the eighties... why wasnt I alive then?

[Wyvern]

Looking back, did Walkman's ever suck! Nothing like having the batteries die midway through a tape.

....Man, did making tapes ever suck too!

Are you nuts? It's my favorite hobby, love to compose my 90 min tapes (and I carry an extra pair of batteries just in case).

To me the sole idea of having to rip my entire CD collection then to compose a setlist for an MP3 player...that sucks big time!

NP: Fist - 'Lost And Found'

 

[poundingmetal74]

Yeah, but you can compose your own 80 minute CDRs. Plus if you encode Mp3s at 320 for an Mp3 player, they generally sound better than cassettes.

BTW, awesome Fist song Wyv!

 

[sixxswine]

I've really liked every era of my life, I feel lucky that way....

That's how I feel...

 

[No-Mercy]

i always wish i was alive during the 80's, and old enough to actually experience em.
but really, nah. i was born in 91 and i cant imagine i would truly enjoy things more back then, that is, when things beyond music are factored in.
of course the thought of following maiden from day 1 will get me to forget that should i have had the chance

 

[Hawk]

I've really liked every era of my life, I feel lucky that way.

That's how I feel...

Same here.

Although the 80s were a crucial time for the development of metal as we now know it, it had also its down points. Loads and loads of bad hair metal band, I don't mean the good hair metal bands like Kick Axe and Icon, almost no exposure in the Dutch media, very badly produced albums like Culprit - Guilty As Charged, compared to today almost no gigs. These days I can choose to go to several gigs almost every month!

So for me this time is just as good as the 80s were and in many ways its even better. I love the bands of this era; Symphony X, Novembers Doom, Arch Ememy, Nevermore, Biomechanical, Daath, Pagans Mind, Suspyre.

Metal is very much alive and well at the moment. And in a sense its even more alive than in the 80s. All it takes is a little time to discover what new band you like. I remember playing the Metallica's debut album for the first time at the Dynamo club. Some people got angry and told me to play some real music. The same thing happened when I played Slayer debut for the first time. People were not used to it and wanted to hear Rainbow, AC/DC and Iron Maiden.

Now when I play a Kataklysm track or a song from the new Biomechanical album, like I did yesterday evening, I sometimes get the same comments. Nothing has changed... I am very happy that I can appreciate every decennium on its own merits.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

Yeah, but you can compose your own 80 minute CDRs. Plus if you encode Mp3s at 320 for an Mp3 player, they generally sound better than cassettes.

Not my cassettes! I almost always bought the vinyl, then recorded immediately onto chrome TDK or Maxell. I also had the added advantage of knowing how to use a graphic equalizer, so I could basically re-mix the album (and many needed it back then) as it was copied onto tape. The end result was music that still stands strong today. All my old factory cassettes are falling apart, but my chrome TDKs still play great! You should hear my copies of Fates Warning, Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian!

 

[SentinelSlain]

My tapes I all from when I was about 8 or 9 and are really random pop mainly and some classic rock but with the cards missing so I don't know what's on the compilations. I found a copy of metallicas black album one day in a box of lego. The tapes are all extremely bad quality anyway, I'm not going to get a tape deck.

 

[Assault_Attack]

I am very happy that I can appreciate every decennium on its own merits.

Agree, I'm always looking for new bands to check out. It seems most people stick with what was going on when they were in High School. Buy the greatest hits see the reunion tour etc. (Have I said this before?) But I countinue to search.

2 bands I would like to see Nevermore, Pagans Mind + Jag Panzer, Jorn Lande

 

[kuier]

Indeed the 80s ruled ... and still do. 1984 was prolly THE year for that music:

Accept - Balls To The Wall
Anthrax - Fistful of Metal
Bon Jovi - Bon Jovi (Runaway)
Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Kiss - Animalize
Manowar - Hail to England & Sign of the Hammer
Q5 - Steel The Light
Quiet Riot - Condition Critical
Ratt - Out Of The Cellar
Saxon - Crusader
Scorpions - Love At First Sting
Stryper - The Yellow and Black Attack
TKO - In Your Face
TNT - Knights of the New Thunder
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry
Van Halen - 1984
Warlock - Burning the Witches
White Lion - Fight To Survive
Whitesnake - Slide It In
Y&T - In Rock We Trust
Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force
Armored Saint - March of the Saint
Autograph - Sign in Please
Black N Blue - Black N Blue
Dio - The Last In Line
Dokken - Tooth and Nail
Fastway - All Fired Up
Great White - Great White
Helix - Walking the Razor's Edge
Rose Tattoo - Southern Stars
Stone Fury - Burns Like A Star
WASP - WASP

IMHO never been matched.

 

[Wyvern]

Not my cassettes! I almost always bought the vinyl, then recorded immediately onto chrome TDK or Maxell.

Ditto here.

Yeah, but you can compose your own 80 minute CDRs. Plus if you encode Mp3s at 320 for an Mp3 player, they generally sound better than cassettes.

BTW, awesome Fist song Wyv!

Still I have to rip the whole collection, my way is straight from the source to tape.

 

[bt9x]

I agree with a lot of you that growing up in the 80's was a lot of fun - as well as some not so good things came about in the 80's.i also have fond memories of 2 to 3 concerts a week here in Southern Maine U.S.A. to choose from.you name a popular metal or hard or pop rock band big in those days; they stopped in Portland,ME U.S.A.

