Ten Worst Albums of the 80's? Do you agree?

What exactly got you so pissed off?

TheGreatDuck wrote:

Might as well go back to ancient Greece and ask a bunch of people if the Earth was flat while we're at it...

what was thought it is then what it actually was applies more to your opinion than mine

Not to mention using scientific theory vs fact as an analogy for proving historical fact as wrong is priceless. Even if it was kinda/sorta clever.

Erm, not wanting to defend Duckface or whatever his name is cause he's coming off like a douche. But I've got pretty strong opinions about the music of the 60's, based on the fact that they were kind enough to record it for me and save it till I was old enough to hear it.

I think that I'm a prime example of the fact that being around in the 80's does not mean that I'm going to have the same opinion as you guys because like Count Duckula, I'm European and the one thing that I am absolutely sure of is that Europeans had a slightly different take on this metal thing.

Band after band that we loved followed the same script. Euro band comes along, kicks ass, gets popular in Europe, record label wants to push them in the biggest territory in the world for rock music, America, tells them that in order to break a huge territory like the states they NEED radio play, bring in American producer to help them get the big radio hit, big shot producer convinces them that they have to change their style as this will lead to more money, girls and cocaine, new Americanised album is hated amongst metalheads this side of the Atlantic, band doesn't care as they have now sold 200 squillion copies of the new record and are busy flying around in their solid gold rocket cars. Either that or despite best efforts America didn't get it and they come back to Europe and claim unemployment as even Euro fans hate them now. (Hey Raven!) Only Maiden & Motorhead wouldn't play this game and are considered proper metal as a result. Some bands made the big push for $$$ with alarming regularity but were so great that they just about got away with it (Priest & Rainbow spring to mind) while others lost a huge portion of their fanbase in Europe, none more so than Def Leppard (Saxon deserve a mention too though), I don't know how many copies of Pyromania they sold in the U.K but I would guess that it was less than High & Dry. Hysteria was a huge album over here but with a very different fanbase.

To me and the people that I hung around with, the big push for the American market was the death of many a band and a lot of those records bore no relation to what we grew up on as metal (Sabbath, Priest (pre Screaming) Maiden, Motorhead, Venom, Girlschool, AC/DC, Angel Witch, Accept, Scorpions, early Rainbow) so we didn't think of it as metal. A lot of my friends dug a lot of American stuff (Kiss, Van Halen, Aerosmith etc) but it was geared to American radio in a way that the stuff we loved wasn't, so we didn't see it as metal.

For all of the hate that they get now, the band that did more to change that mindset was Metallica, an American band who loved European metal music and were not the slightest bit interested in recording 'the big radio/MTV hit. Once they hit big, the script became redundant (at least until the Black Album).

So I can understand why you guys see a lot of records as metal when I just don't and I respect that as those records were aimed at you and publicised as metal, but over here we saw things a little differently.

I'm sorry, but what exactly made me look like a douche? I certainly didn't want to insult anyone, and deeply apologize if any of my posts came off as insulting to someone.

TheGreatDuck wrote:

I'm sorry, but what exactly made me look like a douche? I certainly didn't want to insult anyone, and deeply apologize if any of my posts came off as insulting to someone.

For my part it was the flat earth comments, just came off as patronising to people who have a different opinion to you, but no biggie dude, just gave me the opportunity for a couple of cheap shots of my own   

Yeah, the flat earth comment seemed like it was directed at people old enough to have actually experienced the era. I may be old, but I'm not "Ancient Greece" old.

  

No biggie.

That was not the point. What I meant was that, just because a majority agrees on something, doesn't necessarily make it true.
And I'm not disputing that a lot of people considered Hysteria, TFC, Winger etc. to be metal.
But various bands have been mislabeled as metal pretty much from the genre's inception, when Zepp or Uriah Heep were labeled as metal, and continued on with hard rock/AOR bands in the '80s, alternative rock bands in the '90s and nu metal and metalcore in the 2000s.
Granted, a lot of these bands made some metal here and there, but calling them metal bands based on that makes about as much sense as calling Sabbath an AOR band based on No Stranger to Love.

I used to love to dive into discussions like this but I usually don't bother anymore because the "that's not metal but this is" post always comes up and ends up derailing the initial intent of the thread.

That said, my only comment regarding the original list was that "Hysteria" represented the "death" of Def Leppard to me.  I don't care if you ever called them metal or not, that album just plain sucks.

tohostudios wrote:

I used to love to dive into discussions like this but I usually don't bother anymore because the "that's not metal but this is" post always comes up and ends up derailing the initial intent of the thread.

That said, my only comment regarding the original list was that "Hysteria" represented the "death" of Def Leppard to me.  I don't care if you ever called them metal or not, that album just plain sucks.

Same here. Def Lep lost me with Hysteria. Pyromania was actually the first album I ever bought with my own money. Still have the vinyl and I still like that album.

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I used to love to dive into discussions like this but I usually don't bother anymore because the "that's not metal but this is" post always comes up and ends up derailing the initial intent of the thread.

That said, my only comment regarding the original list was that "Hysteria" represented the "death" of Def Leppard to me.  I don't care if you ever called them metal or not, that album just plain sucks.

Same here. Def Lep lost me with Hysteria.  Pyromania was actually the first album I ever bought with my own money.  Still have the vinyl and I still like that album.

