NWOBHM

[Ruthven]

Earlier today I found a couple of New Wave of British Heavy Metal albums - Angel Witch's self titled album, and Witchfinder General's "Death Penalty." I've had a copy of the Angel Witch album for years, but the one I got today had some B-sides attached. "Angel Witch" is one of my favorite heavy metal albums, it's really a shame that Kevin Heybourne and co. couldn't keep the momentum going; at that particular time period, they were better than Iron Maiden IMO.

It was my first Witchfinder General album. It's pretty good, definitely influenced by Sabbath moreso than anything else. I like listening to these type bands. It's always interesting to hear the roots of metal beyond the standard "no surprise" bands that outlets like VH-1 trots out every time they do a so-called "metal retrospective." But it's also cool to hear bands that existed before heavy metal became as codified as it is today.

Anyway, can anyone recommend some additional good NWOBHM albums? I have that 2 disc compilation album from years ago, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend some good albums from the genre.

 

[mtlheart]

Persian Risk: Rise Up. Includes Tygers Of Pan Tang singer Jon Deverill and Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell.
Praying Mantis: Time Tells No Lies.
Diamond Head: Lightning To The Nations. Metallica has done covers of 4 tracks from this album.
Tokyo Blade: Night Of The Blade
Bullet: Execution, and No Mercy
Saxon: Any of their early albums fall into NWOBHM
Storm Witch (Not British, but Germans from the same era): Any of their early albums, although their new material is pretty good too..

 

[zinescene]

I'd recommend

Demon - The Unexpected Guest
Demon - The Plague
Tokyo Blade - Tokyo Blade
Jaguar - Power Games
Grim Reaper - Rock You To hell

 

[metal71]

Not British, but obviously inpired from that wave of artists is the debut from Attacker, just recently re-issued in limited quantities.... It's called 'Battle At Helm's Deep', and it's just absolutely killer. The best from old Maiden, Metallica, and Priest on one raging album. Band was from NJ I believe, recently reformed....

 

[MysticX9]

Some great choices, I'd go with:

Tygers of Pan Tang - Spellbound/Wildcat
Chateaux - Chained and Desperate
Savage - Loose N' Lethal
Saxon - mentioned earlier, any of their early ones but
especially Wheels of Steel
Legend - Death in the Nursery
Holocaust - The Nightcomers
Tank - Honour and Blood

I'm sure you are already familar with the first 4 Iron Maiden
albums, Motorhead's Ace of Spades and Def Leppard's first 2

There is a good NWOBHM list on yahoogroups, you can find
out about a lot of obscure bands there.

Neal

 

[dargormudshark]

You know when the Nwobhm scene was getting started I would say 1978-1981..somethink like that...Maiden was one of the worst out of them then Bruce joined

 

[Ruthven]

I actually like the Paul Di'Anno years with Maiden - not as much as the Dickinson albums, but I still like his style. Then again, I also like punk rock from that era.

 

[Volcane]

Some great choices, I'd go with:
Tank - Honour and Blood

Aweome album - more like Motorhead than what I'd call NWOBHM, but a great album..... If you can find it!

 

[Mxgonzo]

Raven
Tygers of Pan Tang
Angel Witch
Venom

Just a few of my favorites

 

[mtlheart]

Aweome album - more like Motorhead than what I'd call NWOBHM, but a great album..... If you can find it!

Tank Honor and Blood was rereleased by High Vaultage:
http://www.mann-g.com/HighVaultage/catalog.html
The US contact is MANlCEGO@aol.com (The l in MANlC is a lower case L)

Actually, it seems the Dave (MANlC EGO) isn't the US rep anymore, although he still has some of the catalog laying around.

 

[MysticX9]

We've been discussing current metal in the NWOBHM style lately, seems
there is somewhat of a renaissance with bands like Overlorde, Raising Fear,
Twisted Tower Dire and Ignitor among others keeping the genre alive. Plus you
also have many of the original bands still around and releasing new material,
Legend came back a few years ago with a good one called STILL SCREAMING...

 

[MajorRager]

What about Sweet Savage, Budgie, Diamond Head, Blitzkrieg, Black Rose, etc.

 

[TheWhisper]

I actually like the Paul Di'Anno years with Maiden - not as much as the Dickinson albums, but I still like his style. Then again, I also like punk rock from that era.

Ditto brotha! I am a big punk fan, as well, and love Di'Anno era Maiden. Those first couple of albums had a raw, innocence about them...a youthful energy, if you will. 'Wrathchild' is still in my top 3 fave Maiden songs.

 

[TheWhisper]

Mama's Boys
Hellanbach
Desolation Angels
Samson w/ Bruce Bruce on vox...ha ha Bruce Bruce
Persian Risk
Jaguar
Raven
Witchfynde
Wrathchild - total over the top sleeze glam band, but fun never the less.

Shit...I forgot Vardis

 

[MysticX9]

What about Sweet Savage, Budgie, Diamond Head, Blitzkrieg, Black Rose, etc.

Definitely, I forgot about Sweet Savage, I think they are still active
as well. I thought about Budgie but I think they kind of pre-dated the
NWOBHM, along with Priest, Rainbow, Sabbath, etc. Everyone seems to
have a differing opinion about when it actually began, and what year it
ran till; most put it between 1979 and 1985, but then there are disagreements
as to whether it should include albums from bands active during that time (which would include stuff like Sabbath and Priest) or just bands whose albums were first released during that period. Doesn't really matter to me, I love all of it. As for Maiden, I love the first two records with DiAnno, absolute classics. Course the stuff with Bruce ain't bad either

Neal

 

[MysticX9]

Mama's Boys
Hellanbach
Desolation Angels
Samson w/ Bruce Bruce on vox...ha ha Bruce Bruce
Persian Risk
Jaguar
Raven
Witchfynde
Wrathchild - total over the top sleeze glam band, but fun never the less.

Shit...I forgot Vardis

Man, I didn't know anyone else was familiar with Hellanbach, the
English Van Halen! Samson's SHOCK TACTICS was another good one...

Neal

 

[TheWhisper]

Definitely, I forgot about Sweet Savage, I think they are still active
as well. I thought about Budgie but I think they kind of pre-dated the
NWOBHM, along with Priest, Rainbow, Sabbath, etc. Everyone seems to
have a differing opinion about when it actually began, and what year it
ran till; most put it between 1979 and 1985, but then there are disagreements
as to whether it should include albums from bands active during that time (which would include stuff like Sabbath and Priest) or just bands whose albums were first released during that period. Doesn't really matter to me, I love all of it. As for Maiden, I love the first two records with DiAnno, absolute classics. Course the stuff with Bruce ain't bad either

Neal

That's why it was called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. It was the second wave of heavy British bands after the likes of Sabbath, Purple, Zep and the like. Budgie, having released their first album in '71, I think, would not be a NWOBHM band, imo...but I do consider them as one of the cornerstone bands in the establishment of heavy metal, if you will. Every bit as essential to the developement of the 'heavier' sound as the afore mentioned bands. They also have one of the best all time song titles in 'Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman'.

 

[Ruthven]

Ditto brotha! I am a big punk fan.

I've long respected you for having a Social D. icon on a metal board. I actually don't have any of their albums (I know, something that needs to be rectified ASAP), but I've always liked their sound.

What I like about punk rock is that everything is in service to the song. It doesn't matter if the vocalist has a limited range, or if the band have little to no technical skills. But it's cool because a good song is gonna shine through those obstacles regardless. And the fact that some genuinely good hooks or melodies are being filtered through something rough and unpolished is kind of interesting to me.