Welcome one and all to episode 377 of signals from Mars. I'm your host Victor and for this episode we touch upon the year 1987.
Such a big year for some, such a letdown for others. It was an important year in music nonetheless.
Let's see where everyone voted where the albums rank next.
For these last few episodes like this, I've reached out to not only just my patrons. Yes, my patrons do vote on these albums.
They submit their own top 10 list. They're 10 favorites of the year, but I've also reached out to other podcasters, other fans of the show, other people online, various platforms.
And I take all of the top 10 lists that are sent to me and essentially work my magic per se. Yeah, there's no magic there. It's pretty simple.
You rank an album at number one, it gets 10 points. You rank it at two, it gets nine points all the way down to number 10, which gets one point.
And that's how we come upon this list. I'm pleased with the way things turned out. Although, as I mentioned during the show, it is probably the first time where I'm not thrilled about the top 10 because probably about half of the albums I don't kind of care for.
They weren't albums that I was huge on when they came out and they haven't really aged well in my opinion. But it isn't about me. It's about the whole conglomerate.
It's about everyone's voting. It's about talking about music and just sharing stories and getting people engaged to check albums out that maybe they hadn't checked out in the first place or maybe they had forgotten about.
And it's cool to see people kind of come out of the woodworks and talk about just music. You know, this is, it's a community here.
I think there's a place for everyone regardless what show you do. There's a little something for everyone to check out here. And ultimately I will post the top, I think it's 64 albums that people voted on.
And they're all over the place, but that's what makes it cool. It makes it cool that we don't all listen to the same stuff and it gives people a chance and a choice to check out other stuff that maybe they wouldn't have checked out other words or otherwise, excuse me.
I'm recording this in the middle of a thunderstorm. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but real quickly, I do want to send the shout out to my patrons, Sean Richmond, Chris Szynsak, Tony Espin, Anthony Mackie, Ed Ferguson, Johan, Metal Dan,
Hosein Connecticut, Metal Dentist Gabriel, YardMetal.com, Brad Dahl, Mike Jones, Jeremy Weltman, Steve Hoker, and Steven Saylor. Thank you guys for all of your support.
Yeah, that list keeps getting smaller as time goes by. Really nothing I can do. I can't hold a gun to people's head to commit to Patreon.
I do like to say that it is a fun atmosphere, it's a fun community to discuss music, and everyone's economic situation is different. So if you can join us on Patreon, that's awesome. You can do so for as little as two bucks a month.
If you can share or like the stories or the posts online, I should say that's awesome. In any event, just go to signalsfrommars.com to check out all the various ways you can follow the show, subscribe, check out the replays of the video versions of signals from Mars, pick up merch, support the show, so on and so forth.
Thanks for listening to this. I know a lot of big shows have been saying this lately, shows that I listen to have been saying, you know, thanks for listening. There's a million other things you can check out, but it means a great deal that you're checking out my show.
I've been saying that for a few years now, folks, and I'm not bullshitting you anyway.
Thanks really for checking this out and let me know. Did your favorites make the list? Here we go with 1987.
Welcome one and all to the March 15th. The Ides of March are upon us.
In addition of signals from Mars, I'm your host Victor and we are joined from a lot of friends from around the world. Let's see next to me. I have Johan from Sweden. I have Jeremy in the UK. I have metal Dan in California.
I have a friend from Idaho, Ed in Kentucky, and have Anthony Mackie in Ireland. How is everyone tonight?
Doing great. Yeah, thanks.
Excellent. I didn't purposely do this but
the people in the states are lined up in the middle.
And we have Edgar Winterson in the chat.
Thanks for joining us.
Well, this is our 1987 albums countdown. These are always fun. These are always momentous occasions. A lot of different comments, a lot of different.
How could you not have made that album number one Johan.
So we'll see if we get any of those this week.
This episode.
Trying to get Johan fired up right in the beginning, but
64 albums voted on.
There's all types of albums on here. There's hard rock, there's metal, there's rock, there's some straight up pop that people voted for as well.
There is usually a rule that says no live albums or EPs and live albums and EPs got voted on.
So there's a kind of a pretty big EP that came out in 1987.
So, anyway.
And just there's some things that were voted for that yeah they're not technically metal or hard rock but I think that the bands influenced enough hard rock or metal bands for it to be good enough to be on there.
Yeah, Edgar Winterson is saying Bobby Brown don't be cruel for him. So there you go.
If I go through all 64 albums, which I'm not going to because we don't have time to do it but along the lines of Bobby Brown there's Prince, there's you too.
A lot of people voted for music for the masses by Depeche Mode actually.
George Michael got voted for.
There you go.
There's a lot of people that got voted for.
Yeah, Chris, Chris Zinczak vote on this stuff.
He did he did not vote.
All right, can't blame him then.
So, he did not participate in this and he hasn't participated in one of these in a very long time. So,
anyway, we're, we're just going to talk about, we'll do 15 through 11 real quickly as we usually do.
And we're going to see kind of a mix here.
And then we're going to do 10 through one, I will say this right off the bat.
This is probably the first time that we've done one of these album countdowns, where I dislike a lot of the top 10.
I will leave it at that. I will say that out of the top 10 there are 12345 albums that I do not care for.
I don't care about that.
But I'm not the only one who voted.
So, this is a majority thing here.
And we'll go around and talk about some of these albums and actually good thing with that is that I will probably keep my mouth closed more so than usual.
But anyway, at 15, an album that I have behind me it is Black Sabbath's Eternal Idol.
14.
It is an EP. It is a very important EP.
It is Metallica's.
The 595 EP Garage Days Re-Revisited.
First appearance of Jason Winstead with the band.
And I've listened to this so much that I almost forgot it was an EP.
Come on, Edgar Winters and Luther Vandross.
Okay.
You claim to be from the UK. Is Luther Vandross even big in the UK?
Come on.
He's got to be big somewhere.
He's big in Oprah Winfrey's house.
I know that.
I'm glad you said house.
Huge.
Okay.
13, an album that I think is fucking excellent.
But I think a lot of people may gripe.
That's not hard rock.
That's not metal.
But it's a good rock album.
It is In Access with Kick.
I love that album.
Yeah, I didn't vote for it because I was trying to stay on the hard rock kind of end of things.
But I would have voted for it.
That's definitely the top 10 album for me.
