1983 Heavy Metal TAKES OVER THE WORLD!

mlotek wrote:

Also missing is
EXCITER - Heavy Metal Maniac

Crap! I knew I would miss something important!

Are you going to add Raven....or should I just vote on what you have.

What a year for Metal!!!!!!! Very, very hard to pick. To me, it came down to Kill 'Em All (game changer), Melissa or Pyromania (game change in terms of the sheer number of albums a Metal band could sell and played the heck out of it ).

But, in the end I had to pick my fav Maiden album (and desert island disc), Piece Of Mind. This was a HUGE game changer for Maiden. With Nicko now behind the kit, this one added progressive elements and added so much more to what they could bring to the table. No offense to Clive, who is a FANTASTIC metal drummer, but Nicko's ability added another dimension to the band.

Sinistar wrote:

Are you going to add Raven....or should I just vote on what you have.

I can't add Raven to the voting. I can only have 15 items and I can't really delete anything from the poll to add them. They are part of the original list, just not part of the poll.

I thought you may not have been able to add anything.

Ok, then...

Although I am not a fan today....

KILL 'EM ALL gets the vote.

Changed the genre, as well as how I listened to metal. (along with Killing is My business)

Man everyone of those choices are fantastic ! Very hard to choose. Kill Em All is very important to the overall picture, Iron Maiden was at the top of their game,Quiet Riot and Def Leppard got everyone buzzing about metal,it just goes on. As a huge KISS fan,I'm leaning towards the awesome Lick It Up. That was a great release and was the middle of fantastic trio of cds from the guys.

Damn that's a hard one! I bought and loved all these ones when they came out that year.

Black Sabbath - Born Again
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Dio - Holy Diver
Krokus - Headhunter
Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon
Quiet Riot - Metal Health



I didn't get into Metallica until I heard Kill 'Em All right around when Ride The Lightning came out.



I went with Dio. I voted for what I played the most back then not what was good in hindsight, kinda like what James B. did.

i voted for QR. the one and only metal lp every reach the top 1 in 80s

I remember this year well. It was when chicks started liking metal.

manny wrote:

I voted for Black Sabbath, Ian Gillan and Iommi's riffs=heavy metal heaven

X2

iamrockerfun wrote:

i voted for QR. the one and only metal lp every reach the top 1 in 80s

Not the "only", but certainly the first...unless you count AC/DC For Those About To Rock...which went to #1 in 1981.

No Exciter?!

Well that's what my vote would go towards, Heavy Metal Maniac is by far my favorite release from 1983

I also really like Steeler - Steeler.

1983 was the year I was born and it seems like no coincidence that I also went on to become a heavy metal maniac.

What a great year for metal - nay, great would be an understatement. It was a monumental year for metal and it has gone down in, at least, the history of heavy metal if not of music as being a year that would shape the popularity of heavy metal music for generations to come.

Everything up to this point had been a steady build up, from the scattered remains of early - mid 70s hard rock / metal gradually rose a giant of steel, a movement that would see its day of reckoning throughout 1983.

The albums on that list have all gone on to inspire so many. Whether it is Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil and Quiet Riot's Metal Health impact on the glam / popular metal scene, or Metallica's Kill Em All and Slayer's Show No Mercy on the thrash scene ... all the bands both the better known and the lesser known have shaped heavy metal music so profoundly that nearly 30 years on we still talk about all these bands as though they have just come onto the scene.

I was going to mention this in another thread but you know what it comes down to is not the immediate popularity of a band or an album - good as that may be - but what counts more is lasting power. The ability to transcend time and trends and be popular whenever and wherever - to have fans of all ages from those back in the day to those who have just discovered the band, and may not be old enough to remember anything from that period.

It is this timeless value that keeps heavy metal alive and the fact that all those albums are still being played by metalheads around the world is testament to that fact and to the growth of metal over the years.

I voted for Dio, with Slayer a close second. I know those aren't the most popular in terms of sheer numbers of fans, but in terms of the loyalty of fans they are difficult to beat.

I vote Kill 'em All.

It's the first "quality" thrash metal (album/production).

Nothin' against Slayer and Anthrax... but Metallica had a much stronger debut than the others at the time.

Holy Diver !!!

JBall_Z wrote:

Hey , it looks like I'm the first one to cast a vote. I went with Motley Crue. It was the soundtrack of 1983.

Yea that's what I thought, man I wore it out.

Pyromania comes in 2nd for me.

This was about the time I was kinda getting a little tired
of AC/DC and was a little disappointed with Fly On The Wall
and Phil Rudd's departure.

I looked through the list and tried to figure out which of those albums I *still* listen to on a semi-regular basis. That ended up being Born Again and Show No Mercy.

I voted Born Again. Runner-ups would be Show No Mercy, Another Perfect Day & Kill 'Em All.

Getizzyback wrote:

JBall_Z wrote:

Hey , it looks like I'm the first one to cast a vote. I went with Motley Crue. It was the soundtrack of 1983.

Yea that's what I thought, man I wore it out.

Pyromania comes in 2nd for me.

This was about the time I was kinda getting a little tired
of AC/DC and was a little disappointed with Fly On The Wall
and Phil Rudd's departure.

ah, you're jumping a bit. Phil Rudd was still on Flick of the Switch in 1983
(but I agree, Fly On The Wall (1985) was the start of what I considered them putting in filler material.)

Accept - Balls to the Wall
Black Sabbath - Born Again
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Dio - Holy Diver
Dokken - Breaking the Chains
Fastway - Fastway
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
KISS - Lick It Up
Krokus - Headhunter
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon
Queensrÿche - Queensrÿche
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Saxon - Power & the Glory
Y&T - Mean Streak

all of these were great, with bonus points going to Queensryche, Ozzy, Saxon, Krokus, and Dio.

But my pick has gotta be Kill "em All, closely followed by Piece Of Mind.

This time I have 9 of those releases and I voted for Maiden but it was a touch decision between this and Dio.

Here is how I rank them:

1. Metallica - Kill ''Em All
2. Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
3. Motley Crue - Shout At the Devil
4. Dio - Holy Diver
5. Slayer - Show No Mercy
6. Krokus - Headhunter
7. Raven - All For One (yes I know not on the list ... yet)
8. Def Leppard - Pyromania
9. Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At the Moon
10. Mercyful Fate - Melissa

Honorable mentions:

11. KISS - Lick It Up
12. Accept - Balls to the Wall (classic but I prefer Breaker and Restless & Wild)
13. Motorhead - Another Perfect Day (or another perfect Motorhead album - this actually happens to be my favorite Motorhead album if you believe it ... it's very different from the rest which is what makes it so special for me)
14. Quiet Riot - Metal Health (some very memorable tracks but not quite as consistent as Shout at the Devil - for glam metal album of the year)

15. Savatage - Sirens

16. Black Sabbath - Born Again (the worst black sabbath album imo - this wasn't at all a highlight of 1983 but it's part of the band's history. Some people love it - I don't)

stepcousin wrote:

...

Dokken - Breaking the Chains

...

Queensrÿche - Queensrÿche

...

Saxon - Power & the Glory

Yes those albums too - damn so much good stuff came out!

Power & The Glory is classic Saxon through and through. Just before their more commercial wave of albums this would prove to be the last of the 'classic' Saxon era. Very strong material on here.

Dokken's Breaking the Chains is an underrated gem. It's often overshadowed by other Dokken albums that came out in mid - late 80s but this is still a solid release. If anything it is the beginning of Dokken's style. A bit unrefined but the band showed what they could do with this release.

I voted Holy Diver.

IMO, Dio never topped that album.