- Sep 6, 2007
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- 0
- 16
Retro Albums
- Thread starter Iron Zombius
- Start date
- Sep 6, 2007
- 527
- 0
- 16
Just pulled out "The Crimson Idol" by W.A.S.P
what a classic album. To invent a character, give him a background story and to write a killer ablum about him was an awesome effort. For mine one of wasps best efforts. from the soft "hold on to my heart" to the huge riff in "chainsaw charlie" everything just flowed. T'was truely a classic!
what a classic album. To invent a character, give him a background story and to write a killer ablum about him was an awesome effort. For mine one of wasps best efforts. from the soft "hold on to my heart" to the huge riff in "chainsaw charlie" everything just flowed. T'was truely a classic!
IMO the most underrated heavy metal album of all time:
Pretty Maids - Jump The Gun (1990)
(aka. Lethal Heroes in USA)
Firstly, Pretty Maids are criminally underrated full-stop. I like every album they've done - to different degrees of course, but all offer at least a few great tracks. They've pretty much always had a combination of faster, more riffy almost 'power metal' sounding songs mixed among very melodic hard rock songs with AOR stylings. All of it pretty much at a really high standard, but obviously my preference is the hard rock songs.
I understand Future World's reputation as a "classic album" - for example the title track is packed with riffs to please every headbanger; We Came To Rock is a great fist-pumping '80s metal anthem; Rodeo is a fantastic hard rock song and Love Games is a pretty decent AOR song so it covers all bases and puts pretty much their whole repertoir of styles on display.
But what I don't understand, is how Jump The Gun is not only pretty much ignored & overlooked by the metal world as a great album (except by Pretty Maids fans themselves), but also how it is not considered an even better album than Future World because in my opinion, it absolutely slays it!!!
It's probably their album that most blends their different styles into one consistent sound throughout the album, meaning that rather than having the format of fast metal song, melodic hard rock song, fast metal song, ballad, fast metal song, melodic hard rock song, etc with big contrasts between them, it pretty much just has it's own melodic-metal sound throughout that combines it (only about 2 "fast" songs on the album, the rest are a steadily-paced blend of metal & hard rock with AOR-styled choruses and heavy metal riffs) and it absolutely nails it!!
I think maybe it's overlooked because it doesn't have a song like "Future World" that's like a a power metal riff-fest, but the guitar tone & riffing throughout the album is far from being a wimpier album than Future World. In fact, there is nothing on Jump The Gun that has as wimpy a vibe as "Love Games" off Future World does!! And the songwriting on the album is by far the band's best. So solid. If I had to pick my ultimate Pretty Maids live setlist, 7 songs from this album would be in it. I actually don't even think anything on Future World is as strong as those songs (apart from Rodeo, which I would fit somewhere in the lower end of them).
Track by track breakdown:
Lethal Heroes: Pacey & metallic opener, very riffy yet still with melodic hooks over it. Awesome keyboard breakdown after the solo! This was the 2nd song in the set when I saw them last year and was AWESOME.
Don't Settle For Less: The most commercial song and lead single. This is a melodic hard rock style song (still with that metal tone throughout though) with a GREAT chorus and some awesome keyboards, and the breakdown to acoustic guitar in the verses as a killer vocal melody over it!
Rock The House: One of my less favourite tracks but still cool, closer to Future World style, a pacey '80s metal anthem with cool riffs.
Savage Heart: Monster metal ballad! Chorus is huge, great lyrics, great vibe... Just a brilliant song! This was the only other song (along with Lethal Heroes) they played off this album when I saw them though. Also a single.
Young Blood: Very AOR-ish metal song, lyrics have that whole 'teen-runaway-in-the-big-city' vibe. Great keyboards, lyrics, hooks, one of the album's lighter tracks.
Headlines: Not even one of the 7 that I mentioned I'd pick for a live setlist but still a great song, awesome riffs with steady thumping pace.
Jump The Gun: Title track (for Euro release). Another perfect blend of Euro metal & hard rock. Great riffs & hooks with a good balance of metal & melody.
