Part_3

While punk was shaking the foundations of rock n' roll, heavy metal came back with Judas Priest, the Scorpions, Accept, and the short-lived New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). The highly important British invasion brought with itself bands like the acclaimed Diamond Head, Def Leppard, Holocaust, Iron Maiden, Saxon, Samson, Tygers of Pan Tang, Venom, Raven, and Sweet Savage, of which only Iron Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard were to survive. Judas Priest would popularize the leather, studs, and spikes apparel that would characterize metal for years to come; the veteran Scorpions would increase its string of brilliant releases, such as Virgin Killer, Lovedrive, and Blackout, which featured the band's taste for both ballads and heavy songs; and Accept would demonstrate its solid musicianship and proto-power metal drive through classic albums like Breaker and Restless and Wild.
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden brought back the mystic imagery of heavy metal while pounding out some of the heaviest riffs of its time in albums like Killers, Piece of Mind and Powerslave. The band was to remain the heaviest to rule the arena hard-rock circuit for years until the advent of Metallica. And while Maiden pounded out harmonized and majestic guitar riffs backed by a thunderous bass (a combination commonly known as classic metal, not to be confused with the pioneering genre), Venom would truly begin the thrash metal genre with classic albums like Welcome to Hell and Black Metal, in which it also laid the grounds for what would turn out to be death and black metal later on. Originally a band meant as a tongue-in-cheek project named Oberon, Venom was to become the most intense band of its time and would inspire, along with Motorhead, Judas Priest's Stained Class and Riot's distinguishable and energetic musical outbursts, young bands such as Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, and Mantas (which would later become Death) to start making their own brand of fast, aggressive music.
The NWOBHM, however, was to be more than just a short-lived movement of exciting heavy metal revival in Great Britain. It became a revitalized hotbed of youthful exuberance, unbridled creativity, and a point of inspiration and reference for the way heavy metal was to evolve throughout much of the Eighties. With the driving riff-based metal of bands like Jaguar set up against the quirkiness of Witchfynde, the originality of Legend, the timeless quality of Diamond Head, the energy of Angel Witch, or the doom-laden crunch of Witchfinder General, it signified what heavy metal stood for, and guaranteed its continual evolution.
As in the past, the United States decided to bite back with a vengeance, which was embodied in the pop/glam metal explosion of the 80's. Van Halen was already there since 1978 and had become an arena band, hitting the world hard with Eddie Van Halen's guitar wizardry and David Lee Roth's wild show antics. The prototypical Journey had sold millions of records since its inception in 1972 with its keyboard-oriented metal, and later on Angel and Foreigner would begin breaking through to the masses while Montrose released legendary music. But the real vengeance came in the early Eighties with Motley Crue and Ratt, two bands from Los Angeles that wrote relatively accessible songs big on hooks and strongly influenced by the likes of veterans Sweet and T-Rex. Not only that, but both bands also took the glam images from bands such as Alice Cooper, David Bowie, the New York Dolls, Kiss, and Gary Glitter. Taking them to the extreme, glam metal bands began wearing women's makeup, leather outfits, fishnets, headbands, spikes, and whatever they could basically get their hands on. Motley Crue, perhaps the most important pop metal band of the 80's, began the LA metal explosion in 1983 with Shout At the Devil, an album that was solely responsible for bringing heavy metal fully back into commercial circles; at the same time helping propel Ratt and the older Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot into stardom. "Round and Round," "We're Not Gonna Take It," and "Cum On Feel the Noize," respectively, broke each band over to mainstream audiences worldwide; a success that in turn paved the way for Bon Jovi.
Bon Jovi was the second most successful metal band ever, right after Def Leppard; selling millions upon millions of albums and releasing hit ballad after hit ballad. Slippery When Wet and New Jersey took the world by storm, as would Def Leppard's Pyromania and Hysteria. These two bands perfectly learned how to take metal's harshness and mix it with pop's accessibility, therefore producing a perfect blend for the MTV-influenced youth of those days (although many would contend that Bon Jovi isn't really metal). Meanwhile, Motley Crue and Ratt innovated their own music with every album and remained successes for a long time, reflecting the darker side of pop metal. However, these bands obscured others that had as much to offer. Groups such as Kix, Faster Pussycat, and LA Guns, despite their strong material, never truly obtained the success some felt they deserved, while bands like Kiss adapted to the ruling pop metal scene on songs like "Heaven's On Fire." Later on, the pop metal explosion would also obscure bands with harder or more classic styles, such as the acclaimed Thunder, G.U.N., and Junkyard; although others like the Cult and Jackyl did manage to surface.
