The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal

[Delmarva]

On Through The Night - Def Leppard

View attachment 1355197

There it is. I believe Def Leppard has been mentioned a lot thus far but has not been posted till now. (I could be wrong, I usually am, just ask my wife)
That album and it's success in the US really opened the floodgates for the NWOBHM, make no mistake about it.
You won't see many examples of the genre in LP format that pre-date On Through The Night on this thread.
An old pic of my copy.

 

[KevinJS]

How about Thunder, Magnum or Gun ? Not sure if these guys would classify as new wave heavy metal though - I always thought of them as hard rock. Like Def Leppard really - love those guys, they started out in my home town of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, but personally I wouldn't class them as heavy metal.

I thought Thunder was ringing bells. I saw them at Wembley opening for Van Halen. Bon Jovi closed for Val Halen that day. Ugly Kid Joe also played.

 

[Space Ritual]

There it is. I believe Def Leppard has been mentioned a lot thus far but has not been posted till now. (I could be wrong, I usually am, just ask my wife)
That album and it's success in the US really opened the floodgates for the NWOBHM, make no mistake about it.
You won't see many examples of the genre in LP format that pre-date On Through The Night on this thread.
An old pic of my copy.

"Wasted" with Pete "The Alcoholic Midget" Willis was when Def Leppard peaked in my opinion. Sure they became over the top commercially successful after he was replaced but i never liked them as much

 

[Delmarva]

"Wasted" with Pete "The Alcoholic Midget" Willis was when Def Leppard peaked in my opinion. Sure they became over the top commercially successful after he was replaced but i never liked them as much

LOL, I remember once reading an article on Def Leppard in a magazine back in the day and they called Pet Willis The Guitar On Legs.
They can but Pete on a pile of bricks and stand him in the back. He's still the shortest guy.
But without him they went downhill fast... all the way to the bank.

 

[Delmarva]

Gonna start doing something called My Video Of The Day.
I don't generally like video posts without some sort of provenance applied.

This one is something on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal Vol's 1 thru 9 that @heavyrock posted earlier in the thread.
It's from Volume 6. The band is called Scarab, the song is called Poltergeist.
They managed to produce just one 7" single in 1984. They had formed in 1981, but by 1984 the train had long left the station and hair metal was beginning to rule the day, but it's a brilliant piece of NWOBHM. Has everything you could want in it's 5:44 minutes.
Starts off as standard NWOBHM with it's horror movie theme, then it goes through a progression of pace changes and at the 4:10 minute mark contains one of the prettiest guitar solo's I've ever heard in the genre. Nothing complicated, just pretty. Pretty and NWOBHM are seldom ever mentioned in the same sentence.

This is the complete 10:23 minute single.
This thing is so scarce that it has never been sold at Discogs. 30 have it, 115 want it. Make that 116.

 

[Delmarva]

Not sure I'll be able to keep up with either you or heavyrock in this category. I definitely have a few goodies in the collection, but you both have set the bar high! Some pretty rare stuff and awesome to see.

LOL, I'll never keep pace with @heavyrock. I'll just talk him to death.

 

[ItGos211]

On Through The Night - Def Leppard

View attachment 1355197

There it is. I believe Def Leppard has been mentioned a lot thus far but has not been posted till now. (I could be wrong, I usually am, just ask my wife)
That album and it's success in the US really opened the floodgates for the NWOBHM, make no mistake about it.
You won't see many examples of the genre in LP format that pre-date On Through The Night on this thread.
An old pic of my copy.

"Wasted" with Pete "The Alcoholic Midget" Willis was when Def Leppard peaked in my opinion. Sure they became over the top commercially successful after he was replaced but i never liked them as much

LOL, I remember once reading an article on Def Leppard in a magazine back in the day and they called Pet Willis The Guitar On Legs.
They can but Pete on a pile of bricks and stand him in the back. He's still the shortest guy.
But without him they went downhill fast... all the way to the bank.

I was fortunate to have seen these guys on this tour, which was their first in the US. It was Friday the 13th and they opened for the Scorpions and Ted Nugent. They aquitted themselves quite well, cramming the short set with most everything from On Through the Night. I had heard Wasted and Rock Brigade on the radio (those were the days!) and was impressed with the energy and chops. I have seen them four more times since then but still think they were at their raw best in 1980.