Partners In Crime: My favourite track on the album!! Runaway couple themed lyrics, AOR chorus (complete with an acapella breakdown going into a repeat of it at the end), thick driving guitars, just a perfect song. Also showcases Ronnie's contrasting vocals going from clean to throaty mid-verse.
Attention: A weaker track, this is the fastest track on the album (more like their first 2 albums). Still a pretty good metal song musically, just lacking the hooks the rest of the album is drenched in.
Hang Tough: Like above, a weaker track that's still a pretty good metal song but is just doesn't grab you like the rest of the album and on a different album it'd probably stand out more.
Over & Out: Awesome, again a perfect blend of AOR & Metal, with keyboards and super melodic hooks mixed with thick driving guitars & Ronnie's throaty voice. A bit slower than most of the other tracks. The "It's over, it's ooooover" backups in the outro chorus are unreal!
Dream On: I don't listen to this track, it's just some kind of bluesy acoustic thing to close the outro so doesn't really count!
I know I've raved about this album before but honestly, if you haven't checked it out you really have to. It's excellent!!! Easily in my all time top 5 albums these days and easily my most played album of the last 12 months by a mile.... I have had a Pretty Maids mix CD (with tons of songs from this on it) I made as the only CD in my car stereo since the start of the year and still haven't got sick of it!!!
Denmark's finest!!!
Pretty Maids - Jump The Gun (1990)
(aka. Lethal Heroes in USA)
Firstly, Pretty Maids are criminally underrated full-stop. I like every album they've done - to different degrees of course, but all offer at least a few great tracks. They've pretty much always had a combination of faster, more riffy almost 'power metal' sounding songs mixed among very melodic hard rock songs with AOR stylings. All of it pretty much at a really high standard, but obviously my preference is the hard rock songs.
I understand Future World's reputation as a "classic album" - for example the title track is packed with riffs to please every headbanger; We Came To Rock is a great fist-pumping '80s metal anthem; Rodeo is a fantastic hard rock song and Love Games is a pretty decent AOR song so it covers all bases and puts pretty much their whole repertoir of styles on display.
But what I don't understand, is how Jump The Gun is not only pretty much ignored & overlooked by the metal world as a great album (except by Pretty Maids fans themselves), but also how it is not considered an even better album than Future World because in my opinion, it absolutely slays it!!!
It's probably their album that most blends their different styles into one consistent sound throughout the album, meaning that rather than having the format of fast metal song, melodic hard rock song, fast metal song, ballad, fast metal song, melodic hard rock song, etc with big contrasts between them, it pretty much just has it's own melodic-metal sound throughout that combines it (only about 2 "fast" songs on the album, the rest are a steadily-paced blend of metal & hard rock with AOR-styled choruses and heavy metal riffs) and it absolutely nails it!!
I think maybe it's overlooked because it doesn't have a song like "Future World" that's like a a power metal riff-fest, but the guitar tone & riffing throughout the album is far from being a wimpier album than Future World. In fact, there is nothing on Jump The Gun that has as wimpy a vibe as "Love Games" off Future World does!! And the songwriting on the album is by far the band's best. So solid. If I had to pick my ultimate Pretty Maids live setlist, 7 songs from this album would be in it. I actually don't even think anything on Future World is as strong as those songs (apart from Rodeo, which I would fit somewhere in the lower end of them).
Track by track breakdown:
Lethal Heroes: Pacey & metallic opener, very riffy yet still with melodic hooks over it. Awesome keyboard breakdown after the solo! This was the 2nd song in the set when I saw them last year and was AWESOME.
Don't Settle For Less: The most commercial song and lead single. This is a melodic hard rock style song (still with that metal tone throughout though) with a GREAT chorus and some awesome keyboards, and the breakdown to acoustic guitar in the verses as a killer vocal melody over it!
Rock The House: One of my less favourite tracks but still cool, closer to Future World style, a pacey '80s metal anthem with cool riffs.
Savage Heart: Monster metal ballad! Chorus is huge, great lyrics, great vibe... Just a brilliant song! This was the only other song (along with Lethal Heroes) they played off this album when I saw them though. Also a single.
