1984 - Heavy Metal OVERLOAD!

Holy crap! No way I could list every heavy metal CD released in 1984.

This was the year that Christian metal was pretty much birthed. Saint, Leviticus & Stryper all release albums this year.

Deep Purple reform with Richie Blackmore and Ian Gillan.

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his arm in a car accident on Dec 31. Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle is killed in an automobile accident in early December. The driver of the car is Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe. Van Halen dive head long into keyboards and pop music.

Joe Perry and Brad Whitford attend an Aerosmith concert and re-join the band, which embarks on a reunion tour "Back In The Saddle" later in the year.

June 18, 1984 At the climax of a Judas Priest concert at Madison Square Garden, fans begin ripping out the cushions from the seats and throwing them on stage. Judas Priest pay damages and are banned from MSG for life over the incident.

The first compact disc (DC) manufacturing plant in North America opens in Terre Haute, ID, USA. CDs had previously been imported from Japan. Bruce Springsteen's aptly titled "Born in the U.S.A." is designated as the first CD ever made in the USA.

December 1984, Tipper Gore forms the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) in response to the filth she hears on her daughter's records.


AS FOR THE POLL. I checked with sites like ASK.COM, WIKIPEDIA, BNR METAL, etc. and looked for what was the most popular releases of the year there. Obviously, since I can only list 15 choices, I couldn't include everything. If yours is in the poll, just list it.

AC/DC - '74 Jailbreak
Anthrax - Fistful of Metal
Armored Saint - March of the Saint
Bathory - Bathory
Black 'n Blue - s/t
Bon Jovi - Bon Jovi
Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Cirith Ungol - King Of The Dead
The Cult - Dreamtime
Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Destruction - Sentence of Death
Dio - The Last in Line
Dokken - Tooth And Nail
Europe - Wings of Tomorrow
Exciter - Long Live the Loud
Fastway - All Fired Up
Fates Warning - Night on Bröcken
Griffin - Flight of the Griffin
Grim Reaper - See You in Hell
Hanoi Rocks - All Those Waisted Years
Hanoi Rocks - Two Steps From The Move
Heathens Rage - EP
Helix - Walkin' the Razor's Edge
Hexx - No Escape
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Keel - Lay Down The Law
KISS - Animalize
Krokus - The Blitz
Leviticus - I Shall Conquer
Lizzy Borden - Give 'em the Axe
Loudness - Disillusion
Manowar - Hail to England
Manowar - Sign of the Hammer
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath
Metal Church - Metal Church
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
Motörhead - No Remorse
Obsession - Marshall Law (EP)
Omen - Battle Cry
Overkill - Overkill (EP)
Pantera - Projects in the Jungle
Queensrÿche - The Warning
Quiet Riot - Condition Critical
Raven - Live at the Inferno
Razor - Escape The Fire
Razor - Armed & Dangerous
Ratt - Out of the Cellar
The Rods - Live
The Rods - Let Them Eat Metal
Running Wild - Gates to Purgatory
Saint - Warriors of the Son
Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus
Sammy Hagar - VOA
Samson - Don't Get Mad, Get Even
Savatage - The Dungeons Are Calling
Saxon - Crusader
Scorpions - Love at First Sting
Slayer - Haunting the Chapel (EP)
Sodom - In the Sign of Evil
Spinal Tap - This Is Spinal Tap
Steve Vai - Flex-Able
Stryper - The Yellow and Black Attack
Tank - Honour And Blood
Tama - Scratch and Scream
Ted Nugent - Penetrator
Trouble - s/t (aka Psalm 9)
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
Van Halen - 1984
Voivod - War and Pain
W.A.S.P. - s/t
Warlock - Burning the Witches
Whitesnake - Slide It In
Wild Dogs- Man's Best Friend
Y&T - In Rock We Trust
Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - s/t
Zebra - No Tellin' Lies

Trouble - s/t (aka Psalm 9)

An underrated classic.

Fistful of Metal is the debut album by American heavy metal band Anthrax. The album was released in January 1983 by Megaforce Records in the United States and by Music For Nations internationally.


*My Mistake*

After checking a second time, the Wiki info is wrong. It's Jan '84...

Holy mother of God!!!!!! This is a tough list!!!!!!! I had to go with Metallica - Ride The Lightning. Nothing like it was released yet - the first Metallica album I heard and better than Kill 'Em All. Much improved production over the first one. From the list, I could have easily picked Maide, Priest, Scorps, Queensryche or the awesomely scary and evil Don't Break The Oath. But, had to pick Metallica....

For me it was a toss-up between Priest and W.A.S.P. In the end, I went with W.A.S.P.

no love for Venom's At War with Satan?

from the list i chose Morbid Tales, but i could have easily gone with Don't Break The Oath. Bathory's first album is a scorcher too.

