Metal Reviews

After going through the Classics section, I wanted to list a few albums that I felt deserved inclusion. I've included several punk and hardcore records that should be mentioned for their impact on both hard rock and metal as well.

AC/DC-Dirty Deeds, Back in Black
Alice Cooper-Billion Dollar Babies
Bad Brains-S/T
Black Flag-Damaged
Bon Jovi-Slippery When Wet
Clash-London Calling
Cryptic Slaughter-Convicted
Dead Kennedys-Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
DRI-Thrash Zone
Hellhammer-Satanic Rites (Demon Entrails comp. doesn't count)
Led Zeppelin-IV
Ramones-S/T
Sarcafago-I.N.R.I.
Sex Pistols-Never Mind the Bollocks
Suicidal Tendencies-S/T
Thin Lizzy-Live and Dangerous
UFO-Strangers in the Night
Wehrmacht-Shark Attack

Morbid Angel-Altars of Madness and Pantera-Cowboys from Hell should have been reviewed Classics right along with both bands' follow-up records. This 99% business is a load of shite.

What other albums do you all think need, or should have had, the Classic treatment?

Surprised that album was mentioned. But yes, it deserves a review for it's impact and I think it is a classic. I am usually a bit skeptical about many commercially successful albums cos I have the impression that they will have 2-3 good songs which would have been released as singles and the rest would be filler which is why I haven't picked up Slippery When Wet. I do own a few Bon Jovi albums (at one time they were one of my favourite bands) and I listen to them ocassionally. My major problem with Bon Jovi is while they have many great tracks, some of their, "My baby ditched me cos I am a good for nothing lowlife and I still love her even though she hates me and has sex with someone else in front of me just to rub it in." songs were just too pussified for me.

There are more albums from this genre that merit inclusion but I think it's lack of popularity with many of the reviewers/forumites plays a role in their absence. This was a monster album for the band and a game changer in the melodic hard rock genre itself. Every glam band in LA more or less transitioned to the Bon Jovi sound (and fashion style) after this record blew up the stratosphere. Living on a Prayer and Wanted (Dead or Alive) are arena rock standards that just about every single person on the planet has heard at least once.
On another note, how Back in Black is not a reviewed classic is baffling to me.

W.A.S.P.-The Headless Children
Elf-Elf

Because it is fucking AC/DC? Throughout most of the history of this site, few have particularly cared about all these albums, with myself caring even less than most. Maybe hardrockreviews.com has given them classic status?

If that's the case, then why review any hard rock music at all? Highway to Hell is a reviewed classic along with Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak and a host of others. There is also an entire section on the forum devoted to hard rock. If the review team didn't want to acknowledge this sub-genre then it wouldn't be on here. Since the door was open, I went ahead and walked through it.

Pretty much all these suggestions suck. So that's probably why they aren't classic.

My take.

Okay, I can take a hint. Everybody hates the dad rock bands around here. I suppose all the reviewers for the older releases have found greener pastures. But no love for any of the crossover guys? Very surprising indeed.

I said pretty much all, not all. DRI definitely deserve classic status, as does Hellhammer.

At various times members of the review team no doubt were interested in the genre, you've got me there. However, it was rather intermittent, and certainly not a focus over the past few years. The reviewers who might have continued work on the genre and would review the stuff you suggest probably left years ago. And the hard rock forum was generally a ghost town, much like the doom forum. I'd say metalreviews.com always moved between power and black for its most favored genres, while death and thrash were also always well represented.

I have a perennial interest in some of the hard rockier bands, especially those with clear historical links to metal like Thin Lizzy - think the classic for Jailbreak was absolutely warranted (and heralded as such at the time) but think I would struggle to have much to say about, eg, Back in Black. NFH is right that the site has leant more to the power/black extremes in latter years, and I ultimately will write about what's interesting to me and what I think I can make others interested in. I've done two Led Zep classics and mean to do more at some point. Otherwise, beyond reminding me that I really must get around to listening to more Alice Cooper and Sarcofago, I'm not sure I'm the best man for the rest... Would feel very strange writing about the Sex Pistols when I have so much metal waiting to be written about, for example.

Understood. With hard rock having it's own forum and a smattering of classic reviews, I felt there were a few glaring omissions that should be reviewed as genre classics. Punk, especially hardcore, was such a huge influence on the metal underground in the early 80's (and black metal for that matter) that many of those bands deserved a shout out. The lack of representation for crossover bands like DRI and Suicidal is a bit surprising given all the love thrash gets here. I'm not picking at you guys at all. I think you all do a great job with the site. But I just thought it was strange that many of these albums were missing write-ups.

I'm a bit confused by that statement. Do you mean it was influential on stuff like Hellhammer or do you mean it was influential on black metal as a whole?

Not necessarily black metal as a whole but definitely with bands like Darkthrone, Nattefrost and the aformentioned Hellhammer. Some of the later bands may be getting it indirectly through the darker death/thrash hybrids like Celtic Frost or Sarcafago but the punk imprint is all over them. Fenriz discusses this on the commentary disc for Panzerfaust. I believe it's during Horns of Nebulah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKheCidavos

I'd say it is basically limited to the bands you mentioned, but undeniable in that subsection of the genre. Thanks for the link! Horns of Nebulah is one of those really awesome Celtic Frost worship tracks; I like how Fenriz totally admits it.