Slik Toxic - Doin the Nasty This is a band that was supremely talented but simply didnt hang around long enough to really make any waves. 04. Extreme is best known for their No. Perma-pouting Hollywood fluffballs Pretty Boy Floyd made Motley Crue sound like Napalm Death and Ratt look like, well, Napalm Death. And I still think Sole Survivor is just one of the greatest rock songs ever (despite the ear-splitting treble caused by a shitty mix at the end of the song). Vinyl Writer Musics principal Andrew Daly has released his list for the 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal Era Albums. They had a couple of songwriting contributions from Jim Vallance and Kiss' Paul Stanley (the former having co-written hits such as Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" and Aerosmith's "Rag Doll"). Britny Fox Britny Fox (1988) There are tons and tons of other glam/hair metal bands that never quite received their due (hell, I'd argue that bands like Lynch Mob and Vain still deserve a little more love). Jani Lane, Joey Allen and Steven Sweet are not original members of Warrant. If you're old enough to have been reading guitar magazines in the early-'90s, you probably at least recognize the name Gary Hoey, and may recall having seen him in a good number of advertisements, if nothing else. Read Part 1 of this series here: https://vwmusicrocks.com/return-to-the-sunset-strip-10-underrated-glam-hair-metal-era-albums/, Read part 3 of this series here: https://vwmusicrocks.com/the-headbangers-ball-reaches-its-edge-10-underrated-glam-hair-metal-era-albums-part-iii/, Andrew Daly (@vwmusicrocks) is the Editor-in-Chief for www.vwmusicrocks.com and may be reached at andrew@vinylwriter.com. Packed with more hits than Illusion 1, I prefer this one over that one. The '80s have taught us that you could expect a lot of things from Blackie Lawless, but releasing a concept album wasn't one of them. Britny Fox were doing lines of coke off of Elton Johns piano while in the studio making Bite Down Hard. At that time their songs were a little longer and less good time/party oriented, but they ended up relocating to Los Angeles in the late-'80s, and eventually vocalist Bruce Naumann (who had been the last member to join the group) was working with an entirely new lineup. Stay tuned for Part 3! http://. Now, this is a weird entry in many ways. Contains one of the mostly widely recognized power ballads "More Than Words," but "Decadence Dance" is the albums killer cut. Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 Next > R79 Forum Resident Thread Starter. Well, I stand by it. Their No Rules album (produced by Dana Strum!) Sunset Strip: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal-Era Albums didnt really garner a whole lot of harsh words per se, but I did see a great many surmise that I, Must be a big KISS fan, which is true. They're kind of like Skid Row, the Bulletboys, and Faster Pussycat thrown in a blender. The hair came down, the makeup came off, and Poison actually started to write music with a message. At the end of the day, time hasnt ever been kind to this record, and it can be had for cheap. If Tear the House Down had hit the streets just two years earlier, I bet Hericane Alice would've been at least as successful as the Bulletboys, so it's a shame they never got the chance. That said, aside from the classic Smooth Up In Ya, BulletBoys has become a largely forgotten record, and the band is rarely mentioned in those generic MTV/VH1 best of the 80s lists. Sure, they were sort of late-stage Hair Metal, but these guys rock hard, so if you see this record, scoop it up. One of my favorite albums of all time!!!! Because of their look, they were thought of as a Poison copy. An album with a nice balance of rockers and ballads. I would KILL to reissue the Tuff Luck album too. OzzyOsbourne_ 3 yr. ago. Their take on nu metal at the time brought the machine gun precision of a band like Fear Factory, but also a . Some good and some bad, which I am OK with, as it comes with the territory of writing, especially when it comes to this topic. "Don't Close Your Eyes" is one of the best ballads ever written. While Dead Davidson may have been a jerk for leaving his bandmates in the lurch, he also was extremely talented, and his buzzsaw vocals simply were not easily replaced. It bombed, leaving the group with a million-dollar debt to the label, and