Welcome one and all to episode 399 of Signals for Mars. I'm your host Victor and for this episode we bring you the exciting 1988 countdown.
People have voted, your voices have been heard. This is an excellent long, long, long episode which I hope you all enjoy.
For those of you not keeping score at home, let me just give you a brief rundown as to how these countdown episodes work.
Alright, so people submit their 10 favorites. Top 10 list, however you want to look at it. If people send me, well in no particular order, rock, I will let them know and say,
first thing that appears is your number one. And they'll say, oh no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, let me rearrange it then. So based on where an album falls on your list, it gets assigned a set of points.
Number one gets 10 points, two gets nine points, all the way down to 10 which gets one point. Overall, people voted for 75 different albums.
The ones that got the most votes, obviously in this case, The Cream Rises to the top.
It was exciting to see how this shook out because it wasn't what a lot of people expected. At least I don't think so.
At least diehards to what we do here, I think, didn't expect it to shake out the way that it did. And I don't want to give too much stuff away because there are a lot of albums that were kind of, how could I say this without giving too much away?
They were battling for positions, but number one was clear cut the entire way. I'll say that.
It's exciting though that so many people were interested in and voted on it and just how many different albums were rearranged and changed order, even on the last day when we did the show because there were some people that sent
me their lists that Friday. You know, I asked people, hey, send to me once a 23rd. I still got it Friday the 25th.
No matter, still included them. And what happened was I recorded an episode of my Victor M. Ruiz podcast on Patreon, $2 a month to get that.
As well as some other fantastic daily music posts, troll free environment, sharing of thoughts, music discussion, all great, all essential for music listeners. At least I think so. Anyway.
So I mentioned at that time the top 70, I think it was.
And then by the time the quote unquote polls had closed, the order was different for a few of the, now I would say a good percentage of the list was changed.
The top 10 more or less stayed the same because again, the albums that got voted on the most were the ones that made it there.
But
that's not true. I would say the top five stayed the same because 10 switched 10 for the longest time was, I don't want to give it away.
How about this for this week's VMR podcast on Patreon, I am going to do a rundown of everything that came in above, above 15, which is what we cover here.
I'm also going to discuss the 10 that I voted for also. So if you're interested to find out how this entire countdown shook out and how everything was voted on, join us there.
In any event, let's get on with this episode.
Welcome one and all to episode. This is going to be 399, if I'm not mistaken. We're close to 400 here.
This is our 1988 special here on Signals from Mars. I do want to thank everyone for joining us. I have this illustrious crew of guests.
Mike Jones in New Jersey have metal Dan in California have Ed in Kansas, Kansas, Jesus, Kentucky.
Brad in Utah, in Idaho, and we have Johan Johan, are you with us?
I'm in Sweden. Johan is in a state of confusion. He's joining a monastery where he can't speak.
He can sort of hear us, I guess. Anyway, sorry guys for messing up your states, your names. It's been a long time.
I'm going to have to go to Kansas for one of these shows just so I can do it live from Kansas. That's the thing. I don't want to give any spoilers away on this list.
So I don't want to give the number one away.
By mentioning that band. But anyway.
So for those of you that are new to this concept, people have voted for their top 10 favorite albums of 1988.
We received more votes than ever before.
And yeah, I'm thrilled with the turnout. I'm thrilled with the albums.
There's a whole litany of different albums that were voted on. A lot of good stuff.
A lot of good stuff that did not make what we're going to discuss tonight.
Real quickly, let me just mention this, that I did release an episode of my Patreon exclusive Victor Emrua's podcast where I went through albums 72 through 16.
That list has expanded to 75 albums.
And the order has switched around quite a bit. I'm not going to go through everything. Once this posts online, once the episode is live, the podcast version, video version, you guys will be able to take a look at the complete list to see where albums fell within the list.
And see where your favorites are. And you know, earlier today, I had a moment where someone compared. Look at that. Look at that.
I just want to just shout out to anybody watching or listening here. If you want to hear Victor talk about those albums that didn't make the top 15. Is that what we're doing? Top 15.
All you got to do is go on Patreon. You can join for two bucks a month. Best two dollars you've ever spent. And it's awesome.
Yes, sir. Cool. So, yeah, real quickly, just to give you guys an idea, if any of you guys have listened to that episode today.
As of the closing of the voting, this goes to show you how important voting is. Number 20 is Kings X with Out of the Silent Planet.
19. LA Guns with their self-titled debut LA Guns.
18. Living Color with Vivid.
17. Death with Leprosy.
And 16.
Poison with Open Up and Say Ah.
So we go from death to poison. I guess death is brought upon by poison a lot of times.
Discussion on that.
Let's just turn the music here.
So,
OK.
Coming in at number 15, this album was released on April 18th, 1988.
Was recorded
at Dirk's studio, Statenheim Scorpio's studio, Hanover, West Germany.
Was released by EMI and Mercury respectively, produced by Dieter Dirks.
Singles include
Passion Rules the Game, Believe in Love and Rhythm of Love.
We are talking about scorpions and savage amusement.
This is their follow up to Love at First Thing.
And it's interesting because for me as a kid, when this album came out,
this is, I think, the first Scorpions album that I actually bought
because I was of age where I could buy things and
I really enjoyed the album. I still enjoy a lot of this album, but I know that a lot of older fans,
especially the ones that got turned on for this album by Love at First Thing,
felt that this was a letdown after Animal Magnetism, after Blackout, and after Love at First Thing.
Brad, you're shaking your head.
No. What are your thoughts on Savage Amusement?
I mean, I certainly didn't like it as much as those other albums, but I think it's a great album.
I listened to all these albums this week and it was a blast.
Just 88 was a great year.
My only thing with this album that's weird is that there's no cymbals on the drums.
Every so often you'll get one with a snare hit, but that's it.
And I'm like, is this because there was no actual drummer playing?
I don't know. Anyway, we'll probably never know.
To Herman, because remember, he wrote all of their hits, supposedly.
Yeah, well, he wrote the lyrics. But anyway, I like this album a lot.
I think other than the missing cymbals, it sounds really good.
The songs are really good.
I had a blast listening to it with my son Nathan, who's 22 years old.
First time he's ever listened to it, and he had a lot of good things to say about it.
There you go.
Ed, you're kind of nodding your head.
What are your thoughts on Savage Amusement?
Well, you know, when this record came out, I wasn't buying anything like this.
It was all thrash, metal, hardcore, that kind of stuff.
So I never heard this record until my 30s or 40s when I started collecting vinyl again.
And I picked up a copy.
Oh crap. Ed just bottomed out.
Dan, anything to say about Savage Amusement?
I listened to it a lot when it came out.
It's not going to make my top 10, and I forgot to vote for kicks.
Ooh, I got you. I got you, Dan.
And I tell you what, Dan, I didn't see it.
I look right there and I say it's right there.
Why didn't I see it? So no, nothing on Scorpions.
Blow my fuse 22.
I'm fucked up.
I hate it when you're mad.
Ed, you were saying, go ahead.
Firefox crashed there for a second.
But anyway, I've listened to it since then, and I thought it was quite good.
I was surprised, actually, how good it was.
I don't think it. I don't like listening to it as much as anything before it.
But I think I like it better than most everything they've released since then.
So I've hung on to that record.
I'm going to keep it for a while. It's a good one.
Yeah, that's a good point, because I know a lot of people, for example,
really like their next release more, Crazy World.
But to me, I think Crazy World kind of went too commercial.
Like they were trying to recapture what they did on Love It First Thing by putting out some radio-friendly stuff.
And looking back at this album and listening to songs off of it to prepare for this list,
I mean, outside of the closing track, because I'm not a ballad guy,
I like the rest of the album. I think the album is solid.
Like you're saying, Ed, it's not going to make it.
I'm not going to put some of the other albums aside for this one, but it's not a bad album.
I think it's an album of its time. I think it's still strong.
Mike, anything regarding Savage Amusement?
Yeah, I mean, I agree with the general sentiment that it's a solid Scorpions album.
I think probably fully half of the songs in here are on my regular Scorpions rotation, my playlist.
So it was a bit of a departure. They got less heavy as they went through the albums leading up to this.
But you can't fault them for wanting some commercial success, too.
So it's definitely an album of the time song-wise.
OK, cool. Moving on.
Number 14 released in on November 18th, so it is almost the anniversary time for this album.
What? Thirty six years recorded at Universal Recordings in Chicago.
Label is Atlantic. Producer was Jason Flom and the band.
There are no singles off of this album, but I remember hearing a mixtape when I first came over
and I was told you need to listen to.
Kings of Metal by Manowar.
Everyone was telling me they're going to replace Iron Maiden, they're going to replace Judas Priest and Saxon.
