Tag: New Wave of British Heavy Metal

1980, Music

Lightning to the Nations [The White Album] (1980) by Diamond Head

There are a couple NWOBHM bands that sound a little closer to the thrash metal they would inspire and, from their debut album, Diamond Head appears to be one of them. Nowhere near as dirty and punk as Motorhead, they’re still (at times) grittier and heavier than some of their contemporaries.

1984, Music

Powerslave (1984) by Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are a little like the AC/DC of NWOBHM. At least they are to my ears. Once they dispatched their original lead singer, their sound really settled into place. And the listener is left with a lot of animals that, on the surface, sound very similar to each other. The distinguishing feature from album …

1984, Music

At War With Satan (1984) by Venom

I don’t know why I skipped Black Metal last year. I may have listened to it once but I honestly don’t remember. If I did listen to it, I assume that I didn’t hear black metal, and read something about how it was more the title and the production values, rather than the music, that …

1979, Music

Overkill (1979) by Motörhead

I have never listened to Motörhead’s debut in part because I have been warned off it by bad reviews. It came out a year and a half before this record but, in the meantime, the much more polished but still fast and relatively rough (for ’70s metal) Stained Class came out. What I’m trying to …

1978, Music

Killing Machine (1978) by Judas Priest [aka Hell Bent for Leather]

Judas Priest are not my favourite metal band by a long shot, but I had to admire how significant Stained Class was, with some tracks feeling like they were NWOBHM before such a thing even existed. I can’t decide now whether that was due to my very low expectations or the sound of that record, …

1980, Music

British Steel (1980) by Judas Priest

I have heard that this was sort of the Black Album of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal – the genre’s more popular and most accessible record to date. I don’t know Judas Priest, and I have no idea how much of a departure this was from earlier Priest albums, but it’s certainly significantly …