Bob's obscure hard rock and metal CD-R compilations!

If it sounds like early VH, I'm in! I'd kill for a band today that totally rips off that era of VH. It appears like there will never be a reunion with Diamond Dave, so it would have to do.

Speaking of that, in an article with Billy Sheehan, he mentioned when Dave was getting material together for his Eat Em and Smile record, Dave played him a song called "Speak Of The Devil" by the early 70s band Stray Dog. Dave told him that Van Halen was modeled after the style of this song. Well, after a friend of mine and I read that, we were on the hunt to track this thing down. I found a different record of theirs and it was bland mid-70s rock. My friend finally found the right record. While that record was pretty similar to the one I found, "Speak of the Devil" was definitely a standout track. Total boogie swagger that definitely had a Dave feel to it. I wish he covered it.

 

1st post...sucked me in
how bout.....
Rough Cutt...good cover of "piece of my heart" Paul Shortino-strong vocals
TNT..."seven seas" great vocals and solo...still around these days
Y & T..."open fire live"...many others...very under-rated band
Vinnie Vincent Invasion...Marc Slaughter vocals...wild guitar
Manowar...pic a song...talented and cheesy...a personal fave
Anthrax..."indians"...great band
Accept...anything off of balls to the wall or metal heart...Udo great vocals and the guitars are sweet
Armored Saint..."march of the saint" something off of Delirious Nomad
Stryper..."soldiers under command"
Pantera...something off of their first 2 albums...they were a hairband (bought their album..."eyes of the night", I think...and Cinderella's "nightsongs" the same day). I thought Pantera had a better shot at popularity. They got there eventually, but MAN did they change......anyhow..........
Saxon...great NWOBHM..."the eagle has landed", "747 strangers in the night"
Warlock..."All we are"
That's all off the top of my head...Thanks for the memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah.. boogie swagger.. I love that term. Stray Dog did a killer cover of ZZ Top's "Chevrolet". I love funky boogie rock. Grand Funk's "Footstompin' Music", Cactus' "Sweet Little Sixteen", Foghat's "Chateau Lafitte '59 Boogie"...

Anyways, I stumbled on this thread a couple days ago and got very interested in collecting these songs. As long as they don't have that dreadful slapback reverbed snare drum sound that ruined so many good big-hair rock songs of the 80's

 

Just a couple that come to mind:

Kick Axe-Dreamin About You
Vandenburg-Burning Heart
Y & T-Mean Streak
Rogue Male-Crazy Motorcycle
Riot-Swords & Tequila

 

I am actually taking a few tracks off of some cheap vinyl I bought for #7. I am moving in a few weeks, so I might not be able to finish it right away. But, I do have some Vinnie Vincent ("Boyz Are Gonna Rock"), Rough Cutt ("Bad Reputation" probably), Mama's Boys ("Cum On Feel The Noize") and Dirty Looks lined up. I had that Warlock song on the first one I think. Stryper, Y&T, Manowar and Armored Saint are just too darn popular and I never really got into Saxon for some reason, so I don't even have any of their stuff. There is a series on Rhino called Heavy Metal Hits of the 80s, which was a hard rock/metal version of their great New Wave Series. Well, they stopped at #4, so us metal fans are left with nothing. They have some second-tier and more obscure stuff on them, so I am trying to focus on stuff they DON'T have. If there is a band on one with a second hit, I'll try and use that one instead. What is sad is that I've been able to come up with 6 volumes so far (and can probably come up with 2 or 3 more easily), which is over 100 artists that were almost all on major labels that barely scratched the surface of popularity.

 

Bob, what's Warlock doing on your list? They were huge in Europe at the time and Doro is still the most cult woman in metal.
Kingdom Come is hardly an obscure act or one hit wonder at all. A major band in the place where I live. They played Kremlin's Palace last year for Christ's sake!
Widowmaker - It's not an obscure act as well, more a "flop" project by a metal superstar Dee Snider (a bit like Halford's "Fight" or Dickinson's "Skunkworks").
Now when I say "obscure 80's metal" I rather think of NWOBHM or early-mid 80's european scene, that had nothing to do with "hair metal" style. Some early power,trash and just classic metal. There were plenty of such bands in US for sure - Warrior is a great example. Now what I would definetely love to have is a HUGE (10 CD or something ) NWOBHM boxset!

 

Most bands on your list were major acts in their prime. Some still are. Manowar is bigger then Metallica in many countries (not in US of course) and they are definetely reigning "Kings Of Metal" worldwide.

 

What a fun thread....

I actually have some of these on mint Vinyl from back in the day (Twisted Sister, Loudness, Vinnie Vincent).

I note Rhino Bucket is listed. I will bet that a lot of folks have heard them, but thought it was Bon era AC/DC. I spent way too much money tracking down their CD's on e-bay. It ain't the real thing, but man its a damn good imitation.

They don't really try to be anything but Bon era AC/DC, and while I usually hate overly derivative bands, I kind of look at my RB cee-dees as a couple lost AC/DC LPs.

BGL

 

I was talking US, not worldwide! I used "Do You Like It" from Kingdom Come because "Get It On" was used on the Rhino series and Warlock wasn't that well known here. I met Doro a few years ago and she's still hot as ever! Actually, I think she lives a few towns over from me in NJ.

Don't worry, I've got you covered with Gorky Park...

 

Absolutely correct. They play arenas in Europe and the only gigs they get in the US are those weird hybrid death metal/hardcore/power metal weekend festivals that pop up around the country (New England, NJ and Milwaukee).

 

Actually, Simon Wright became their drummer as their original drummer left (and later had a sex change! Metal Sludge 20 Questions ).

When the singer was also interviewed on Metal Sludge, I submitted a question that was, unfortunately, never used: "When Simon Wright joined, did you ever consider renaming the band AC/DC featuring Simon Wright?"

 

Quite a different situation, isn't it? Manowar seems to be on 50% of teenage t-shirts in Moscow and they can draw like 300 000 people in Brazil, their latest CD went to N1 (mainstream charts) in Germany and Top 5 in every continental european country yet they are virtualy uknown in UK and their own homeland (they are from NY I guess?). That's quite cool for them back home as you can go around your local town and live everyday life without paparazzi and autograph takers on every corner yet enjoy all the fame abroad!

 

The funny thing is that both lead singers from Gorky Park (Nikolay Noskov and especially Alexander Marshal) are very big mainstream pop stars in Russia. Most of their fans hardly heard about Gorky Park (which people thought were embarassing and ultra cheesy back in the 80's - you know balalaika style guitars etc). In fact they sounded nothing like the whole wave of Soviet metal that was blossoming in the late 80's.

 

Kingdom Come is one of my guilty pleasures...