Chisel Chin

My Top 15 best of 1984 (in alphabetical order) Autograph - Sign In Please Cold Chisel - Twentieth Century Iron Maiden - Powerslave Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith Marillion - Fugazi Metallica - Ride The Lightning Rush - Grace Under Pressure Scorpions - Love At First Sting Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. Survivor - Vital Signs U2 - The Unforgettable Fire Van Halen - 1984 W.A.S.P. - WASP Whitesnake - Slide It In Y & T - In Rock We Trust Now we're cooking... my favourite Rush album, as well as some great albums from Scorpions, Iron Maiden and U2 which are some of my highest rated albums in my entire collection.

My Top 6 best of 1983 (in alphabetical order) Def Leppard - Pyromania Dio - Holy Diver Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind Kiss - Lick It Up Marillion - Script For A Jester's Tear Y & T - Mean Streak Not many to choose from in my collection for 1983, so I could only manage a Top 5, as I didn't want to pad out the list with anything that only received an average rating from me. However, I'll have a read through these threads later on to see what else people like that I don't have. EDIT: Changed this to a Top 6 list by adding Def Leppard which I had listed against 1984 by mistake.

My Top 10 best of 1982 (in alphabetical order) Aerosmith - Rock In A Hard Place Cold Chisel - Circus Animals Dire Straits - Love Over Gold Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance Kiss - Creatures Of The Night Rush - Signals Scorpions - Blackout Whitesnake - Saints And Sinners Y & T - Black Tiger This wasn't too hard coming up with a Top 10 since I've only got about 20 for this year, and some of the others are just for band completeness, rather than being favourites.

I'll admit that it's not terrible, but his voice sounds too "nasally" these days instead of the "throaty" style when he was in his prime. A bit like Bruce Dickinson sounds now compared to some years ago. Stupid harcut as well... It makes me think of wanting to pull it out like you pull the leaves off the top of a strawberry!

Really looking forward to this one, those first two albums are brilliant.

And that's why the Bon Jovi juggernaut keeps a rolling. That list pretty much describes casual listeners, who probably got into the band when they had their big hits, and remain aware they're around because the hits keep coming and get radio airplay etc. I bet most of those 99% don't spend time on music forums, analysing and dissecting the music, and arguing whose opinion is more important. They're probably more easily pleased and will listen to what they're given, rather than seeking out anything that they might like better. Some people may think that if bands aren't in the Top 40 (or whatever) then they can't be very good. Mainstream commercialism is what music is all about for them. Basically, they're probably not music nerds like us!

The thing is, Bon Jovi as a business probably want to keep up with the ongoing changes in music styles to stay relevant, otherwise there would come a time where the mainstream press considers them dated and old-school. It's us fans of their original style that are moaning about the changes. Some of us don't like the modern sound, and some do. I guess we don't know the numbers and revenues involved in these preferences. Plus, ticket sales will make them far more money than album sales, so even if their older fans don't like their new material, the band would still be playing some of their old favourites at their gigs to keep them happy year after year. And any of the more modern "processed" sounds on record could still sound more organic when played live.

Is anyone here familiar with the prog metal band Zero Hour? They made a few albums, but seemed to have a problem retaining vocalists throughout their existence, and split around 2008. But they made a couple of great albums with their first singer, Erik Rosvold, around 15 years ago. Anyway, I've just discovered Cynthesis, the current band with the Tipton brothers and original singer Erik Rosvold (i.e. 3/4 of the original ZH line-up). They've done a couple of albums, which are a concept that will span three albums: -- DeEvolution (2011) -- ReEvolution (2013) Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else was interested and wasn't aware of them. It's that same Zero Hour sound, heavy in parts but overall more laid-back and atmospheric. I couldn't believe it when I discovered them the other day purely by chance, as those early ZH albums with Rosvold singing were the only ones I really enjoyed. Release The Deity:

Little Caesar - s/t Little Caesar - Influence

As I mentioned, I'm not particularly keen on the "We Don't Run" song as it has that somewhat "processed" sound which I presume is more in tune with some of the modern sounds of melodic hard rock these days (which I'll admit I'm not much up to date on). However, if this song (and/or style) was by someone else other than Bon Jovi (e.g. a new band), would it be getting more appreciation? Or is it still pretty crap within the context of the current "modern" sounding bands of today?

I like These Days better than Keep The Faith.

Unbelievable... I guess they don't want to promote their work!

Adrian Vandenberg's Moonkings debut album. Looking forward to the follow-up whenever it comes out...

Funny you should mention Badlands, as it was those two albums that I noticed missing from their website, and which prompted me to start this thread.

I didn't like that at all. Sounds like a lot of synthetic processing going on in that track, both in the instrumentation and Jon's vocals. Have they ditched the organic sound nowadays?

Maybe I'm being negative because Queensryche haven't done anything I liked since the "Operation Mindcrime" and "Empire" albums. Also because Geoff Tate became such a dick, as well as not being able to sing like he used to. But mainly because I was thrilled to bits when I first heard new singer Todd Le Torre had been recruited to Crimson Glory, before ultimately getting involved with Queensryche instead. I would have loved a new Crimson Glory album, particularly as he also managed to imitate their former singer Midnight extremely well. Credit where it's due, Todd seems to be a very good impersonator.... I wonder what he would sound like in Lost Horizon, lol.

That's brilliant, thanks! It looks like a complete list.

Does anyone have a full list of Rock Candy Records titles, including ones that are now out of print? I was scrolling through their list on their website the other day looking to see what they had that I might be interested in, and noticed a few omissions. But the OOP titles could be of interest to me if I knew what they were... Might still find one on eBay.

Fair Warning - "Aura" Then I had a look to see what Tommy Heart was doing these days, and if there was any more Fair Warning or Soul Doctor albums in the works, but it didn't look like it.

Sounds like a dodgy Euro-metal band now, like early Helloween. He's got that "nasal" sound similar to how Geoff Tate sounds nowadays It's certainly not the mature and sophisticated style of "Operation Mindcrime" and "Empire"... they used to sound like leaders, now they just sound like followers of a bygone era.

First 6 for me, as I think "These Days" is also a great album

I quite liked "Unbreakable", it was enjoyable and the instrumentation was good. Didn't like the vocal parts in the mid-range that sounded processed, but the higher range bridge and chorus was OK once I got used to it. "Broken" was pretty good as well. I could probably quite enjoy an album, as I've got used to plenty of stuff in the past with slightly accented vocals (e.g. European prog metal), and it's in the higher range which like... He certainly looks like he's putting in the effort and not holding back. It's definitely got life and energy to it. Yeah, I thought they were good...

That probably explains it, lol. I can see why it is popular, just not quite my thing. Just thought I'd take a listen to see what all the excitement was about.

I listened to the 6-minute album sampler on Youtube, and it wasn't really to my taste. Vocals are a bit "shouty" at times, with that occasional kind of Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) raw sound. And the songs seemed to lack variety, as a whole sounding a bit monotone with little breathing space. But it is just a sampler, maybe the full album gives a different impression. I wonder sometimes if the modern production techniques (i.e. good clarity and quite loud) influences the listener's impression that something is better than it actually is. It's the sort of thing I'd probably enjoy initially, then put it away, and a few months later find it less appealing.

You'll have to start giving out "This Is Spinal Tap" styled ratings... This one goes up to 11, because it's better than the one that got 10.