that was that. Dokken's greatest. What about the tactful keyboards, chorus hook, and big vocal harmonies of token power ballad "Dry Your Eyes"? Speaking of hooks, lets kick this thing off with. Not every spandexed hick who moved to Hollywood with a headful of dreams and a sneezer full of blow made it. Wildside did release one more album in 1995 (on an indie label), but had undergone some lineup changes and a complete shift in sound by that pointironically enough taking a stab at the grungier style that had destroyed their initial shot at success. Dream Unending: Tide Turns Eternal. You probably remember them for their platinum and multiplatinum albums One Bitten and its 1989 follow-up Twice Shy, and with good reason, as these albums are classic but certainly are not underrated. If I was going to put a Great White album on this list it would be Psycho City, not Hooked. To be honest, by rights, Warrant really had no business releasing a Hair Metal album in late 1992, but they did it anyway, and the results are perhaps their best record. No, instead, crank the dial to max volume and tell your friend to saddle up or walk home. Femme Fatale simply wasnt meant to be, it seems. Damn good stuff in 1 & 2. Vixen was and are as authentic as they were talented. Im sure I can get my hands on recordings for you if youd like. While I didnt intend for the KISS roots to run so deep within the article per se, I will admit that we are all subject to our own biases, and anyone who knows me will tell you I am not about to apologize for KISS influence. While reviews at the time were mixed, retrospectively, it has been given high praise. It's also worth noting that their early tracks as Young Gunns were equally awesome, and the B-sides from Under the Influence are pretty incredible (to the point of being significantly better than some of the album tracks, not that it would've made a difference in the end, sadly). Its an album that you can listen from beginning to the end, and wont find any bad song. Aversionline 2000 - 2023. Blackie Friggin Lawless. How about Roxy Blue and Wildside? But their debut album was pop-metal perfection what featherweight party anthems Toast Of The Town, Rock And Roll Outlaws and shoulda-been-massive single Rock & Roll (Is Gonna Set The Night On Fire) lacked in heaviosity they made up for in pleather-trousered attitude. Like Joker, there's not a ton of information out there regarding Real Steel. I should really pick up some Lillian Axe sometime. So, if youre a fan, the summer of 2021 may finally be your chance to get a taste of some late 80s sleaze. Also, Dog Eat Dog is significant to the bands history, as it is the final album to feature the bands quintessential five members. I wouldnt exactly call them glam. If anyone at all loves Cock Rock, No Respect by Vain should be in their collection, and Davy Vains subsequent efforts have all been respectable. It was mixed by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero (who also mixed Appetite for Destruction and .And Justice for All, to name but a few). These guys got popular fast and then went absolutely nowhere. This, their best album contains the song "Metal Health" which is, according to Kevin DuBrow, the original FU song. It did away with the bland glam-like stuff Kiss adopted during the '80s in order to get in line with the mainstream sound of the time, and with powerful tracks such as "Unholy", "Domino", and "Heart of Chrome", it reintroduced the hard rock element in Kiss' sound in a very original and appealing way. The follow-up album "Blood from Stone" was released in 1991. If not, youre not alone. So being that I grew up on this stuff and have been doing a hair metal podcast for 20 years Ill lay on a few more underrated jems: BANG TANGO Psycho Cafe, DANGEROUS TOYS self-titled debut, LYNCH MOB Wicked Sensation, DON DOKKEN Up From the Ashes, FIREHOUSE self-titled debut, KIX Hot Wire, XYZ Hungry, ICON self-titled debut, BANYLON A.D. self-titled debut, CHILDS PLAY Rat Race, EXTREME self-titled debut, RACER X Second Heat, SLEEZE BEEZ Screwed, Blued, & Tattooed, and lastly Y&T, they have so many underrated albums it is mind blowing. Real Steel opened for the Bulletboys, Bang Tango, and Gorky Park in their day, and apparently had interest from several labels (almost signing with Warner Bros.). An album that is underrated though it would be their next effort, the aptly titled