I've listened to quite a bit of In Access lately, kind of revisiting some of my more favorite tracks by the band.
And unfortunately, I think it's a band that has gotten forgotten about, but has been pretty much solid throughout their entire career.
I mean, outside of the last two albums that they released, one without Michael Hutchins, which isn't great.
The last one with him wasn't great, but outside of that, everything else has been pretty solid.
Anyway, moving on.
If not, we won't get to everything.
Number 12, an album that a few people voted on could be called self-titled debut by Freely's Comet, could be called Ace Freely's Comet.
Metal Dan is shaking his head at this.
An album that I've played a lot.
I can still remember grubbing this cassette off of somebody on our school trip to Washington in 88, listening to it and subsequently buying his live EP as a result on that trip, spending all my money on that instead of knickknacks from Washington.
Anyway, and at number 11, Merillian with Clutching at Straws.
How did that not make the top 10?
It's just not, it doesn't bode well.
It didn't make the top 10 by much. I will say that.
Alright, Merillian. That's another Merillian album I guess I need to listen to.
It's a very good one, Brad.
Of course.
And I'm trying to see if I messed this up. No, I didn't.
Okay, so at number 10.
Let's see if anyone here can speak to this album. I sure as shit can't. It is the only album by this band that I do not own.
So I will leave it at that.
At 10. They had a huge hit in the UK with kind of the title track off of this.
It is Crazy Nights by Kiss.
Here's a little song for everybody out there.
Anyone want to talk about this album?
Alright.
I didn't vote for it.
No. I didn't vote for it.
Yeah, I didn't vote for it.
Quite a few people voted for this album. This to me is the worst thing they ever released.
What I will say though is that that song was a massive hit. I suppose that's why a lot of people vote for the album.
I thought the song itself was great at the time when it came out, but I didn't really listen to a lot of the other songs on it to be fair.
And on reflection, it's not that great in their catalogue, is it?
To me by far as being the massive Kiss fan that I am, I can't stand this album.
When that song came out, that was the first single. I wasn't into it.
Second single was I think Reason to Live, which was a sappy ballad. Didn't like it. Turn On the Night was the third single.
Just more them trying to be Bon Jovi at the time and just didn't like it.
The only decent songs off of this is the one track that they gave to Wendy O. Williams for her Wow album Thief in the Night.
And there's some other songs off of this that are kind of OK, but nothing really all that memorable.
And had Mr. Synzac voted on this, this is his favorite Kiss album. It was higher.
So thanks for not voting on it.
Victor, so this one is not in your top 10? No. So this wouldn't even be in this wouldn't even be.
Let's see, there are 64 albums on here. I don't even think it deserves to be in the top 64.
Correct. You can't do this now, I don't think.
But I think there needs to be somebody's taken over the list. I'm going to say this rudely.
And maybe a recount of the people that are in this group right here and what these fuckers have to say about the top 10.
All right. All right. My gripe is done. I'm done with it.
Number nine, another album. I'm taking the minutes for this week's meeting.
Everybody, everybody, the Patreon people who's not here now, you're going to be talking to me. OK.
OK, I will report to you, Dan. All right.
Let's see. Number nine, another album that I think is.
I don't remember if any of you guys voted on this, but definitely not one of my favorites either.
Oh, and this falls along the lines of crazy nights. It is.
Girls, girls, girls by Molly True. Oh. Wild Side is a great fucking song.
There is nothing else on this that is even remotely close to that song. Nothing.
Whenever this album gets brought up, I think about the song Dancing on Glass and how shitty that fucking riff is
and thinking how what crap this band turned into after three after two fucking great albums
and then Theater of Pain, which was a pretty good album, I think. Then what was this?
So for as much as and I know that there's a lot of people that love this and Dr.
Feelgood and I think both albums are utter horseshit.
That's just my opinion. But anyway, Brad, you're calling a time out.
Do you want to talk about girls, girls, girls? Yeah, you need to.
You need to first of all, cue up. Boom goes the dynamite for that.
I'm going to tell you right now, instead of doing top 10 albums, we should do the bottom 10 of Victor's albums
because listening to you rant about these albums is better than listening to us talk about how awesome.
So. And boom goes the dynamite. There you go. Thank you.
Yeah, this is Victor's barbecue, Victor's House of Barbecue Bats.
No, there are going to be other ones that are up farther that I know that there that some of you guys are going to have rebuttals on.
This bodes well for the show, Victor. Keep it rolling.
OK, so we got two swings and misses here. One more and you're out. All right.
You got at least a thousand here.
I don't think it's that bad an album.
Yeah, I don't think it's that bad an album, to be fair. I think there's a few good songs on it.
It's not obviously not their best album, but I don't think it's that bad.
See, well, well done, Jeremy. I'm serious, too. I'm not being a smart ass. I know it's hard to believe it.
I really I respect your opinion, but the album does not fit for me. That's all.
There are going to be others farther up on the list, Jeremy, where you'll probably be a little bit more belligerent with me.
So anyway, at number eight, an album that I actually really like was the first ever CD that I bought.
I think it's one that a lot of people forget about because of how massive some of their earlier albums were.
But this was kind of the well, this was the end of the original run of the band.
It is back for the attack by Dawkin.
As much as the under lock and key probably gets a lot more press than this album,
as much as Tooth and Nail obviously gets more press than this album.
I think this is right up there with Tooth and Nail. I listened to this not that long ago.
Just one one Sunday sitting in a basketball game, I decided to list a bunch of classic albums.
In my opinion, this was one of them.
And I think this was George Lynch really showcasing the goods on riffs on just a lot of different things.
Is there anything as big as again, has just got lucky or into the fire or the song Tooth and Nail?
No, but there are songs off of here that are just that are really good songs.
And it to me lends itself to a lot of the discussions that we've had comparing George to a Vivian Campbell to a Jake Ely.
I think this was part of his legacy and part of his resume.
And comparing it to a lot of what he does now, a lot of it now is quantity over quality.
I think a lot of this was quality, a lot of what he did here.
But that's just my opinion. Anyone else want to speak about Back for the Attack?
I agree with you that it's really good.
You know, by 87, I quit listening to Dockin because I was all thrash metal that year.
But since I've been collecting vinyl for the last 10 years, I've got that one and listened to it and realized that it is a very good record.
And it's one I'm going to keep in my collection. Cool.
