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Lists of Domination
GD's Most Dominating Albums Of The 1980's (30-21)
26/09/08 || Global Domination
30. Iron Maiden: Powerslave
Released: 1984
Iron Maiden released a million albums and in the eighties and nowadays are synonymous with the traditional heavy metal sound, so it’ll be no surprise that they are featured more than once in this countdown (Aww, did I spoil it?). It’s shining praise to their legacy that they are featured more than any other band, and that their lowest entry is holding up the rear of the top thirty.
Iron Maiden is one of the key reasons metal as it is today exists, but after breaking old boundaries and becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, Maiden continued to innovate and improve by expanding into even more new territory. This is wonderfully displayed on “Powerslave”, on which the band dug further into neo-classicalism than ever before and yet never sounded heavier. It’s also, in my opinion, probably the band’s most consistent work, as even aside the two catchy classics at the start and the two immortal epics at the end, the remaining four tracks are well worth their salt.
There has to be a loser for best Maiden disk of the eighties, and I got to be the loser to cover it, but personally I’m glad, because this is my favourite. Up the Irons!
Oh, and just in case my fellow reviewers forget to mention him later: Derek Fucking Riggs. Yeah.
-Angry Mutant Penguin
29. Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell
Released: 1980
What is there left to say about the only album I’ve given a 10 to on GD? After a couple of mediocre albums (which in retrospect aren’t that bad), Ozzy was booted from the Sab. The dark, foreboding aura of Black Sabbath was gone, replaced by the personal turmoil, drug abuse, and career decline so common in the industry. Rather than hire an Ozzy sound-alike and make a lame attempt to become the most evil band in the world again, Sabbath hired a real vocalist and put together perhaps their most forward-thinking, original album.
Gone was the slow, plodding doom of “Paranoid”. With Dio at the helm, the band adopted a more upbeat, melodic sound that was fresher than anything they’d done since 1975. Dio was clearly a much more accomplished vocalist, able to craft hooks that didn’t anchor themselves to Tony Iommi’s riffs. While the first five albums with Ozzy are essential listening, the flack that the Dio albums get from knucklehead Ozzy fans is absolutely uncalled for. Even 28 years later, tracks like “Die Young” and “Children of the Sea” sound fantastic live and belong as staples in any true metalhead’s playlist.
-Hanging Limbs (ex-staffer/Bee Gees superfan/homo)
28. Bathory: Bathory
Released: 1984
Bathory is named for a Hungarian Countess who tortured and killed dozens of people. Legends say that the good Lady bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youthful appearance (rumors that Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin engages in similarly gruesome activities are unsubstantiated, but probably true.) It’s an appropriate moniker for the music poured from Quorthon’s macabre imagination. Three minutes of ambient soundscape begin the album and set the mood of dark days plagued by ancient evils. The music is an unrefined, blasphemous take on the Motörhead’s classic sound and it’s a pretty good listen, even after 24 years. Bathory would go on to create bigger and better albums, but the debut gets special consideration for being a well assembled first-take on one of metal’s most extreme sub-genres. So, while the name belongs to Venom, the imagery, the attitude and the atmosphere of black metal all reside in Quorthon’s domain. Take a moment to soak it in.
-Stephen
27. Sodom: Agent Orange
Released: 1989
I’m a bit lost as to why is this here effort on the list, while stuff like “Persecution Mania” isn’t. (Note from Stephen: Actually “Persecution Mania” is on the list at #46. I could be nice and edit that sentence out, but it’s important to learn from our mistakes. Research is our friend.) It’s probably because it would be difficult to find enough place here to mention all the Sodom’s work worth mentioning, so we had to go with the album which has “Ausgebombt” on it. Or maybe it’s because even by Sodom standards the cover is fucken ugly, but then this wouldn’t explain why “Obsessed with cruelty” is not here.
Anyway, what I’m ineptly trying to say here is not that “Agent orange” isn’t a brilliant album. It’s just that it was chosen as the best representative of the whole streak of brilliant albums these Kraut sodomites recorded in the 1980’s. Sodom is a band that has given us a relatively even performance throughout the years, and that’s why I love the band itself more than any of their albums.
-Max Von Laibach (ex-staffer, illiterate, blind cocksucker)
26. Sepultura: Beneath the Remains
Released: 1989
“Slaves of pain” was the first track I ever heard by Sepultura. Recorded to me on a cassette by a friend. I was blown away. The fact that they were from Brazil made their sound even more special for some reason. There were no bands from Brazil at the time, only Sepultura. And how I worshiped this album… They didn’t sound like the rest of the bands present at the time, no, Sepultura had some unique touch to what they created. Very, very simple thrash metal that was arranged so smart and catchy you didn’t actually think too much about the simplicity. Complete with broken English vocals, a fantastic production and a cover to die for – Sepultura were bound to be the next big thing. And a few years later Teh Suck was imminent.