 

[Delmarva]

P.S. IMO this NWOBHM thread is a genuine keeper.

^^^ Kudos to @Delmarva for kicking it off and to y'all others for keepin' it alive.

Well thank you, Mystic. I truly appreciate that.
I've felt for a long time that the NWOBHM was unique enough and important enough to warrant it's own thread.
I don't know how long the thread will stay active as there is a finite amount of music to plumb from during the short life of the movement. I would consider my hard copy source material to be rather meager, but there is certainly lot of research I can do on bands not represented in my collection and will share it on the thread. That said I will say that I've barely scraped the surface of my collection, so that's a good thing. The enthusiasm of all who have joined us here keeps me on my toes without me even needing to post anything!

It's funny. Those who know me at AK think of me as a Prog Rocker due to my incessant posting of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes material. True, I love that music, but it wasn't my generation. I was 20 years old in 1981 and what was going on in the American music scene was not for me. If I recall correctly our radio stations were full of John Cougar, Tom Petty, Madonna, U-2, Wham!, Journey, Billy Squire, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Foreigner, etc. The NWOBHM was just what the doctor ordered as I was more of a blue collar, grittier personality type and was already a fan of the aforementioned Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple.
I couldn't identify socially with what was going on in the U.K. at the time with all the economic strife and youth joblessness. Didn't even know at the time that it was a driving force of the NWOBHM. I just knew that those kids in England were kicking out a new kind of music that was instantly identifiable,..."Fast, Loud and Rude" as Dave Mustaine said on the song Rattlehead from Megadeth's debut album. Of course Mustaine was an American disciple of the NWOBHM.

Mustaine and then bandmate James Hetfield sporting NWOBHM t-shirts, Venom and Saxon.

 

[Delmarva]

I was fortunate to have seen these guys on this tour, which was their first in the US. It was Friday the 13th and they opened for the Scorpions and Ted Nugent. They aquitted themselves quite well, cramming the short set with most everything from On Through the Night. I had heard Wasted and Rock Brigade on the radio (those were the days!) and was impressed with the energy and chops. I have seen them four more times since then but still think they were at their raw best in 1980.

Saw Def Leppard at their first show in Washington, D.C. at the Warner Theater October 5th, 1981 during the High N' Dry tour. Great energy, great music.
Shame they went the way they did but who can blame them. Follow the money.

 

[KevinJS]

@Delmarva

Still on the road at the moment, Frank. I’ll add some thoughts about life in the UK at the time soon as I get the chance, which will hopefully give some background to the music.

 

[ItGos211]

Saw Def Leppard at their first show in Washington, D.C. at the Warner Theater October 5th, 1981 during the High N' Dry tour. Great energy, great music.
Shame they went the way they did but who can blame them. Follow the money.

They're still listenable even with the formula that made them stadium stars. They always put on a great show and the ladies dig them, which always makes the concert experience better IMHO.

 

[Delmarva]

@Delmarva

Still on the road at the moment, Frank. I’ll add some thoughts about life in the UK at the time soon as I get the chance, which will hopefully give some background to the music.

I look forward to that Kev. You and I being virtually the same age... your insight into the social-political climate in the U.K. during the late 70's and early 80's will really help us to understand what drove the movement. I know a lot of it was just unemployed guys our age looking for a way to make money. Putting together a band and looking for gigs was an end to a means.

Time for me to check out. Duty calls.

 

[ItGos211]

One of the few NWOBHM bands still standing. Biff is the man!
Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law - Vinyl

 

[heavyrock]

Gonna start doing something called My Video Of The Day.
I don't generally like video posts without some sort of provenance applied.

This one is something on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal Vol's 1 thru 9 that @heavyrock posted earlier in the thread.
It's from Volume 6. The band is called Scarab, the song is called Poltergeist.
They managed to produce just one 7" single in 1984. They had formed in 1981, but by 1984 the train had long left the station and hair metal was beginning to rule the day, but it's a brilliant piece of NWOBHM. Has everything you could want in it's 5:44 minutes.
Starts off as standard NWOBHM with it's horror movie theme, then it goes through a progression of pace changes and at the 4:10 minute mark contains one of the prettiest guitar solo's I've ever heard in the genre. Nothing complicated, just pretty. Pretty and NWOBHM are seldom ever mentioned in the same sentence.