Hooked. Enter Lorraine Lewis, the frontwoman with an absolutely huge voice, who led the now mostly forgotten group Femme Fatale. While the late Meat Loaf was a true showman with a near-operatic voice, Bat Out of Hell featured an . Remember Rough Cutt? Its like Dee Snider said, Were Not Gonna Take It, and for Hair-Metalheads, we wouldnt have it any other way. Yes. It sounded to me like the record company saw their potential and stuck their 2 cents in and tried to get them to do a more commercial sound. I was introduced to Chicago's Joker by Matt Rudzinski from Divebomb Records, and I don't know much about them, so I can only assume they were another absolutely incredible band that got rolling just a little too late to capitalize on their talents. "Surrender" is a great ballad. As grunge became all the rage during the early '90s, these albums never got the attention they really deserved. Full of sleaze and attitude, one of the better hair metal albums to come out at the tail end of the 80's. Dont ever let anyone tell you the music you love sucks or is less than. The albums got better after their sales peak - Dog Eat Dog, and especially Ultraphobic. The album was recorded at Eddie Van Halen's 5150 home studio, and Wildside was the first band other than Van Halen to record there. If youre one of them, stop reading now and beat it. Its also remembered as the official debut of the now-iconic Bon Jovi logo that we have all come to know and love, and while there arent too many songs that would make a standard greatest hits list, save for In and Out of Love, this record is filled with heavy-hitting deep cuts that are sure to satiate your appetite for sleazecakes. Q5 had two albums that would simply destroy you. Legendary Guitarist David Lindley Dead at 78, Rush Announce 40th Anniversary Reissue of 'Signals', Glastonbury Organizer Addresses Lack of Female Festival Headliners: 'The Pipeline Needs to Be Developed', Unearth Release New Single 'Mother Betrayal', Rapper Binki Releases New Alt-Rock Single 'Hotel Window', Iconic Vocalist Chaka Khan Reacts to Rolling Stone's 'Greatest Singers' List: 'They Need Hearing Aids', Godsmack Cancel Spring Tour Over 'Lack of Ticket Sales', Listen: Roger Waters Shares First Snippet of Re-Recorded 'Dark Side of the Moon', Monuments Refuse to Sell Merch at Recent Show to Boycott Venue Fees: 'It Shouldn't Be on Our Fans to Pick Up the Bill', Friday Top: 20 Saddest Metal Songs of All Time, Epiphone Introduces Affordable Versions of High-End 1958 Korina Explorer and Flying V Guitars From Gibson. In truth, this record is not the first one that people think of when they consider albums that define the 80s. Original Scorpions albums sound A-OK so can't see why yaow'd bovver wiv reworkings. Well, in the wake of the Hot In The Shade screw-job, the band still managed to book a nice tour of well-paying gigs and were set to depart, when Dean The Diva Davidson decided to split and make a go of it on his own. An around pop metal romp in the early 90's, one of the last bands to come out of the genre successfully before the ship sank. Warrant Dog Eat Dog (1992) In Winger's case, "Pull" ended up being surprisingly good and instantly became a favorite among the band's fans. Not a year after their formation, their debut BulletBoys was climbing the charts, and by 1989, it had gone gold. With Kiss being one of the biggest names from rock's history that continued kicking in a (more or less) healthy manner to this day, I'm not sure you could really call any Kiss album underrated. The Tear the House Down lineup briefly regrouped for a 25th anniversary reunion last summer, but Bruce Naumann is now working with yet another all-new lineup. fans weren't really expecting may have only hindered this otherwise amazing release, which, coupled with other unfortunate circumstances, made the supporting tour for the album arrive 15 whole years too late. Man, could Mike Matijevic hit a high note! They quickly rose through the ranks and paid their dues through club gigs and were noticed pretty quickly, and in relatively short order, signed with MCA Records and recorded their eponymous debut record, Femme Fatale. Total nostalgia trip for me. However, that doesn't mean that there was no glam-labeled music being released at the time. BulletBoys came with a pedigree right from the start, as the band was founded by Mick Sweda (guitar), who had already starred