Anyone else? Go ahead, Brad. I'll go.
Yeah, I think I think it's an unbelievably great album.
I mean, from start to finish, there's no like, you know, skip stuff.
There's no ballads. I think I'm pretty right on that.
Revenson?
No, that's not really a ballad, though. I don't know. It's more of a bluesy grind kind of song.
Yeah, I mean, the band was all set to be huge at that point.
And then, of course, they imploded. And there you go.
They never they never got there. But this album, I think, would have would have gotten there.
It didn't have all the singles that the previous one did as far as, you know, hit songs.
But it's it's a great listen. You can't you can't put it on and go, well, you could.
But you don't think it had the the singles that under lock and key had burning like a flame.
Dream Warriors. Oh, yeah, I guess you're right.
Dream Warrior. Yeah, yeah. I forgot about that.
Come on. What were you at an except show and some some bingo all in Anaheim when when this album came out?
No, no. No, I think I saw that the monsters are up on the floor for this album.
Yeah. You know, Van Halen, Scorpions, Dock and Kingdom Come Alica.
And yeah, it was a great show.
Dock was fantastic. But yeah, it just it just didn't happen for him.
So, yeah, if you haven't listened to this album or haven't listened to it for a long time, put it on again, because it's a it's a good listen.
I would and I'll say this before moving on.
I would put all the Dock and albums up to here against the rad albums that came out and the Motley Crue albums.
And to me, shout out to devil and too fast for love probably eclipse anything that those three bands have done.
But if we take their catalogs, their first five albums, I'd probably take Dawkins first five over Motley Crue and Rats first five.
Everyone.
Johan Johan, go ahead.
Thank you.
Good evening, everyone.
It's from a Scandinavian perspective, Dawkins were never huge here.
Perhaps.
Press almost big, but I don't think that they deserve to be on the top 10 of 1987.
And I mean that by all my heart. So I'm very, very excited to see what comes ahead.
But I'm really surprised that Dawkins came so high compared to what was released that year.
So, yeah, we'll see what happens.
But Dawkins, not my favorite, excellent band. Absolutely. Absolutely.
But not top 10, not by a long shot.
No way. Looking good.
Looking good at all.
Johan Johan chimes in and sounding the alarm is Johan.
All right.
Number seven.
I just mentioned the guitars for this band a second ago.
It is deal with dream evil.
Dan, you're shaking your head on this one and Johan is giving a thumbs up.
So we're at opposite spectrum, opposite sides of the spectrum here.
Johan, what do you have to say about dream evil then?
Well, is one first time I saw a deal on this tour.
So it's a special one for me.
Quite good album. Not the best, not the worst.
But if you listen back now, it has its moments.
And I think it's deserved to be in top 10.
I'm not, but yeah, it's all this year is so hard.
But for me, it's a top 10, at least when I was at that age.
So but it's a great album and it has its moments.
Thank you.
What I'll have to say is my album that's going to trump Johan's is going to be in the list.
And I think he's going to disagree with mine.
That's coming soon.
Stay tuned.
I think you guys will have a happy medium shortly.
So, Edgar, you're actually very off base.
I think you'll find that this whole group listens to a lot of different music.
Not just not just what we're talking about here.
There's a lot of other people that voted that are not included here.
And that's why a lot of these albums are up there.
For those that that are in the know, I'm actually seeing the Pesh mode this coming week.
Johan voted on Sisters of Mercy.
Anthony has a band that isn't exactly hard rock or metal.
I would classify it more as like indie rock, probably.
Anthony, is that fair?
Middle ages.
Oh, how's the band?
OK.
Yeah, sure.
Jeremy just flash Spice Girls.
Not in that year.
Just just an example of things we listen to.
Yeah.
So and we listen to all and Ed listens to all types of 80s stuff as well as, you know, a lot of death metal stuff.
So we're all all over the place.
So we this isn't really a one trick pony here.
Yeah, I've been listening to the Hives lately and the blue stuff.
So, yeah, I'm trying.
And I do listen to the Pesh mode.
I do have more respect of them now than I used to.
See, there you go.
Oh, Ed's dogs agree.
Yeah.
Don't forget about Weird Al either.
There you go.
It's a black dog by Zeppelin.
All right.
At number six.
Yes, the new Hives is very excellent.
At number six, an album that I absolutely love.
It is behind me over this shoulder, right over there.
A lot of people will complain.
Oh, it sounds too much like ACDC.
I don't care.
I think it sounds fucking great.
It is electric by the cult.
It is one of my all time favorite albums.
It's probably my second favorite by the band.
Again, we talk about guitar heroes.
I don't think Billy Duffy gets enough recognition as a guitar player with how diverse he is,
with how diverse the band is and how he can fit in and do a lot of different things from textured guitars to,
I mean, not full on shredding, but he can do some pretty cool shit on guitar.
How about that?
Anyway, I really enjoy this album.
I'm happy that it's in the top 10.
Anyone else want to talk about electric by the cult?
When it comes.
I never heard it.
You never heard it?
Some song, but no, absolutely not.
I don't know why.
It's like Led Zeppelin.
I never had the urge to follow that band.
And the cult is that band for me and Led Zeppelin is also.
I don't know why. I'm sorry to say that.
This is your homework for this week, Johan.
You got to listen to this album.
It's really good.
And the funny thing is I kind of thought they were sounding like Led Zeppelin more than ACDC when this album came out.
I was like, that's exactly what they're going for.
But it's something with the cover of the album and with the singer.
That made me feel he's trying too hard.
So I never could listen.
So it's something about that.
No, impossible.
But I'm sure it's good.
Absolutely.
I love Rush, by the way.
Whoa, he's out of the closet.
Who knew?
Who knew Johan really liked Rush?
I have a Rush calendar now.
I'll show it on the screen in just a little bit.
When it comes to this album, this is the only one by the cult that I really listen to.
And this is what I would call a perfect album, which I think I don't have a podcast.
But if I had a show, I'd do an episode on your perfect album.
That's something that I think takes an opinion that you can't really search on.
I don't know if there's a search engine to find that or what people feel is perfect.
But from top to bottom, it's perfectly put together.
This album is a banger and has been listened to by me over and over.
And that's The Electric.
Ed, by the way, on that tour, they wore t-shirts where they called the tour the We Don't Belong Tour.
Oh, really? I never saw that.
