URBAN:
'The year of the final bloody countdown' - the most horrible catastrophe to ever take place on Swedish soil. Twenty five
countries!! The song ended up at the no: 1 singles chart spot in 25 friggin' countries all over the world including UK, Italy, 
France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Holland, Sweden, etc, etc, etc.
You all think about it for a minute or two... let it all sink in. 25,
25, 25. Not to mention all the places such as the states where it "merely" ended up at
top-10 (#8). Can you imagine the complete
and total hysteria which took place in Sweden during the year of 1986?
No, well, imagine living inside the movie 'Groundhog Day', where every friggin' day is the exact same as the previous one...
"it's not even a proper song... merely a fanfare with the occasional lyrics".
You'll wake up screaming to the sound of 'The Final
Countdown' playing on the radio. Sheer and utter horror!!! And it's not even a
proper song... merely a fanfare with the occasional lyrics.
I may sound like a real garbage mouth and like I'm sick and tired of the song. Well, does a bear shit in the
woods? However, I do enjoy the music of Europe (the band, not the continent), it's just that bleeding fanfare that really gets on your nerves nowadays.
At least noone had music ringtones on their mobiles back in those days, thank f**k. You'd become a serial killer
quicker than page three's Sam Fox could flash her puppies. Nevermind if I had to spend my entire childhood as an juvenile
delinquent. It'd be a small price to pay to spare future humanity of that song.
Not sure if that's the reason why guitarist
John Norum decided to abanndon ship at the very height of Europe's career though. It's not like we kids cared for that
matter. We/us poor, tiny, innocent, cold war kids, had to put up with yet another catastrophe that year... and almost as big as 'the
final' one.
"think Paris Hilton on all
the channels during prime time TV".
In fact, we thought this would be the final countdown for sure. Chernobyl, ever heard of it? No? think Paris Hilton on all
the channels during prime time TV, and you'll get the hang of the magnitude of this catastrophe. Indeed, not a laughing matter,
sheer horror!!!
We're obviously talking about the worst nuclear disaster (so far) as one of the main reactors at the Chernobyl
(Soviet Union at the time) nuclear plant explodes. 100.000's of people are exposed to radioactive downfall and yellow rain. Vast territories in
Ukraine and Belarus are rendered uninhabitable and Chernobyl is still and will probably never be
a safe place to live in.
Sweden was still in shock over the assassination of our prime minister (Olof Palme) and I believe 1986 marks the end of the innocence from our small part of the world.
Speaking of meltdown. The "dead" Bobby Ewing is
revealed to be alive and showering in his ex-wife Pam's bathroom in the season finale of Dallas. Later in the autumn premiere, it was shown that the entire 85/86
season was merely a dream of Pamela's.
"'Peace
Sells... But Who's Buying".
'Peace Sells... But Who's Buying' - Dave Mustaine did his best. U.S. cowboy Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
sure as hell didn't. They meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, to discuss scaling down their missile and nuclear arsenals.
Fat
chance! The cold war continued as the talks broke down quicker than millions of Metallica fans when they heard the news about
Cliffy. Their release of the year, "Master Of Puppets", firmly stands as one of metal's mightiest and most influencial moments ever. Would you believe it ended up as my #1 record of the year too.
Their wicked bassist would sadly not experience all the praise from todays metal artists, fans, mags, etc. since he was
crushed under their tour bus in Sweden. See, only bad things happened in Sweden this year: The Final Countdown, Olof Palme,
Cliff Burton.
And on top of everything, I recall losing out one helluva lotta money on 'Outrun' too (the arcade game). Damn, I blame the Halley's Comet for everything. Don't you ever come back to our solar system again, you hear, you jinx!
"some
of the lyrics are
just as silly as the girlie
voice of Mike Tyson".
My fave hard rock album as a young kid and still kicking at #3, "Slippery When Wet". And considering the vast amount of
plastic on Cher, also Sambora's standard phrase during you know what. Yeah, some of the lyrics are
just as silly as the girlie
voice of Mike Tyson (first time world boxing champion in '86).
However, you can't deny the feel-good power of cracking tunes such as 'Livin' On A Prayer' or 'You Give Love A Bad Name', etc. MTV made them a household name all over the world. Oh how the mighty have fallen, especially considering their lousy albums as of lately...