Concerts were a lot of fun;waiting till the High School day was over to get ready for the show that evening

Hang out and party with friends while the cassette boom box played either AC/DC,RIOT,TWISTED SISTER,IRON MAIDEN OR anything else,etc.

a great time indeed

you younger folks have had some good music to follow the last 15 years or so

so as has been stated- every decade has its merits

 

[TENTH DREAMER DECEIVER]

Yes. I miss the 80's. Triumph with Helix was my first rock concert (1985).

 

[sumairetsu]

I was glad the 1980's ended. Reaganomics; the Savings and Loan Scandal; Iran-Contra; the PMRC...there was a lot to not like about that period.

We had AIDS rear its ugly head. This is probably why my generation has been called the "Me Generation," because if I wanted to make sure that I didn't get AIDS from having sex, I had to have sex with ME! Had to throw that out.

Also, the only good thing about the PMRC hearings was seeing the Mentors get some free publicity having their lyrics being read to Congress.

The technology, I was glad to see, helped improve the sound you heard from your stereo. CDs meant we were able to hear the music straight from the master tape. Cable TV meant more diversified viewing (MTV and USA Network's Night Flight) and the ability to see music videos and concerts from your favorite bands, which was quite useful back in the day of not having a driver's license.

I'm glad now that we don't have to wait and look in the newspaper to find out if a band was coming to town. The internet means that I can find information on a band that I'm looking for or interested in hearing for myself with a simple click. I don't have to wait until I have the money to go purchase an album unheard based on word of mouth or a review, or wait for a friend that had the album to make me a tape when they had the time to make it with all the other stuff we had to get done.

I'm not going to say that the music was better, though. There's been good music from the 1980's, as there was good music from other decades, including the present.

 

[EerieVon]

Cable TV meant more diversified viewing (MTV and USA Network's Night Flight

Does anyone remember the station called "The Box"? You would call a 900 number to get a video played, it was like 99 cents or something

 

[OldScratch]

I remember the 80's with great fondness. As far as being a "teen" metalhead(though I already hit 20 in '89) I cannot imagine a better decade. Having seen essentially every band I could imagine live, even having played in bands opening for some...it was just an incredible time - much solidarity and brotherhood that seems altogether missing from the modern "scene." Of course, things probably looked a whole lot different as a teenager too - a bit of romanticization and all - so maybe it wasn't quite as great as I recall either.

All the same, I still enjoy a great deal of 90's and at least a fair amount of contemporary Metal as well, still go to shows, etc. So things aren't all bad now either. It's all relative to a degree...

 

[delize]

Does anyone remember the station called "The Box"? You would call a 900 number to get a video played, it was like 99 cents or something

Yes I do! I watched it a lot and actually had some tapes of their videos. It wasn't a cable station, but came to me by an outside antana. Then I think MTV bought it out which resulted in MTV2 or something like that!

 

[Unfaithfully Metalhead]

I loved and hated the 80's... but music wise was the best years for metal... but I'll always kick myself for not going to the Ozzy/Metallica concert during the Ultimate Ozzy Tour/Master of Puppets before Cliff died and Jake left Ozzy. That was when Metallica were at their true peak imo and not the crap that came afterwards... I had a chance to go and i didn't for some reason... i was 15 at the time... Now i can only watch a clip of that concert on the Cliff Em All video (Nassau Coliseum) and kick myself...

But I did start going to alot of thrash shows (as well as other genre's like crossover, doom etc.) after that Ozzy show during it's heyday 1986 to 1990 when I turned 16 and was allowed to enter Sundance in Bayshore Long island... Saw bands like Testament, Exodus, DRI, Nuclear Assault, White Zombie, Slayer, Candlemass, Crumbsuckers, Sacred Reich, Pantera, Gothic Slam, Ludichrist, Scatterbrain, etc.

 

[SickBoy]

I loved and hated the 80's... but music wise was the best years for metal...

Hated - why? Just curious...

 

[Priest of Evil]

Well living in Australia in the 80's wasn't so great for live international shows. Being young and looking young I wasn't able to get into the local gigs either. By the time I hit 18 I had started spending an increasing amount of time at backyard/house parties, just drinking, listening to metal and headbanging furiously. Eventually I started to drag my friends out to local shows but by this time it was the late 80s. Those forrays into the city at night were heaps of fun! Very, very drunk and crazy times. Our first international thrash act was Metallica on the Justice Tour that was nuts that show, everyone was rabid and desperate for thrash.

Times swung towards death metal soon after and the scene shrunk dramatically. Still lots of local gigs and I started gigging myself. I really enjoyed the 90's with Death Metal and the soon to arrive blackmetal but the 80's were certainly the golden era of metal in its purist form.

Having to source out metal by printed magazines, tape trading & blind buys at record stores was very exciting and thats something the youngones will never get to truely experience. Only now, 20 years on am I catching up with some of the other 80's metal that I never had the opportunity to buy or hear...

These days kids can listen to practically everything released and pick the best, we weren't so fortunate, we could only pick the best of what was available. I'm not whinging at all, just contemplating the differences.

I would have to say that I sometimes wish I was few years older, to experience the entire 80's!

I do love my life now though and have also enjoyed every era thus far!