 best albums along with Hall of the Mountain King and Edge of Thorns. The great thing about this CD is that this is when they tested the waters with piano and more catchy songwriting but at the same time still have that dark and twisted truly metal sound and delivery. Check out Gutter Ballet for a twisted metal take on Queen, When The Crowds Are Gone for their first broadway ballad (and the most honest version of the song that they butchered over and over along with TSO for the next 25 years), the massive riffage of She’s In Love and the dark moody Hounds that builds and builds and finishes with more chops than you’d see at an Australia Day BBQ! Shotgun Messiah – Shotgun Messiah: Wow what a guitarist and what a waste to only have 3 albums! Like Vito Bratta from White Lion, Harry Cody had his own style that was technical but oh so melodic. This is quite a sleazy album and whilst short with 9 tracks, and one an instrumental (and a good one) it’s original and fun and filled with quality. Fav track is probably Don’t Care About Nothin’. All 3 of their albums are very good, even the 3rd…the only industrial CD I won and like (umm besides WASPs K.F.D). Pity they swayed with the trends and ultimately packed it in after so few releases. Tesla – The Great Radio Controversy: You always have a soft spot for the albums that get you into an artist. I missed their debut but this one blew me away even though I still skip Heaven’s Trail, Be A Man, Did It For the Money & The Way That It Is. Those tracks are forgotten when you have the sublime bass melody of Hang Tough, the energy of Yesterday’s Gone, the lead guitar in Makin’ Magic, the crunch of Flight To Nowhere, the greatness of Love Song and the build of Paradise. Treat – Organized Crime: A truly great band (release another fkn CD!) that embodies everything great about hard rock music and Sweden then and now. The band know how to write melody with ease and were lucky enough to have a great band and singer as well. Lots of great songs on here like Get You On The Run and Party All Over. Vain – No Respect: From the front cover, the image, the production, the stylised vocals…you just know if Davy got a hold of your daughter, girlfriend, wife or mum they would never be the same. Classics like ummm…like…hmmm the first 10 tracks. If you had to pull out a few to convince someone of the greatness of this album it would have to be No Respect, Secrets, Beat The Bullet. Without You is the only song that’s aged for me….perhaps put it on too many girlfriend ballad compilations. WASP – The Headless Children: When this was released I was mainly a hard rocker. I didn’t mind some WASP, thought it was all a bit silly tho but this changed my mind. This is a dark and thoughtful album with highlights throughout. The cover of the Who’s The Real Me fits nicely on here, the ballad Forever Free is OK I guess but standouts are the heavy songs like The Heretic, Rebel in the FDG and Maneater. However it’s the brilliance of tracks 3-5 (The Headless Children, Thunderhead & Mean Man) that send this one into the stratosphere. Huge props have to go to Frankie Banali who’s drums on this and the next few WASPs releases are amazing. White Lion – Big Game: As I’ve mentioned before I thought this was a huge disappointment after Pride. However time, age, repeated listens has lifted this into Classic status and White Lion’s second best album behind Pride. I love all the songs on this one from Dirty Woman, Little Fighter, If My Mind is Evil to the stuff I hated when it was initially released – Goin’ Home Tonight & Broken Home. Vito shines throughout even though the production is lacking (sucked on Pride as well but I guess a good song is a good song). Ends with probably the best song on the album, that ultimately probably sums the album up – Cry For Freedom. The front cover blows! XYZ – XYZ: Amazing debut, amazing singer and guitarist (that blew the roof off on the next album). It’s all very Dokkeny given the man produced it and gave it a similar vibe and feel to some of the older Dokken albums. That said every track on this is a winner and not many bands would be able to pull off the one-two of Nice Day To Die & After The Rain. Is Souvenirs the best ballad of 1989? Lizzy Borden – Master of Disguise: Like WASP I thought this band was a bit silly. However this is much more hard rock than metal and I was sort of lured in by the fact it’s a rock opera. Fans of Lizzy tend to not like this as it’s quite varied, slick and produced well. The sort of things the metal guys hate but the hard rock ones like. Love is a Crime is a cool track but this is better heard from beginning to end. X Japan – Blue Blood: The originators