They're the best thing to come out of America and I don't know how many years.
And I said, who? Because I had no clue who they were.
Sure, sure enough, after that summer, I came back to the States.
Eddie Trunk was playing them like crazy because they were a New York band from upstate New York, albeit.
And an MTV started playing videos of theirs as well.
So tracks off of this that stand out to me, the title track Kings of Metal,
Hail and Kill and Blood of the Kings is probably the song that I've listed the most off of this.
Anyway, this is Manowar. Dan, you voted this.
Hail and Kill and they get the Warriors prayer that builds up to Blood of the Kings and he's screaming. Yeah, it's a great album.
It's been like 10 years since they've been last been to the States.
They just they just sit in Europe. They just sit over there and supposedly a US New York band that has no love can do it here.
That's all I got to say. All right. Anyone else want to speak about Manowar?
I had a couple of their albums when I was like 15.
OK, but again, you know, I quit paying attention after Slayer and Megadeth were taking over.
But, you know, they're a fun band to listen to every once in a while.
You all actually have me wanting to crank some of that up in the car this weekend.
I might do that. You got good tunes to turn up loud.
You want to blow your speakers? Is that what it is? That's interesting.
We'll try. That's right. Other bands play Manowar kills. Yeah, right.
What are you going to say, Mike? I think I talked on top of anything.
I was going to say this album is basically testosterone personified in music.
I mean, it'll get you get the blood pump in.
Yeah, it's like Ed said, you know, at 15 Manowar was their message.
They are, you know, no posers, true metal. Their message comes through loud and clear.
I could listen to it then and I listen to it now.
And I think that's how why it makes it strong on the list. Is it still relevant?
It's still solid and it's well packaged, put together, acoustically sounding.
A lot of people voted for this album as it should.
This is this is where the word consistency comes in.
And a lot of these albums get into the top 10 specifically.
The albums may be all over the place on people's lists, but they were consistently voted on,
whether it was in the top half of people's lists or whether it was in the bottom half of lists.
And this Manowar album, especially people that came from Europe that voted.
That's a 1988 list. Quite a few people voted for this.
So, Johan, glad to have you. Can you hear us now?
Sure. I'm on the phone.
Victor, send me a new link while you're doing the show on whatever platform you like.
But I don't know what's wrong.
The phone works, the computer doesn't. So, yep, that's how it is.
OK, do you need me to send you another link, you're saying?
If you can, please do.
Let's see, I'll send it to you through Facebook. How about that?
Sure.
All right. It is very important to have Johan on these shows.
He gives us some special.
He's a wise man. He's a wise man.
He gives us some special perspective on on these lists.
So, all right. So moving forward, this is now album 13.
All right. Released in May, May 23rd, 1988, recorded between September 87 and April 88.
If I say the studio, it's going to give it away.
Released on Warner Brothers and produced by Don Landy, as well as the band.
You've already given it away. Yeah, I figured.
Was recorded at 5150 Studios and singles.
Symbols on this album, too. No symbols, you said?
No, you can hear lots of symbols. Oh, yeah.
Feel So Good was the fourth single, third single was Finish What You Started. Two is One It's Love.
And Black and Blue is the first single.
I never remember hearing Black and Blue on the radio ever.
One It's Love is the first thing that I heard off of this.
And it. Drove me absolutely crazy.
Anyway, so coming in at number 13, it is OU812 by Van Halen, the second album with Sammy Hagar,
affectionately known as Van Hagar to a lot of people.
Anyone want to talk about this album? This is something I can't speak to.
I mean, I could, but I mean, that's all right.
There's something nice. All right.
So so Black and Blue, I don't mind.
I think Sucker and a Three Piece is OK. Source of Infection is all right, but.
Fun fact here, Victor. Go ahead.
Well, Shelley, not only is she known for. Singing Ace of Spades, but she can sing Source of Infection, nailed it.
She can really nail it. Can she? Yeah, yeah. OK.
It's been done. Here's what I'll say about this album.
I like this album a lot. I like it a lot better than the first one they did with Sammy.
It sounds better. And again, listening to it again this week, it's like, holy crap.
You can actually hear drums being hit, not electronic drums, real acoustic drums, cymbals, the whole thing.
It's not overly produced. It sounds.
Everything's in its place on here. And.
And I think the songs are good and I think there's some pretty, pretty cool rhythms in here, too, especially the first song, Mine, All Mine, trying to figure out like how they how they play that.
Just that's pretty, pretty cool stuff going on here. A lot of a lot of a lot of great drumming.
Oh, we've got the feedback. I don't know. Let's see.
It's not me.
OK. Let's see, Brad, real quickly. I don't mean to interrupt you.
Go ahead. There is a shitload of electronic drums on this album.
What are you talking about? Where? Where?
This is a good answer. No, this is I listen to this.
Alan replaced all his toms. His snare is is a real snare, but his toms are all electronic.
They sound real. They sound real on this album.
They do not sound real. Go back and watch any of the live footage from this tour.
He's got the shells of acoustic drums and Simmons drums over top of all the damn toms.
Yeah, I saw him on this tour. They were awful.
I'll just put it in that.
Yeah, they got they got in a fight after the first song, Sammy and Eddie, because Eddie wanted to go back to the hotel and drink.
And Sammy's like, come on, man.
This is the Monsters of Rock tour in Spokane, Washington, or if you're Klaus, it's Spokane.
Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing, man. It's like it was it was a really half ass show.
So there you go. But anyway, I still really like this album. I'm telling you, I'll I listen to this just two days ago, man.
I thought the drums sounded really good and not sound electronic.
I'm not saying they don't sound good. I'm just saying they are.
You're saying samples. I mean, you listen to Scorpion's drum.
Not one of that sounds like a real drum on that Savage Amusement album.
On Savage Amusement? Those. OK, so those are samples of real drums.
Yes. OK. Yeah. And Alex Van Halen was using Simmons drums.
Those aren't those are not samples at all. I'm I'm I'm going to send you footage.
OK, all right. We'll take this. We'll take this outside.
We'll take this outside later. There you go. People here want to want to drink and party.
They don't want to hear us fighting over the tons.
OK, look, hey, look who's here.
It is Anthony Mackie. Anthony, how are you tonight?
Excellent. So who else wants to discuss?
Oh, you wait one to anyone else want to say something?
Anthony has some wise words about this album.
Anthony always has like the most just concise wise takes.
Never liked it. How about that?
There you go. That was how concise more concise.
That was direct straight to the point.
Anyone anyone else or we'll move on to the next one.
Oh, Mike. To me, I've always enjoyed the album.
Again, not their best, not their worst.
Definitely more of a Sammy influence, obvious in a lot of the lyrical content,
especially as compared to the album before.
But, you know, some solid, solid singles, you know, big fan of AFU and and finish what you started.
But overall, you know, not my favorite, not my least favorite.
It's probably somewhere smack dab in the middle of the Van Halen catalog to me.
OK. All right. So next album here, this is number twelve.
Who? I'm surprised at how many people voted for this.
And I know, again, I will I will say that there are some people from back home that will kill me for this.
And there are a lot of people from Europe that voted for this album.
I have never owned it. It was released on September 19th.
So, again, also just celebrated its thirty sixth year was recorded between May 1st and July 31st of 1988,
was recorded at Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, released on Mercury in North America, Vertigo, the rest of the world,
produced by Bruce Therabane. Singles off of this album include
Living in Sin, Lay Your Hands on Me, I'll Be There for You, Born to Be My Baby,
God met us in my opinion.
You summed it up for me, but people have voted Dan has walked away.
It is New Jersey by Bon Jovi.
This is what the well-being poisoned.
Anyone live that wants to discuss New Jersey by Bon Jovi?
Well, as the New Jersey representative here, I guess I'm state bound to do that.
I just have to say that, you know, when I was on a date, popping this in the cassette deck of my 77 Camaro worked every time.
Otherwise, I didn't get much of a listen.
So there you go. All right. Number twelve.
That was quick.
Yes.
You passed in a kid in stone, wasn't it, Dan?
It took a shit.
All right. So let's move on to eleven released on May 13th, 1988, recorded between December 87 and March 88.
By saying where it was recorded, may give it away for some people.
It was recorded at Ibiza Sound Studio in Spain, also in Puck recording studios in.
I can't pronounce.
Grosjev.
Don't know.
It was recorded by the band, which they probably deserve a swift kick in the ass for doing so.
But also Tom Allom was involved.
Singles include.
A cover.
Of Johnny B. Good.
Oh, no.
And the title track.
Oh, shit.
I mean, are people just voting for the band, not the album?
Come on.
This is the priest.