Because they knew that the crowd hated them and that they really had nothing to do with that crowd.
Lars was a huge fan of what they'd done, and it was one of the reasons why they wanted to work with Bob Rock.
It was because he'd worked with them.
Yeah.
All right.
There you go. Rush calendar.
Very nice. Where every year is 2112.
There you go.
At number five, I'm pleased that this is a top five album because I feel that this band with this album created a subgenre of metal that a lot of people have tried to duplicate.
And every time I get a shitty promo from some band trying to do what they did on this album and some subsequent albums, it makes me go back to this album.
Totally.
Well, this is just part one, but part two does it as well.
It's Halloween with Keeper of the Seven Keys.
This was something that I came to Spain, and everyone was fucking playing Halloween and Manowar, I remember at the time.
And Manowar, I could take it or leave it.
There's songs that I like and songs that I don't really care for.
But man, Keeper of the Seven Keys, both part one and part two.
Again, they invented power metal with this album and so many bands have tried to imitate it.
And I don't think anyone has come even remotely close to doing what they did.
You can take your Hammerfall.
You can take Sabaton.
You can take any of these bands that have tried to mimic what Halloween did with those two albums.
And then Halloween afterwards just became a copy of themselves, which kind of I almost preferred that they went off in other directions instead of just saying,
ah, this worked.
So let's just continue to put these albums out.
So Keeper of the Seven Keys.
Go ahead, Johan.
Yeah.
My number one this year.
It's I was 1987.
I was 15.
And this was, if you were a metalhead, the freshest thing that you could listen to in Sweden.
It was new.
I mean, power metal was Halloween was there before, but it was more, you know, messy.
When this record was released, it was clean and it was nice melodies.
It was fast.
And at that time, we thought heavy.
So I really for this album is is my one of my absolute favorite albums.
And I still listen to it as you know, to this day.
It was so groundbreaking.
And as you were saying, Victor, Manowar, Fighting the World came at this year as well.
And those two albums were really important for the whole movement in Sweden, like Sweden Rock Festival and so on.
And the importance of those two albums, and especially Halloween, are here in Sweden and Scandinavia, I would say, massive.
So if you compare to like albums like Welcome to the Jungle, this one is bigger here than Welcome to the Jungle.
Not in sales, but in the movement.
Yeah, that's my statement so far.
Thank you.
Fighting the World, by the way, 41 on this list.
That's ridiculous.
Well, that album's perfect.
Dan, what did you want to say about Keeper the Seven Keys?
Yeah, I mean, it sets the sound.
It sets the sound for the band.
I think they keep trying to they should want to go to that sound because that is Halloween.
This album, most importantly, and then the follow up sets the tone for the band, for their future.
And they can't duplicate it.
It's like Queensryche doing mind crime.
It's perfect.
It's perfection.
And you can't get that from the bottle anymore.
And that's what it's I'm glad that it's this high.
I think if this group was voting, this could be the number one since I had it at number two.
So there you go.
All right.
Nice one.
Number four.
Man, this was an album that I loved back in the day, but I can't stomach it anymore.
I've just heard the singles so many times.
And the songs that weren't singles.
Jeremy, you're going to disagree with me.
The singles are the songs that weren't singles.
And there were, I think, five or six singles that came off of this.
Wow.
This album.
The thing is hindsight, you go back and you listen to those first three albums afterwards.
And those have always grown on me and always been ones that I go back and listen to.
And this was all right.
This is OK.
This is it was huge.
It it was a mass hysteria.
Hysteria by Def Leppard at number four.
Jeremy, your take.
Well, it's not a surprise that it's high up.
It's a really good album by Leppard.
I think it was that sort of transition album for them, wasn't it?
Between the sort of the heavier stuff and the more melodic sort of theatrical stuff, disco-y stuff that they did later on.
Pop stuff, should I say.
So, yeah, I agree with you.
There's a lot of songs on there that you've heard and heard again that you know so well.
But the reason why they're in your head is because they were very, very popular at the time.
And, you know, I think it's a really good album.
It's not one of my favorite albums, but it's a valid album to be in the top 10 because of the band and its status at the time, I think.
OK. Anyone else? Hysteria?
Yes, please.
It's one of my absolute favorite albums.
It's a masterpiece and it's the soundtrack of the year.
That's how 87 sounded like, or 88 perhaps, but they were a bit ahead of their time.
But, I mean, this album is absolutely amazing.
And it's, for me, this is how I remember those years with everything that comes through it.
It's, you know, I have a lot of memories to that album, especially, you know, the ballad and, you know, the whole thing.
But, yeah, I think it should be...
It's one of the classic albums of all times, I think, because it's so different.
Thank you.
OK. Anyone else? Hysteria?
I very clearly remember the day that I got this and put it in my car at Accept Player.
I had such high expectations, was so excited about it because of my love for pyromaniac.
And, you know, the way women starts is not... it doesn't hit you like rock rock till you drop does.
And so I got anxious pretty quickly.
Although the song Women does have, I think that's probably my favorite track because I think it has a pretty cool riff in it.
And as you guys know, you go from one song to the next and it's just not the same thing.
Now, I do like it and I was forced to listen to it.
I was in a... I had a real serious girlfriend.
And, of course, all the girls loved this album to death, along with Poison, when that came out.
And so on top of MTV playing it, you know, probably every 30 minutes, whatever the single was,
the girls friends that we had were listening to it all the time.
And I wanted to like it. I tried my best, you know, to get into it.
But now it's not as bad as everything that's come after it for me.
It's an album that I'll keep in my collection, but I'm not that sad if I don't have it either.
It's just... I understand why some people think it's as perfect as it is.
But to me, it was just a different band and I was depressed about it.
Brad, to what I mentioned before, it's...
So the singles were Woman, Animal, Rocket, Armageddon, Pour Some Sugar On Me, Love Bites, and Hysteria.
So it's seven singles.
Wow, that's incredible.
The only songs that weren't released as singles are Gods of War, Don't Shoot Shotgun, Run Riot,
Am I Missing Anything, Excitable?
There's maybe one more that I don't remember off the top of my head.
Wow. Yeah, you can't hide from this album.
It was everywhere and it was enormous and sold millions and millions and millions.
And yeah, I kind of feel the same way I did about it.
It was like, yeah, that's not what I wanted. But, you know, that's okay.
