New Wave Of British Heavy Metal
By Fredrik Nilsson
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By the late 70’s the big dinosaurs from the decade was
beginning to falter. Deep Purple split up in -76, Led Zeppelin
were on the decline (culminating in the death of John Bonham in
1980), Black Sabbath lost front man Ozzy Osbourne
and Uriah Heep were making more and more lacklustre efforts.
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Some bands like Judas Priest,
Van Halen, Motörhead, AC/DC and Rush
were on the rise, but hard rock as a whole were on the decline.
The rebirth of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal came from were it once arose a decade earlier,
from the English suburbs in what was to be dubbed The New Wave
Of British Heavy Metal.
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Iron Maiden was arguably the most important
heavy metal band of the 80’s. Formed by bass player Steve Harris,
and going through numerous line-ups in the late seventies, the band released their
debut album in 1980 with singer Paul Dianno, drummer Clive
Burr and guitar players Dave Murray and Dennis Stratton.
The most striking thing about Dianno
as the front man, other than his great voice, was the short hair which was a rarity
in the metal community (even Rob Halford sported long hair back
then).
He looked more like a punk rocker than a heavy metal front
man, and also the album had almost a punkish attitude to it. But it was undoubtedly
still metal, with guitar harmonics and the Purple/Sabbath
school of song writing courtesy of Harris (who would remain the
undisputed band leader up to this day). Songs like “Phantom Of The Opera”,
“Prowler”, “Running Free” and “Iron Maiden” still remains
as some of the band’s most beloved songs.
The follow up album called Killers
released the following year was equally good, and with an excellent production job
by Martin Birch (who had worked with Deep Purple,
Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Rainbow,
Whitesnake among others).
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Martin would remain as
Maiden’s producer for over ten years. By this time Stratton
had been replaced by guitar player Adrian Smith. But just as the
band was beginning to gain momentum as one of the biggest heavy metal bands in the
world, Dianno was fired (much due to problems with drugs and alcohol).
He was replaced by former Samson front
man Bruce Dickinson, and in -82 with this new line-up the band
released what was to be one of the most important albums of the decade.
The album The Number Of The Beast
contained numbers such as “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “Children Of The Damned”,
“Run To The Hills” and the classic title track. It was nothing short of brilliant and established Iron Maiden
as the biggest metal band at that time.
Following albums such as Piece Of Mind
in -83, Powerslave in -84, Somewhere In Time
in -86 and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son in -88 saw the
band and their tours growing bigger and bigger. Along with Judas Priest
the band was in large responsible for heavy metal reaching the big stadiums throughout
the states (and the world) in the 80’s.
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Their mascot called Eddie who
was on every album cover and t-shirt could be seen in almost every record collection
or on every metal fan’s clothing throughout the whole decade. The famous Iron
Maiden sound was often copied, but never bettered. And their down-to-earth
attitudes have kept the band alive up to this day.
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Def Leppard was a group of high school
buddies from Sheffield, who got to release their debut album On Through
The Night in 1980. At this time the band had already released
a classic demo the year before, and most of the members were still teenagers.
The band members were singer Joe Elliot,
drummer Rick Allen, bass player Rick Savage, and
guitar players Pete Willis and Steve Clarke.
If Iron Maiden were from the
Purple/Sabbath-school then Def Leppard were more from
the AC/DC/UFO-school. Simpler arrangements, but
packed with good musicianship and great songwriting skills.
But the band found more of their own identity with the
follow up album High & Dry, which was better in every
aspect. Much thanks to former City Boy-producer John ‘Mutt’
Lange, the songwriting gelled and almost Queen-like
harmonies were introduced.
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And with the album Pyromania
in 1983 (were Pete Willis was replaced with Phil Collen,
due to problems with alcohol), the band was the first heavy metal band to really
cross-over to the non-metal audience (especially in the states). The album was a
masterpiece, and deservedly sold millions of copies. Songs like “Rock Of Ages”,
“Foolin’”, “Photograph” were big hits both as singles and as videos
on the then relatively new TV channel MTV.
But bad luck hit the band just after they came home from
the very successful Pyromania-tour, when drummer Rick Allen
lost his left arm in a car accident. Determined to keep the band together they encouraged
him to remain in the band, and learn to play with one arm (which is one of the biggest
accomplishments ever in the history of hard rock).
But it would take four years until their next album
Hysteria, which outsold Pyromania and is one
of the biggest selling albums in the music history. The album contained seven big
singles, and the success would haunt the band through the rest of their career (where
they tried to regain the momentum with the more softer sound displayed on Hysteria).
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The legacy of the band could be seen in all melodic rock
bands of the decade, and the AOR-scene. The band also raised the bar in great sounding
records, and was clearly one of the best and most successful hard rock bands of
the decade.
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Other important bands, 1980-1982
Other important bands from the NWOBHM-scene
were Saxon, Angel Witch, Diamond Head
and Tygers Of Pan Tang.
Saxon had their creative peak between
1980 and 1982, with albums such as Wheels Of Steel,
Strong Arm Of The Law, Denim & Leather
and Power And the Glory. All four of them are classic
metal albums, but unfortunately the quality of their output would get worse and
worse after that. But after Iron Maiden and Def Leppard,
they were the third most successful band from the NWOBHM.
Other classic albums from this scene are the debut album
by Angel Witch, Lightning To The Nations
by Diamond Head, Spellbound by Tygers
Of Pan Tang and Shock Tactics by Samson
(with singer Bruce Bruce, who changed his named to Bruce Dickinson
when he joined Iron maiden in -82).
There are countless other worthwhile albums to be checked
out from the NWOBHM, and the whole scene would prove to be one
of the most fruitful eras of heavy metal filled with great bands and great music.
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Judas Priest, Motörhead and Budgie |
Along with the newly found success of heavy metal
in Britain, some of the older bands like Judas Priest, Motörhead
and Budgie were lumped in under the moniker and they became
more successful than ever.
British Steel (1980) and
Screaming For Vengeance (1982) by Judas Priest
and Overkill (1979) and Ace Of Spades
(1980) by Motörhead were some of the most important albums of the
NWOBHM.era, even if the bands technically wasn’t part of the new breed of bands.
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Black Sabbath |
Black Sabbath also found new life
with former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio, and
released two masterpieces in the form of Heaven And Hell
(1980) and Mob Rules (1981), before they unfortunately
disbanded again (to resurface in -83 with former Deep Purple front
man Ian Gillan on vocals, lasting one album).
The rest of decade Tony Iommi would
be the sole original member left, but the band still managed to release worthwhile
albums throughout the decade with Tony Martin behind the mike (and
also Glenn Hughes for one album).
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AC/DC |
The Australian band (residing in England)
AC/DC recovered from the death of their front man Bon Scott,
and released one of the best hard rock albums ever. The album Back In Black
released in 1980 was their biggest commercial success ever, with some of hard rock’s
biggest anthems like “Hells Bells", “You Shook Me All Night Long” and the
title track.
AC/DC would never make such a great
album again, but they still made one solid release after another the following years.
And they were definitely one of the biggest hard rock live attractions in the 80’s
and onward.
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Thin Lizzy |
Thin Lizzy also wanted to capitalize
on metal’s new found popularity, with Phil Lynott bringing in the
extremely talented Tygers Of Pan Tang guitar player John Sykes.
The album Thunder And Lightning
was fresh and heavier (though not necessarily better) than anything the band ever
had released, but it was sadly the last breath of a truly great band. They disbanded
after a final tour, and Phil sadly passed away in 1986 after many
years of drug usage.
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