Autothrall's Best Hard Rock & Metal Albums of 1979

The Top Hard Rock & Metal Albums of 1979

01. Motörhead (UK) - Overkill
02. Blue Öyster Cult (USA) - Mirrors
03. Rainbow (UK) - Down to Earth
04. AC/DC (Australia) - Highway to Hell
05. Nazareth (UK) - No Mean City
06. Motörhead (UK) - Bomber
07. April Wine (Canada) - Harder...Faster
08. Accept (Germany) - Accept
09. Gillan (UK) - Mr. Universe
10. Riot (USA) - Narita
11. Thin Lizzy (Ireland) - Black Rose: A Rock Legend
12. Saxon (UK) - Saxon
13. Van Halen (USA) - Van Halen II
14. Blackfoot (USA) - Strikes
15. Marseille (UK) - Marseille
16. Legend (USA) - Fröm the Fjörds
17. Samson (UK) - Survivors
18. Trust (France) - Trust
19. Scorpions (Germany) - Lovedrive
20. Nokemono (Japan) - The Black World

I was about five years old this year, so my access to heavy metal music was limited,  and I had little context for even classifying it as 'heavy metal'. Still, bands like Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Nazareth, Blue Öyster Cult, Van Halen, KISS, and even Motörhead came into my life pretty early thanks to cousins and quarter-an-LP yard and church sales. This list features a nice cross-section of early NWOBHM, hard rock, and heavier Southern rock from the time, even though quite a few of these bands were ones I'd get into much later. Overkill should be like a Leather Bible for any and all heavy metal fans, so it takes the year with ease, but almost everything here is fun or formidable. I didn't include Priest's Hell Bent for Leather since it was really just a re-release of Killing Machine for North America with a track change.

UPDATED FOR 2020

Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East (1979)

It's difficult not to be sentimental over Unleashed in the East, since it was one of my first metal records, and certainly the first live album I ever owned, gifted to me at an age so ripe and impressionable that it helped plant the seeds of rebellion forevermore into my skull. That I hadn't the slightest clue back then what sort of music I was listening to goes without saying, I was just barely old enough to start kicking my training wheels. I had no inkling of where Japan was on a map, or that I'd ever become a culture-o-phile for that country. I had no idea what leather pants were, or that the man so stalwartly thrusting his microphone into the air above him had little interest in the googly eyes of the female audience members no doubt staring down his lightly haired chest and inviting handcuffs. Or that the person on the left of the cover wasn't a woman. Or that this record was stylistically distanced from the others I owned by KISS, Van Halen or the J. Geils Band. All I could understand was that it was exciting. Fresh. That it rocked. That I wanted MORE.

I could do my best to beat back the tears and memories, to take a more objective view of this first Judas Priest live album, but any way I try to slice it, any aural lens through which I glean it, any meat grinder I attempt to render its fats and proteins through, it's still a fucking kickass experience for the young and old, man and woman, square or hesher. Captured at a pair of Tokyo locations on their February, 1979 tour (their second in Japan), and produced by long term collaborator Tom Allom, it translated the sheer intensity and promise of the band's studio backlog straight to the stage, and helped to promote the worldwide domination of the heavy metal medium in the years (and decades) to come. Wisely avoiding the debut Rocka Rolla in terms of its set list, Unleashed in the East instead concentrates on the blazing aggression that would inspire a thousand neck strained followers to form their own musical endeavors in its wake. I've got the nine-track, US issue of the album, so it's lacking some of the content that the Japanese version has, but even considering those omissions it's easily one of the best lives in my collection, standing alongside Maiden's Live After Death and Destruction's Live Without Sense as a mandatory purchase in its medium.

Nothing too complicated, just 45 minutes of excellence spanning some of the best heavy/power metal of the 70s. Cuts like "Exciter" and "The Ripper" are a given, pumping the crowd into a polite frenzy as they witness the future unfold before them. However, the moodier and more extensive "Victim of Changes" feels superior even to its studio version on Sad Wings of Destiny. The guitars are meatier, the psychedelic breakdown feels more vibrant and the tiny spikes of the lead guitar gleam like they were just affixed to the shoulders of some new leather jacket. The cover of Joan Baez' "Diamonds and Rust" is present, not to mention that of Fleetwood Mac's "Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown)" which completely rules to the point that I couldn't believe it wasn't their tune to begin with. Rounding out the track list you get a pair of additional greats from Sad Wings of Destiny: "Genocide" and "Tyrant"; "Sinner" from Sin After Sin, and "Running Wild" from their latest studio album at the time, Hell Bent for Leather (US title). A formidable selection, even for so early in their career.

