Tygers of Pan Tang - "Spellbound" [1981]

Artist: Tygers of Pan Tang

Title: Spellbound

Genre: NWOBHM

Country: UK

Release date: 1981

Track List:

1. Gangland
2. Take It
3. Minotaur
4. Hellbound
5. Mirror
6. Silver and Gold
7. Blackjack
8. The Story So Far
9. Tyger Bay
10. Don't Stop By

Tygers of Pan Tang, while nowhere near as successful as such their compatriots as Iron Maiden or Judas Priests, were and still are one of the most important NWOBHM bands. Not all their albums are equally good, but at least the first two ones can the safely considered to be classics of NWOBHM.

Here's their sophomore release "Spellbound" that's rightfully viewed as the best in their discography by many critics. Like most their other albums, it's more on the "glam" side of things than many other NWOBHM classics, but it isn't a bad thing in this particular case. My personal favourite track on this album, however, is the ballad "Mirror" that stands out of the whole album. I also absolutely should mention the cover art. While most ToPT albums feature cats and tigers on their covers, this one is particularly cool, and I really would like to see a cartoon movie drawn in this style :)

Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell" [1980]

Artist: Black Sabbath

Title: Heaven and Hell

Genre: Heavy Metal

Country: UK

Release date: 1980

Track List:

1. Neon Knights
2. Children of the Sea
3. Lady Evil
4. Heaven and Hell
5. Wishing Well
6. Die Young
7. Walk Away
8. Lonely is the Word

This album is very well-known and already was reviewed multiple times before by much better reviewers than me, so I can only say that I consider it a masterpiece and by far the best release in the whole Black Sabbath discography (especially in contrast with several rather weak albums from the second half of 1970s). While the side B is slightly weaker than the side A, I still like nearly everything about this album, apart from its rather stupid cover art. Just like the subsequent release "Mob Rules", this album features Dio (R.I.P.) on vocals, but that's not the only thing that makes it quite different from all early Black Sabbath albums.

There was much debate if "Heaven and Hell" can be considered NWOBHM. While Black Sabbath formally are one of the founders of the "old" wave of British heavy metal, I personally think this album in particular very much fits the overall NWOBHM sound, and can be safely recommended as a great example of the genre:

Pegasos - "A Night in the Cold World" [1991]

Artist: Pegasos

Title: A Night in the Cold World

Genre: Heavy Metal

Country: Finland

Release date: 1991

Track List:

1. A Night In The Cold World
2. Angel

I discovered this very obscure Finnish band via the now-defunct Servile Insurrection blog, whose owner described their one and only EP as one of his all-time favourites. While I was initially surprised to see an EP described as "traditional melodic heavy metal" on a blog dedicated mostly to much more brutal stuff, it turned out as good as the author on SI made it out to be. Feels like I'm listening to some really nice EP from the NWOBHM era, but released a decade later than it's supposed to be...

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Oz - "Fire in the Brain" [1983]

Artist: Oz

Title: Fire in the Brain

Genre: Heavy Metal

Country: Finland

Release date: 1983

Track List:

1. Search Lights
2. Fortune
3. Megalomaniac
4. Black Candles
5. Gambler
6. Stop Believin'
7. Free Me, Leave Me
8. Fire in the Brain

Well before Finland became a country with the highest percentage of metal bands per capita in the world, Oz were a very important band in the early Finnish metal scene. Nowadays they're largely forgotten, even though they have reunited and recorded a new album in Sweden a few years ago. Anyway, here's their second (and the best) LP, released in 1983.

Unlike their pretty boring debut album, this one is very energetic and recommended to everyone who likes fast and catchy songs in the early 80's traditional metal style. The opeing track is especially good, as well as the closing one. And a little fun fact: like many other metal bands, Oz have "flirted" with the occult lyrical themes in the beginning of their career, but stopped doing that after they received a 666 SEK royalty check for their EP "Turn the Cross Upside Down" in 1984.

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Stormtrooper - "Armies of the Night" [1985]

Artist: Stormtrooper

Title: Armies of the Night

Genre: Heavy/Thrash Metal

Country: USA

Release date: 1985

Track List:

1. The Reaper (intro)
2. Armies of the Night
3. Steamroller
4. Search and Destroy
5. The Beast Within

Again, a very obscure band that I discovered thanks to Vibrations of Doom, which released only one short EP more than 30 years ago and then disappeared. The only info I could find about them is that their vocalist was the narrator for the shockumentary series "Traces of Death" for volumes I and II. Their one and only EP, however, is a killer release that certainly shouldn't be missed. The title track in particular is one of the catchiest songs I've heard in 80's metal (and it strongly reminds me of the track "Tyrant's Reign" by the eponymous band, which is also one of my biggest favourites).