However, pop metal eventually became too accessible and flashy and needed revitalizing. Whitesnake, which epitomized the common successful glam metal band, was already dying out despite its existence since the Seventies, and only the strongest and best bands were surviving: Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Motley Crue. The scene needed a new type of band; a band that was not as polished and accessible, a band that came from the sleazy and edgy streets. Enter Guns n' Roses.
Guns n' Roses was what the pop metal scene needed. Appetite for Destruction was a searing, raw, and aggressive affair, featuring Slash's bluesy guitar licks and Axl Rose's hanging-on-to-dear-life vocals. Guns n' Roses took the spotlight with its mix of the Hanoi Rocks, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and previous pop metal acts with songs like "Welcome to the Jungle," "Night Train," and "My Michelle," while showing its softer side on "Sweet Child O' Mine." With the band invading the media massively after what had seemed to be an initial failure, Guns n' Roses had saved pop metal from commercial extinction and would eventually reign the scene along with Motley Crue, while Def Leppard and Bon Jovi enjoyed long breaks.
The coming of Guns n' Roses, however, would not prevent new accessible bands from appearing. Poison and Warrant were probably the best and most noticeable of these; although they weren't something completely new, their songs were original and catchy, but their extreme use of makeup and glamorous clothing would incite critics everywhere to attack them as throwaway bands. White Lion was also an important pop metal offering; although some of the band's songs were rather trite, much of its material was also quite impressive; especially songs like "Lights and Thunder," "If My Mind Is Evil," and "Leave Me Alone." Meanwhile, the bluesier Cinderella offered a string of honest and straightforward rock albums, and Tesla did likewise, shunning the glam image in the process. The far more experienced outfit Dokken was yet another historical feature of pop metal, displaying George Lynch's blazing fretwork and a heavier influence of technical musicianship (as well as the epitome of what would eventually become all of glam metal's cliche's), while Europe blasted through the charts with the melodic masterpiece "The Final Countdown." Others like the Christian Stryper, the often criticized Winger and Great White, Mr. Big, Bad English, Damn Yankees, and Slaughter made up an important part of the scene. There was also the rather memorable Skid Row, but its line-up would eventually venture into much heavier grounds, despite the heavy success of its debut album: Skid Row.
The pop metal scene would also be responsible for bringing about the most popular and widely known female heavy metal musicians ever, who continued with the advances of the Runaways and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal Girlschool; the two bands most responsible for making rock a viable musical avenue for women. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts enticed admiration with the heartfelt "I Love Rock n' Roll," while Lita Ford would air on the music media through her single "Kiss Me Deadly." The two ex-Runaways members eventually lost their popularity, but they, along with Warlock's Doro Pesch, were responsible for influencing the creation of young new female bands like the velvety soft Vixen, the alternative L7, the obscure Phantom Blue, and the heavy and gloomy Drain S.T.H.
Meanwhile, a somewhat heavier and more classic approach to the genre was provided by several heavy metal legends during the Eighties. Black Sabbath, along with singer Ronnie James Dio, came back with Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules to much acclaim; both albums marking a stylistic change in which a more melodic approach was utilized. Meanwhile, Ozzy Osbourne, away from the Black Sabbath front, provided ardent fans with releases such as Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, which featured prodigious guitarist Randy Rhoads and along with Dio's later solo releases would keep his type of melodic metal alive through the Eighties. This was also due to efforts of newer melodic bands that stuck to heavy metal, such as the constantly evolving Savatage, the "Kings of Metal" Manowar, Cirith Ungol, and Armored Saint, each with its own style. Several of the Seventies' legendary bands would make comebacks throughout the Eighties with different degrees of success, but there was no synchronized revival of the pioneering metal of old, partly because many bands had lost either their originality or the passion that had characterized their early impact.