of “Visual Kei”, a style that is still popular in Japan today. These guys were massive in Japan – check out concert footage of them at Tokyo Dome. The style of music ranges from sappy piano orchestral styled ballads to straight ahead hard rock but best of all ball tearin’ speed metal. Amazing drummer which is why Yoshiki bought One on One Studios (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extasy_Records). Highlights are Week End, Endless Rain & Kurenai. AWESOME Aerosmith – Pump: Would have loved to hear this stripped back a bit. You can barely hear the guitars on The Other Side which sounded great on the making of doco. Young Lust and My Girl are pretty lame and What It Takes is a precursor to most of the ballads they would do after this. The track Aint Enough from the Japanese release is pretty good! Badlands – Badlands: Not sure why this is not a classic, which it is. I guess it’s just I moved away from the bluesy side of things. Loooove this album, great sound and production that makes you feel it was recorded in a smoky bar. How good is Streets Cry Freedom?!? Alice Cooper Trash: This is a fun album by Alice but ultimately is letdown by a few stinkers, namely Only My Heart Talkin’ and the title track. Great opening 4 tracks and Bed of Nails is a ripper! D.A.D – No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims: Fun and very stylized album. Maybe a Euro version of Extreme’s debut? Anyway it’s a silly album with the singles being the best tracks (Sleeping My Day Away & Girl Nation) but everything is pretty good on here…. if you dig the style and silliness of it all. Dan Reed Network – Slam: Don’t listen to this much these days. Everything is safe, good and nice and a heap of ballads. The sort of thing you can play with your missus, or can play when you play with your missus.... you get the point! Danger Danger – Danger Danger: Maybe it’s the mid paced repeated singles that brought this down for me (Naughty Naughty & Bang Bang). This one shines when the guys rock out like on Under The Gun etc. Prefer Screw It but for me (as I never had Cockroach until it was officially released) Four the Hard Way is their best! Go Laine Go! Dangerous Toys – Dangerous Toys: Love the cover and also played this a lot back in the day. There was depth here, if only they had a label to bring it out more and tap into the material like Scared, Queen of the Nile and Outlaw on future albums. Always loved Ten Boots (Stompin’) also. De Mont – Body Language: I listened to this a few weeks back and it’s much better than I remember and not reliant on the single I Want Your Body which is how I originally remembered it. Will be giving this some more listens as it’s been gathering dust. Extreme – Extreme: I dig the fun and childishness going on here purely because the songs are so good and has energy and delivery to match. Sure it’s weird listening to this in your 40s, perhaps even in your 20s but all the tracks on here with the exception of Watching, Waiting and Rock a Bye Bye deliver. Faster Pussycat – Wake Me When It’s Over: A band I really tried to like however I never could get into the debut, liked this one and Whipped as well and then lost complete interest. Where There’s a Whip is a rockin’ track but this one ends badly imo. The Front – The Front: This is one of those CDs I never should have liked. I grabbed it for a buck back in the day. It’s like a cross between The Doors and The Cult I guess but it works somehow. Ends well with Violent World and Sin. Gun – Taking On The World: Maybe I wanted to like U2…hmmm maybe not. Sure I like some of their songs and I guess this has some similarities. Better Days is the standout track. Icon – Right Between The Eyes: Always had a soft spot for this band. Kiss – Hot In The Shade: I played this one a lot in the day even though there was lots of skipping. Funny they should release an album of 15 tracks when previous you got 10 and no more (and usually half were fillers). This one would be better if it ended at track 10 but I liked Rise To It, Hide Your Heart, Read My Body, Forever. The album really takes off with Silver Spoon, Cadillac Dreams and King of Hearts. However from track 11 onwards zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Maybe if they added Let’s Put The X Into Sex and You Make Me Rock Hard (instead of releasing them on Smashes, Thrashes…) and dropped the crap half of the album this could have been a ripper? Motley Crue – Dr. Feelgood: I’m a massive fan of Shout At The Devil as it’s their most complete album by far. This is their second best as all of their other albums have just a couple of cool tracks IMO – Too Fast For Love: Live Wire & Piece