You are right though, Victor.
It was a landmark change in the glam metal scene, especially.
There was something that, you know, up until that point, you know, it was hard rock.
And then some of that hard rock got, you know, kind of poppy sounding.
And some of those, you know, glam looks were showing up.
But then when this album came out, it seemed like every band,
and of course, this is probably the market, tried to repeat what, yeah, Def Leppard was doing over and over again.
And that's, I think that's, that was the start of its downfall because everybody tried so hard to, you know,
piggyback on the on the coattails of Def Leppard and that sound and those looks that it just got to be too much.
Everybody got sick of it after a few years, you know, by the time the 90s rolled around.
Yeah. And this album was huge, regardless of what I'm saying about it.
It was an enormous album.
It was, I think, the third biggest selling album of the entire 80s, something like that.
So it's it's an enormous album, regardless.
And I get why it was voted so high.
Listen, a lot of these albums are voted where they are just based on album sales because of so many people bought them.
And even though they're not great albums, they hit people at a certain point in time in their life.
And that's why they voted for them.
So number three, number three is a huge fucking album.
And it wasn't as huge as hysteria.
And I would take hysteria over this album any day of the week.
Again, Jeremy would probably have a different take on it only because I know he's a massive fan and I've never really been a fan of this band.
And there's one song off of this that I really like in the singles. Fucking drive me crazy off of this.
But it is depending on who you talk to.
It's got different titles.
It'd be called Whitesnake, could be called 1987.
But it is that Whitesnake album.
Jeremy, go ahead.
Yeah, well, as you know, I'm a big Whitesnake fan, so I like all of their music.
And it's not just this album.
But David Coverdale is just the greatest singer going.
So yeah, it's got some great singles on it.
When it came out, it had all the top quality production on it, which moved away from the sort of bluesy stuff that they used to do in the early days into a proper rock metal, sort of 80s metal band, if you know what I mean.
Not the sort of metal you know now, but what we called metal back then.
And it really rocked and was very successful because of Coverdale, but also because there was great singles on it.
So yeah, it deserves to be there, I think.
My question to you, Jeremy, is where's John Sykes?
That's the unanswerable question, isn't it?
Nobody knows.
Yeah.
Wish he'd come back and play in Whitesnake.
I will say my favorite track off of this is Bad Boys.
That's the name of it.
So, and mainly because of John Sykes playing on it.
Lyrics are take it or leave it, but his playing is just ridiculously good on it.
Anyone else want to talk about this Whitesnake album?
You know, I really like this record and you wouldn't think I would.
Because I mean, it was kind of in that Bon Jovi vein, I guess.
And I was, you know, a big thrash metalhead by this time.
And of course, this one was being forced on us by MTV.
But, you know, and even today, the more I listen to Whitesnake, the more I like this band.
And every time they come on the radio, I listen to it, even the singles.
My wife even makes fun of me for being a Whitesnake fan.
But their videos were a lot better than Def Leppard's too.
Because, you know, all those Def Leppard videos, weren't they all the same?
It was just, you know, shots of them doing live shows and crowds.
It seemed like every single video was the same thing, pretty much.
And then Whitesnake had some more interesting videos that were being, you know,
forced upon us every hour of the day by MTV with Tawny Contain.
The late Tawny Contain.
That's right. Breast and Peet.
I think the only, yeah, Pour Some Sugar on Me and Armageddon are very similar,
but a lot of, but the other ones were all kind of different.
The thing is, those two got foisted on us so much.
Yeah, that may be what it is. I can't remember.
But, okay.
Number two.
Wait a second.
Go ahead, Brad.
I'll say one thing. I'm not a huge fan of Whitesnake,
although I saw them, I don't know, the last M3 before COVID,
they were headlining one night.
And I got to tell you, they were really, really, really good.
And when they play Still of the Night, you can't deny how awesome that was.
I mean, whether you like the song or not, it just, it was huge, man.
Huge. So, yeah, there you go. Whitesnake.
Who was hitting the high notes? Was it David or was it Dino?
Dino was not in the band then.
Okay.
Yeah, that's a great question. Who was hitting the high notes?
I don't know.
David was looking good.
He was out there doing his thing, man.
I can't take that away from him. He's an old dude.
He's out there. Well, he was out there. I don't know. Is he done?
That's the question for the panel. Is Whitesnake done? I'm going to say yes.
He's saying yes.
Yeah.
Okay. Now we can move on to two. Sorry. Thanks.
Number two. I will say that number two was always between slots two and three
throughout the entire voting. And it excited me that it was there the entire time.
I'm surprised that this album is as high as it was, but it just goes to show
what people vote for here, what the core audience votes for, I believe.
And for as much as Jeremy may vote on the Whitesnakes and the Def Leopards of the
world, Jeremy often surprises as well.
So this was on his list. This was, I think, on a lot of people here's list.
What's that?
Emerson, Lake and Powell.
Don't make me bust that keyboard part out for touch and go.
See that. Anyway, number two.
Anthrax with Among the Living. This album.
Put the band on a lot of people's radios as much as I like spreading the disease
a lot more than this album, because I think this is, in my opinion, this is kind
of spreading the disease, too. You can't deny the bigger tracks off of this album,
which are still staples for the band. Is it the best stuff they've released?
No, but it's probably the most memorable for a lot of people that jumped on the
Anthrax bandwagon at the time.
But you can't deny.
The importance when it comes to the entire thrash genre.
How important this album is because of songs like Indians and Cotton Amash and
the title track and NFL and so on and so forth.
Ed, for you, Among the Living. What does this album mean to you?
Yeah, this album means a lot. This was Anthrax's year, I think.
This whole year was really all about Anthrax because of this and then also the
EPs that they release. And then going on to do the I Am the Man thing.
And to me, this is their best album, my favorite. And we talked about it before,
so I won't rehash it all, but I also think that this was kind of a landmark
change in metal when this record came out. You also kind of heard it in the
production of Garage Days, where you're starting to hear that heavier jug sound
in a lot of those songs. And bands that came after that were incorporating a
lot of that sound, especially Pantera. Pantera was taking that and loving on
that sound through all their breakdowns and the way that Dimebag shaped his
tone. You can hear all of that harking back to this record and some of the
stuff that was being released this year. And man, the guitar riffs on this
record, too. These songs are fun to play if you're a guitar player, but they're
also complicated. So it's a good workout on the guitar if you're a player.
