80s Metal Tournament: Four Albums Enter, One Gets the Deep Dive
The power’s in your hands. Which forgotten piece of 80s metal history deserves to be dug out, dusted off, and given the spotlight again?
You’re scrolling through your music library, and BAM—a forgotten gem hits you right in the feels? The sudden urge to text your buddy: “Holy crap, remember this one?”
Well, Dig Me Out listeners delivered four of those moments straight to our inbox. This is a listener-nominated battleground where nostalgia meets discovery, where the mainstream crashes into the underground, and where one record will earn the ultimate prize: a full Dig Me Out deep dive podcast episode.
Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest For The Wicked
Ozzy Osbourne's first album with Zakk Wylde is an extremely slick affair. When I first heard it I was torn, it was clearly Ozzy but I felt like the songs lacked the explosiveness of the Randy Rhoads era and the feel of the Jake E Lee albums. Eventually the album grew on me and today it's one of my favorites. Keith P Miller
Vandenberg - Vandenberg
Classic early 80's hard rock - Marmaduke
Godflesh- Streetcleaner
Godflesh are the second pillar of popularising industrial metal, and Streetcleaner is the reason. This is a giant slab of noise and a big shift from the goth/new romantic sounds they previously played. This is probably unknown to most of the people here but i think i can count on at least one other vote. - Gavin Reid
ICON - Night Of The Crime
With the recent Def Leppard episode, I felt compelled to suggest this one, as there’s some similarities in the progression of their early albums. On the list of could’ve/should’ve been huge artists/albums, ICON and their 1985 sophomore album, Night Of The Crime, sits at the very top, originally formed in 1979 as The Schoolboys, the Phoenix, AZ band would later change their name to ICON. After building up a local following, they would be ‘discovered’ by Metal impresario Mike Varney, who helped get them a deal with Capitol Records, and produced their 1984 self-titled debut. That album was a confident chunk early early 80’s styled heaviness, in the vein of Judas Priest and the like. It sold modestly enough to guarantee a second album, although this time, there was concerted effort to increase the band’s commercial reach and fortunes. Eddie Kramer was brought in as producer, with Ron Nevison mixing and noted song doctor Bob Halligan, Jr. helping out with penning the tunes. This team helped the band keep their heavy edge just enough, while still giving the material the kind of sonic sheen that would help to potentially get them all over radio and MTV.
The resulting album, Night Of The Crime, is filled with songs full of catchy, sing-a-along choruses, buoyed by the powerhouse vocals of singer Stephen Clifford, and the dual lead & harmony guitars of Dan Wexler and John Aquilino. It should have made them stars, and likely would have - especially with the lack of a Def Leppard album that could have been out then, with this record ably filling that void. Unfortunately, it got put out with almost zero promotion, and other issues that went untold for years, as to why that happened. It’s an interesting story that would make for great episode, but I’ll save the details in case that should happen. Regardless, even though the record, for the most part, remains a bit of a hidden gem, it’s regarded as highly in the AOR/Melodic Rock world, as Jellyfish is to the Power Pop world. - Joe Royland