In your opinion, what was the last GREAT pop metal album of its era?

Toho, it's became random musings, muse along.

I always liked “ Look What the Cat Dragged In “ CD.

Alice Cooper's Trash came out in 1989.

Extreme's III Sides to Every Story. Masterpiece.

In the Heart of the Young-Winger. You can practically hear the 80's die as you listen to it.

I feel like the better title would've just been last great hair metal album; even though I don't like the term, everyone knows what it means. And the poppier to heavier side of that genre has been mentioned here so.

1990 1991 had a lot of great albums.

Come 1992...and I like that Bangalore Choir album a lot. That's a weak contender for "last great" though.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I feel like the better title would've just been last great hair metal album; even though I don't like the term, everyone knows what it means.

You're right. I've been trying to figure out how to word this differently but at the end of the day Hair Metal is truly its own subgenre. The look practically defines the music, and it sort of lumps in the sleaze, pop, blues, etc overtones under one umbrella. See I've always used the term 'pop metal' for this kind of thing, and I know many that have, but everybody uses tags differently to some degree, so perhaps the broader "Hair Metal," which I too have always disliked as well, works the best.

The end of an era is what interests me. Hair metal went out with a bang at some point. Which album was that bang? Skid Row's debut seems to be wildly agreed on.

Extreme III is a good example, released right around where grunge was taking off if I'm not mistaken. I'm not particularly fond of that album, but I do recognize it for being successfully ambitious, and well produced. Of course, some will argue that it's not "Hair Metal," but whatever.

As for Heart of the Young I dunno man, I love that album, but it borders on keyboard-drenched AOR, almost as heavy as Richard Marx LOL. But still a good example; you could say it's the last big 80's-sounding album. It's almost a love-letter to that era.

Now you got me thinking about the Winger debut...hmmmmmm...

Skid Row's debut came out early in 89 though and a lot of good albums came out that year that fall in the broad hair metal genre.

Unsatisfying as it is, I'd more assign a year to the end of the era thing, and I think that would be 1991. And as much as some people want to argue that it was grunge that killed hair metal or whatever, I don't think that's accurate. If you want to start the genre at like Too Fast for Love, it was 10 years strong of a sub-genre that, as much as I love it, is not very substantive. Ha.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Skid Row's debut came out early in 89 though and a lot of good albums came out that year that fall in the broad hair metal genre.

Unsatisfying as it is, I'd more assign a year to the end of the era thing, and I think that would be 1991. And as much as some people want to argue that it was grunge that killed hair metal or whatever, I don't think that's accurate. If you want to start the genre at like Too Fast for Love, it was 10 years strong of a sub-genre that, as much as I love it, is not very substantive. Ha.

Or that the end of that era began with the Skid Row album, like that was the last truly great thing the scene produced before tanking. Basically, is there any other album more remarkable and renown that came after? Or perhaps some would prefer another album that came out in '89? I agree that was a killer year for that stuff.

Kind of how some would consider The Good The Bad and The Ugly the last great Western, even though there have been a few others in the decades after, and some might say it was Tombstone, or Unforgiven. This is all, obviously, highly subjective.

Ha, well, this is personal (and little shared) opinion, but Pretty Boy Floyd's Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz from later that year is one of my all time favorite albums. And Alice Cooper's Trash.

Also, Warrant's debut and Dr. Feelgood both came out that year.

Yeah things were firing up in 89. You had debuts by Warrant, Skid Row, Dangerous Toys and Tora Tora. If I were to pick an end of an era I would say 92. By then it was about to fizzle out. So going off that year I’m gonna say Wildside gets my vote.

92 is a solid end of the era year too. Looking at the list of releases from 1992 on Wiki, there was a solid number of albums in this sub-genre, and many of them would constitute the last release that would fit into this sub-genre by certain bands, like Adrenalize.

Then by contrast, 1993 is way, way slimmer pickings. Very very few albums that would even fit into this sub-genre on that list. Winger blows it out the water with Pull though. Stellar record.

And speaking of 1993---apparently Child's Play, whose 1990 Rat Race was mentioned earlier (and which is a great record) had a second LP in 1993. I had no clue. I always thought they were a one and done. Gonna have to look into that.

Now we're rolling. Also gives me a lot of good stuff to experience/revisit.

I thought of that Wildside, too; has a fierce sense of intensity. Although some of the songs, I find, do fall flat.

Pull has grown on me rather recently. I didn't really care for that album back in the day. Guess I preferred my Winger with corn and cheese.

There are a couple albums I thought of but they only skirt the "hair metal" ambience: Enuff Z'nuff's Strength and Banshee's Take 'em by Storm.

But the real challenge here is opining which album is THE true winner in one's eyes.

corplhicks wrote:

But the real challenge here is opining which album is THE true winner in one's eyes.

I'd accept Wildside.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

But the real challenge here is opining which album is THE true winner in one's eyes.

I'd accept Wildside.

I just don't know if I could objectively hand more merit to Wildside's UTI than Skid Row's debut. Tough decision lol.

Thinking about making a poll. Or series of polls...

I think you first have to settle how many GREAT pop metal albums there were. Was it 500, 100, 50, 20 or 10? Only then you can figure out which was the last such release.

Im in the minority here, but I'd argue that the pop metal genre started in the 70s. No More Mr. Nice Guy and Elected by Alice Cooper could arguably be called the first songs (the rest of the Billion $ Babies album, good as it is, doesnt qualify though) as well as Boston's debut and the KISS catalog. All IMO of course.

The problem with a definite winner is by then none were stellar releases like earlier in the era. Spread Eagles Open to the Public and Tora Toras Wild America were decent albums but nothing compared to their debuts.
Now that I think of it Steehearts Tangled in Reins could be a contender.
Corpl, you definitely should start some polls. I’m curious how this will go.

Thrasher73 wrote:

The problem with a definite winner is by then none were stellar releases like earlier in the era. Spread Eagles Open to the Public and Tora Toras Wild America were decent albums but nothing compared to their debuts.
Now that I think of it Steehearts Tangled in Reins could be a contender.
Corpl, you definitely should start some polls. I’m curious how this will go.

I might, basically taking all the contenders mentioned here and listing them.

I thought of Tangled in the Reins too, heavily underappreciated entry, some of the best production from that era, and not a bad song. Problem is everyone thinks of the sugar-coated debut (THAT I WILL DEFEND DAMMIT) and don't want to take the time with Tangled, even though Tangled is waaaaay beefier and far less poppy. Also people need to realize that Baz and Miljenko would make for a great celebrity vocal deathmatch. M's performance on Tangled was some pretty fierce competition for Baz.

Warrant - Dog Eat Dog [1992]

Whitesnake's S/T from 1987 would be my choice

Lurideath wrote:

Whitesnake's S/T from 1987 would be my choice

Excellent choice!

It’s a great album.

Troublezone wrote:

Lurideath wrote:

Whitesnake's S/T from 1987 would be my choice

Excellent choice!

It’s a great album.

Well, yeah, it is, but...just to be absolutely clear here, in your opinion there is no other pop/hair metal album you would consider great that came after Whitesnake '87?

corplhicks wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

Lurideath wrote:

Whitesnake's S/T from 1987 would be my choice

Excellent choice!

It’s a great album.

Well, yeah, it is, but...just to be absolutely clear here, in your opinion there is no other pop/hair metal album you would consider great that came after Whitesnake '87?

I just applauded his choice. Mine is Skid Row s/t.

UNCLE SAXON'S KICKASS CDS wrote:

Warrant - Dog Eat Dog [1992]

Good choice!