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Coven 13 - "Worship New Gods" [1987]

Artist: Coven (13)

Title: Worship New Gods

Genre: Heavy Metal (with Doom & Gothic overtones)

Country: USA

Release date: 1987

Track List:

1. Riddle of Steel
2. Wicked Day
3. Ruler
4. Kiss Me with Blood
5. Burial Ground
6. General's Eye
7. Jail House
8. Threshold of the New
9. Loki

Another obscure yet great classic metal album which I discovered via Vibrations of Doom. It was highly recommended by the editor of VoD, but he wasn't sure about the year it came out. Well, turns out it was released in 1987 when the band was known simply as Coven (later they changed it to Coven 13 to avoid confusion with a couple of other bands under the same name). While the band (which has reformed in 2011 after 20 years of inactivity) has never received much publicity, their debut release "Worship New Gods", with a concept largely inspired by Nordic mythology, is indeed awesome. I especially liked the apparent doom metal influence that can be heard on tracks like "Wicked Day".

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Fifth Angel - "Time Will Tell" [1989]

Artist: Fifth Angel

Title: Time Will Tell

Genre: Heavy/Power Metal

Country: USA

Release date: 1989

Track List:

1. Cathedral
2. Midnight Love
3. Seven Hours
4. Broken Dreams
5. Time Will Tell
6. Lights Out (UFO cover)
7. Wait for Me
8. Angel of Mercy
9. We Rule
10. So Long
11. Feel the Heat

This band was already mentioned on here a couple of times when the topic of the 1980's US melodic metal scene was brought up, but I haven't posted any of their two albums yet. "Time Will Tell" is their second album, released in 1989 shortly before many 80s metal bands (including Fifth Angel) have split up and faded into obscurity. While it's more on the "pop" side of things than their debut self-titled album, I'd still definitely recommend it to the fans of other bands of this kind (i.e. early Queensryche, Hittman, Shok Paris). Like in case with "Steel & Starlight" by Shok Paris, some people might find the second half of this album boring, but the two opening tracks are undoubtedly awesome.

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Shok Paris - "Steel & Starlight" [1987]

Artist: Shok Paris

Title: Steel & Starlight

Genre: Heavy/Power Metal

Country: USA

Release date: 1987

Track List:

1. Go Down Fighting
2. Steel and Starlight
3. Tokyo Rose
4. Rocked Outta Love
5. Castle Walls
6. On Your Feet
7. Fallin' for You
8. Exhibit A
9. Lost Queen
10. Hot on Your Heels

Regardless of what you might have thought after looking at the cover art and the track list, this is not glam/hair metal, but a very good example of American melodic heavy/power metal from the 1980's. Shok Paris, formed in Cleveland in 1982, have released three full-length albums over that period. "Steel & Starlight" is their sophomore LP which is widely considered to be their best. While the second half of this album may seem to be a bit boring, at least the first three tracks are great:

Queensrÿche - s/t EP [1983]

Artist: Queensrÿche

Title: Queensrÿche EP

Genre: Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal

Country: USA

Release date: 1983

Track List:

1. Queen of the Reich
2. Nightrider
3. Blinded
4. The Lady Wore Black

To be honest, my knowledge of Queensryche discography isn't much better than this: "Outside of great albums like Operation: Mindcrime and Rage for Order, I never really paid much attention to their albums into the 1990s and 2000s, though I did hear that there was a huge drop in quality on those albums, especially the ones released into the 2000s".

The two aforementioned albums are, however, some of my all-time favourites in the 80's US melodic metal as well. Their debut EP may be not as interesting as these two ones, being more traditional heavy metal from the early 80s rather than progressive metal, yet it definitely shouldn't be missed if you like their later releases from the same decade. My personal favourite is the closing track - which, I think, is one of the best metal ballads from the 80s - and it looks like I'm not the only one thinking so:

"The. Lady. Wore. Black. Who the hell wrote this. Clearly not Geoff Tate, the asshole responsible for American Soldier could never write this. DeGarmo? If so, why the hell has he resigned himself to flying planes in Seattle. Possibly one of my favorite Power Metal ballads..."

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Upper Echelon - "Surface Tension" [1984]

Artist: Upper Echelon

Title: Surface Tension

Genre: Heavy Metal

Country: USA

Release date: 1984

Track List:

1. Drivin' Mean
2. Evil (Songs)
3. Teaser
4. Winter

Upper Echelon were a very obscure band from Seattle who released only one EP in 1984 (and one more demo the next year), and then disappeared without a trace. Long time ago, when I discovered this album via the classic metal archive of the Vibrations of Doom zine, I managed to find the personal site of one of their former members who didn't play in any bands anymore, but I can't remember its address now. Either way, they were awesome, even if they couldn't get much publicity back in the time. The acoustic ballad part in the closing track ("Winter") is especially great: