I mean, fuck, just check out those eerie acoustic arpeggios during the chorus of "Badboy Breakout"; the big, open chord progressions of "Bad to Love"; the textbook sleaze of "Crank the Heat Up"; etc. If you listen to this album, you will be singing the songs in your head for years to come. KISS Asylum (1985) Early 90's pop metal at it's finest, this is a hair metal fest from start to finish. Speaking of late-stage Hair Metal, this record is about as late as it gets in that regard. Fun Fact: Lorraine Lewis would revive Femme Fatale in 2013, this time with a truly all-female line-up, only to fold the band once again to join Vixen in 2019. I'm not being "ironic" here. 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). Dripping with attitude. 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. Love Ted Poley's voice. While that sentiment still rings true for me, as I know all too well that many will say, Hair Metal sucks as a default response to the opening chords of Dr. Present-day, Ace is having one of the most fruitful and creative periods of his career. It now enjoys a cult following among fans of hair. Underrated metal albums. Because of their look, they were thought of as a Poison copy. Silent Rage. The album is probably best known for its controversial cover, which featured a basically naked woman straddling a giant fishing hook. 1. 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. A year later they fell apart, and bassist Chris Schlosshardt died of heroin-related causes soon after. Stay tuned for a potential part 3! 01. However, in 2019, Mick did rejoin BulletBoys. Adrian Belew - Young Lions. Yes. The record stalled at #141 on The Billboard 200 and quickly fell off the charts. Of course, it turned out to be a put-on Stanley was really a rich kid called Chris Stann, and the whole thing was somewhere between performance art, social commentary and plain bad taste. People didnt give a shit then either. Were much better - especially live. Probably one of the coolest hair metal albums you've never heard. Not every spandexed hick who moved to Hollywood with a headful of dreams and a sneezer full of blow made it. I wasnt a fan at all. So, tease your hair, lay the eyeliner, and rouge on thick because were hitting the strip tonight. 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. 1. Kingpin were Swedens entry into the 1988 Hair Metal Olympics. I quipped about hipsters sitting in cafs and dredging Hair Metal the first time around. While its not a pure Hair/Glam record, and the band did begin to experiment a little, at the end of the day, its grimy, its sleazy, and it slays. That Dangerous Toys disc rules, and despite them getting so much shit back in the day those first two Winger albums are very solid. He seems to be singing about an octave and a half lower on the first one, and the overall energy on Lettin Loose is far greater. Edit 20-04-2011: Deleted all albums with 60 ratings or higher. 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). Stay tuned for Part 3! Well, I am here to tell you that those people are assholes. Way too oversaturated with keyboards,but still catchy as hell. Both Use Your Illusion albums sold like 10 million copies in the first minute after their release. The list is not without some eye brow raising since at least one album achieved gold certification in the United States of America but it's a fun list nonetheless. These are the forgotten heroes of hair metal. Underrated hair metal songs. If not, youre not alone. It's a very solid record, though, highlighted by the superb "Dead End St." (included above)a dark, brooding power ballad complete with emotive leads and vocals. When I wrote Return to the Sunset Strip: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal-Era Albums, I didnt really know what to expect. ConflictAddict 4 yr. ago. Thanks for the reminder! Recording quite a bit of material for having remained so unknown, they self-released an album called Out of the Box in 1989, followed-up with Joker the following year on Red Light Records (which has almost the same tracklist as their debut), and then came back with Cool Deal in 1992. Ace Frehley Frehleys Comet (1987) The album that gave "hair" to the hair metal genre. . Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind (1983) The biggest problem with Iron Maiden 's fourth album is that it's sandwiched between the twin juggernauts that are The Number Of The Beast and Powerslave. Bon Jovi's best selling album. Stand by Me, I Cant Wait, Let Go, etc. Be warned! Those first two albums are absolutely awesome. Hericane Alice formed in Minnesota in the mid-'80s, and released their debut self-titled EP in 1986 under the properly spelled name of Hurricane Alice. The glaring sin here is to leave out the godly Heavy Pettin as well as Q5. There's an additional layer of irony to this since Warrant's main arranger and vocalist Jani Lane admitted that he wasn't exactly fond of "Cherry Pie", and that the whole album ended up being a dollop of glam cheese (although the cheese in question must have been some gourmet shit) simply because that's what was selling at the time. They also contributed to two movie soundtracks in '92Bad Channels and Demonic Toysbut by that point it was likely too late for said appearances to give Joker the career kickstart they deserved. In retrospect, the tone and style of the record truly are the last of what we have come to know as Glam Metal styling, as not too many albums like it came out afterward if any did at all. (I was gonna say Hair Metal but I hate reducing things to genres) JackOfAllTrades, Mar . Winger epitomized late 80's pop metal, and seemed to be the pinup boys for all the hatred towards hair metal with the dawning of grunge. Another one from 1984 that influenced tons of bands in the 80's. More so, reviewers expecting as much are generally the myopic type, who perhaps think their opinion actually matters to anyone other than themselves. Try Holland - Little Monsters. Wait, what? It bombed, leaving the group with a million-dollar debt to the label, and that was that. An incredibly underrated disc. Thanks! Thanks for popping by, and stay safe! I believe that they wrote songs that way because they LIKED pretty rock ballads. Sadly, all of this complexity and diversity of "Dog Eat Dog" went under the radar of most mainstream music fans, as the association Warrant with all the corny aspects of glam was simply too strong. Listen to the record, and these performances, and prove me wrong. 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. They changed their name to Shotgun Messiah, fired their singer and eventually went industrial metal. I gotta find a copy of that CD thats not $35 or more! Appreciate the comment. And yeah, anyone unfamiliar, Divebomb has reissued some GOLD in this realm, so pick them up while you still can: 08. 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. In their debut album, they had an AC/DC rip-off version of "Hot For Teacher" with their single "Girlschool". (for which they filmed their lone video); "Turn it On" (which takes the power ballad approach into a catchy and uplifting direction); and, of course, the token high energy, bluesy sleaze of "Where the Livin' is Easy.". - Next to Under the Influence by Wildside, this is the best debut album not called Appetite for Destruction. Theyre the bands were raising a large Jack Daniels and coke to here the ones who never got their time in the neon glare of fame despite making at least one killer record. 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! The early 90s cultural zeitgeist was unkind to this record, but present day, we have a chance to flip the script. 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.). White Tiger White Tiger (1986) Powerful, but still memorable. Its no joke that their debut was produced by Paul Northfield, the inimitable force behind Moving Pictures and the song Empire by Queensryche (just a couple of my favorites in a cool career), two completely different examples of dark rock sounding fantastic. So here are the most underrated records by 20 major metal bands. If youre one of them, stop reading now and beat it. This, their best album contains the song "Metal Health" which is, according to Kevin DuBrow, the original FU song. At the end of the day, time hasnt ever been kind to this record, and it can be had for cheap. Instead, these New Yorkers are cursed to exist in a world that doesnt give a shit about a bunch of LOreal-haired dudes playing blockbusting songs with choruses bigger than Vince Neils Spanx collection. Their take on nu metal at the time brought the machine gun precision of a band like Fear Factory, but also a . The Welsh wonders' second album, 1990's Berzerk, is a stone-cold classic featuring the greatest pop-metal anthem of the era in Love Bomb Baby. The classic lineup released I'm A Rebel (1980), Breaker (1981), Restless And Wild (1982), Balls To The Wall (1983), Metal Heart (1985), Russian Roulette (1986) and finally Eat The Heat in 1989 which featured American vocalist David Reece and featured a more mainstream sound. Lyrics are a bit trite, but this is a great debut. Aversionline 2000 - 2023. DLR's full length debut (after a 4 song EP in 1985). 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). Also, Dog Eat Dog is significant to the bands history, as it is the final album to feature the bands quintessential five members. Songs like "Rest in Peace", "Tragic Comic", and "Warheads" had cleverly arranged harmonies, featured very diverse stylistic approaches, and all had engaging lyrics, but the album produced no hit singles and ended up a commercial disaster despite being the highlight of Extreme's career. Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by R79, Jan 27, 2022. Johnny Rock N' Roll, Mar 3, 2023 at 9:55 AM . Honestly, its not easy stepping into the shoes of a Guitar God, at the height of a bands fame, in the middle of a hysterical wave of Hair Metal mania, but thats exactly what Kee Marcello did. Like Hericane Alice, one can only imagine that Wildside would have been an absolutely huge success had their debut hit the streets a few years prioreven more so considering the good fortune that was lining up in their favor prior to the album's release. Full of sleaze and attitude, one of the better hair metal albums to come out at the tail end of the 80's.