I like Pyromania well enough but it's predecessor "High and Dry" is one of my "Desert Island Albums".   So I was hugely disappointed when "Hysteria" was unleashed and became such a huge hit.

tohostudios wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I used to love to dive into discussions like this but I usually don't bother anymore because the "that's not metal but this is" post always comes up and ends up derailing the initial intent of the thread.

That said, my only comment regarding the original list was that "Hysteria" represented the "death" of Def Leppard to me.  I don't care if you ever called them metal or not, that album just plain sucks.

Same here. Def Lep lost me with Hysteria.  Pyromania was actually the first album I ever bought with my own money.  Still have the vinyl and I still like that album.

I like Pyromania well enough but it's predecessor "High and Dry" is one of my "Desert Island Albums".   So I was hugely disappointed when "Hysteria" was unleashed and became such a huge hit.

High 'N' Dry is also my favorite Def Lep. Such a great album with loads of killer tracks.

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I used to love to dive into discussions like this but I usually don't bother anymore because the "that's not metal but this is" post always comes up and ends up derailing the initial intent of the thread.

That said, my only comment regarding the original list was that "Hysteria" represented the "death" of Def Leppard to me.  I don't care if you ever called them metal or not, that album just plain sucks.

Same here. Def Lep lost me with Hysteria.  Pyromania was actually the first album I ever bought with my own money.  Still have the vinyl and I still like that album.

I like Pyromania well enough but it's predecessor "High and Dry" is one of my "Desert Island Albums".   So I was hugely disappointed when "Hysteria" was unleashed and became such a huge hit.

High 'N' Dry is also my favorite Def Lep.  Such a great album with loads of killer tracks.

 

I checked out some more songs from Thrash Queen.

Quite possibly the worst production I've heard on an album in any form of music, and the vocals sound like Cartman.

Definitely worthy of a "worst of the 80s" list.

I'd be hard pressed to think of any really horrible '80s metal that isn't obscure and obviously amateurish crap with shitty production like Thrash Queen or Killen. And I'd still rather listen to that than a lot of mainstream rock from the last 20 years or so.

Required Fields wrote:

I checked out some more songs from Thrash Queen.

Quite possibly the worst production I've heard on an album in any form of music, and the vocals sound like Cartman.

Definitely worthy of a "worst of the 80s" list.

Manslayer was such a bad album & that's what makes it great.   

TheGreatDuck wrote:

I'd be hard pressed to think of any really horrible '80s metal that isn't obscure and obviously amateurish crap with shitty production like Thrash Queen or Killen. And I'd still rather listen to that than a lot of mainstream rock from the last 20 years or so.

Really? What about this gem from '88?



   

Boris2008 wrote:

Motorhead - Iron Fist (yeah! I said it!   )

Funny, I've been listening to that album on Spotify the last couple days as I go through Krokus's lists on his videos and really dig it.

Though I am an '80s metal lady, I know there is enough horrific stuff from that decade to come up with 10 albums without a single redeeming quality. The albums I have had or have heard from that list do not fall under that category. Turbo, The Final Countdown, Crazy Nights, Winger, Frehley's Comet (and Second Sighting, too, for that matter), Hysteria all have quite a few excellent songs, so no way should they make such a list.

Boris2008 wrote:

TheGreatDuck wrote:

I'd be hard pressed to think of any really horrible '80s metal that isn't obscure and obviously amateurish crap with shitty production like Thrash Queen or Killen. And I'd still rather listen to that than a lot of mainstream rock from the last 20 years or so.

Really? What about this gem from '88?



   

I actually remember hearing that a while back. Absolutely horrible.

Required Fields wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

TheGreatDuck wrote:

I'd be hard pressed to think of any really horrible '80s metal that isn't obscure and obviously amateurish crap with shitty production like Thrash Queen or Killen. And I'd still rather listen to that than a lot of mainstream rock from the last 20 years or so.

Really? What about this gem from '88?



   

I actually remember hearing that a while back. Absolutely horrible.

Wow, that is one big mistake of a name for any band. Afterbirth. My God.

On a side note, pretty fascinating how I left my generic reply to OP, went on a work trip for two days, and came back to such an epic thread!   

Boris, thanks for pointing out the culture difference.I know a lot of times it easy to think everyone views things the same as Americans do.That being said,I'm glad things were simple in the 80's because you could just throw all those into the metal section.Now there's way too many sub genres.

James B. wrote:

Just a little test......

Forget anything that came afterwards....go back in time and ask a bunch of people what they'd call the bands on that list and see what the general consensus would be.  I'd say what 80 % or so would call them metal bands ?

Would you even have to go back in time? If you were to ask people today I reckon you'd still get a lot of people calling them metal. Not 80%, but probably still a substantial proportion, assuming you didn't just ask metal fans.

Most of these albums I really dont give a crap about but Ace doesnt belong on this list and of course Hysteria is #1 Its not a freaking metal album

The list itself is nonsense, but a lot of the bands mentioned had definite metal roots in them.  Sure it's not up to today's standards of what most people consider metal, but back then, these bands were doing more than just playing Hard Rock.

Labeling, mis-labeling (or more accurately, debate over a certain band's label) and the invention of new labels will never go away.

I don't even understand why anyone would exert energy fighting about it. Just ignore it if it bothers you that much. But as long as music fans/nerds are trying to describe a band to other music fans/nerds, labels and sub-genres will be there.

I don't even see the big deal about them to begin with, as I've said in the past 30 threads where this argument got re-hashed since 2014 started.