1977! Does it get any better than this...

Heavy Metal – stacks of speakers and high voltage amps; thunderous, surging sounds from the bass, screaming lead guitars emitting doomsday warnings; pumped up percussion; instruments (and minds) being demolished on stage.
There is no subtlety in Heavy Metal; it's the hardest of hard rock with electric shock treatments and vibrating air churning right before your eyes...

The heaviest and best of 1977. CHOOSE!


AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
Aerosmith - Draw the Line
Alice Cooper - Lace and Whiskey
Blue Öyster Cult - Spectres
Judas Priest - Sin After Sin
KISS - Love Gun
KISS - Alive II
Motörhead - Motörhead
Nazareth - Expect No Mercy
Scorpions - Taken by Force
Ted Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever
Queen - News of the World
Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Rainbow - On Stage
Sweet - Off the Record
Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
UFO - Lights Out

Draw the Line. The rest of you don't need to vote.

Tough choice for me in this year. Some of my all time favorite albums are in this list. In the end, I went with The Scorpions - Taken By Force as it embodies heavy metal, especially for 1977.

However, I could easily have chosen Sin After Sin, one of the most underrated Judas Priest albums, UFO - Lights Out, an album that should have made the worldwide superstars or the quirky, drug-addled "Draw the Line" by Aerosmith. Thin Lizzy's Bad Reputation ranks among my favorites, as well as Rush - A Farewell to Kings.

1977. A great year for hard rock and heavy metal for sure.

It was. Many of those albums are what I was finding as I discovered metal.

i'm talking bout my LOVE GUN !

TheNazgul wrote:

It was. Many of those albums are what I was finding as I discovered metal.

Same here. It was about this time that I started calling myself a fan of heavy metal. My school friends were into the Jackson 5, Bay City Rollers, Bee Gees, Shaun Cassidy, etc. I was loving "Draw the Line", "Foghat Live", "Bad Reputation", "Alive II" etc. The odd thing about that is that I was in grade school at the time. My passion for hard rock and heavy metal was partially fueled by a teenager that lived down the street from me that I thought was cool. He jammed all this heavy stuff and turned me onto all these great albums and bands. On top of all the heavy stuff, I also found Floyd, Genesis, Nektar, and all the prog rock stuff from that era.

There are all great choices, and also amazing to me that in the year punk broke big (Sex Pistols Never Mind, still one of my favorite albums of all time) that metal was thriving and growing, unlike what the press of that day was reporting.

My choice was easy, 'Let There Be Rock' , featuring the legendary Bon Scott and crew taking no prisoners and giving no quarter to the punk rockers.

manny wrote:

My choice was easy, 'Let There Be Rock'

Ditto. Still a sentimental favorite to this very day as it was the very first rock album (tape) that I owned

That's an amazing slew of albums. Whilst it may not be the heaviest, I picked Cat Scratch Fever as I love that album to death.

I voted for Judas Priest!

Judas Priest - Sin After Sin

Let There be Rock ...... Yes it beats out A Farewell to Kings....... But Let There Be Rock is a balls to the wall GUITAR DRIVEN MONSTER.....


Awesome album cause Light....... Sound....... Guitar...... Drums.........


LET THERE BE RAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWKKKKKKKKKKKKK !!!!!!

All awesome, but I'm going with Lights Out!

Being the huge KISS fan I am, had to go with Love Gun. Some GREAT metal on that list!!!!!

Another great year and again I go with BOC. Spectres is my favorite BOC album after Imaginos.

Next for me would be Taken By Force, my favorite Scorpions album.

ultmetal wrote:

TheNazgul wrote:

It was. Many of those albums are what I was finding as I discovered metal.

Same here. It was about this time that I started calling myself a fan of heavy metal. My school friends were into the Jackson 5, Bay City Rollers, Bee Gees, Shaun Cassidy, etc. I was loving "Draw the Line", "Foghat Live", "Bad Reputation", "Alive II" etc. The odd thing about that is that I was in grade school at the time. My passion for hard rock and heavy metal was partially fueled by a teenager that lived down the street from me that I thought was cool. He jammed all this heavy stuff and turned me onto all these great albums and bands. On top of all the heavy stuff, I also found Floyd, Genesis, Nektar, and all the prog rock stuff from that era.

Your story is kinda close to mine. Instead of a teenager living down the street. He lived right across the street. From hanging out over there with his younger brother I was turned onto KISS,Nugent,Aerosmith, Queen , Thin Lizzy and alot of other great music.

My vote went for Love Gun. One of the first albums if not the first I bought with my own money.

UFO- Lights Out

These guys should have taken over the world based on this material. I don't understand why they kind of stayed under the radar. They are a huge influence on lots of musicians but never got that mainstream recognition.

Let There Be rock but what a year!

Again, I had to go with what I truly loved in '77. Unfortunately, to be honest, Priest and the Scorpions were still unknown to me then, and so was AC/DC. I didn't discover AC/DC until "If You Want Blood..." So I picked Love Gun. It could have easily been Alive II. I also loved Cat Scratch Fever and News To The World in '77. To me, Aerosmith - Draw The Line was a little disappointing after Rocks, but I truly loved the song Kings and Queens.

bassman wrote:

UFO- Lights Out

These guys should have taken over the world based on this material. I don't understand why they kind of stayed under the radar. They are a huge influence on lots of musicians but never got that mainstream recognition.

I was not into rock music, let alone metal in 1977, but I assumed that three of their albums, 'Lights Out', 'Obsession' and 'Strangers in the Night' where all successful albums, maybe the lost their footing in the States due to Schenker's shenanigans during his last 18 months in the band, disappearing, etc

manny wrote:

bassman wrote:

UFO- Lights Out

These guys should have taken over the world based on this material. I don't understand why they kind of stayed under the radar. They are a huge influence on lots of musicians but never got that mainstream recognition.

I was not into rock music, let alone metal in 1977, but I assumed that three of their albums, 'Lights Out', 'Obsession' and 'Strangers in the Night' where all successful albums, maybe the lost their footing in the States due to Schenker's shenanigans during his last 18 months in the band, disappearing, etc

I didn't mean to suggest they were not successful, just that they did not achieve the level of super-stardom that others on the list reached.

bassman wrote:

manny wrote:

bassman wrote:

UFO- Lights Out

These guys should have taken over the world based on this material. I don't understand why they kind of stayed under the radar. They are a huge influence on lots of musicians but never got that mainstream recognition.

I was not into rock music, let alone metal in 1977, but I assumed that three of their albums, 'Lights Out', 'Obsession' and 'Strangers in the Night' where all successful albums, maybe the lost their footing in the States due to Schenker's shenanigans during his last 18 months in the band, disappearing, etc

I didn't mean to suggest they were not successful, just that they did not achieve the level of super-stardom that others on the list reached.

I have to agree with you because released IMO great quality albums after Schenker left and yet they never managed break thru, a huge mystery to me also.

I went with Sin After Sin, though Taken by Force takes a close second.

I went with BOC, they are one of my favorite metal bands from the 70's.

i've made my love for Sin After Sin quite clear on many occasions. greatest album ever made by anyone imo. that album is heavy on so many levels.