Week 9: Annihilator - Schizos (Are Never Alone), Pts. 1 & 2

The artist: Annihilator are a classic thrash metal band not from America or Germany but Canada. Annihilator have released 13 albums since they started and went through many changes but the one man who keeps the band alive is Jeff Waters. Although from a personal view I've only listened to two of their albums, the first two (i.e. Alice in Hell and Never, Neverland) are some good stuff.

The album: Alice in Hell is Annihilator's debut album and easily their most recognisable one from their catalogue. This is the only album to have Randy Rampage on vocals for the band. Randy left the band after the tour for this album. Annihilator found Coburn Pharr to take care of the vocals but he doesn't quite shine a light in the candle like Randy did for the band.

The song: Schizos (Are Never Alone), Pts. 1 & 2 is the instrumental of the album along with the intro track Crystal Ann. Although the lines "Schizos are never alone" are spoken several times throughout the track, it's still considered as an instrumental for the band to be metal thrashing mad without relying on any vocals for 99% of the time. There's always a charm in thrash metal instrumentals and Schizos (Are Never Alone) is one of them. The song starts off fast-ish but the whole band then turn up the pace and Jeff Waters offers you fast and catchy riffs. The instrumental changes its tempo a few times giving it some nice twists to it. Overall, Schizos (Are Never Alone) is a metal instrumental that needs to be heard and shouldn't make the listener bored at all with its various changes throughout.

Week 8: Diamond Head - Sweet and Innocent

The artist: Diamond Head are both well established in heavy metal and underrated. Some may easily overlook the band as a whole but they have been known for not having much of a success after the release of Lightning to the Nations. The later commercial failure may have been the result of the band not getting enough recognition as they probably should for their first album or two, especially the debut album.

The album: Lightning to the Nations (sometimes known as The White Album) is Diamond Head's debut and most well known album. Containing seven kickass tracks with some of them being metal anthems (i.e. The Prince and Am I Evil?). Like Budgie, it's sad to think that Metallica's cover of Am I Evil is at least 10x more popular than the original. Sure, it's a good cover during the Cliff Burton days and The Big Four pulled off a great show with this song live but Diamond Head are the ones who write the damn song, they deserve just as much credit, if not, more.

The song: Sweet and Innocent is the song just right after Am I Evil. Starting off with the main catchy riff from the performance of Brian Tatler which has to be one of many highlights in Lightning to the Nations. The lyrics are a rather typical love song but to put it in a speed metal track such as this and sounding heavy as hell makes it a nice twist. Sean Harris does an excellent job singing this song as well as providing a chorus that will stick in your head the first time you hear it. Overall, Sweet and Innocent is an awesome song and makes a contribution to the album as great as the other songs.

Week 7: Agent Steel - Rager

The artist: Agent Steel easily define themselves as speed metal, especially their first two albums. While many bands who get the term speed metal thrown at them easily fit in thrash (Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer) or power metal (the first few albums for Helloween, Blind Guardian and Running Wild), Agent Steel definitely fit in as speed metal for Skeptics Apocalypse and Unstoppable Force. Agent Steel broke up after the release of Unstoppable Force but they reformed in 1998 with a new vocalist Bruce Hall. He was with the band until last year when he left, thus making a way for John Cyriis' triumphant return. That reason alone gives one person every right to hype up for their next album, even if very little has been said about it so far.

The album: Unstoppable Force is an incredible album with seven extremely fast songs and two ballads. Apart from the ballads to slow the pace, Unstoppable Force defines speed metal so much that if you look up this particular term in a dictionary, you better see this album mentioned. Otherwise, inform the dictionary company of this mistake. Many bands may have had a fistful of speed metal down your throat such as Slayer's Reign in Blood and Blind Guardian's Follow the Blind but Agent Steel manage to do it in a way that makes every song stand out from other

The song: Picking a rather "lovely" song for St. Valentine's Day, Rager is a fast pace number in Unstoppable Force. What makes this song stand out very well is the catchy galloping riff, John Cyriis' unlimited amount of energy he unleashes with his voice and shouting out some badass lyrical lines such as "HAMMERING METAL INTO YOUR HEADS" and "He's coming to town, he is THE RAGER" If that isn't metal, I don't know what is. Rager also contains a fast and melodic solo. Unstoppable Force is full of them but each one always sounds different to others. Agent Steel's lyrics mostly consist of aliens and conspiracy theories so this song about THE RAGER coming from space and hammering metal into your heads fits the song very appropriately, especially when it gives you the vision of a powerful alien terrorizing a city. Again, very appropriate for Valentine's Day.

Week 6: Accept - Neon Nights

The artist: Accept are one of the most recognisable German metal bands. These guys played a huge role in 80s metal for Germany with bands like Helloween, Running Wild and Grave Digger gaining inspiration from them as well as Scorpions' 70s material. Accept broke up in the mid-90s but recently returned with a new vocalist named Mark Tornillo. That's right, the band went on without Udo but surprisingly enough their new album Blood of the Nations has been a hit. Just shows that just because you don't have one certain person in the band doesn't mean that they're going to flat out suck. If you find this unbelievable, listen to Teutonic Terror.

The album: Restless and Wild is the fourth Accept album most known for having Fast as a Shark which has been covered by big metal acts such as Helloween and Rage as well as making an appearance in Brutal Legend. The rest of the album is also worth listening to with great tracks such as Ahead of the Pack, Princess of the Dawn and our metal song of the week Neon Nights.