Woof...what a year. Gonna have to think about this one a bit.

By the way, I think Motley's SHOUT AT THE DEVIL was '83, not '84, but I'm not positive.

*EDIT* Yep, according to our friends a Wikipedia, SHOUT's release date was September of 1983.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Woof...what a year. Gonna have to think about this one a bit.

By the way, I think Motley's SHOUT AT THE DEVIL was '83, not '84, but I'm not positive.

According to Wiki... you're right.

Shout at the Devil is the second album by heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, released on September 26, 1983.

I'm riding the lightning with this one. KA-POW!!

mc666 wrote:

no love for Venom's At War with Satan?

from the list i chose Morbid Tales, but i could have easily gone with Don't Break The Oath. Bathory's first album is a scorcher too.

'At War ' I believe was released in 1983

I choose 'Powerslave' but if Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers was on the list then that would have been my choice.

Troublezone wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Woof...what a year. Gonna have to think about this one a bit.

By the way, I think Motley's SHOUT AT THE DEVIL was '83, not '84, but I'm not positive.

According to Wiki... you're right.

Shout at the Devil is the second album by heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, released on September 26, 1983.


Same with Anthrax (Fistful of Metal) "1983".

Yup...Shout At The Devil was 1983....

OK, I thought it over and even though I own and love a good 90 percent of the albums in the list, I'm gonna have to go with Metallica (again) for RIDE THE LIGHTNING. That album still sounds great today, and when it was current it ignited the "All Metallica, all the time, don't wanna hear nuthin' but Metallica, there are no other bands besides Metallica, all hail our Metallican dark lords" total fanboy phase of my life that lasted for roughly the next five years.

Since Raven - Live At the Inferno isn't in the poll(This album had a severe effect on a young man known as Joe. I had never heard anything as insane as this and I eagerly awaited the the next album.............)


I went with Ride The Lightning(The latter half of this year is when I heard Kill 'Em All, Melissa, The Break The Chain Ep and The Armored Saint Ep).


Too many great choices...


AWESOME YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Armored Saint - March of the Saint
Dio - The Last in Line
Dokken - Tooth And Nail
Exciter - Long Live the Loud
Grim Reaper - See You in Hell
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Keel - Lay Down The Law
KISS - Animalize
Krokus - The Blitz
Lizzy Borden - Give 'em the Axe
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath
Metal Church - Metal Church
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Obsession - Marshall Law (EP)
Omen - Battle Cry
Overkill - Overkill (EP)
Queensrÿche - The Warning
Quiet Riot - Condition Critical
Ratt - Out of the Cellar
Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus
Sammy Hagar - VOA
Savatage - The Dungeons Are Calling
Saxon - Crusader
Scorpions - Love at First Sting
Slayer - Haunting the Chapel (EP)
Stryper - The Yellow and Black Attack
Trouble - s/t (aka Psalm 9)
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
Van Halen - 1984
Voivod - War and Pain
W.A.S.P. - s/t
Warlock - Burning the Witches
Whitesnake - Slide It In
Y&T - In Rock We Trust
Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - s/t

Every one of these is great...I went with Dio...

manny wrote:

mc666 wrote:

no love for Venom's At War with Satan?

from the list i chose Morbid Tales, but i could have easily gone with Don't Break The Oath. Bathory's first album is a scorcher too.

'At War ' I believe was released in 1983

my cassette says 1984. also both Rate Your Music & Metal Archives say 1984.

I.M. - Powerslave, beautifully heavy

So many great albums. I am a child of the 80's and many of these helped define metal to me.
Went with Metal Church but Metallica, Iron Maiden and Dio could've easily got the vote.

I think I bought most of these albums as they were released, was huge fan and still am for most of these bands

Wow, how do you pick only one?! There is no clearcut winner, but I sure love the WASP selftitled CD! I still pick it up semiregularly to give it a whirl! But, 1984 was my freshman year in highschool and my heavy metal addiction was just starting to hit at full force!

Awesome year for metal!!!

My personal favorite would be Armored Saint-March Of The Saint or Q5-Steel The Light or Helstar-Burnin Star.

Back in 84' those are what I really listened to alot besides most of the poll options. From the poll, it was a toss up 'tween Merciful Fate, Celtic Frost and Metallica !

Went with Metallica's "Ride................"
IMHO the best lp they released

manny wrote:

I think I bought most of these albums as they were released, was huge fan and still am for most of these bands

Me too

Troublezone wrote:

Fistful of Metal is the debut album by American heavy metal band Anthrax. The album was released in January 1983 by Megaforce Records in the United States and by Music For Nations internationally.

I think you mean January 1984.

Ride the Lighting.

Metallica steps up to the plate and knocks one out of the field.