in the also underrated King Kobra. Thanks for the reminder! As far as I can tell they only made a music video for the lead track, "Wild, Young, and Crazy," but almost every song herein is better than good, and several are fucking outstanding. Unfortunately, in most cases, the label stuck like a nasty coffee stain, while the attempts of self-reinventing usually didn't go well. Britny Fox is the only band to return from part one, and while they may have been the big winners last time around, not so much this time. The result? It's a shockingly awesome record, easily in my all-time Top 10 as far as hair metal goes. Best selling and most recognizable of TS's output, it is also their best. Rough Cutt Rough Cutt (1985) Guns N' Roses was that band. While there's a good handful of underrated bands of this ilk that do still get mild exposure here and there, I'm for the most part trying to stick with personal favorites that I've never even encountered on satellite radio channels such as Hair Nation, etc. The album that gave "hair" to the hair metal genre. It caused enough friction that eventually they produced alternate covers, which featured the womens body dipped into the water, covering up her cleavage and effectively de-sleazing this record. Sebastian Bach is THE singer of the hair metal genre. Steeler Steeler (1983) All across the board, there are just too damn many to choose from: And all of this barely scratches the surface, so please include your own recommendations in the comments below! Dangerous Toys - Dangerous Toys (1989) He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago. Although they werent truly a hair metal band, Leatherwolfs Street Ready album has many of those kinds of sonic qualities and is packed with killer songs. After the release of his article, Daly was invariably peppered with comments from various people suggesting other albums so Vinyl Writer Music issued a Part II titledThe Road to The Roxy: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal Era Albums Part II. An incredibly underrated disc. Cinderella added an element of blues to hair metal, and they pull it off perfectly. Every song on here is just infectious. The Spandex-clad gems that turned the Sunset Strip into the boulevard of broken dreams. A dud. Less popular and less keyboardy than Slippery, but much better. 06. Also, their weren't too many other guitarists from this era that could rival Vito Bratta's playing. 2) The songwriting on this album is absolutely top-notch, which is something of a small miracle, considering Ace had quit KISS in 1982, in a drunken haze, almost died in several car wrecks, and hadnt made any music in around five or so years. Real Steel (well done for resisting Reel) are the pick of the bunch for me, almost hints of Manowar circa Fighting The World on there 2 thumbs up! Beau Nasty - Dirty But Well Dressed All of that aside, go back and listen to Rock Soldiers, Love Me Right, Into the Night, and Calling to You. Those tracks are transcendent rockers, and his backing band of Tod Howarth, John Regan, and Anton Fig are a truly inspired bunch who had sensational chemistry. A bit more polished and focused than their debut, which I personally prefer over this one, but this is the album that blew the door open for the entire 80's hair metal genre. Guns N' Roses. When you listen to this, you get the feeling that this is the album that David Lee Roth always wanted to make. Check out the old TKO albums also, they are basically Q5 without Floyd Rose. In their debut album, they had an AC/DC rip-off version of "Hot For Teacher" with their single "Girlschool". Thank you for your article. Yeah, thats pretty much it. While the era of 80s Hair Metal and Glam is mostly known as being predominantly male, several females infiltrated the scene and staked their claim as well. They had Michael Angelo Batio on guitar. 