This is my least favorite priest album of all of them.
Least.
It's tough to listen to.
Oh, those are real drums.
Definitely.
No, no, those are not real.
They sent Dave Holland away.
When was the last time that Dave Holland actually played on Defenders of the Faith?
Maybe.
Maybe he didn't play on this.
He didn't play on Turbo.
And they replaced them for Painkiller.
Yeah, I'm I'm thinking.
All right. So so this is my stab at why this album plays so high, because a lot of people from Europe voted on this.
And I think because it was a place in time where this was perhaps one of the first albums they ever got.
Wow.
So that's probably why.
What's that?
You went back and bought more.
This would have stopped me from buying any more priest albums if I bought this one.
Yeah, this was this was one and I'll tell you what I remember reading.
An interview with Rob Halford when this album came out.
He sounded like such a pretentious idiot talking about the album, talking about how great it was, talking about how no album before it was ever heavier, talking about how no one had ever released a track called Heavy Metal before.
And the interviewer said, Sammy Hagar has a pretty famous song called Heavy Metal, which was on the Heavy Metal movie soundtrack.
And Halford said, Oh, we didn't know that.
And of course, years later, I found out that this was Halford at the height of his alcoholism and and drug addiction.
So I'll give him a pass on that.
I like this album.
I don't drink enough. That's my problem.
There there's OK, there's maybe two songs that I like off of this album.
The rest is.
This is not good.
It sounds awful. It's just really tough to listen to.
It sounds like they just did in the, you know, somebody's garage.
And and the funny thing is, off of this is they've got worse shit that they recorded with.
What the heck were the banana Rama producers and these people that they they recorded three songs with them.
And they were smart enough to not release them.
They at least drew the line there and said, Yeah, no, this is kind of alienating alienating our our crowd.
They didn't do it with this other stuff. But wouldn't you like to hear those songs?
So I would. Halford says they're on they're on YouTube. I've never searched them out. Never.
So. All right. So moving on to number 10, we are now in the top 10.
These are all going to be bangers. Let's go.
I think they are. Dan and Dan will not walk away during one of these albums.
I don't think Dan will walk away from any of these, and I think he'll be happy with some of the albums that placed in here because he voted for some of these.
So recorded in April of 88 released on September 13th, 1988.
Recorded at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood.
It sounds like a.
Released on records produced by the band and Mark Dodson.
Singles include.
Trip at the Brain.
And the title track, How Will I Laugh Tomorrow?
That's a good album.
It is. Suicidal tendencies with How Will I Laugh Tomorrow?
If I can't smile today.
Dan. Sold out again.
They're playing. They're coming here in Garden Grove, California, weekend, Saturday and Sunday.
It's a nice little venue. They just keep coming back to this place.
It's like their home now. So totally live band. Mike Muir kills it.
I'm not going. It was a bad timing.
But I listen to this album a lot.
Give it up for suicidal, suicidal for life.
Nice.
Anthony, anything to say about this album?
I love it.
Not much. It's amazing. Love this album.
There you go. Straight and concise. Ed.
I think I like the one before it better, but this was still another good effort by them.
I'm trying to see what tracks are on there, but.
See what I recognize. But yeah, you know.
With each album, I got a little less interested in suicidal.
It's kind of like they have good songs here and there.
But sometimes I have a hard time listening to a whole record unless it's the first one.
OK, but yeah, this was I remember that this was a big record that year.
It's it's funny because I think over the years the the trip of the brain is a big one.
And so is the title track. But Pledge Your Allegiance is probably the biggest song to come off of this because it's their closer
every time that I've seen them anyway.
Mike, suicidal.
Love suicidal. Yeah, they had me hooked since the first album.
Just kept getting better and better, better quality musicians as they went along.
You know, Rocky George on guitar just absolutely shreds.
Yeah, it's kind of the they went from more pure punk to more of a metal influence as they as they went to.
And this was absolutely a sweet spot.
Probably the album I grabbed the most from them to listen to overall from their catalog.
It's awesome. All right.
This is your favorite one of the whole catalog. I think so. Yeah, that's cool.
All right. So number nine released also on September 19th of suicidal released that day to know 13th.
So the week before. All right.
Recorded from April to June 88. Studio was Quadradio Studios in Miami, Florida.
Released on this will give it away. Megaforce Island.
Producers include the band Mark Dodson, Alex Perry, Alice, John Zazoula, Marsha Zazoula.
Singles include another cover originally recorded by the French band Trust.
Anti social. Make me laugh. And also who cares wins was a single off of this because that video got played quite a bit on MTV.
It is the first album that I ever owned by Anthrax. It is state of euphoria.
It is our number nine and while in New Jersey, Mr. Mike Jones showed me a tattoo that he has from this album.
It is the cover of one of the singles. Yes.
So, yeah, obviously, top choice for me. It just, you know, this was my number one.
It hit at the right time, the right style of music.
You know, not one skipper song on there. No filler to me.
You know, the just the overall quality of it and.
It just it just hits. I love this album.
Cool. Came out on cassette and I played it over and over and over in the in the truck driving everywhere.
Listen to this one a lot. Good on the list. Awesome.
Ed. Yeah, this one was rough for me.
Because I was such a huge fan of their previous two albums.
And even saw them in concert on the Among the Living tour.
So I was very excited, you know, for what was to come next.
And I did listen to it a lot, but it was like I was I was wanting to like it as much as the stuff from before.
But I don't know. It just never clicked with me as much.
And I kind of started to lose a bit of interest in Anthrax after this.
But it's but I don't disagree with you guys.
It's it's a good album. It's even on my top 10 list because it's one of those records I listened to the most that year.
But I was a little disappointed compared to how much I love the stuff before that.
But yeah, it's not a bad and I don't know about you guys, but a lot of times an album cover can affect the way that my brain accepts music.
Or I don't know how to explain it. Maybe you guys are right on. And for some reason, sometimes when someone, especially them, puts out a yellow album cover, it doesn't speak metal to me.
It kind of takes away some of the dark feeling that I wanted to have in the music that I listened to.
And it's but that's just a funny, quirky thing about you.
And I'm a yes, 72 seasons says the same problem. Exactly.
I would bring that up, too. Yeah.
But I think I think I may be like persistence of time, you know, when I go back and listen to those records, I may have like the songs on that one a little better.
But yeah, this was still a good I mean, it was still a good effort for them.
What about you, Victor? Yeah, like this one compared to because you like some of the later John Bush stuff than those.
Well, the Bush stuff is my favorite of all the the Anthrax eras.
But I mean, I like all of the eras from the band. I would consider Anthrax a top five band for me.
I played the crap out of this when it came out and looking back at it because I want to be objective with it.
I still think it's a good album.
I do think that it's probably the weakest out of all of the original Joey albums, though, out of the original Joey run.
I think this is probably the worst thing that they released because I think I love persistence of time as well.
I love how they got heavier, how they mixed in different influences and the band showed that they could be more than what they were on on spreading and on among the living.
And I think that gets lost on some fans, some some quote unquote diehard fans will only listen to among the living. And it's like this band has done so much more than just that album.
So that that to me is kind of kind of disappointing.
I think the production on this is kind of flat.
Well, and they've admitted that they were forced to release this album because of the popularity of Among the Living.
So as as good as this album was, probably if they had worked the songs a little more, it probably would have been a little better.
It's a good way to explain it, I think.
Yeah, yeah, it just seems like they were all right. You guys are on the street. Just keep going. And especially let's not forget that they released that I'm the man EP before this also.
And that was the biggest thing that they had sold. It was the biggest selling EP at the time. I don't know if that's still the case.
So the band was on a hot streak and they in Atlantic had gotten involved with them and everything. So they weren't just on island mega force anymore.
It was it was a big deal. They were getting pushed and subsequently they got on that MTV tour.
They had a lot of, you know, publicity behind them. So this had to come out. They had to kind of feed the beast.
And I think in hindsight, they'll even admit that this album was was a little rushed.
So, um, Anthony, anything you want to add about this?
And well, just that even at the time and however old I was.
It felt rushed. OK, not the time when it came out.
It's songs kind of felt half written, but it was not bad.
It played a lot. I didn't like it. I didn't make my top 10.
But yeah, it felt rushed at the time and it was obvious that it was.
I'm not surprised to hear that it was.
OK. All right. So let's see. Moving on here. Number eight.
Trying to figure out how screens have switched here.
Number eight released August 29th, 88 recorded.
Holy shit. This is recorded between May to June of 88.
And I'm saying, holy shit, because back then, albums were not recorded and released two months.
Now it's recorded.
I have to think that a lot of this was.
Yeah, it makes sense because the previous album came out the year before.