I love Dan Spitz a lot. I always enjoy listening to his playing. I feel like his
guitar solos are different and set him apart from some of the other shredders
of the time. Yeah, it was a perfect album to follow, spreading the disease,
and definitely my favorite.
Okay. Jeremy, what made this appear on your list?
Because Anthrax were quite popular in the UK when they first came out, and this
album took them on to a level. They were played on top of the pops quite a lot
as well. So yeah, they were pretty popular. I like the style of music. It was
thrash, but it was a bit different to some of the other bands. And they had a
few decent singles on it, so I just thought overall it was worthy of a top 10
album, and it stood out to me in this particular year.
Okay. Johan, did this album make any sort of impact in Sweden?
Absolutely. They were one of the bands from the US that felt very fresh and very
new. So big impact, great album, and they deserve to be on the high on the list.
So it's a great album. I love it. I listen to it now and day.
Okay. Anthony, in Ireland, did Anthrax make any sort of impact?
Huge. Huge. Yeah, they played in 86, they played Group Metallica here, and that
was amazing. It felt like a double headliner, like the venue was as packed
for Anthrax as it was for Metallica. And then they came back a year later on this
tour and headlined. It was enormous. They had testament with them. Yeah, like
Ed said, this year was all about this album. I suppose they sort of timed it
right in that the big albums, let's say Rainy Blood and Master of Hobbits were
gone. They weren't gone, but you know what I mean? And then they're like 86,
and then 87 belong to this album. If they'd have been a bit quicker and came
out in 86 with this, it wouldn't have been quite so huge. Yeah, but this album
was great. It was enormous here. Anthrax were enormous, and rightly so. This
album sounds fresh. It sounds so good. It's nice and dry. It still sounds
pretty fresh. I could do without hearing Kord and Amash again, but you know,
there's just the songs on this album. I Am the Law is such a great song. Yeah,
that's another one that I forgot. I Am the Law, yeah, absolutely. Dan, you guys
out in California, East Coast Thrash, what did you guys think, you know, the
homestead of Metallica and Slayer? And even though for most people associate
them to the Bay Area, they're technically from your area. They're closer to being
from your area than they were from the Bay Area. What would it be like for you
guys to hear Anthrax and compare it to what you guys had from the homegrown
California bands? Yeah, what's already been said is these Anthrax hit just at
the right time when this came out. I bought the album when it came out. I can
still listen to it today. It was huge. It was, I bought all the EPs. They were
everywhere. They were just pumping at the right time, and they were hitting it on
all. All these songs came out at the right time. Maiden was going strong. It was a
good time to be alive for music, and Anthrax knocks it out with this album. It
probably is maybe their best one of all time, and then, you know, but they've had
great albums too, but this one is among the top of them for sure. And I can say
that when I saw Anthrax not too long ago with Joey in the band, that I was right
into the microphone of Scotty and Nottie Ian, and I got to shout out among the
living lyrics right in front of them. I was yelling as loud as I could, and he
said later in an interview that the Anaheim show, the Mouse House, was one of
the best ones on the tour. So I credit me for yelling and being a fool.
And Ed, you brought up a good point because the I'm the Man EP was the
biggest selling EP of all time up until a few years ago. So for a metal band to
have that long of a run with having the most, the biggest selling EP for such a
long time is a big deal. And it's a big contrast. I mean, it was them fucking
around doing a rap song, sampling Rodney Dangerfield's Easy Money while the
lyrics come from Easy Money. They're sampling Metallica. They're sampling all
types of different things. It was really out there. And, you know, it always kills
me when people credit Run DMC and Anthrax. Oh, this was the start of the rap rock
connections. Like, no, Anthrax did more for that than any other band between
I'm the Man and then their cover of Bring the Noise.
Didn't I'm the Man start off as the B-side to I'm the Law, wasn't it? I remember
getting that at the time. And, you know, it was like you discovered this secret
B-side. And then they went ahead and actually released it.
Yeah, about the EP. You know, they were all over Kerrang and, you know, you went to
the local record store and it was an import. I have it in the shelf over there.
And you were surprised. And they took a lot of criticism for the I'm the Man
thing. And screw them. They were right, you know.
Absolutely.
Brad, where did Anthrax Among the Living hit you? This is the question of the
evening.
Wow. Well, I was living in a different world in 87 and it missed me. It just
missed me. I am sorry. I became a fan later.
So, yeah, different world in 87. But you know what Brad was doing? He was
thinking about the bucket hat that he would be wearing in 2024. These signals
for that.
It's the I get the most compliments for this hat and all of my hats. So, yeah, I
would wear these to an Anthrax show. I've never seen Anthrax. I would actually go
see them now if they'd come anywhere near here or play in the show.
I've seen them with three different singers. How about that?
That's impressive. I tell you what I really want. I want to go to a show with
Metal Dan when he's got that feeling like he had at the Anthrax show. That's
what I'm looking for, man. I want to go to a show where it's just like you just
can't help but yell and scream and sing along. That's what it's all about, man.
That's why we love this music. The way it makes us feel. Yeah, I'm looking for
that.
If I wasn't here, I might be at one right now. Do this grace playing in Dublin
tonight. Oh, wow. Yeah, I got to stay in task here. But Victor's selling stuff,
which everybody should buy that hat. That's a cool hat. Everybody should buy the
shirt that Jeremy's wearing. I need a signals from Mars hoodie, too.
Both Jeremy and I are sporting the same. Yeah, there we go. Look at that.
It's like a boy.
Anthony, I saw Judas Priest. It was the last year. Something like that. And I
enjoyed it, but I wasn't standing up singing. It just wasn't there. But I can
tell you. Yeah, look, you don't have to tell me I'm not there. I didn't go. I
know. What I've seen from KK's priest, I would love to go see them, man. They're
making that music really live big time. And their songs are OK, too. But yeah.
Yeah, the problem seeing a band like that is when you saw them in the 70s, when
they were really like, holy crap. Yeah, you go now and you're like, this is good.
So are we not going to talk about number one since everyone knows what it is?
I don't need to talk about this one.
Both metal down and I both push to get the dirty looks cool from the wire at
number one. Right, Dan?