This is the complete 10:23 minute single.
This thing is so scarce that it has never been sold at Discogs. 30 have it, 115 want it. Make that 116.

KILLER stuff. A little less scarce than you might think, ignore those discogs stats.

There is a fantastic 2 lp or 2CD anthology of this material out from High Roller Records, "Rolling Like thunder". Mandatory to track a copy down, not rare.

 

[heavyrock]

there is a finite amount of music to plumb from during the short life of the movement.

<snip>

Actually there is enough material that this thread could run forever.

 

[heavyrock]

Excellent melodic NWOBHM. They had 2 great 7" singles and this cd and as of 2018 Skol Records has seemingly released it all as an anthology, which I do not have:

 

[heavyrock]

Since Zoot brought up the debut Satan album.
It was an album that should have been released at least a year earlier, but got caught up in record label red tape. Finally Neat was able to release it in 1983, but by then the wave had broken and Satan was just another of a gazillion NWOBHM bands flooding the market. The album should have been considered ground breaking but instead it was barely noticed. Brian Ross, the vocalist of Satan, and of Blitzkrieg as well left Satan and joined Lone Wolf along with Dave Johnson on guitar, Dave Allan on bass and Steve Hutchinson on drums. Lone Wolf had released a 7" single in 1982 with somebody else on vocals. Somebody who wasn't the great Brian Ross.

With Brian Ross, Lone Wolf released just this one 12" EP and nothing else. The music is more straight forward NWOBHM and not the complicated, multi dimensional efforts that Satan and Blitzkrieg did and still do to this very day.
Brian was simply lending his voice to Dave Johnson's songs. No doubt that without Brian they wouldn't have gotten this deal with Neat Records.

Love the imagery on the cover. Brain Ross back to back with himself, dressed in all black and all white and sitting at a chessboard with alternately colored chess pieces.

Lone Wolf - Nobody's Move
1984 Neat Records NEAT 44 12" 45rpm
https://www.discogs.com/Lone-Wolf-Nobodys-Move/release/2284709

Fantastic EP!

 

[heavyrock]

LOL, I'll never keep pace with @heavyrock. I'll just talk him to death.

Possibly. Less talk, more metal!. Actually I talk when I can bring some knowledge to the plate for this thread and/or have the energy for that.

And on that note here is another one of those classics of the genre that stand the test of time. Later era NWOBHM perfection, at least to me. I have the vinyl too but since I have other things to do now i'll slap on the cd:

 

[Delmarva]

KILLER stuff. A little less scarce than you might think, ignore those discogs stats.

There is a fantastic 2 lp or 2CD anthology of this material out from High Roller Records, "Rolling Like thunder". Mandatory to track a copy down, not rare.

View attachment 1355600

Strange. Last night I didn't see the sales stats. It has indeed been sold on Discogs.
5 copies have sold. Last Sold: 14 Sep 2018 Lowest:$63.28 Median:$63.29 Highest:$69.62

I won't be buying that anytime soon.

 

[Delmarva]

Possibly. Less talk, more metal!. Actually I talk when I can bring some knowledge to the plate for this thread and/or have the energy for that.

And on that note here is another one of those classics of the genre that stand the test of time. Later era NWOBHM perfection, at least to me. I have the vinyl too but since I have other things to do now i'll slap on the cd:

Well, if this thread were to become simply album posting and worse yet to me, video posting with no discourse then I for one would lose interest pretty quick. Just sayin'.

ELIXIR
Another band that I'm only familiar with through the NWOBHM 9 Volume collection that you posted. (How did you find that BTW)
Just listened to their song Treachery on Volume 6 as a matter of fact. Very impressive. Has everything we want in a NWOBHM song.
Looking forward to seeing that vinyl some day.

EDIT: Switching over to listen to the full Elixir album on youtube. Thanks for the link!
Wow, was this 52 minutes in it's original release?