Interestingly enough, this band accompanied Anthrax on their big MTV Headbangers ball tour.
Exodus.
Dan, you voted for this as well.
So it was recorded at Horace Sound Studios in and over Germany, recorded by or produced by Tommy Newton and Tommy Hansen.
Label was noise.
This album set the bar for a lot of bands that came out after them. The the part one and part two gives me goosebumps.
Halloween with Keeper of the Seven Keys, part two.
A lot of times when I am forwarded, quote unquote, power metal albums, I'm sent Hammerfall.
I'm sent so many other bands of this ilk. It just makes me turn on these two albums because it seems like they they took what Maiden and Priest did, kind of did their own thing with it.
And they pioneered a subgenre where people have just gotten goofy with what they do within this subgenre.
It's unfortunate, but they go too far with the lyrics. They go too far with the with the image.
They go too far with how fast they play with a lot of this stuff.
Yes, I get it. You can play a million and five arpeggios in half a second. But the song sucks. Who cares?
Halloween was was an eye opener for me. It was a band that I came over to Europe and people were saying you need to check this out.
You need to check this out. Much like Manowar, which we spoke about before.
Manowar just didn't do it for me. Halloween did. And it didn't have to do with the image either.
It just had to do with the composition and what they did with songs. They added prog elements with the song Keeper of the Seven Keys.
But this whole album, I mean, I look I look back at it the other day.
Eagles Fly Free, You Always Walk Alone, Rise and Fall, Dr. Stein.
Yeah, exactly. You Got the Right I think is the only song off of this that I occasionally skip.
March of Time, I Want Out and like I said, the title track.
I listened to this so many summers coming over. This album is just huge in my
in the soundtrack of my life. Dan, your thoughts?
Scream for me, Johan. He's saying right now, number one album probably.
Yeah, we agree, buddy. It's a masterpiece all the way through.
Can listen to it then listen to it now. Absolutely. High on my list.
Awesome. Mike?
Yeah, I agree with the sentiment here. You know, an absolute masterpiece.
The you know, the vocals from Michael Kieske on the album are just amazing.
The notes that he hits had I think this was the first tour that I saw them on.
And they delivered just as well live as they did in the studio, which I never expected.
You know, considering the quality of the sound, but great, great band, great album.
Cool. Anyone else want to discuss Halloween?
I'm not really familiar with part two. I think part one was the last Halloween album I heard.
But now that you mentioned some of the song titles, I think the band I was in at the time used to cover I Want Out.
Probably that was that's probably their most popular song.
I mean, it got a lot of airplay and video got played a lot on MTV back in the day.
And again, it probably had a lot to do with that partnership that they had on that MTV tour with Exodus and Anthrax.
So. All right.
It's interesting how a lot of the same producers, a lot of the same labels of bands that I'm coming that I've been discussing or we've been discussing here with this countdown.
Number seven released on May 10th, 1988, again recorded January, February 1988.
And recorded at Pyramid Sound Studios in Ithaca, New York on Atlantic Megaforce.
Produced by Alex Perry, Alice.
Ed, get that vinyl going.
It is the second full length album.
Where'd it go here?
The New Order?
The New Order by Testament.
I do have that one.
I had the original vinyl.
And they just remastered and re-released it. But, Ed, go ahead.
That's right. I've got my record store guys looking for its release so I can grab a copy of that and the legacy.
OK.
Go ahead. What are your thoughts on this album?
I don't like it as much as the legacy, but still loved it. Me and my buddies, especially my thrash metal friends, we listened to this album nonstop.
We were huge. My guitar playing friends were huge, huge.
All right. I'm sure Ed will be back. Anyone else want to tackle New Order by Testament?
You know, sometimes bands can play songs over and over in every tour and every set and you get tired and whatnot.
But that's not the case with Disciples of the Watch. When that comes on, I get all excited like Metallica playing Whiplash.
I love this album. I put it up high on my list. I listened to it a lot then. I listened to it a lot still to this day.
Cool. Ed, continue.
I'm sorry, my browser has been crashing tonight. But anyway, we were huge fans of Alex. I saw them on both the legacy tour and then also on this tour.
I think Overkill opened up for him. And I just I remember standing up there by the stage just watching Alex play the whole time.
He's just an amazing player because he was different than all the other shredders back then.
The only thing I didn't like about this record, kind of like the legacy, I mean, it had a better production.
It was more clean, but it's a very treble-y clean. It's very, I mean, it's everything's in that treble range.
It feels like. But, you know, a lot of records were made like that back then.
Yeah.
It just, you know, it would be kind of cool to hear some of those songs with that beefier sound, which is why I did kind of like some of the tracks they did on First Strike Is Deadly.
It was kind of cool to hear some of those songs with that, you know, beefier, juggy sound from some of the modern amps.
Yep. Yeah.
True. Chuck Billy, the one time that I got to interview him, he said the reason they did that was because they hated how this album sounded.
And he flat out said that that Megaforce foisted Alex Perialis on them for the first two albums and that when the albums were coming out, they were listening to the Metallic albums, the Megadeth albums, the Anthrax albums, and saying all these albums sound much better than ours.
We don't sound like this live. Why is he, you know, why is he recording us like this?
And the kind of thing was, I guess, Perialis was saying, oh, I've worked with all these bands. I know what I'm doing. You guys don't.
So that's, they always wanted to re-record those songs. So I'm interested to hear the remaster and the remix of these of these first two albums.
They do.
They've sonically improved upon what they what they originally did or not. But we'll see.
I have a quick, surreal story. So at the Mouse House in Orange County, California was Testament opening up, I think it was for Dio.
And so upstairs, I saw Chuck Billy, you mentioned Chuck, and I knew this was going to be weird. So Kerry King was standing right in front of me and I said, Kerry, can you get Chuck?
I need I need to get his autograph. I knew that that was fucking awesome. And so that Kerry, yeah, no problem, man.
Like as if we were friends with Kerry and I was more in awe of Chuck Billy.
I was like, Chuck, thank you so much. And he signed it and gave it back. That's it. That was awesome. That's all I needed.
That's beyond awesome. I thank you for sharing that then.
Yes, flashes in my head every now and then that I had to ask Kerry to get Chuck's attention.
That's so cool.
Mike, go ahead.
I just got to say, Dan, that is the one of the most metal stories ever. But yeah, yeah.
I guess the treble of this definitely stands out.
One thing about Testament to me is, you know, it felt like Chuck Billy's vocals got better and better every album.
Like he learned to sing better, got a lot more quality out of it. And, you know, that really shines through here.
You know, got some absolute bangers here that they still play live to this day, you know, trial by fire into the pit.
Disciples of the Watch. I mean, there's some great tunes here.
Awesome. Yeah, I definitely agree.
Anyone else? Anthony or Brad? Anything about Testament?
I can't add anything. I'm sorry.
OK, that's cool. Moving on here, folks. Where are we? Where are we? Where are we? OK.
So coming in at number six.
Released in October of 88. So this month, celebrating its 36th birthday.
Recorded at Enterprise Studios and Goodnight LA Studios, California. Just as recorded in 88.
Wow, I didn't realize that Roy Thomas Baker recorded this along with Keith Olsen, producers on it, released on Epic CBS.
I memorized all the lyrics to this album in a week when it came out. I don't remember all the lyrics with my 51 year old brain, but back then I did.
So singles as per this and there were more singles off of this.
It says Miracle Man and it says Crazy Babies. Also Breaking All the Rules was a single.
It is the fifth studio. Yeah, fifth solo album by Ozzy. It is No Rest for the Wicked.
It is pretty much the entire world's introduction to Zach Wild.
And definitely a much heavier album than Ultimate Sin, although it's got its moments where it is on its.
I don't want to say poppier side, but things like Breaking All the Rules and Crazy Babies are more straight ahead.
Hard rock, but even the ballad on this, Fire in the Sky is heavier than.
I think any other ballad that he's released in his entire solo career is probably why it's the one that I go back to the most.
But yeah, I was in awe of this album when it came out because to me, it was the heaviest thing that he released.
And it may still be the heaviest thing with things like Blood Bath in Paradise and Demon Alcohol and stuff like that,
which are fast and heavy and things that will probably never.
Well, I don't know that he'll ever do anything else again live, but you get my point.
No rest for the wicked Brad. You have anything to say about this album?
Yeah, this is a great album. I listened to this this week and other than very few symbols in this.
There's a lot of symbols on this album. No, no, no, no. Listen to it again.
Yeah, the drums. Yes. The drums are good. I learned.
I learned how to play copying Randy Castillo. There's all right. All right.
Well, the recording I have has a muted, but there's there's really, really great songs.
The whole album is a great listen. Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it this week.