Vinnie Vincent (ex-KISS), the man who single handedly created the term 'guitarmageddon' and utterly over-the-top playing. Mad virtuoso skill with hand tapping, sweeping runs and licks. Lots of weird tricks and sound effects were only to be expected on his first solo album this year, "Invasion".
"the best/worst example of eighties guitar madness".
'Invasion'
is clearly the
best/worst example of eighties guitar madness. For the record, I like the album a
lot (see my personal list of the year). Many others didn't though...
'To Hell With The Devil vs. Reign In Blood'. Two almost as equally great albums. Wait, did I just type that? Yeah... so
what? I hold the latter as the slightly better effort (see my list of the year). I'll never understand why some will merely listen
to Stryper and not Slayer though (or vice versa).
Stryper and the Sweet Brothers became legendary for tossing out bibles into their audience. The suger-sweet ballad, 'Honestly', became the most requested song on night MTV in '86. Slayer on the other hand, a bunch of not-so- sweet, tossers.
Van Halen transformed into 'Van Hagar' and released in my opinion their best album ever. '5150' was my first real encounter with the Van's (I knew only of 'Jump') and it's simply jam packed with feel-good, party tunes.
I always end up howling loudly along to the likes of 'Why Can't This Be Love, 'Dreams', 'Summer Nights', 'Love Walks In'. The latter a real goosebumps experience. Give me Sammy Hagar era over David Lee Roth's any day of the week.
"Someone Built A Wall In Berlin, Not To Keep Them Out But To Keep Them
In".
'Someone Built A Wall In Berlin, Not To Keep Them Out But To Keep Them In'. Not only 'Magnum' on TV anymore (the private
eye) as I discovered the pompous music of Bob The Cat & Tony The Hat. 'Vigilante' is such a fine record, it should be in every
rock fan's private collection. In fact, the Birmingham geezers managed to record three
great albums in a row (this being the 2nd one).
1986 was also the year of 'synth guitars' as both Iron Maiden and Judas Priest had 'em on their releases of the year. Yup, not a sound effect, but actual Ronalds 'synth guitars'.
Looking back, it must be one of the weirdest moments in hard rock. What genius came up with the idea of creating a guitar instead of some kind of effect box? And why bother with a synth guitar in the first place??? Simply get a keyboard player - duh!
Maiden's
'Somewhere In Time' and Priest's 'Turbo' ended up sounding like none of
their other releases in their massive back catalogue. Perhaps not their best
efforts, but also far from their worst. Both acts went tits up during
the fiasco years of Blaze Bailey and Ripper Owens.
The 'white elephant' award of the year goes to... Quiet Riot and their 'QR III' release. I know, it's one of these albums
you're not supposed to enjoy (much like Black Sabbath's release of the year). However, I find this one to be utterly cool and
smooth to the extreme.
"Kevin Dubrow managed somehow to have a full head of hair again".
It's a far cry from the 'Bang Your Head' rock of Metal Health, but songs like 'Twilight Hotel' should please any melodic hardrock fan. Ehem, strangely enough, Kevin Dubrow managed somehow to have a full head of hair again? (R.I.P.).
Black Sabbath's release, 'The Seventh Star', originally meant as the first solo album by Tony Iommi, had yet another former Deep Purple vocalist on board. Glenn Hughes followed Ian Gillan and the sound was utterly melodic.
The 1986 FIFA
World Cup in Mexico could just as easily have been re-named 'The Maradona World Cup'. Never before
had one player been so
superior to the rest of the schmucks. We wanted so badly to be just as good as Diego Maradona as we re-played the world cup in our schoolyard.
Journey released the wimpiest of all wimp albums, 'Raised on Radio', and ended up recruiting session player Randy Jackson as their
bass guitar player on tour. I believe
he's mostly known for his mad ramblings on TV and the "Idol" show (and not
to forget his awful hairdo of the
eighties).
"the biggest entertainer in the hard rock biz".
"Yankee Rose" with the biggest entertainer in the hard rock biz, David Lee Roth, another major talkie of the year. The talkin' guitar of Steve Vai would leave an lasting impression on all of us. Not to forget that bassist Billy Sheehan (ex-Talas) could mimic all the virtuoso stuff Vai came up with.
Overall, perhaps not the best of the 80's year when it comes to actual top releases. To be honest, a lot of the albums hasn't aged particular well. Shocking poor, the releases from: Ratt, Cheap Trick, Keel, Wasp, Accept, Ozzy, etc, etc.