The sound is still as rich and bright to me as it was when I first listened through it, the crowd's response ebbing and flowing gracefully into the mix at appropriate times. Obviously a little studio wizardry went into the recording to prep it for market, but Unleashed in the East seems so authentic that it would be hard to imagine they tweaked with much outside of the vocal overdubs (which Rob admits to) and maybe a solo or two. Some also say the audience is part faked, not beyond the realm of possibility. We might never know. The vocals are grafted with a good amount of echo, and even where he can't quite emulate the multi tracking of his studio performance (like the important scream in the first few lines of "The Ripper"), he still exhibits that he was quite possibly the best in the entire business at this time. Ian Hill's bass lines feel fluid and corporeal, while the two guitars are slicing, crisp and panned out into their respective tracks that converge on the listener like a pair of horseshoes being simultaneously tossed onto the same spike. Les Binks, who had gelled with the band after two studio outings, sounds like a beast here, taut and peppy but capable of lots of rumbling fills that dress up the riffs in a skirt of natural savagery.

The pacing is great for the order of the set here, the mix sincere and potent, the riffs melt your face, and even the cover image to this thing seems iconic, one of the best pure shots of a metal band in action that you'll ever witness. So wonderfully does it capture the time and place of this recording, with the smoke and lights that once served as crucial components in the stage show (and still do). The Anglicized 'kana figures seem a bit cheesy, but they fit the modus operandi and create just the right level of ignorant Western exoticism. Okay, so there's no motorcycle on the front cover. We can't win them all, but just about everything else on the album demands your immediate attention. One of the live essentials of British hardness. I've heard others that I prefer to this, and I wouldn't call it flawless, since I feel it could certainly have come across as more 'live' than this, but it's still up there. If you don't own this album by now, then clearly we old school nutters have failed at our duties, so while we address this oversight by flogging ourselves the full 40 lashes in the corner, go swipe your credit cards and make yourselves one album poorer (or more importantly, richer). Now, I wonder if my ass is too fat to fit on that old Huffy in the garage.

Verdict: Epic Win [8.75/10]

http://www.judaspriest.com/

Zombi 2 (1979)

Zombi 2 is considered one of the classic, early zombie films, and also one of Lucio Fulci's more notable works, but after viewing it I could not tell you why. It does have many of Fulci's trademarks, like a suitable level of gore and characters who stand around waiting to get killed, when they could easily escape their deaths. These devices may have worked in The Beyond, which was a random but unsettling film, but they're not enough to rescue this steaming lavatory trip.

***SPOILERS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE***

With the exception of a surreal underwater scene in which a topless diver is assaulted by a zombie, which then goes hand to hand against a shark...the first hour of this film is a complete fucking waste of time. There is nothing entertaining going on. Boat floats into New York City, with a zombie on board, which proceeds to bite a local cop and begin the infestation of the city...which we do not see...until one scene at the very end that shows a line of zombies crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. The rest of the film is based around a woman who travels to the island of Matool to find her father, a researcher. On the way, she meets up with some Nordic looking Italian dudes and beautiful women who are our zombie fodder.

After an hour of dull exposition and character development that went absolutely nowhere for me, I was finally treated to some zombies and death. There's a memorable scene where a woman gets her eye impaled. Most of the other deaths involve the characters standing there while a zombie bites them, but there are a few gruesome moments, and the makeup is pretty good in true Fulci style. Then again, there are other deaths which lack any real visceral impact, so the last half hour is truly a mixed bag.

One highlight of the film is the soundtrack of Fabio Frizzi, with some creepy synthesizer work that is a characteristic of most memorable Italian horror of its day. It really pops out at you, especially when we finally cut to the chase and Matool 'comes alive' with all its zombies. Though I tend to loathe 99% of all horror remakes, this film has a plot which might be well served by a revisitation. Or perhaps just a new, better film with a similar script. This is not one of the better Fulci films I've seen, frustrating in the way I felt about City of the Living Dead (though that had some admittedly creepy scenes). I'd recommend The Beyond or perhaps House by the Cemetery over this.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

The Brood (1979)

Though he's turned to 'subtler' fare for his past few films, Cronenberg is best remembered for all the wild ideas given flesh by his early work. Films like Scanners, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, and The Fly have all assumed their rightful positions in the hierarchy of dark cinema, but reach back further, and you'll find some even stranger productions. Shivers, Rabid and Crimes of the Future were all well plotted and creepy ideas that did not ultimately live up to the mind that had conceived them, and I feel The Brood falls into this category as well.