I was like, wow, I'm looking at the argument right now. I'm not playing one damn song off of this album on the argument.
That's really pissing me off. So I'm going to fix. I'm going to fix that.
Need to rectify that. Yeah, I'm rectifying it. Yes, I am.
Might even bleach it. OK, there you go. I will say bleach bath in paradise.
There you go. Well, with with no gum and weird spots anyway.
There's there's a lot of symbols on this.
There's the devil's daughter has reverse symbols all over the place.
Crazy babies. The entire intro is like all crash symbols.
A tattooed dancer. He's doing a lot of muted stuff on the symbols as well or not tattooed dance.
I'm an alcohol. Maybe my maybe my ears are gone. I think that's I was I was going to say maybe maybe years of being next to hi hats or hi hats and hi hats and rides.
It's like there's no like I mean, there's crashes here and there, but it's not the hi hat and ride.
You can't tell me he just played like that. Was he was he Rick Allen? Come on.
I will. I said this during the Patreon podcast today.
One of the one of the funny things about having hearing aids is listening to original mixes of things and saying, oh, wow, where that note comes from all of a sudden, because I can hear certain frequencies that I couldn't before or thinking, you know, hey, why did they mix this so that that part of the song is now gone?
Yeah, I can hear it again.
So anyway, I love the album. It deserves to be in the top 10. I think it's one of Ozzy's best solo albums. So there you go.
Okay, good job. Good job. Bob Daisley. I'm writing all that stuff.
Yeah, Bob. He has writing credits on what did they get credit?
Yeah, yes, yes, yes.
He wrote the entire thing him. Well, actually, it's credit entire band.
The writing credits for this album or the entire band. So it's it's Bob Daisley. It's Zach Johnson, Claire, and it's Randy Castillo.
Wow.
So everyone got credit for this one.
Martin Popoff gives this nine out of 10 stars, all music, four out of five stars, Rolling Stone, the Bastion of All Music gave it one star.
I was going to say they didn't listen to it.
Mike, anything to say about No Rest for the Wicked?
No, nothing really to add. I mean, yeah, Ozzy at his finest.
OK, then it's fun to look back at Zach and see he's so young looking and girly looking and pretty and clean.
Clean.
That is fun. Yeah, I listen to it over and over. Who knew that Zach was going to be so much of an influence on Ozzy?
We had no idea what was still coming. His sound is I think is a staple of a new era to Ozzy.
He made it his own. And I love the video for Crazy Babies.
The girls are so well done in that the video direction of that is good.
And I saw the tour. Absolutely.
I didn't vote in my top 10 because I needed room because there's so much.
But it absolutely I listen to it a lot and I can still listen to it today.
Great. Anthony, anything to add about this album?
Other than I bought this when I came out and listened to it.
And I hate to be the critic here, but I remember listening to it.
I bought the record, so I had to listen to it a lot.
And it was one of those experiences where I felt found myself trying to convince myself that it was good.
Right. You know, like, OK, I bought this, so I'm going to damn well like it.
But it didn't quite get there.
I think it's just I found was the start of Ozzy's becoming a character of himself with like demon alcohol being the main culprit there.
But like, it's fine. Yeah. Yeah.
I agree with what you're saying.
I think that's that's that's what gets lost on some people with streaming is that how many albums did we get stuck with back in the day where either a review or an album cover or one single was like, wow, this is great.
I got to get this. You pick it up. You spend all your money on it.
And you're like, wow, the rest of the album is kind of a dud.
But I'm going to listen to it 80 times because I bought it and I have to convince myself that I like as much as that first single.
So, yeah, that's that's a great point.
Ed, anything to add on the rest for the wicked.
I was so sad that they got rid of Jake that I did not go buy this album.
And I like it, but I just listened to it and got used to it through MTV because they were playing these videos quite a lot.
Right. But I never I never bought it. I do have it now since I've been collecting records.
And I think it's probably my favorite.
Jakey or Zack album.
You know, when we talked about Ozzy in that episode, most of his records, you know, they're there. I like songs on the different records and they're usually the hit songs. But I'm not crazy about listening to whole Ozzy records and just don't pay as much attention to them as I did.
You know, those first four or five. Yeah. Right. First three, I'm saying. Yeah, I'm getting that wrong.
One.
All right. Cool.
So
let's move on here to number five.
Album released on July 5th, 1988, recorded from December 87 to February 88. What are you holding up there?
It was recorded in Hit City West Los Angeles, Chungking Studios in New York, released on Def Jam produced by the band and Rick Rubin.
There's only one single listed and it is the title track.
It is.
As Ed being the clairvoyant that he is.
South of Heaven by Slayer.
Go ahead.
That album cover looks like all the stories I would hear in Bible class about about the sins of mankind and the torments of hell.
This, you know,
this album was different and I was kind of it's I was not expecting it at all the way it sounded.
You know, Rain and Blood was my introduction.
And just listen to that one over and over and over again. I still do.
When this came out, you know, I was expecting, you know, maybe Rain and Blood Part Two.
And so I was kind of shocked by the difference in the slower sound and the longer songs.
But it didn't take me long to work to grow on me, just a listener to.
And it's been a it's probably my second favorite Slayer record.
I like it better than Seasons in the Abyss.
And one thing that's been really cool about this record is, you know, of course, back then, the songs grew on me.
The more I listened to this record, the more I enjoyed it.
And that's continued to be the case my whole life that this record just continues to become more and more appreciated by me.
When I'm not wanting to listen to Rain and Blood, this is kind of the next thing I want to hear.
And I saw them on this tour, which was a great memory that I have.
I was at Bogart's in Cincinnati and that place is packed, you know, every ticket sold.
And I made my way to the very front and they had for that show.
They had a wooden barrier to keep people away from the stage.
And with all those people, they had me, you know, packed up against that wall.
And so I went home with, you know, scars on my chest and stomach being pushed up against that wall.
But it was man, it was just so cool to be a Slayer show and that mass of people.
And looking at Kerry King, that's back when he still had his long hair.
And I just thought he was as awesome as could be.
And Tommy Ray up there singing with his sex murder art t-shirt.
I thought that was cool.
And I went to the mall and had one made for myself so I could freak out people around town.
Yeah, this was my number one record of the year.
And for people like Jeremy, who aren't huge Slayer fans, he would like this better than Rain and Blood.
OK, yeah. Yeah, this was a lot of people's number one.
The problem is everything above this pretty much was within people's top three albums.
So that's why this ended up at five.
I'll mention this in a second, but anyone else want to talk about Slayer?
I think if you can use the words Slayer and accessible in the same sentence, this is probably the most accessible album
as far as lyrical clarity and being able to pick things out as you go through.
I'm a big vocalist, big lyrics guy.
And this one's always hit well for me on that because you can understand everything that he's saying all the way through it.
You know, still miss Jeff Hanneman.
It's a great album right up there, top two or three with me as well for the band.
That's a good point, Mike. But if you're going to give someone that first Slayer record, that may not be a thrash metal head.
This would be the one to give them.
If my memory serves, I think it was Priest Slayer and Testament, the same show in Los Angeles.
And Slayer scared the hell out of me.
I think this was my first introduction really to seeing Slayer live.
I bought the album when it came out behind the crooked cross mandatory suicide.
Absolutely stands out songs, spill the blood, of course, south of heaven with that opening riff.
It's just you start getting pumped up and get ready.
But I mean, the live show and they drop those barriers on the side with the upside down crosses and the red.
And you're like, what is happening?
And I'm young in life and stupid because I'm a boy and a guy is just like, oh, shit, this is this is happening.
So intense at the time it was new.
Like, wow, what a prestige production.
I think they kick priest's ass if that's my memory.
That's an awesome story.
Well, was it the Rammet Down Tour?
I think so. Yeah. Yeah.
The L.A. thing is gone now.
I was I was I was kind of scared.
I mean, I admit it's like Slayers coming.
I wanted to see it, but oh, shit.
You know, I knew that the Satanism was all bullshit.
I knew that this is just, you know, what they got to you do.
But at the same time, it was fucking intense.
This record also has one of those.
It's like a escape with Metallica.
Kerry King always hates on cleanse the soul.
And that's one of my favorite songs on this record.
It's got an awesome jam, especially in the middle of the song that I don't understand how he could not like it and wish he would play it sometime.
I think Ed hit the nail on the head there earlier on with his description of this album.
It's absolutely fantastic.
You know, when you start to look at these albums as a year, like imagine like you go month to month buying these albums and you're listening to all this stuff.
So you're listening to South to Heaven.
You listen to how I laugh.
In that context, no rest for the wicked.
It's got to fall short, you know.
Mm hmm.