You can
still find a dozen or three of classic albums though. You just need to wade through a bunch of crappy ones first.
KIMMO: Those Swedes... some of them are a bit traumatized over "that" song. I admit that I like it, no Europe gig wouldn't be complete without it and there's just something about that parp... 1986 was the year of big revelations for me. I got my first very own stereo system with a record player, and I started spending the little cash that I had on LP's and magazines. I used to raid the bargain bins, picking up obscure albums for a coin or two, hoping they'd be something cool. More often than not they weren't. I had a rather large number of albums released by Mausoleum Records, just because they were cheap - stuff like Stormbringer (pretty good actually), Hazzard, Ostrogoth... a bit more expensive were some of the albums I had heard of, but not actually heard yet, and I took some chances. My number one album "The Pleasure Principle" was one, I had seen the band a million times in the Swedish mag OKEJ, and their poodle haircuts and hard rock outfits lead me to believe that they might be good. They were. Same with Brighton Rock, a band that was compared to Bon Jovi and Dokken somewhere - that was my first full-priced LP. They looked cool, had a good producer and cool song titles, so I went to the record store's listening desk and gave it a try. Yep, they were great!
As I had a hunger for new music, I listened to the radio a lot. I heard "that" Europe song long before it actually exploded in Finland, and I did think that it was something special. Might have been played on the Swedish language channel, which had a show or two that played stuff not heard on the normal channels. My first taste of Bon Jovi's new album was in the TV show "Hittimittari", in which 6 or 8 videos competed against each other. "You Give Love A Bad Name" did well I recall, and Jon Bon Jovi became the heartthrob of the year for the young girls.
Indeed, in 1986 the art of Music Videos was doing well, and the Satellite TV shows were an important source of new music for my neigbourhood. One tape that ended up in the circulation contained a couple of Cinderella videos ("Shake Me" and "Nobody's Fool") and Poison's "Cry Tough", which had us running to the record store. I guess there were more, but those are the ones that I remember most clearly.
Choose a year:
[ 1986 ]
[1980] [1981]
[1982] [1983]
[1984] [1985]
[1986] [1987]
[1988] [1989]
Alan, Bandi, Kimmo, Martien, & yours truly, Urban of RockUnited.Com have been spending weeks, months, wading through a bunch of weird looking artcovers and albums of the eighties! Indeed, not an easy task, tracking back in space and time, especially since some of us were almost still in diapers (sticky) at the early days of this era of grand and fantastic music. Check out the left-side border for our yearly write-up in 'black', and this is RockUnited's official 'Best-Of-Album Chart of 1986', calculated from the individual charts. No live-ones, EP's or compilations are included, merely studio albums. You can find them all and complain about our personal taste (or rather the complete lack of it) further down this page! This is merely our humble and tiny celebration of the hairmetal days or daze for that matter. Enjoy or not - this is the eighties: 1986.
THE ALBUMS OF
THE YEAR: 1986
80.
White Wolf - Endangered Species
79. Stage Dolls - Commandos
78. Nuclear Assault - Game Over
77. Helstar - Remnants Of War
76. Krokus - Change Of Address
75. Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
74. Sinner - Comin' Out Fighttin
73. Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday For The Deceiver
72. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
71. Triumph - The Sport of Kings
70.
Accept - Russian Roulette
69. Outside Edge - Running Hot
68. Craaft - Craaft
67. Zero Nine - Intrigue
66. Keel - The Final Frontier
65. Exciter - Unveiling The Wicked
64. Motorhead - Orgasmatron
63. Idle Cure - Idle Cure
62. Eddie Money - Can't Hold Back
61. Deep Purple - The House Of Blue Light
60. Saxon - Rock The Nations
59. King
Kobra - Thrill Of a Lifetime
58. Petra - Back To The Street
57. The Georgia Satellites - The Georgia Satellites
56. Glen Burtnick - Talking in Code
55. Alice Cooper - Constrictor
54. King Diamond - Fatal Portrait
53. Q5 - When The Mirror Cracks
52. Bad Company - Fame and Fortune
51. Aviator - Aviator
50. Frank
Marino - Full Circle
49. Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?
48. Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
47. Chicago - 18
46. Joshua - Surrender
45. Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out
44. Black Sabbath - Seventh Star
43. AC/DC - Who Made Who
42. Savatage - Fight For The Rock
41. It Bites - The Big Lad In The Windmill
40. Giuffria - Silk
+ Steel
39. Toto - Fahrenheit
38. Vinnie Moore - Mind's Eye
37. Judas Priest - Turbo
36. Slayer - Reign in Blood
35. Fastway - Trick Or Treat
34. Vinnie Vincent - Invasion
33. Bonfire - Don't Touch The Light
32. Pallas - The Wedge
31. Virgin Steele - Noble Savage
30. Quiet Riot
- III
29. Brighton Rock - Young, Wild And Free
28. Skagarack - Skagarack
27. Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory
26. Fifth Angel - Fifth Angel
25. White Sister - Fashion By Passion
24. Fate - A Matter Of Attitude
23. Great White - Shot in the Dark
22. David Lee Roth - Eat 'Em and Smile
21. 38 Special - Strength in Numbers
20.
Cinderella - Night Songs
'1986
- the year of the debuts'. Cinderella (as well as Poison) managed to
ride the 'MTV' wave of success all the way to the top. Signed by Phonogram after
Jon Bon Jovi recommended the band, Cinderella made an instant impact.
Their GLAMmy version of AC/DC rock reached #3 on the Billboard chart and
went platinum three times over.
19.
Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy
'You
Don't Remember - I'll Never Forget'. After 'Marching Out', Malmsteen tried
it with another vocalist, Mark Boals (Ted Nugent) who could sing way
higher than Soto at the time. The self-proclaimed master of scales,
high-speed, note-runs, and tapping, came up with yet another fine record
and amazing virtuoso in 1986.
18.
Boston - Third Stage
After
winning a legal battle with Epic Records (they sued Boston, contending the
band owned them a number of albums), Tom Scholtz finally decided to
release another album in '86 (eight long years since the previous one).
The multi-layered guitar-dude stuck again as the album reached #1 in the
states. The single, 'Amanda', a #1 hit. Success.
17.
Waysted - Save Your Prayers
The
band of Phil Mogg (UFO) with their U.S. Melodic Rock sounding platter.
Vocalist Fin was forced to leave at the end of '85, since you can't reach
the U.S. albums chart with a dodgy pitch (vocals, not footie). Danny
Vaughn (later: Tyketto) provided vocals and the majority of the songs are
good. UK fans said 'no thanks' and so did US.
16.
Joe Satriani - Not Of This Earth
'Whammy
bar effects, I need more whammy bar effects'. The instrumental debut album
by Joe Satriani ('Satch' to die-hard fans and mad reviewers) recived a lot
of praise in guitar circles. It contains several different techniques as
well as picking, sweeping, and tapping. The teacher of Steve Vai, Alex
Skolnick, Kirk Hammet, etc.
15.
Treat - The Pleasure Principle
Recorded
at the world famous 'Polar Music' studios (ABBA), the 1986 effort by the
Swedes contains more keyboards and overall better arrangements than the
debut. The American producer, Gregg Winter, co-wrote six of the nine
tracks. It's the classic sound of Scandi-Rock with catchy melodies and
somewhat questionable vocals.
14.
Poison - Look What The Cat Dragged In
'four cross-dressers and a ship-load of glitter' (the answer to the
question in the albums title). The album took 23 days to record and cost 23,000
dollars. The turn over were a multiple of that as it peaked at #3 in the
US chart and stayed at Top-100 for a year and a half. So what if they had
to compensate Easy Action for song theft.
13.
Journey - Raised On Radio
Wimp-lash?
Older fans of the band thought of this as the second solo album by Steve
Perry. No doubt, the vocalist saw his opportunity and grabbed the chance
to become the AOR version of Frank Sinatra. That's a bit harsh, I guess.
However, 'Raised On Radio', would hardly fit the description of 'hard
rock' by any means. Smooth...
12.
Queensryche - Rage For Order
Queensryche's
'Rage For Order' release was advertised with the slogan, 'every chord a
power chord'. It also featured a classy production by Neal Kernon as well
as more progressive overtures and metal cascades. The rather peculiar Glam
image of the band didn't do them any favours though. 'Gonna Get Close To
You', a Dalbello cover from '84.
11.
Zeno - Zeno
One
of the most expensive debut albums in the history of hard rock.
