Messages

Yeah FOTD is way more consistent than people give it credit for.

My pick is A Matter Of Life And Death. But Somewhere In Time is VERY close to the top spot as well.

Black Gives Way To Blue

This.

Also Painkiller and the 2000s Maiden albums qualify. Probably Dehumanizer as well. The early 2010s Accept albums are another one. Also Sleep - The Sciences, and Saint Vitus - Lillie: F-65.

RIP. He was an excellent guitarist, especially live.

How do ships keep up with the news?

Seafax.

What do you call a school of philosophical thought that originated from Shropshire?

Salopsism.

Scotland winning it would be great for the tournament, been decades since they won it.

I've added an overrated/underrated category.

Black Sabbath
Best: Sabotage
Worst: Forbidden (although it's not as bad as folk say)
Overrated: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but I should also add that a bewildering amount of people seem to regard the Tony Martin albums as lost classics.
Underrated: Dehumanizer


Iron Maiden
Best: A Matter Of Life and Death or Somewhere In Time
Worst: Killers
Overrated: Piece Of Mind
Underrated: The X Factor


Metallica
Best: Ride The Lightning
Worst: St. Anger (duh)
Overrated: Kill 'Em All
Underrated: Load


Judas Priest
Best: Painkiller or Stained Class (depends on the day)
Worst: Ram It Down
Overrated: Killing Machine/HBFL
Underrated: Sin After Sin or Jugulator


Cathedral
Best: The Carnival Bizarre
Worst: Caravan Beyond Redemption
Overrated: The Ethereal Mirror
Underrated: Endtyme


Megadeth
Best: Youthanasia
Worst: Endgame
Overrated: Rust In Peace
Underrated: Killing Is My Business


AC/DC
Best: Let There Be Rock
Worst: There isn't an obvious one. Can't recall being too impressed with Stiff Upper Lip though
Overrated: Again, no obvious contender
Underrated: Ballbreaker


Thin Lizzy
Best: Thunder And Lightning
Worst: Shades Of A Blue Orphanage maybe?
Overrated: No obvious contender here. I could say Jailbreak because folk tend to cite that album and ignore the rest of the discography, but no album with 'Emerald' on it as the closer can really be criticised that much.
Underrated: Vagabonds Of The Western World or Chinatown


Motorhead
Best: Another Perfect Day
Worst: I wasn't too impressed with Rock N Roll but it's been ages since I listened to it.
Overrated: No obvious contender again
Underrated: Bomber

Recovering from gastroenteritis and feeling able to eat again and return to the world.

I's also go for Life/Live over Live And Dangerous for Thin Lizzy, mainly because the former is actually live.

This has been debunked. A deluxe box set was released a few years ago with all the raw full concert recordings that the album was put together from, and it shows that there wasn't that much overdubbing done at all.

I should point out that a good example of an artist where you really need the live albums more than anything else is Rory Gallagher. I'm not a huge blues rock fan and threfore I don't listen to his studio output much. But his live albums are something else and that is where he shines. So Irish Tour 74 and Check Shirt Wizard 77 are my go to, along with this, which is absolutely phenomenal:

Rainbow - Live In Germany 1976

One of the two or three greatest live albums ever made.

Grand Magus - Monument

Still their finest hour.

I love live albums. You have to determine the ones which have the least amount of overdubs (though I still like some of the more obviously fixed ones) but a good live album is usually better than practically any studio one.

The best example is Rainbow. Live In Germany 1976 is Blackmore's peak - he's absolutely wild on it, shredding everywhere - and the energy is unreal. Compare the studio version of Sixteenth Century Greensleeves to the live one on here, it's no contest. More energy, more of everything.

Most times the definitive version of a song will be the live one.

Some of my favourite live records:

Hawkwind - Space Ritual
Rainbow - Live In Germany 1976
Allman Brothers - At Fillmore East
Iron Maiden - Beast over Hammersmith and Rock In Rio
Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Year of the Horse and Live Rust
Deep Purple - Mk 3 Final Concerts
Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous
Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More From The Road
Black Sabbath - Live At Last
The Who - Live At Leeds and Live at The Isle Of Wight 1970
Judas Priest - 98 Live Meltdown
Metallica - Live Shit: Binge and Purge
Rory Gallagher - Check Shirt Wizard Live '77
Joy Division - Les Bains Douches 1979

This isn't including bootlegs......... there are so many great performances out there.

Unearthly Trance - In The Red
Black Sabbath - Born Again
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny

Playing the vinyl tonight.

One of my friends distinctly remembers that during the nu metal era in the late 90s most of the rock/metal press basically went Year Zero and automatically dismissed nearly all the classic metal bands as rubbish while saying how awesome nu metal was.

Then in the 2000s when trad metal became cool again all of a sudden MH was declaring themselves 'Defenders of the faith' and couldn't stop going on about how great all the 80s stuff was.

I haven't forgotten some of the reviews that turned up in K! and MH during the tail end of nu metal. For example, reviewing AC/DC at Milton Keynes in 2001 and giving them 2/5, and Megadeth (who were one of the support acts that day) got 1/5. I remember the K! letters page was inundated with people going "WTF, that AC/DC rating, are you serious?!?!?"

The most memorable one however was that when St. Anger came out MH gave it 9/10 then went through the Metallica back catalogue and declared that AJFA was their worst album.

I will however give a shout out to the late Malcolm Dome who didn't (from what I can tell) seem to care about what was cool or not; he just was enthusiastic about music and if he liked something, he liked it no matter what. Always had time for his reviews.