Yeah, I think what we're seeing with this list, too, like we saw we got through the Van Halen's and the Bon Jovi's and the Poisons and those are all kind of grouped together.
We're seeing a lot of these thrash albums now being grouped together as well.
And even though the Ozzy album was probably his heaviest, it's not close to Slayer.
It's not close to any of these these other things because he's still kind of going after a different audience.
And to your point, you know, he was trying to build out that caricature that he was and trying to figure out where he was going to go and what he was going to do with that.
Because ultimately, I mean, we've just recently found out that the Van Halen brothers approached him to do an album.
But he chose the MTV show that he was doing over recording with Van Halen brothers.
So I think it's it's I think it's hilarious when you say that we're not you.
I mean, when people say we're going for a different audience and what crowd is going to this, it's the same crowd like.
That's true.
People who buy South Haven are also buying.
I bought Bon Jovi.
But you know, it's the same crowd.
It depends. It depends where you are, actually, because there are a lot of people that I've met over the years that are huge into like Slayer and things like that and want nothing to do with Ozzie or Motley Crue or Kiss or stuff like that.
And even mentioning that any of those bands influence them just drives them crazy.
It all mixed together, you know, KNAC was our hard, heavy local radio FM radio, and they played Bon Jovi and Slayer.
So you were able to take it all in.
Anybody that wanted to piss otherwise was because they were told to think that way.
Right. Right. And that that has a lot to do with it.
And that has a lot to do with where a lot of like the black metal went later on and, you know, having to be pure and true and all that bullshit instead of, as you pointed out, Anthony, I mean, that Slayer album and the Suicidal Tendencies album, for example, they're both heavy, but they're completely different from one another.
I mean, there's there are elements where these bands, even the Anthrax, even the Testament. Yeah, there are common threads. But each band at that point is doing something a little different to differentiate themselves from one another and to endear them to an entire genre of music lovers.
And that's I think people were much more open to a lot of that, like you're saying, Dan. I mean, when I started listening to a lot of these bands, they were on the same station that was playing the police and Lionel Richie and Madonna.
And then out of the blue, they played Judas Priest, you know, and you're like, wow, what's this with Black Sabbath? What's what's that?
So I think we were kind of more attuned to wanting to give other thing chances.
So. All right. Number four.
I can honestly say that I'm pleasantly surprised that this album.
Was so high because I think that this is probably looked at.
Kind of on the lower spectrum of this band's career.
Released on January 19th, 1988, recorded in 1987, my capital records.
Know this one, too. Fucking guys, man.
The Clare Boyans Show, starring Metal Dan and Ed. So what? Recorded at Music Grinder in Los Angeles on JAPRO Records, produced by Paul Lanny and Dave Mustaine. Singles include in My Darkest Hour, Hook and Mouth.
Hook and Mouth? In the UK.
In Mary Jane.
It is.
So far, so good. So what?
Hook and Mouth is probably my favorite Megadeth song ever.
Hook and Mouth, yeah.
Fuck it. That that when it goes down and it comes goddamn back up again.
Oh, yeah. When he pulls you in.
That's a good choice for a favorite. Yeah.
I tell you what, the first time that I heard that song was because I bought the Hanger 18 single and it's them doing that live with Marty Friedman and Nick Mensah.
So they're playing it a lot faster than the original.
So for everyone that I know, Eddie Trunk goes back and says, I don't like listening to certain live albums because they played the songs too fast.
I'm thinking that was kind of the thing in the 80s where the bands were trying to show that they could out musician themselves live.
OK, this is the studio version, but we're really going to floor your ass live and we're going to play this song louder.
We're going to play it faster. We're going to play it heavier.
And you're going to go home saying, all right, the studio version was cool, but I need to see them live again because I need to hear Hook and Mouth as fast and as vicious as it was.
When they played it live.
The head banger. That's what we did. Absolutely.
Ed, so far so good. So what?
So again, this was, you know, disappointment compared to these sales, but it was like you knew it was going to be, though, because I don't know.
I mean, how can you top?
These sales and I mean, we we've a lot of people feel like he did with Rest In Peace, which was amazing.
But yeah, I just I didn't really expect.
You know, I don't think I knew what to expect when I first heard this, but and it was different and it took a couple of lessons to get used to.
But I still I learned to love this record and I still do.
I enjoy playing, you know, several of these songs on guitar.
You know, they're always fun to play.
I think I saw them on this tour with Warlock opening up at Mogarts.
That was a that was a good show.
They said all we are now on this record, though, too.
We had to get over the loss of Sam not being there.
Right. I don't know if he had died already or not.
No, no, no, no.
He wasn't on this record and they had Chuck.
How do you say his last name?
Teller. I'm looking at my phone down here.
That's why my head's down below.
Anyway, and then, of course, Jeff Young came in on guitars, which, you know, Jeff's a good player.
But yeah, he's not like listening to Poland.
So there was, yeah, things to get used to on this record.
But I got used to it and I still enjoy listening to it.
I've got the, you know, remastered versions,
not the ones with the super bassy sound, the 2011.
Yeah, if you want Megadeth remastered.
Yeah, get that 2011 around that era where they did that one and B sells.
Or no, I think it's like maybe 2008 to 2012, there's an era where they did remasters without that bass being too heavy, like we talked about before, like they did in those 2004 remasters.
But yeah, great record to have in your collection.
Sorry, I think I'm talking too long there.
Go ahead. No, no, that's fine.
Go ahead.
Who else wants to talk about this Megadeth album?
Mike, go ahead.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I just again echo what everybody else has said.
Another number four for me on my list.
So, you know, definitely a top for me.
Even I mean, even the the Anarchy in the UK cover, as far as cover songs go, they sort of made it Megadeth.
You know, they didn't just cover it, the sound just like the Sex Pistols.
And yeah.
I mean, every song on there is just an absolute shredder. Love it.
It's interesting that Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, and Anthrax, wow, and even Judas Priest all have covers.
One cover on there. Yeah.
One cover on each album.
Megadeth, Sex Pistols, Slayer, Judas Priest, Testament, Aerosmith, and Anthrax Trust.
And in the era of having B-sides more prevalent in back in that day, they could have just done that.
I don't know why it's on there.
Yeah, it's interesting because as we were talking about Testament, I had the Wikipedia page up on it.
And for example, it said that their contract stipulated that they needed to release at least 40 minutes worth of music each year.
So, yeah, we had less than 40 minutes written up.
So they included that cover to make sure that they got over the 40 minute audit.
Okay. So, Brad, anything for you on Megadeth so far in Hooked and Mouth?
I'm going to be putting those songs on Yard Metal, that's for sure.
They're not on there yet. Yeah.
This is great, by the way. I love all you guys hipping me to stuff I haven't been listening to. So, very cool.
That's why we do this.
Yep. Yeah, I got a long list of things I got to listen to after the show.
Yeah, there was Sean Richmond mentioned that how checking out a lot of these albums made him find music that he had never listened to, even though it's been out for 30, almost 40 years.
So that's, again, one of the reasons why we do this, to revisit things we haven't listened to in a long time and turn people on to things that they may have never listened to before.
Anthony, anything about this?
Well, this, I was all about Megadeth this time.
It was probably peak Megadeth for me.
And I saw them on this tour.
Really loved the album, but never liked how it sounded.
And I did not like the drums on it.
The drumming or the drum sound.
But, you know, I was able to get over it.
And so I was excited when they did a remix. Did you do a remix of this?
Yeah, so I bought the remix and realized that the original was actually good all along.
So, yeah, but yeah, this is, yeah, peak Megadeth.
I saw them on this tour in a smaller, smaller space in Dublin on my birthday.
And well, like maybe 800 people, I think, was in the venue.
More like opening for them then too?
No, it was sanctuary.
That would have been better. Yeah.
It was the night before, well, the night after I saw them was when Dave did his IRA speech and ended up writing Holy Wars as a result of it.
Yeah.
That was in Antrim.
Cool.
And by the way, Gar Samuelson passed away in 99.
That was 11 years later.
Yeah. So he was out of the band because of his behavior, I guess.
Yeah, it says drugs and alcohol got both him and Chris Poland fired.
Yeah, I was really sad about that.
That was hard to get over.
Yeah, I mean, who knows what what could have been but he died from liver failure, apparently.
That you just made me think of how much better I probably would like this album if those two had played.
It would have it'd be great to have heard these songs with Poland and Sam skills, I think.
Well, I tell you what, the original replacements as per Wikipedia were J Reynolds of Malice on guitar.
Yeah. And Dave Lombardo on drums.
Yeah, Dave.
That must have been when he was taking a little break from Slayer.
Could be.
All right, so we have three albums left.
Well, let's pick it up.
It's getting late here.
