Arguably one of the most important explosions in bands in heavy metal history, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, or NWOBHM (or to some people, Nu-Wah-Bum for some reason) combined the heaviness and melodies of bands like Judas Priest, Motorhead, Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy with the working-class, DIY attitude of the punk movement (don’t tell Steve Harris we said that) to create some of the best, hard-hitting, kickass metal albums of all time. Singles and EPs aside, here’s a list of what we believe to be 10 albums that every denim-clad-heavy metal-rock n’ roller must have in their collection in order to understand the essence of NWOBHM, in no particular order.
Saxon “Denim and Leather”
“Where were you in 79′?” Well, I wasn’t born yet, but if it was half as good as Saxon’s 1981 classic “Denim and Leather” record, I’d say you’d be lucky to have lived back then. This record is the epitome of straight-up leather jacket-wearing, knife-fighting, fist-banging heavy metal, and certainly solidifies Saxon’s spot on the Mt. Rushmore of British Heavy Metal.
Standout Cut: “Denim and Leather” for being a more than worthy theme song for the entire NWOBHM movement.
Raven “Rock Until You Drop”
After releasing the iconic “Don’t Need Your Money,” single, Raven’s 1981 debut album on the legendary Neat Records brought their signature high-energy, chaotic rocking heavy metal sound into the spotlight. Even after all these years, the Gallagher brothers (not those ones) can still kick ass on stage with the best of them!
Standout Cut: “Don’t Need Your Money” and sure, it was a single before the record, but goddamn you can’t deny how great that main riff is, fat daddy.
Tank “Filth Hounds of Hades”
Algy Ward of the Damned fame fronted the power trio that was Tank, and in 1981, released one of the most non-Motorhead Motorhead records in heavy metal history with “Filth Hounds of Hades.” Like many bands in the NWOBHM, they may have not reached levels of fame like some of their contemporaries, but that doesn’t take away from the importance of this record.
Standout Cut: “Blood, Guts, and Beer” because it’s called, “Blood, Guts and Beer” and it rules.
Iron Maiden “Number of the Beast”
What’s to say about Iron Maiden that hasn’t already been said? We’ll probably be berated for not including any D’anno era albums on this list, but hey, Number of the Beast is just the perfect metal album, and was released during the burgeoning movement, so that’s what we’re going with.
Standout Cut: “The Prisoner” mostly just because “You are number six.”
Diamond Head “Lightning to the Nations”
Released in 1980, Diamond Head’s “Lightning to the Nations” is probably in the top 3, if not THE most important record of the movement. “Am I Evil” is basically the quintessential heavy metal song, and even a little west coast thrash metal outfit named Metallica started out as a band covering songs from this record. This is probably a good place to start if you’re interested in the NWOBHM movement.
Standout Cut: “Am I Evil” because it’s everything heavy metal is about, respectfully.
Tygers of Pan Tang “Spellbound”
After releasing the fantastic “Wild Cat” record in 1980, Tygers came back with an even bigger and better effort in 1981’s “Spellbound.” Now with John Sykes on guitar, and new vocalist John Deverill, the sound of the had changed, but for the better. A fine example of what the NWOBHM craze was all about.
Standout Cut: “Hellbound” because of that severely catchy chorus, amongst many other things.
Def Leppard “On Through the Night”
We all know how lame Def Leppard became, but people tend to lose sight of how significant they were to NWOBHM. “On Through the Night” is as much of a classic as any release by any of their contemporaries at that time. Go back and check it out.
Standout Cut: “Rock Brigade” for its high levels of perfectly executed cheese while still maintaining its badassery.
Angel Witch “Angel Witch”
The self-titled release by London’s occult metal masters “Angel Witch” is just an absolute classic. It was apparently panned by critics upon its initial release, and we can only imagine it’s due to the air quality of London at that time affecting the Grey matter of music critics.
Standout Cut: “Atlantis” because its mix of fantasy imagery, kickass riffs and catchiness, but the entire record is like that, isn’t it?
Venom “Black Metal”
Even Satan was at the center stage of the NWOBHM movement! And who delivered the word of Satan better than Newcastle’s own shirtless devil minions Venom? The influence their second record “Black Metal” has had on metal as a whole cannot be matched. I mean, an entire genre was named after this album, that must mean it’s great, huh!
Standout Cut: “Heaven’s on Fire” because it’s over-the-top delicious blasphemy.
Witchfinder General “Death Penalty”
Not one of the more widely known NWOBHM groups, Witchfinder General is certainly still one of the best. Having a massive influence on what was later to be coined as “doom metal,” Death Penalty is a great example of Black Sabbath-influenced heavy metal that has a unique approach all around. Definitely essential.