1. I mean, come on, it's impossible not to sing along to "Mackinaw Avenue" or "Change"the latter of which is practically a full-on pop song, though the quality of the writing and musicianship gives it an edge that avoids the overly pristine sheen of lesser (yet more successful) outfits like Danger Danger or Firehouse. Underrated metal albums. The vocals are really an obstacle moreso on the second album. But their debut is way more fun: a rough-arsed glam-punk gem that came on like Poison, if Brett Michaels had grown up in Cardiff and spent every Saturday night getting in a fight down Bogiez. As you stated I have always championed JOKER myself. all the bands on your list kick ass! If you see it, definitely pick it up and enjoy. . East Coast glam metal was darker and weirder than its Californian cousin. I wasnt a fan at all. You couldn't go two hours without seeing a Whitesnake video on MTV back in '87. Silent Rage. Whereas Skid Row got marketed as your run-of-the-mill pretty boy glam metal outfit from the get-go, their self-titled debut showed that they were capable of much more than providing quick and cheap amusement for the masses, and their sophomore album "Slave to the Grind" made the most of the band's prodigious potential. Besides, doesn't "Love Of A Lifetime" make the perfect wedding song? True, I don't identify with (or in some cases approve of) elements of the lyrical content, but from a songwriting and musicianship perspective, I very seriously enjoy this stuff, and would be perfectly happy were it the majority of my day-to-day listening. Blue Murder - Blue Murder (1990) Fantastic band. And while the album never saw a significant spike in the number of copies sold, "Revenge" did manage to draw enough attention to give Kiss a new lease on life, effectively saving the NYC iconic band from drifting into obscurity. No, I only stumbled upon this CD in a local used bin for $5 (alongside Roxxi's Drive it to Ya Hard!, so talk about a huge score) a few years ago, and totally flipped out when I tossed it in for the first time. To sum the vibe surrounding this album up, I leave you with a quote from the bands vocalist, Janie Lane, who recalls, I walked into the foyer at our label (Columbia Records), I discovered a large, framed poster of Warrant had been removed from the wall and had been replaced by an even larger poster of Alice in Chains. No filler and great guitar playing. Present-day, Ace is having one of the most fruitful and creative periods of his career. Cool, many thanks. The result was a killer record that confused the shit out of thrashers and glammies alike. yeah, that thing is always priced so high! Their follow up has some of the best songwriting in Cock Rock, in my opinion. No Warrant album has the original 5. Sure, it lacked big-budget gloss, and original singer Steevi Jaimz sounded like he was ready to chin anybody who dared look at his pint wrong, but Young And Crazy bristled with the kind of attitude every pack of Sunset Strip poodles would have sold their grannies to have. * I can't tell if they're still active or not, but Wildside does have a Facebook page that's touting a remastered re-release of Under the Influence this year, and I'll be all over that if it becomes a reality. The new issue of Metal Hammer features two different covers: Sabaton and Babymetal! Vinyl Writer MusicsThe Road to The Roxy: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal Era Albums Part II: Winger - In The Heart Of The Young (1990), McQueen Street should be in this discussion and in your collection. Also, you must be an Ozzy fan! Haha! Never heard of Oney but Im intrigued by what I hear on YouTube. Lyrics are a bit trite, but this is a great debut. Slaughter were hair metal and were damn proud to be hair metal. I tend to be a huge sucker for catchy songs, so some degree of commercialism probably flies past my radar, heh. The best LPs from the age of Aqua Net. Not sure why Ann from NRR sits on it to this day. Tyketto - Dont Come Easy That Beau Nasty is kicking my ass right now! Here is where people will start screaming. One of the most underrated bands in the genre. Surprised to see this at Number One? White Lion are actually my second favorite hair band, but I know they won't rank high on any all time list simply because they were considered wimpy, mainly because they loaded their albums with love songs. Probably one of the coolest hair metal albums you've never heard. Another one from 1984 that influenced tons of bands in the 80's. We've decided to rank our 20 hair metal bands of all time. To nobody's surprise, "III Sides to Every Story" followed that labeling trend as well, but what you could hear on that album was anything but stereotypical glam. Thanks. The record stalled at #141 on The Billboard 200 and quickly fell off the charts. Looking back, its hard to pinpoint why this record failed, as it seemingly had all the ingredients to ascend to great heights.