Yeah, let's get going.
Shut up, Ed.
That's fine.
So I'm actually personally I'm happy with how things turned out.
Two and three was a struggle up until today.
They kept flip flopping back and forth.
They were tied at one point today.
And I was thinking, how are we going to break this tie?
And then, like I said, I got four people that sent in their top ten lists earlier today.
This was a band that I was was never keen of until this album.
And it made me go out and get a CD player as a result.
So the album was released on May 3rd, 1988.
Was recorded between 87 and 88 was recorded in Pennsylvania.
Motherfucker, I got to begin spoiler, Dan.
I got it.
Kajam Victory Studios, Gwendolyn, Pennsylvania.
This studio in Maureen Heights, Quebec, Canada, Quebec, Canada, EMI, Manhattan is the label.
Peter Collins is the producer.
It's saying only two singles, and that's bullshit because when I listen to today.
I'm like, I'm going to be a fucking masterpiece.
There were 15 tracks on this.
There were like 13 singles that MTV played back in the day.
It is.
Operation Mindcrime by Queens, right?
This was the album that made me a fan of theirs.
I know that Mark Striegel would go on and on about the warning and everything that they released before this.
Awesome, poofy hair, weird makeup.
This was musicality.
This was socially charged lyrics within a, you know, what do you call this?
Not a rock opera, but yeah, yeah.
Yeah, concept album.
Concept album.
There you go.
Perfect.
But it wasn't.
I think it could also be a rock opera.
Okay.
There's actually a story here.
It's not just a concept.
There's a story.
Yeah, yeah.
The album is great beginning to end, in my opinion.
It is an album that I've consistently listened to since 1988.
Was Empire a bigger selling album?
Sure.
What sucks.
Yeah, that's the only reason.
I mean, Empire isn't a bad album, but it's not mind crime, in my opinion.
This is to me, one of my all time favorite albums.
Out of the blue, I'll just start playing the title track or the mission or pretty much anything off of this.
So that's back when we listened to albums all the way through from beginning to end.
And that's why it just, it's all it all works.
It's just perfect.
Yeah.
I can't listen to a song on here by itself and not think of the next one starting.
It's tracked so well.
The story start to finish and you kind of have to.
Here they are opening for Metallica, I think, on this later on.
And they just grew and World Tour then on their own for headline.
And it's like too bad they just couldn't keep it going.
But it's once in a lifetime, perfect album.
Yeah.
Anthony, anything on this one?
Well, it was my number one.
Well, I was surprised that it was my number one.
It was so new when I had all the albums out.
I was like, well, of course, that's the best.
Right.
It stands up.
You can listen to it today.
I did listen to it very recently and.
So good lyrics are great.
It's all Jeff a few weeks ago in Dublin and.
These songs were just having shoulders above the rest of the set.
Right.
Just great.
I saw them on the Empire tour and they played this album.
And I was like, you know, they were playing the album.
And I was like, I don't know.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that.
But I was like, well, it's amazing.
It's amazing.
And it was just amazing.
Complete.
I think we've had discussions before.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Brad, anything on this one?
Yeah.
Yeah, this sounds incredible.
I got to say one thing nice about driving around Los Angeles.
Is that you get to listen to a lot of music.
I think.
It sounds I mean, the album itself is just so great, but it sounds so good.
I had to listen to it again with the earbuds.
And guess what?
You can hear the symbols.
You hear everything.
This album, this album is so good.
And just I didn't see him on the tour for this because they weren't headlining.
But we saw him twice on the Empire tour where they did this whole album.
And we want right after the second time we saw him, we're like, where are they going next?
We're going.
It was that good.
It was just it was just that.
We wanted to see it again and again.
And I've seen them do mind crime or Jeff Tate, you know, do I guess actually the whole band do mind crime after long after.
It's not the same.
I mean, the band is just not the same, but that's a whole other story.
But this album, fantastic.
The live recording that they did in, I think, Milwaukee, live crime.
That is fantastic as well.
Yeah.
And there's a video that goes with that that album as well.
So if you haven't seen that, you should get it.
If you don't have access to it, come to my house.
I'll play it for you in my theater.
And you will agree that it's unbelievably awesome.
There you go.
And anything to say on this one?
No, you can move on there.
All right. So.
Oh, and one more thing.
I can't wind down my window without saying kill him and get a free kill her and get the priest.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was that's funny because as you mentioned, I listened to this recently.
I was listening to it again today and just so many bits started coming back to me.
And you hear that and you're like, oh, man, I know what's coming next.
You know, it's just so perfect.
It's a shame that when they did the second part to this, it was just such a flop.
And even they had Dio come in as as Dr.
X. And you're you're thinking Dio has this menacing voice at times.
And he's singing like so melodic in this song.
It's like, no, this character is supposed to be a menacing character.
What are they doing anyway?
Let's see. Let's see if the clairvoyance continues.
All right. Number two.
Released on April 11th, we're calling from February to March 1988 seven.
Music land, Munich, New York.
On EMI Martin Burch, the producer.
The clairvoyant.
The evil that men do. Can I play with madness?
It is another concept album.
The streak is broken.
I did not see this coming.
Seven Sun by Iron Maiden is number two.
Was this number one at any point?
Never knocked out. No, it never made it to.
Wow. I can't wait to see number one was number one since the start.
Oh, my gosh. It caught me by surprise because I said up until no prayer for the dying maiden is a shoe in.
There's no way that anyone is going to topple them.
But we've often talked with these last few years that there was kind of a changing of the guard.
Where people I know as much as this is my favorite made an album, I know there are a lot of people.
They don't like this album. They don't like that. There were more keyboards on this album that it got a little that the songs were longer and stuff like that.
There are certain things that turn them off that.
Can I Play with Madness was supposedly the only like singable song and stupid crap like that.
I've mentioned this story many times. I remember hearing Scott Muni, the DJ on WNEW in New York.
He had things from England on Fridays and waiting in front of a bodega in my hometown of Dover, New Jersey, sitting in the truck.
My father's pickup truck and having them play.
That's the way I want my rock and roll by ACDC because blow up your video had come out on the same day as the son of a seven son.
And they played Can I Play with Madness and hearing both songs, I was like, yes, they're playing my kind of music on this station who hasn't done so in such a long time.
So seven son of a seven son.
The story is nowhere near as.
Powerful as Operation Mindcrime. Bruce Dickinson has admitted this that that Queen Drake outdid them.
And that's the point.
It was hard for me to decide between the two albums, which was going to be my one and which was going to be my two.
Because I've listened to both albums so much over the years.
I ultimately went with this one over mind crime, but it's.
A minuscule difference between both for me.
Brad seven son of a seven son for you.
Okay, when I listen to this this week.
As like, holy crap, this is why I love Iron Maiden so much. I mean, I just loved every bit of this album and it's just like, why, why did I not get this feeling when I listen to their albums that they're putting out now?
It's just what's what's different. What's missing. I don't want it to say I don't want their new music to sound like this. I just wanted to give me that feeling.
This album just spoke to my heart all the way through. So loved it. Saw the tour. Loved it.
Yeah, it's I think it's a great. It deserves to be number one.
I've got two words for you, Brad. Martin Birch.
There you go. Okay.
Well played.
The inmates aren't running the asylum. There was somebody there that said that's rubbish.
This song at seven minutes is enough.
Yeah.
Ended.
Great album. So, Dan, go ahead.
It was a good time. This isn't my number one because I needed to push other stuff up higher because it's a top 10 list only. But it was a good time to be an Iron Maiden collector of albums because of all the singles released and to be able to chase those down.
Coming in from Corang and coming in stuff coming over from Europe that you hunt down.
I just recently listened to there's a B sides of Iron Maiden and that back Black Bart blues is a lot of fun to listen to and stuff like that. It's just a silliness. But absolutely. It's one of the good albums of the year.
Yeah. Mike.
Yeah, I mean, Maiden is my all time number one favorite band.
And so, you know, this is definitely up there in the upper echelon for me. Yeah, song for song there. There aren't there's no filler here. There are no skippers here. It's, you know, solid top to bottom.
Every song is perfect for what it is.
You can sing along with most all of them.
You know, lyrics will just randomly pop in my head as I'm walking along and, you know, just start going, can I play with madness and, you know, it's all over from there and everybody just needs to give me some space.
Maiden with cowbell.
Yeah, more cowbell.
Anthony anything to say on Seven Son of a Seven Son.
I listened to it recently and I enjoyed it more than I ever did.
That's say that I was never really convinced by this album. Right. In the past, like when at the time, should I say, whereas I listened to it recently, maybe within the last year.
I enjoy it more than I ever had.
I don't know what that means.