Standout Cut: “Burning a Sinner” because the chorus brings you back right in the middle of the Salem Witch Trials (for better or for worse.)
You know those TikTok videos where some guy is like “here’s how to write a [band] song in 30 seconds!” and then just kind of generically breaks down each element of a song by said band? That’s what “Steal This Album!” feels like to me. It’s algorithmically generated System Of A Down. It’s by no means bad, but especially considering it came out only a year after “Toxicity,” it just falls flat. With the exception of the mesmerizing “Roulette” and the whiplash between nonsensical and gorgeous in “I-E-A-I-A-I-O,” it’s just like, a fine album.
As far as a fairly unpolished debut goes, SOAD’s self-titled album goes pretty damn hard. It feels like them at their most distressingly manic, and gives the listener a little taste of what’s to come. It also contains some of the best unhinged Serj vocalizations to scare your mom with. That being said, some tracks can feel repetitive or under-written, which isn’t a deal-breaker, but means that I don’t wind up revisiting this one often. This album is growing on me, though, particularly due to the borderline slap bass that appears from time to time.
While this album undoubtedly has some of the smash hits of this era of SOAD, I can’t help but feel like it lacks a little cohesiveness. And (spoilers) compared to its predecessor, the non-radio tracks tend to blend together more. Maybe that’s the downside of a double album released a few months apart; the first one is always going to hit a bit harder. However, some of my fave standalone songs are on this album, including the often overlooked “Tentative.” And “Vicinity of Obscenity” is like, peak Dada-ist Serj lyricism that remains untouchable. I will yell TERRA COTTA PIE HEY whenever I can. Which isn’t often, but I’m working on it.
I’m going to be perfectly honest: this is my favorite SOAD album and I almost put it at number 1, but after thinking long and hard about it, I realized that I had to be objective about this. Every track on this brings a little something different to the table, and yet it still sounds like it came from the same session. “B.Y.O.B.” is obviously killer, and major kudos to “Radio/Video” for managing to make psuedo-klesmer sound cool. Even some of the lesser known tracks like “Old School Hollywood” utterly fuck, and I’m not just saying that because I really like talkbox vocals, even though that is true and should not discredit me and has nothing to do with the embarrassing results of my Spotify Wrapped.
Ah, yes. The album that got everyone and their cousins who smoke K2 into SOAD. And for good reason–I kind of can’t believe this is only their second album, considering how sprawling and experimental it is. And yet each seemingly discordant piece fits together into a captivating puzzle of a whole. It makes a lot of sense that three of their top five songs on Spotify are from “Toxicity.” It manages mainstream appeal while remaining interesting and unpredictable.
I’ll be honest, I completely forgot that this record exists. I mean, it has some good songs on it – like, it’s not a bad album overall. It’s just kind of forgettable, especially when you put it up against more developed AJJ records. But in any case, you can thank this review for reminding you as well that “Can’t Maintain” is a thing which you can still listen to.
“Knife Man” probably shouldn’t be this low on the list, but this band has a lot of really great albums and also a couple dumb albums that I mostly need to use as examples for other shit. So there you have – good record, shit ranking.
Look, I know, I know. There’s a lot from this record that does not hold up. And yeah, I’m sure I’m gonna get a whole assload of comments about how they “could never make this record nowadays.” Which is kinda my point. Sometimes you gotta start out writing funny songs about a serial lady killer before you can work your way into that grand concept record about the alien who has a coke problem, or whatever your thing is.
We all had to figure out how to cope with Trump’s presidency in our own ways. This record was AJJ’s. It is also one of the weirder albums in AJJ’s discography, which is really saying something when you take into account that the band actually made and sold salad gloves as merch.
Anybody else listen to this record for the first time and immediately think “you know what, I did have a pretty fucked up childhood. How about that?” Yeah, “The Bible 2” is great for that. Just try listening to it at home first, because if you play it while driving your car on the way to get it inspected then everyone at Jiffy Lube is gonna wonder why you’re crying so much.
Much like the actual Christmas Island, which hosts an annual migration of tens of millions of red crabs to sea to spawn, this album requires no explanation as to its greatness. “Christmas Island” (the album, not the island) is a sonic landmass that is being swarmed by crustaceans. Can you hear it? It sounds clackity.
If you put Woody Guthrie, Barbara Streisand and Simon & Garfunkel in a blender you would likely end up with exactly this album. That’s not a metaphor by the way – if you took an actual blender and mutilated those three artists and also Garfunkel then the resulting viscera would equate to this album. Brutal, catchy, and with a heavy flavor of Marlboro Lights, this is the best AJJ album of all time.