***30 YEARS OF SPOILERS AHEAD***

Both written and directed by Cronenberg, The Brood tells the tale of an experimental psychotherapist, Dr. Raglan (performed by the always fascinating Oliver Reed), who has conceived a trancelike therapy know as 'psychoplasmics'. This manifests in a psychic transfer of inner demons and pains into physical extremities, diseases, and worse. Why anyone would want to undergo such a treatment is beyond my comprehension, for as the film soon tells reveals, there is no evidence that the therapy actually works. Noone seems 'cured', they are now simply carrying around some deformation in addition to their psychological issues. Nonetheless, Frank Carveth (played straight by Art Hindle) is trying to take care of his daughter Candice while his insane wife Nola (Samatha Eggar) is undergoing Raglan's treatment. One day Frank notices some bruising and cuts on Candice's back...

Needless to say, 'psychoplasmics' have gone horribly wrong. While many of the patients have transformed their agonies into skin welts, one has developed lymphatic cancer! And worse yet, Nola Carveth is birthing strange, mutated children that murder anyone her sick mind believes is threatening her immediate family. 'The Brood' are unnatural little things that beat people to death with mallets, and in one scene, some bedside glass baubles! Perhaps the most effective scene in the film is when two of the Brood beat Candice's school teacher to death with mallets in front of her gradeschool class. Otherwise there is very little gore here, aside from the infamous scene in which Nola births one of the Brood and eerily begins lapping the afterbirth clean with her tongue. Fantastic!

The Brood is well acted and it has a rousing, if predictable score, but it is another case of a film in which I found myself waiting for the good parts, because the rest is simply not that interesting. Many of Cronenberg's films operate on deeper, personal levels to the director, but the only lesson learned here is another 'don't fuck with nature' scheme. There aren't many special effects here aside from skin welts, mutated children that look like Star Trek aliens of the week, and that last, morbid scene of Nola and the infant. I can see how this may have been shocking 30 years ago in a cinema. Much of the horror in the film is the sublime variety. In the end, The Brood is a little creepy, but there are no real scares, and it doesn't hold a candle to some of Cronenberg's other work.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10] (All the way through it to the end)

Accept - Accept (1979)

It's hard to believe 30 years have passed since the German metal gods Accept released their self-titled debut, and it still sounds fresh and inviting even by today's standards. This is not one of their best albums, nor does it feature many of their classic set pieces, but it was nonetheless an impressive offering in an age where hard rock was slowly transmuting into heavy metal. Like America's Riot, Accept were one of those non-English bands who could run toe to toe against the emerging NWOBHM bands like Judas Priest, Samson, and Tygers of Pan Tang. And alongside Priest and Maiden, Accept were a band to spawn 1000s of imitators, even after the passage of decades.

Naturally, my preference is for the harder rocking tracks on this album. "Lady Lou" is a solid entry track with some Van Halen swagger, and a reigned in performance from the fucking madman Udo Dirkschneider, one of the finest human beings to ever breathe air. "Tired of Me" is a scorcher with some explosive melodies and dirty ass blues edge. The ballad "Seawinds" is perhaps the album's most beloved track, a beautiful, elegaic performance. But in my opinion the best tracks on the album are the screaming, intense "Sounds of War" and the ballsy blues metal of "Hell Driver", despite the goofy lyrics.

Hey man, you're crazy, you're looking so bad
Your body looks perfect, your face like a rat
You are a loser, only shit in your head
You are a fighter, a devil in bed!

Udo does let loose quite a few times on the album, but it's not at the air raid level of his later work (in both Accept and his solo band). It was 1979 and I just don't think the world was ready. I was ready, but I was also five years old and had little say in foreign policy. At any rate, in 2009, we are all ready to take a time capsule back to this pretty badass introduction to one of the world's classic metal bands. Hard to believe it only sold about 3k copies when it dropped!

Highlights: Tired of Me, Seawinds, Sounds of War

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.acceptworldwide.com/