The song: Neon Nights is actually the ballad of the album but does that make it a bad thing? Absolutely not, this song is a nice change of pace in the album after being struck down by mid-pace to fast tracks. Starting with an acoustic intro and leading onto a heavily distorted guitar to fit the mood of the song. Udo makes an excellent performance in this song, especially for the catchy chorus. It's somewhat repetitive for saying "neon nights" many times but you'll easily be singing to the chorus right after hearing this song. The last highlight to note is the solo at around 4 minutes in. It's slow but it goes with the rhythm of the song as well as making it a fantastic solo for a ballad. Overall, Neon Nights is a wonderful song that shouldn't be underestimated. A song like this missing in Restless and Wild would make the album feel incomplete.

Week 5: Scorpions - The Sails of Charon

The artist: Ending off early metal month, we have Scorpions. Scorpions are one of the most well known hard rock/heavy metal bands in Germany. Despite owning only three albums so far, if you consider the whole career of this band, you can easily tell they've taken a few directions over the years. They formed in 1965 which predates even Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin but didn't release an album until 7 years later with Lonesome Crow which was rather experimental but had some metal elements present. This is the same band that would release hits such as Rock You Like a Hurricane and Winds of Change. These songs overshadow a lot of great stuff Scorpions must have to offer, especially the great stuff from Taken By Force. After spawning 17 albums for 45 years, Scorpions have declared retirement once they finish off their current tour.

The album: Taken By Force is the last Scorpions album to feature Ulrich Roth and this man did quite a lot for Scorpions in the earlier days. He certainly went out with a bang for his time with Scorpions to play with Steamrock Fever, We'll Burn the Sky, Born to Touch Your Feelings and the song of the week The Sails of Charon. Any Scorpions fan who may have missed out on this album should give this one a try.

The song: The Sails of Charon is a true highlight in Taken By Force. The moment you hear it, your attention is attacted to a riff that you'd never hear before in any other song. The sheer awesomeness of the song doesn't stop right there as the song is then focused on Ulrich Roth's fantastic solo. They manage to squeeze all of that great material within a minute and a half. Once the intro is over, Klaus Meine comes in and shouts out some very dark and mean lyrics obviously based on the Charon mythology alongside with another fantastic riff for the song. The ending is also a highlight for its mysterious feel. All of this together makes this song a great definition for metal. Too bad it's heavily overshadowed by other songs Scorpions have.

Week 4: Motörhead - When the Eagle Screams

The artist: Motörhead are yet another band that should be easily recognised to anyone. The majority of metalheads will know Lemmy right away and if they're real fans of Motörhead, they'll know the names of other band members both past and present. Lemmy may be the centre of Motörhead but that doesn't mean his bandmates Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee can't be acknowledged. Lemmy and his band have been going on since 1975 and nothing seems to be stopping them.

The album: Motörizer is one of the most recent Motörhead albums and follows the louder and heavier style of Motörhead they went with since Inferno. For the new direction Motörhead took with Inferno and the success for that album, the band has stuck to the same sound production since and rightly so. Kiss of Death and Motörizer also sound great and as crazy as this sounds, I find myself to enjoy the last few Motörhead albums more than the classics (i.e. Overkill, Bomber and Ace of Spades).

The song: Starting with a strange voice clip but shortly followed by a killer intro. Infact, killer is the word that describes the song all around both musically and lyrically. Phil Campbell slays the listeners with the intro, riffs and solos. All of it is a facemelter and to contribute to the greatness, Lemmy puts in 100% to make this song very aggressive with his powerful voice and bass guitar and Mikkey Dee does his job to give the song a really good rhythm. The song is about war and how soldiers are ordered to fight, kill their enemies and earn rewards mindlessly to show how war isn't easy and the cost of killing others. Definitely a great song from the later Motörhead works and there's plenty more to check out from the recent era.

Week 3: Judas Priest - Run of the Mill

The artist: Every fan of metal should know these guys and like Black Sabbath, they shouldn't need an introduction. Just like Black Sabbath, however, there are many underrated songs in Priest's library. They have sixteen albums released and you can expect there's a dozen or two songs that need some good recognition. Recently, Judas Priest have announced retirement and are having a farewell tour before they call it a day for the band. To those that have never seen Priest live, your chances are very limited!

The album: Rocka Rolla is the debut album of Judas Priest released in 1974. Unfortunately, it's not a strong metal debut effort like Iron Maiden's self-titled or Holy Diver and the one thing that may be most remembered about this album is the album cover. This is because of the similarity of the Coca-Cola logo. There was an alternative album artwork which was either due to Coca-Coca passing legal charges or the band wasn't really happy with the original album cover. As for the songs themselves, the band's style wasn't fully developed so don't expect anything along the lines of Breaking the Law, The Hellion/Electric Eye or Painkiller. This is a time well before they even stormed the radio with such classics.

The song: Run of the Mill stands as the longest and most certainly a highlight in Rocka Rolla. One of the slowest songs Judas Priest have to offer but with the time they took to play this song, the outcome was worth it for an emotional and adventurous number. The main riff for Run of the Mill certainly has a spice of metal which is where Judas Priest must have gone from to work on heavier tunes for the following album Sad Wings of Destiny. The more adventurous part of the song is the mid-section when a slow solo is played and Ian Hill on bass is heard clear as day. To contribute to the depressing feel of the song, the lyrics question about one's failure and how as an old person you've failed all your life. Quite harsh but damn, they take those lengths just to make an outstanding song from the very beginning.