Unfortunately, also one of the biggest flops. EMI invested hugely on the
brother of former Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon, Zeno Roth. Recorded and
mixed in several studios, two producers, dozen of big-name session
musicians. Bombastic rock inspired by Boston and Queen.
10.
Metallica - Master Of Puppets
The
best metal album ever recorded according to several sources (who?).
'Master Of Puppets' was Metallica's first success seller and Gold album in
the states. It peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200 chart. Not too shabby,
considering they didn't release any singles or videos whatsoever at this
point. Thrash 'em all !!!
9.
Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
The
subject of long and hard discussions in 1986. For two reasons mainly
actually. 1 - their dodgy use of synth guitars. 2 - the artcover which
holds dozens of references to earlier Iron Maiden albums and songs. It was
originally created for use to the book cover of the biography 'Running
Free' by Bushell/Halfin.
8.
FM - Indiscreet
The
U.K. version of U.S. rock and overall fluffy AOR. They have that big
commercial keyboard driven sound (Didge Digital) and outstanding vocals by
former Wildlife frontman, Steve Overland. FM had already made a name out
of themselves in the clubs and several support tours on the back of their
debut album. Fun schtuff.
7.
Stryper - To Hell With The Devil
'Speak
of the devil. He's no friend of mine'. But, but, they're playing the 'devils'
music according to millions of nutty believers at the time. The best
selling Christian Metal album of all time. Stryper, a band with penchant
for yellow and black, and vocal harmonies not of this earth. Most
requested song on MTV, 'Honestly' peaked at #23.
6.
Survivor - When Seconds Count
Strangely
enough, this album does not include the Rocky IV smash hit, 'Burning
Heart'. It does however include the hit single, 'Is This Love', which
reached as high as #9 in the U.S. on the Billboard singles charts. It's
their sixth album since the debut in 1980 and the second to feature
ex-Target and ex-Cobra vocalist, Jimi Jamison. Nice.
5.
Magnum - Vigilante
Their
first release on a major label and also a major change of direction, but
somehow the destination is business as usual. Produced by Queen's Roger
Taylor, Magnum's 'Vigilante' had a slightly more commerical approach. Not
as much Birmingham 'pomp' as several of the songs are straight-ahead
Pop/Rock/AOR anthems. Excellent.
4.
Tesla - Mechanical Resonance
Duane
Hitchings produced the City Kidd demos and their managment came up with
the new monicker. The scientist Nikolai Tesla discovered electricity
and the theory, 'Meachanical Resonance' (all material have their own
frequence, with which you can explode objects when you expose them to the
vibrations). Kikk azz rock n' roll.
3.
Van Halen - 5150
The
biggest entertainer (DLR) replaced by a better vocalist and songs. Van Hagar's first
and certainly best release? Former Montrose singer, Sammy Hagar, at the
helm of instant success. '5150' became the band's first album to top the
sales chart in the states. The keyboard driven, 'Why Can't This Be Love',
peaked at #3 and it's all catchy.
2.
Europe - The Final Countdown
Based
on an old keyboard riff from '82, Tempest decided to write the song that
would forever change the world's opinion about Swedes. I'm obviously
talkin' about the success of the title track. A #1 hit in 25 countries and
#8 in the states. The next single, 'Carrie', peaked at #3 on Billboard
200. ABBA, who? Europe ruled the world in '86 (pun intended).
1.
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Their
best selling album and the reason behind the continued success as of
presence. Seriously, it's not like they would/could have been successful
today - if not for "Slippery When Wet". They haven't produced
any classic albums since. It spent 8 weeks at #1 and 38 weeks at Top-5 in
the states. Two consecutive #1 singles, 'Livin On A Prayer' and 'You Give
Love A Bad Name'. (all album comment nonsense
by: Urban)
INDIVIDUAL LISTS OF 1986 *Personal Stuff* | |
|
Urban:
1. Metallica
- Master Of Puppets 11.
Stryper - To Hell With The Devil 21.
King Kobra - Thrill of a Lifetime 31.
Triumph - The Sport Of Kings |
Kimmo:
1. Treat -
The Pleasure Principle |
|
Martien: 1.
Metallica - Master Of Puppets
|
Alan: 1. FM - Indiscreet
|
|
Bandi: 1. Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
1986: Songs of the year: Bon Jovi - You Give Love A Bad Name |
Urban
(Wally): POP/Rock albums of the year: 1. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead etc.
|
|
|
|