I love that album when it first came out. And then my wife ruined it for me when
she told me that when she told me everything that he's singing, oh, I forget
the guy's name. All the lyrics are bullshit. There is nothing in these songs
at all. He's just making up shit. He's just making up lines. And it blew
everything away. And I listened to it. I said, all right, I'm done listening to
it. So that's my cool from the wire album story. Oh, no, that's true. Now I'm
going to ruin it for you. Listen to the lyrics. Now your wife is ruined for me.
Tell her, thanks. I said to her, what the hell?
I know the guy's name and it's slipping me right now. He's dead, though.
All right, let's count down or recap the 10 through two real quickly before we
go to one. At 10, we had Kiss with Crazy Nights.
Well, I just had like a like I don't know something bad happened there. I
thought Kiss was number one. How did this happen? It's like a bad dream.
OK, nine. Nine. Molly Crew Girls, Girls, Girls. Eight. Docken back for the
attack. Seven. Dio Dream Evil. Six. The Cult with Electric. Five.
Halloween with Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part One. Four. Def Leppard with
Hysteria. Three. Whitesnake with Whitesnake or 1987. Two. Anthrax with
Among the Living and at number one. If I can find the drum roll. I can't find
the drum roll. I think I should have been ready. I should have been ready.
Red has drums right behind him. I could. I could. Good idea. At number one.
Kansas with Power. Yes. At number one.
Appetite for Destruction, Guns N' Roses.
Look, I can put that album on now and with my headphones and hear things that
I don't hear each time or whatever. I think this is perfectly mixed and all
that. And I think it's one of the best albums of all times. And I know it's
not on Yawns, but yeah, that's that's why.
Yeah, you can't deny this album its place in history. You just can't deny it.
What are you going to do?
The album is. I put it between this and I actually well, it's a more important
album than White Snake. I thought White Snakes was like number two. But as far
as being huge and huge in the world of music and legacy and that kind of thing.
Well, let's let's consider that what you just said for a second, Brad, because
this album is still selling tours.
Because this is the bulk of one. They made a whole career off of one album. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This album actually has sold more than Kiss has for their entire catalog.
Appetite for Destruction is sold more than all of Motley Crue's catalog.
Wow.
So consider what a big album this is. A lot of these albums. We keep going back
to the same thing, though. They had, you know, the Hysteria and the White Snake
album and this they all had huge singles and not just one big single. They all
had a three to four to like the Def Leppard had seven. This Appetite for
Destruction had
five. Welcome to the jungle, sweet child of mine, Mr.
Brownstone, Paradise City.
It's a perfect album. The only thing is wrong with it is it's it's been played
too much and I need more of it and I need another one with with more of the
same but just different. Put it on with headphones. I'll listen to that back and
forth with the guitars. Listen to things. The drums are just popping. This is
great. It's a perfect album.
Yeah. Did this one sell more than Hysteria?
I would say no, but I might be wrong.
Maybe at this stage.
At this stage, yeah. Yeah, possibly. That's a good point. Possibly at this
stage. Yes. But at the time, no, definitely not. And let's not forget this album
took about two to three years to take off. When it came out, it flopped. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Go ahead.
Yeah, because I saw after this album came out, I saw them warm up for Iron Maiden
and it was like no big deal. You know, like, who are these guys? Yeah, I kind of
know. I know a couple of these songs and yeah, it was it was just it was not a big
deal. And then during that tour, the album hit the single hit and they said,
see you maiden. We're out of here. We are huge now. And it was just like that.
It was like one week. It was magic MTV and everything happened with with the
single. And then LA Guns came on that tour to replace them for the maiden. They
were supposed to play Long Beach with with G and R and it didn't happen
because they said, bye, we're going to go headline now. Yeah, so hysteria has sold
20 million over all these years and appetite for destruction has sold 30.
So over over all the years that that happened.
And that's interesting because I'm sure that they probably had to pay to get off
the tour somehow, but they were about to.
You know, rock it off and be possibly the biggest band in the world's biggest
rock band in the world around that time.
They. I remember and I've told this story a bunch of times. I remember coming to
Spain the year before and having somebody ask you what's the what's the big band
that nobody knows of here? And I said poison. And then somebody telling me, no,
no, they'll never take off. And then coming back the next year, seeing that
they had a the poison back patch, they had dyed their hair blonde and had it all
puffed out. And I said, no, they're done. It's Guns N' Roses now. Who the hell
knows Guns N' Roses? I'm like, you will. And that following year sure as shit,
because I remember coming back and Sweet Child of Mine had hit in the States.
Nobody knew who they were the month before I left. And the month after when I
came back, they were everybody's favorite band office. I'm like, you didn't know
who the fuck they were three weeks ago. What are you talking about? And next
year, it was Sweet Child of Mine that really did it, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah,
Sweet Child of Mine is the one that's because because Welcome to the Jungle was
released as a single twice. It was released as a single, got no traction.
They released Night Train as a single. That didn't do anything. Then they
released Sweet Child of Mine. And then that's when they went back, re-released
Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, Mr. Brownstone. And I mean, essentially
anyone who was a rock fan at the time, I think knows pretty much, especially in
the States, knows for them, if not the entire album, knows 80 to 90 percent of
the album. Yeah, it was big. All right. All right. I have a quick question for
the panel. We're done with this one, right? That's not the question. Johan was
done with it before we started discussing. I know. I know. I'm trying to re-engage
him. OK, number one, did anybody vote for Gary Moore Wild Frontier? You know, I
looked at it. I could have. No. Anthony, no, Anthony? No, I didn't. I know the
album, but I didn't vote for it. Is Gary Moore not the big icon in his own
country that we think he is? Yeah, yeah, apparently Gary Moore is very popular.
OK, it seemed like a big moment for him. I know what I was watching a concert of
him supporting this album in Sweden, Johan, in Stockholm, I think. Huge, huge
crowd. Yeah. And he had big, big stage production, the whole thing, and was
tearing it up. So I thought, well, holy crap, Gary Moore was huge somewhere in
Sweden. He was huge everywhere in Europe. I didn't know who he was. And I remember
in 87 going to a to going to a summer camp and this kid that was at the camp.
All he kept talking about was Gary Moore and Gary Moore and Gary Moore. And he's
the greatest guitarist ever. And it's Gary Moore. And he's the fastest guitarist.