-Lord K Philipson
25. Mercyful Fate: Melissa
Released: 1983
The “Nuns Have No Fun” EP introduced the world at large to the wonders of King Diamond and his merry band of Satanic tricksters, but “Melissa” really kicked things off with seven of the most rockin’ tunes the King ever had the privilege to sing over. Later MF and KD efforts would focus more on spooky melodic work, but this record emphasizes punkish groove and flat-out rock’n’fucken roll above all else. Also, “Satan’s Fall”, people. That nearly twelve minute monster has got to be one of the most epic tunes out there, and if you disagree, well… you might just be the next victim of King Diamond’s coven!
-Seker
24. Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast
Released: 1982
“… 666, the number of the beast! Hell and fire was spawned to be released!” Fuck me, is there anything more iconic than these fucken lines? Immortality in the history of metal for the mighty Iron Maiden can be granted on the strength of these words alone. “The Number of the Beast” is a fucken milestone, a moment that made people take notice of metal worldwide. The awesome power of heavy metal in full flow is here to behold. This record marks the arrival of one of the most brilliant vocalists of all time, Bruce Dickinson, with his incredibly high-range screaming. Songs like “The Number of the Beast”, “Run to the Hills” and “Hallowed be thy Name” are eternal and everybody fucken knows them. These songs are essential, excellent metal epics. Once you witness them live, like I for the first time just last June, one can become firmly convinced there’s almost no band more compelling than Iron Maiden when playing such classic metal anthems.
It’s also worth noting that this album saw the refinement of the Irons into what we know and love today from the various rock/punk/metal different influences of their initial two albums. The muscular bass lines of Harris plus the galloping riffs and dueling guitars of Murray and Smith formed the core of the band’s sound, and got an injection of speed and power which took them to a new level. Ultimately, “The Number of the Beast” signals the beginning of a golden era for the band that would last for longer than any other streak of consecutive badass albums by any other band ever. Besides the great music, it also gave us metalheads a symbol, a number that still marks our chosen music and way of life: “……Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY SIX!”
-Baalzamon666
23. Slayer: Hell Awaits
Released: 1985
Hell awaits us all, and when we get there this is what it will be like – unbearably inhospitable and yet utterly glorious. Slayer are known for having enough apocalyptic speed and aggression to satisfy the Pope during even the most murderous of his secret lustful rampages, and every beautiful facet of evil that we now attribute to ‘typical Slayer’ – after their later, more acclaimed albums hammered the point home – had its cherry popped on this disk. Even if Slayer had all died in a horrific accident soon after it’s release, this album would still have left a fine outlook for the future of metal and I like to believe would still be considered a classic…
-Angry Mutant Penguin
22. Venom: Black Metal
Released: 1982
Do you remember the time when if you wanted to have the sound of a chainsaw on your record, you actually had to cut through the studio door with one? I sure as hell don’t so it’s nice of Venom to record that for me and the other little kids. I don’t really know what (apart from the chainsawed studio door) makes this album so special. When you think about it, the drumming is shitty, the production couldn’t be worse, the vocals are boring and Mantas’ guitar ain’t top notch either. But thinking rationally about Venom is like not drinking vodka because of the taste: it misses the point so entirely and thoroughly that it’s not even funny. For me, Venom with their stupid aliases, tight pants and pentagrams are a reminder of just how much fun it used to be to worship Satan. When listening to “Black Metal”, even after 26 years, you still get the feeling of an album that is alive, that has its own character. A wild character on speed, to be more precise. This is what spawned the whole thrash movement- capturing the raw power that makes you want to kick innocent bystanders in the face, that sends shivers down your spine and tells you not to give a fuck about your future. Yeah, it’s just like vodka.
-Max Von Laibach (ex-staffer/cocksucker)
21. Carcass: Symphonies of Sickness
Released: 1989
If I were presenting this album to a bunch of children, I’d say, “How great is Carcass?”. And then I’d expand my arms to the limit and yell, “Soooo great!”. Okay, so using local kid’s games to describe metal isn’t the best idea, but what can I say about Carcass that hasn’t already been said? They are the original death/grind band, they changed the rules of what extreme music was about (then they did it again and then, just for the hell of it, they did it again).
Most early death metal is pure catharsis. It’s all screaming obscenity and being pissed off and playing with unfocused rage. Carcass brought a more measured and thoughtful approach to certain facets of death metal and turned the genre on its ear. The band’s lyrics are a dense thicket of words only a dedicated logophile can comprehend. Want to know how many synonyms for “rot” there are? “Symphonies of Sickness” is the place to look. The music is generally slow and measured, but it’s given a lovely sheen of grime and gore. “Symphonies…” is often imitated but has never been surpassed. It is grind/death in its most disgusting, purest form and it is fucking awesome.
-Stephen
