An Underrated Song From a Great Band and Album

I recently posted about the Scorpions Love at First Sting album found here and the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" found here.  In addition to that song "Big City Nights" and "Still Loving You" also received quite a bit of air time on the radio and MTV.  As good as those three songs are, one of my favorites off this classic album is "Bad Boys Running Wild."  It features a great opening riff from Lead Guitarist Mathias Jabs.  The video from the Crazy World Tour Live DVD is below for you to enjoy!

My Eighth Album

The first time I heard Quiet Riot it was the song "Cum On Feel The Noise" on a mixed tape my sister Shari made for me in the second grade.  When I visited my sister, my brother Steve or his girlfriend Faye I noticed all of them had the Metal Health album.  Since I loved the song my sister sent me, all three had the album and the album cover was pretty cool looking I was pretty sure I wanted the album.  What sold me was when I heard the song "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" off the Foot Loose soundtrack.  At the time it was a pretty heavy song.

What I didn't realize at the time was how important the Metal Health album was.  After heavy touring with the band Loverboy the album was the first heavy metal album to reach #1 on the billboard album chart[1].  Looking back I am not surprised that the album was as successful as it was.  Every song on it is pretty solid.  In addition to the first two songs listed above, the songs "Don't Want to Let You Go," "Slick Black Cadillac," "Love's a Bitch" and "Breathless" are really good.

References:

1. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Health

HR&M Experience Top 5: The Coolest Iron Maiden Album Covers

The last post covered the Top 5 coolest KISS album covers.  This post will count down the Top 5 coolest Iron Maiden album covers.  Like KISS was known visually for make up, Iron Maiden was known visually for for their mascot Eddie.  Eddie is a rotting cadaver and every album has Eddie portrayed in a different theme.  This was hard to put into order but here are my Top 5.

Enjoy!

#5:  Killers

#4:  The Number of the Beast

#3:  Live After Death

#2:  Somewhere in Time

#1:  Powerslave

HR&M Experience Top 5: The Coolest Kiss Album Covers

On the VH1 Classic TV Show That Metal Show, co-host Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine usually open the show with a segment called the "TMS Top 5."  In this segment they pick a topic like the top 5 heavy metal guitarists for example, list their picks and defend/argue with each other about about them.  They then create a "Final Top 5 List." In addition fans, musicians, tv stars or anyone else who is interested in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music will list their picks.

In honor of that I will do the same and call it the HR&M Experience Top 5  (Very original right?).  I wanted to start with the Top 5 Album Covers but since some bands would dominate the list (KISS and Iron Maiden For example) I will focus on one band at a time who was known for cool album cover art then pick the Top 5 all together.  This is an important topic as myself and many others bought albums because they looked cool without even listening to the album.

Here are my picks for the KISS Top 5:

#5:  Alive II

#4:  Alive!

 

 

#3:  Love Gun

#2:  Destroyer

#1:  Creatures of the Night

 

My Seventh Album

I had this album on vinyl when I was in the third grade.  It was my first Scorpions album so I was pretty excited.  I can't exactly remember, but I think my brother Steve bought it for me.  Something the Scorpions were always known for was their provocative album covers.  How my parents allowed me to have this album is puzzling but I had it and listened to it often.  In addition to the song "Rock You Like a Hurricane" that I discussed in this post Love at First Sting had many other excellent songs.  Some of them include "Bad Boys Running Wild" (Great opening guitar riff by lead guitarist Mathias Jabs), "I'm Leaving You," "Coming Home," "Big City Nights," and "Still Loving You."  All of these songs were major hits from what was arguably the Scorpions best album.

My Favorite Dokken Song

There are MANY great songs from the band Dokken.  My favorite one is "Unchain the Night" from the 1985 album Under Lock and Key.  It has a slow, interesting intro and builds up from there.  With great rhythm from start to finish from bass player Jeff Pilson, a great guitar solo from axeman great George Lynch and great vocals from Don Dokken - this is a great song the whole way through.

Listen and Enjoy!

My Sixth Album

Dokken Tooth and Nail Front Side

I used to think I was the only kid who spent money buying albums by just looking at the art work on the front cover or the way the band looked back cover.  Years later after reading Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman and watching an episode of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show and seeing co-hosts Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine have a "TMS Top 5" contest on the coolest album art I realized there were many like me.  

One album I bought based on looks was Dokken's 1984 album Tooth and Nail (OK, I admit the album name was pretty bad ass too).  I was at Musicland in the Kirkwood Mall in Bismarck ND looking at albums and I saw the monster's hand ripping though the water with flames coming out.  That immediately grabbed my attention along with the Tooth and Nail on top.  The back of the album had a photo of the band and I saw guitarist George Lynch and his Black "Skull and Crossbones" guitar.  The combination of the three sold me immediately. 

Dokken Tooth and Nail Back Side

The funny thing is for months if not over a year I didn't even realize the name of the band was Dokken (It wasn't until the Under Lock and Key album came out that I realized Dokken was the band name.).  I also didn't realize that I had an album of one of the most criminally underrated bands of the hair metal era.  Future posts will discuss this album as well as the other three studio albums released by this great band during the years of their classic lineup that included Lynch, Don Dokken (Lead Vocals), Jeff Pilson (Bass) and "Wild" Mick Brown (Drums).  It is unfortunate that George and Don didn't get along at all resulting in George leaving and starting the band Lynch Mob.  If the lineup listed had even 1-2 more years together they would have been more talked about.  As a hard rock and metal fan I can honestly say Dokken was one of the few bands who's albums got better with time!