Interesting main main was starting to fade. Yeah, I suppose.
But if I hadn't seen them up to this point, there was no prayer for dying when I finally saw them.
So no prayer for. Yeah. But then the album is terrible. So yeah, they were they were they'd already peaked for me.
This is the start of the decline. Yeah.
Yeah, but that makes sense. I mean, you weren't into the band as much then and now revisiting some of the stuff that happens. That happens to me with a lot of bands.
At the time, you're like, yeah, this is not good. But then, like in a different frame of mind, you go back, you revisit a catalog.
You're like, yeah, maybe this wasn't so bad after all. So I understand where you're coming from.
Ed, Seven Son of a Seven Son. You know, another thing about buying music, especially during that year, because it's another story here of becoming more disappointed with the change in sound.
But I still listen to it because, you know, you had to go and to work or mow the yard or whatever and make the money, find a way to get to the mall and buy that.
And you didn't have the Internet to just listen to something else all the time.
You know, you invested in it and you listen to it, even if you didn't like it, trying to enjoy that something that you spent money on and work for.
And yeah, this is another one of those records that, you know, I didn't like the change in sound.
But somewhere in time and Seven Son, they both have great songs and they the production is great.
And I feel like Anthony that with the next record, they lost me.
Something changed with the way they sounded production wise and the songs just weren't connecting with me anymore.
And so, yeah, this is another record that and it's cool to have a batch of records like this that grew on you.
And to this day, continue to grow on me.
And I really enjoy them when I put them on now, it's kind of giving you something different to listen to something you maybe didn't listen to as much as everything else.
That was your favorite back then. Yeah, that makes sense.
So cool. So the the number one album.
Let me see here.
Then have it there.
I don't have the the notes here. Hold on. Let me bring it up.
Wow, geez, spelled it.
August 25 1988. There's the release date.
Actually, it's May 19 1988.
Was recorded between September, September.
This can't be right.
I guess it was re released.
Actually, let me see here.
Okay, I see what what happened one second.
Well, what I was going to pull up was this, which I have the wrong year was Kansas always never the same as the number.
But it turns out that I typed in 88 and somehow picked up an album that was from 90 10 years later. So jokes on me anyway.
But the the real number one.
I got my notes up here.
1988.
Recorded January 28 through May 1 1988 again released three months later one on one in Los Angeles released on Electra.
It's by James Gild Lars Ulrich and Fleming Rasmussen singles include Harvester of sorrow. I have the beholder and one.
And it is of course.
By Metallica.
Comes in two albums. It's a it's in four. It's in over two albums. It's so big of
perfection.
65 minutes long.
Yeah.
Not a surprise.
My question to you is.
Are you agreeing with envy though?
Oh shit.
This one. This is the one that came the day that it came out. I wouldn't purchased it. And, you know, you put it on the turntables you hear for the first time.
I don't remember if K and AC was they were probably sneak previewing some of the songs at least one. But I wanted to not listen to and not know because you know that they came out.
You got to go get it. You got to put it on. And I remember being blown away by one.
And you know when you went into work and we were talking about this album with a friend. Like did you hear one. That's what is that. That's different.
And then Dire's Eve and all that the setup for that.
Yeah.
I am my introduction to this album was Harvester of sorrow because I remember the single came out.
A few months before the album came out. Yeah. And it was played on any trunk hadn't played it yet. It was a metal show that was like Sunday nights at 1am where I would secretly set my alarm clock to wake up and just enough for me to hit record on the tape deck.
I could just fall back asleep. And then the next day after school I would listen to whatever was recorded on that tape.
And and they were they debuted Harvester of sorrow and they were talking about how different it was compared to the rest of the catalog.
I didn't like Metallica because of all this stupid shit that I had mentioned to you guys before with all the dumb stuff that was going on at school.
So I heard that and I was like this is kind of cool. I will say that I've never liked the song one. I just never have for whatever reason.
I've seen them play it live and gotten into it live but just sitting through it.
You know I think it probably has to do with the fact that I've seen the video a million and one times.
And whenever they're on an award show or whatever they're almost always playing this song. But for parts of my life this is my favorite Metallica song and tracks like Blackin and Injustice for All to me are two of the greatest songs ever written in my opinion.
So I love both of those tracks and for as much as they now say oh well we were being over over indulgent with our playing and you know we went too long with the title track and this and that.
Fucking love that song. I don't care. I'm glad that they were over indulgent with fills and solos and stuff on that song personally.
So Anthony Injustice for All. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is huge. Great album. Sold on this tour. They played two nights in Dublin and went both nights.
An even smaller venue actually than maybe it wasn't but it's quite a small venue. Danzig supporting them. OK. Yeah. This album was huge amongst my friends. Yeah. Yeah.
That's that's the whole thing. Because going into this I forgot that and I forgot what an impact it was for people our age when one got on MTV how huge that was how many people were calling in on radio stations to have that song played and stuff like that.
So it's definitely a changing of the guard with respect to Maiden with respect to Metallica with respect to some of the other bands that were on this list kind of rising up and album sales afterwards which was kind of led by Metallica.
And I mean we all know what happened with the following album. Mike your thoughts on this album.
Again you know like what Anthony was saying I saw them on this tour was epic stage show with the collapsing statue and everything.
Big that kind of their first big production tour. I've seen them the tour before as well. It was a lot more stripped down so you can tell that the popularity was coming the money was coming in and they were able to apply it to the tour a little bit more.
Yeah. Absolutely brilliant songs they did stretch them out a lot longer. You know thrash tended to be kind of the all of the pump vein before you with the two or three minute smack them in the face and go away songs and you've got some seven eight nine minute long songs here.
But they work there enough. There's enough variety to it there enough changes through the songs to keep you interested. And you know it's good to see them kind of starting to get their their do even with the first ballads sort of with one coming out.
But you know it did help with the popularity and you know help push them along.
Dan.
I'm good. Go ahead.
Brad anything did you see them on Monsters of Rock.
I saw on Monsters of Rock that was this album out then.
This was right before the game out.
And I remember was a song that they read they debuted on the tour. Van Halen's ass and they blew up the Memorial Coliseum and it was amazing.
There you go. There's the review right there. Yeah we we we had a blast watching them at the Monsters of Rock it was it was pretty cool.
Okay.
What was on this album. Well I remember that we were all incredibly sad because Cliff had died. Right. We have no idea what to expect, except that we did had had a taste you know with garage days.
And I think I was hoping for a little more that garage days deal to this record maybe the production of it, but then of course.
When we got the album, it was very you know low on the base. You know I didn't really notice that as much as a lot of people did, and I think it's probably because I wasn't listening to it on my stereo systems at that point.
But, you know, the songs were still great.
And I think that there's very little base it's almost like a. It's kind of fitting almost because of the weight of Cliff being gone. You know, he was such a major part of that band.
It's funny I remember people giving him a hard time for breaking their valve not to make a video.
And I'll tell you a story quick. My parents family sent me off to a drug treatment center down in Georgia, and statesboro, Georgia. I wasn't a drug addict but that's how they dealt with you.
You know if you have long hair and listen to heavy metal and smoke pot.
You know they send you to a treatment center.
In this treatment center they had a couple of big screen TVs in the common areas with cable and VH1, and because Metallica did a video of one. I got to see that video every day.
And when I was in that place where they wouldn't let me listen to any music, you know I went there with music but they took it all. They took away my music t shirts, everything.
And as you all know being a metalhead when you're craving metal every day and it's taken away from you, man, it's, it's hard.
So that them doing that song and doing that video sustain me through those like three months that I was gone.
And then, when I made it back home to Kentucky and got an apartment with friends, you know that's what we were listening to all the time, along with, you know, death and a lot of these records that we're talking about.
So you know I didn't like it as much of course is everything before it, but I like it. So, way better than everything they did in the 90s.
And yeah it's great record to put on anytime I didn't buy the remastered version, and I thought that sounded pretty good.
Okay.
Cool. So that is our 1988 list here a lot of great music.
Like I said when I post the actual audio podcast of this you guys can check out the rundown of all 75 albums that were voted on.
There's a lot of different stuff on here that some stuff you guys main may question why it's on the list other stuff that will probably make you go back and say, Oh wow I forgot about that one I need to check it out.
And overall I mean it goes.
Once again, how cool.
People are that follow the show and have different types of tastes and what sticks sticks out to them for 1988 related albums.
So awesome. I do want to thank Mike Dan Brad Anthony Ed and Johan even though he couldn't make it happen tonight.
And I want to thank you guys who are listening and watching the replay of this.
I hope you're having a great time checking out this episode.
And that is pretty much it folks we will see you next time right here on signals from Mars.
See you folks.
Thank you.