off: 80's still rocked was Re: BOC Not Trashing Eric

bart bart at AEOLIANS.BT.CO.UK
Wed May 8 06:54:27 EDT 1996


> Steve said:
>
> >The 80's were a pretty bad period for rock music in general, I think
> >(despite the fact that they got off to an absolutely ripping start,
> >with albums like Blizzard of Oz, Heaven and Hell, Fire of Unknown
> >Origin, Blackout, Number of the Beast, Screaming for Vengeance, Back
> >In Black, etc etc etc).  Somehow, that degenerated into a big-hair
> >teeny-bopper metal fest that lasted until the end of the decade.
>
> But in the later '80s we got (arguably better) albums like Master of Puppets,
> Reign in Blood, Among the Living, Danzig, Masters of Reality, Operation:
> Mindcrime...  OK, Queensryche may be a bit dodgy,

Queensryche may have mellowed but Op. Mindcrime isn't hair-metal or whatever in
any shape or form.
Worthwhile album mentions must extend to  'Peace Sells...', 'Powerslave', 'The
Dark', 'Act III'...
Plenty of decent bands sprang up - and subsequently faded, such as Flotsam &
Jetsam, Fates Warning, Sabbat (well, ish) , Living Colour. I dunno, maybe
because '84-'86 was the period I first started to listen to music in earnest,
the eighties seemed brimming with potential. Guess it takes a few years for the
rot of boredom to set in :-)

> but I wouldn't call any of
> the others "big-hair teeny-bopper"!  So I'd maintain that the good stuff was
> there, although maybe the LA sleaze bands like Poison, and the unspeakable
> Ratt and their ilk, dominated the airwaves, especially in America.

Certainly the malaise Steve speaks about seemed a far more American thing. Over
here, the media treats anything remotely heavy with utter contempt anyway, so
large-hair bands hardly made a dent. Probably the opposite in fact, in the eyes
of joe public. Start listening to Styper, might end up liking Nuclear Assault.
Stranger things have happened.


Tim



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