The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal’s Most Underrated Albums
You'll find no Iron Maiden, Saxon or Def Leppard here....
8. Tokyo Blade – Tokyo Blade (1983)
Source // ring.cdandlp.com
Ignore the confusingly retitled Midnight Rendezvous version of Tokyo Blade’s debut album (retitled for U.S. release for reasons unknown) and set your sights on the 8 sickle-sharp tracks found on the original self-titled release.
Lean, sharp and precise, Tokyo Blade’s debut was primed for the big-time and should have carved a direct route to the heart of the genre.
Very much in the same vein as Iron Maiden, Tokyo Blade’s lifeblood still pumped to it’s own tune with choice cuts “Break The Chains” and “If Heaven Is Hell” proving the band had more than enough edge to keep up with Maiden and Saxon etc.
This was pure Heavy Metal with all traces of 1970’s Hard Rock dominance consigned to the scrapheap. For it’s time, Tokyo Blade was state of the art and breathlessly fast and to paraphrase opening track “Powergame”, you do want it and you do need it!
Most underrated albums? The albums you choose are TOP NWOBHM albums except for the last two.
Thanks for commenting Roberto. You are correct, they are top albums but they are also most definitely underrated. By that we mean they should have been more popular outside of the niche circle of NWOBHM fans. Just to prove my point, consider the albums/artists not included. There’s no Maiden, no Tygers Of Pan Tang, no Saxon, no Angel Witch, no Raven and instead of Witchfynde’s more popular Give’Em Hell, we chose Stagefright….the more underrated album.
Infernal majesty
Canadian Thrash Metal band?
witchfinder General Friends of hell, death penalty.
I would consider Death Penalty to be an acknowledged NWOBHM classic but agree with Friends Of Hell being underrated, a great follow-up \m/
Really excellent list, mr. Jennings. For many enthusiasts of this movement, actually some choices are quite obvious, e.g. the mentioned albums of Cloven Hoof, Satan, Jaguar and Tytan. A very positive surprise for me is that you chose the astounding Stagefright of Witchfynde, a true underrated (or hidden) gem. This is one of my favourites of all time. Very distinctive, very dark and melodic at the same time, a obscure masterpiece.
Thanks! Stagefright is an obscure masterpiece indeed and the more people who discover this underrated classic the better \m/
Their albums were included in the list, but I don’t think Demon, Diamond Head and Tokyo Blade are less popular than Raven, Angel Witch and Tygers Of Pan Tang.
The tips in the end of the list are very good indeed. As a pretentious specialist, I have some additional recommendations: Witchfynde, Chateaux, Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General: everything released to date! And finally, Omega’s album “The Prophet”.
My Vote goes for Girl – “Sheer greed” fast punky songs with a glam sheen and some top notch solos. forget that various members went one to become american hair metal types and just enjoy the sheer energy of the collection
These are good albums, what do you think of A II Z’s Witch of Berkeley or Quartz’s self titled or Bitches Sin Predator?
The Quartz debut is great (they have a new album coming out this month you know!), the Bitches Sin album not so great. I have to confess, I’ve never heard the A II Z album but live albums don’t generally thrill me! Thanks for reading and commenting \m/