Young Blood: Very AOR-ish metal song, lyrics have that whole 'teen-runaway-in-the-big-city' vibe. Great keyboards, lyrics, hooks, one of the album's lighter tracks.
Headlines: Not even one of the 7 that I mentioned I'd pick for a live setlist but still a great song, awesome riffs with steady thumping pace.
Jump The Gun: Title track (for Euro release). Another perfect blend of Euro metal & hard rock. Great riffs & hooks with a good balance of metal & melody.
Partners In Crime: My favourite track on the album!! Runaway couple themed lyrics, AOR chorus (complete with an acapella breakdown going into a repeat of it at the end), thick driving guitars, just a perfect song. Also showcases Ronnie's contrasting vocals going from clean to throaty mid-verse.
Attention: A weaker track, this is the fastest track on the album (more like their first 2 albums). Still a pretty good metal song musically, just lacking the hooks the rest of the album is drenched in.
Hang Tough: Like above, a weaker track that's still a pretty good metal song but is just doesn't grab you like the rest of the album and on a different album it'd probably stand out more.
Over & Out: Awesome, again a perfect blend of AOR & Metal, with keyboards and super melodic hooks mixed with thick driving guitars & Ronnie's throaty voice. A bit slower than most of the other tracks. The "It's over, it's ooooover" backups in the outro chorus are unreal!
Dream On: I don't listen to this track, it's just some kind of bluesy acoustic thing to close the outro so doesn't really count!
I know I've raved about this album before but honestly, if you haven't checked it out you really have to. It's excellent!!! Easily in my all time top 5 albums these days and easily my most played album of the last 12 months by a mile.... I have had a Pretty Maids mix CD (with tons of songs from this on it) I made as the only CD in my car stereo since the start of the year and still haven't got sick of it!!!
Denmark's finest!!!
Bucko
Member
HEADLESS CROSS - BLACK SABBATH 1989 - IRS --, this was when Sabbath finally made it back IMO after a couple of very bad albums, and bad management decisions like touring South Africia ETC.
With Songs like Headless Cross , Devil And Daughter, Kill In The Spirit World and Night Wing being the standout for me. Plus the strong Drumming of Cozy Powell making it a real enjoyable Album....
With Songs like Headless Cross , Devil And Daughter, Kill In The Spirit World and Night Wing being the standout for me. Plus the strong Drumming of Cozy Powell making it a real enjoyable Album....
Over 10 years old - that's a very large chunk of my collection! First one that popped into my head is Still Cyco After All These Years by Suicidal Tendencies. Awesome re-recording of their original album, but with much better sound and Rob Trujillo on bass!
Arcane
Member
Goreripper
Metal as fuck
dreamwatch
Syntax error
Thanks. In one post you made me feel like a pensioner. I can't believe the 90's are retro already. 
Bucko
Member
Southy
Proud Brisbane Metaller
- Sep 6, 2007
- 527
- 0
- 16
holy shit... is that brian at 0.33?
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp0s27tIqRY&feature=related[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp0s27tIqRY&feature=related[/ame]
Goreripper
Metal as fuck
Spiff
I have the power
Southy
Proud Brisbane Metaller
Just finished reading Iggy Pop's Biography, has just made me fall in love with his Brick by Brick album again
Priest of Evil
Adores the Number 666
- Dec 1, 2005
- 1,938
- 4
- 38
S.O.D. Speak English or Die / M.O.D. Usa for Mod
thrash was great with punk especially when it went crossover in a big way, these albums are so intense and so much fuckin fun! That is why the majority of todays artists sucks, everyones got their fingers up their arses thinking they rock and they just don't!
FTR Crimson Idol is also awesome
thrash was great with punk especially when it went crossover in a big way, these albums are so intense and so much fuckin fun! That is why the majority of todays artists sucks, everyones got their fingers up their arses thinking they rock and they just don't!
FTR Crimson Idol is also awesome
Shadow298
UNLEASH THE GUAN
Southy
Proud Brisbane Metaller
Nah mate they are taking the piss, and it is awesome, you wouldn't get away with making that album these days, all the PC wankers would be well up in arms
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