of your Action, Theatre of Pain (Smokin’ In The Boys Room – what a stinker of an album), Girls Girls Girls (title track and Wild Side) etc. Dr. Feelgood had more than just a few good tracks – Dr. Feelgood, Kickstart My Heart (farkn oarsome), Same Ol’ Situation and Don’t Go Away Mad. There are some stinkers on here but worst of all is the ballad Without You. Shame they never released a follow up in the vibe of Primal Scream and Angela from Decade of Decadence. Pink Cream 69 – Pink Cream 69: One of my favourite bands even though I’m not much of a fan of Andi Deris. Lots of songs on this but 10 of the 13 are excellent. The band also have their own style of riffage that they still use to this day. Standouts are Take Those Tears, Sugar For Love, One Step Into Paradise (updated version with Readman is a real treat also), Welcome The Night, Hit The Bottom Row, Shadows Are Falling. Great band that only dropped off on the first 2 'modern' albums with Readman, but even they have a few good songs on them. Skid Row – Skid Row: A couple of massive singles in Youth Gone Wild and I Remember You. Seb Bach was as cool as fuck, as were the rest of the band. Onto a real winner here right? Unfortunately a few fillers like Rattlesnake Shake, Makin’ A Mess and Midnight/Tornado stop it from being a classic. How good is Big Guns!!! Lucky for them they would top this with the next album before selling out Billy Squier – Hear & Now: I knew The Stroke from my younger days but never really knew much else. I happened to pick this up cheap when the stores where throwing out LPs for a buck. There’s a couple of Desmond Child co-writes on here and whilst it all feels like every song is trying to be a single it’s all very good. Check out Rock Out/Punch Somebody, Stronger, Don’t Say You Love Me, Tied Up, G.O.D. Solid if you can get into his voice. Whitesnake – Slip Of The Tongue: Ultimately a huge letdown after 1987 and try as Coverdale did to make this happen i.e. Steve Vai, similar cover, re-recording an older track, a Led Zep type track etc. it just doesn’t have the quality. Dave himself also never sounded as good after 1987 and you can start to hear it here. Slip of the Tongue is a bad start but then you think there’s hope with Cheap An’ Nasty and Fool For Your Loving but it goes downhill. Wings of the Storm and Sailing Ships are pretty good. The whole album feels manufactured to be 1987 again in 1989 but it’s way off the mark. Viper – Theatre of Fate: With Andre Matos on lead vocals this is essentially the precursor to Angra. It has the same style and the songs are all very good. If you liked Angra’s Angels Cry and Holy Land you will like this. Some other awesome releases: Winter Rose – Winter Rose Pretty Boy Floyd – Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz Shok Paris – Concrete Killers Stormwitch – Eye Of The Storm Swedish Erotica – Swedish Erotica Fifth Angel – Time Will Tell There are heaps of others that could be thrown into the awesome section but the ones listed above are the ones I keep going back to after pretty much owning them from release. One thing can be said for 1989, the majors were all over it and to some degree probably hurt some releases a little like Pump which is way over produced, Dr. Feelgood – trying to write too many singles and what a shocker of a ballad! All the Desmond Child co-writes etc. That said those albums and the forced power ballads on most CDs did really well so what do I know! I wouldn’t have had it any other way! Amazing year!!!! Hmmm, will check out a couple from Nightrain’s list then I’m onto another year.

Divebomb are great. Picked up a couple of the scanner reissues a couple of years back. Totally legit, silver pressed and lots of effort into the entire package.

As per the title. Not sure about the remastering etc as both of these sounded great first time around. Good chance for anyone who doesn't have them to grab them new at a decent price. Released mid May.

Kethdredd, ping them in Facebook to buy their cds/ep.

Out of the Cellar is definitely their best imo. However detonator is definitely the next best. The other releases were too patchy. The downside I find with detonator is the Desmond Child effect - I sometimes find the tunes he penned as too catchy and therefore irritating. This is a mood thing tho and I really rate this cd.

Lads music night with red wine. Hmm, this explains a few things

Don't let this one stop u from checking out 'the strange case'. Also checkout the first reactivate (covers) album.

Grab the soundtrack, it's awesome. There might even be a best of Ricky but they re-use heaps from the first film in later films.

Great fun, have to pull it out again!