And he's this and he's that. And I got wild frontier. And I was like. It's good,
but it's it just wasn't the same as as a lot of the other stuff that I was
listening to. And I'll be honest, when he started putting out the blues stuff and
I know Jeremy's going to kill me for this, I hated it because I felt that after
the war was a really good album as well.
And it just seemed like he couldn't crack it in America. So he just decided to
change his style to see if he could give it a go in the States. And those blues
albums got him got his foot in the door on U.S. radio. Yeah. I always thought
Gary Moore was, you know, unbelievably amazing as a player, but not a great
songwriter. No, like he's best. His best work was with Lizzie, you know, where he
wasn't writing. Yeah. And there's a lot of guitarists like that. You know, it's
the it's the Inve syndrome, you know, amazing as hard players, but crap
songwriters. Yeah. And that's what I think. Wild Frontier, that was the thing
that hit me. It was very overpolished. It was, you know, the songs were OK. His
his solo and was out of this world. But then the song compositions themselves
were like, OK, this is kind of boring. Oh, wow. The solo is really good. OK,
the rest of the song is just it's all right. I mean, it's it's not to say that
it sucks, but there was so much stuff. I mean, a lot of the stuff that we're
talking about here from this list and other things that we didn't talk about.
There's there's a lot of good music that that came out this year, and that didn't
make it. And a lot of people voted. So and a lot of people voted from all parts
of the world. So. All right. So, Johan, I assume you voted for Rush. Yes, I did.
OK, he wasn't the only one. There were more people that voted for Rush.
But I will tell you that in top ten. OK, hold your fire. Hold your fire was 24.
Yes. Great album. Great sign of the times. But the other side of the times could be
and tracks and guns and roses. So I can I can understand that, but I cannot
understand how you talk about Gary Moore. He's a hero here in Sweden. Very nice.
And as you said, Victor, he was selling out every arena here. And I think it's.
I mean, those albums that you talk about while Frontier run for cover.
I mean, wow. I mean, those are sign of the times. Excellent heavy metal albums.
The rest he did afterwards. Good, but not close. So.
But Rush, yeah. They are not on this list because they are above it.
Of course. Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course.
Hold your fire is an album that's a war.
A war. Absolutely. But it's it's so well done.
It sounds like it's so crispy. It's so it's so good.
And the songs are I mean, it's it's the best.
It's not the best rush album ever made, but it's like.
It's. In the 80s, it's it's almost perfection, not power windows, but great.
So it's a shame. OK, maybe next year, the 1980s.
Yeah. And Jeremy, you're probably wondering if I voted for UDO Animal House.
And the answer is no. Oh, OK.
Just just to just touch on some of those.
Ed asked about Testament, the legacy that ended up at 20.
All right. Well, what about the greatest album of that year,
which was Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation? Permanent Vacation.
I was just on the UDO. UDO was 42.
It was voted for. Wow. Yes, it was.
Wasn't me. Wasn't me, Jeremy. No, there's a couple of good songs on there, but.
Oh, let's see. Permanent Vacation.
It's going to be pretty high. It's going to be like 14 or something.
Twenty five. Twenty five.
That's a disgrace. All right.
Twenty five. Well, I'll give you guys this.
Since I did 15 to one before 25, 24 is Rush.
Twenty three. I said that this got quite a few votes.
The Pesh Modes, Music for the Masses. Cool.
Twenty two. Grace for X with Second Heat.
Twenty one. Great White. Once Bitten.
Twenty. Testament with the Legacy.
Nineteen. Death Angel with the Ultraviolence.
Eighteen. Macaulay Shanker Group with Perfect Timing.
Seventeen. Faith No More. Introduce Yourself.
And sixteen. Death with Scream Bloody Gore.
Nice. It's a diverse list.
There's a lot of different types of music here.
Anybody else vote for Exodus other than me?
Exodus was 32 because that was a good album that year.
No one vote for Faster Pussycat.
Faster Pussycat was actually voted on by multiple people as well.
That's 28. That's an interesting album.
That's a perfect album. Yeah, it's great.
That's great. Well, one song's kind of floppy, but yeah, near perfect.
Cool. All right. So.
And Twisted Sister did not make it right, because that's an awful album.
Twisted Sister, believe it or not, Steve Hoker, who had voted for Twisted Sister
number one. I think he won't mind me sharing this.
Love is for Suckers is number 30 on here.
So he voted at number one and a day later writes me, he goes, you know what?
I love Twisted Sister, but Appetite for Destruction should be number one.
Wow. So he speaks them.
Thirty out of sixty four albums is not bad. No.
And that's surprisingly high, actually.
Yeah. King Diamond Abigail. Thirty three.
Yeah, that's that's not right.
With Twisted Sister, that above it.
The problem is what I mentioned before is popularity.
The Twisted Sister and more people bought that than Abigail.
So more people voted for it over Abigail.
I mean, we could go down the list with all this stuff and even still, there's
shit that was ultra commercial.
But I think that over the years didn't probably didn't.
Probably faded for some people, so it isn't as high.
White Lion Pride 43, for example.
Oh, and that was a big album that year.
Huge.
What about Malice?
Nobody voted for Malice.
That was another one.
The closest thing to Malice on here are a lot of things that Dan voted for between
Lizzie Borden and Keele and.
And the Leather Wolf album, which is just about perfect.
The only thing is better is the EP.
And they played last Friday, the three of them in Anaheim.
I didn't I couldn't go.
My wife wasn't with me.
I didn't want to cheat on her on that.
But they're still relevant.
And Michael Oliveri is still still sounding amazing with his vocals.
It's a great album.
Glad they're still around.
Leather Wolf by Leather Wolf, 34.
So.
Guys, on that note, I do want to thank you all for joining me tonight.
I do want to thank Sean and Edgar, who joined us in the chat.
I want to thank everyone that listens to the replay of this or watches it.
Did your favorites make the list?
How do you think things shake out?
Are you like Johan and upset with how things turned out?
Me too.
You got to vote.
And you get. Yeah.
If you didn't vote, don't be upset.
Yeah.
Vote next month.
Let's see what what we decide to do next month.
I'll announce that shortly.
Yeah.
Edgar, you need to you need to get in here and vote.
Yeah.
That's it, Edgar.
Follow us on social media and vote.
Oh, awesome.
On that note, we will end the episode here.
Thanks once again.
We will see you next time right here on Signals from Mars.
Folks.
Bye.