New Wave of British Heavy Metal

Recently I got two albums, Songs From the Sparkle Lounge, the new album by Def Leppard, and The World’s Gone Mad, a two-disc compilation of Vardis.  Both of these bands came from England in the early 80’s, part of a musical trend now referred to as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM).  I won’t pretend to cover the genre exhaustively – I have neither the patience, nor the knowledge, and Lars Ulrich has already collected practically every album by every band.  I’ll comment on the bands I’m most familiar with.

            In the late 70’s, England was particularly unhospitable for “metal” bands, with punk bands and new wave dominating the record companies’ interests.  Iron Maiden formed in 1977 but took until 1980 to secure a record deal, frequently having been told to “cut their hair and play punk music” if they wanted to get a deal.  Needless to say, not everyone in England was enthusiastic about the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and other hardcore acts.  Nonetheless, a new crop of bands managed to spring up like unwanted mushrooms in the dark, fetid underground of the UK.  They shared a love for Black Sabbath (sped up by a factor of 2-3), Marshall stacks turned up to 11, Gibsons & Fenders, and particularly atrocious production.

            At first listen, especially listening to the NWOBHM compilation I have, all the bands sound exactly the same.  This isn’t helped by the fact that in many cases, they do sound the same, or that the particular songs chosen were considered “representative” of the genre, probably none more so than “Helpless” by Diamond Head.  And while bands like Iron Maiden eventually developed a unique sound, at this point in their career they were pretty much like everyone else.  You really have to delve into the individual bands for at least one album each to begin appreciating their subtle differences, though with the lesser lights, such as Venom, it hardly seems worth the bother.  So here’s a brief rundown of the various bands which make up this subset of metal, as it were. The most successful of the NWOBHM bands were Saxon, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, and Motorhead.

Saxon.  From Yorkshire. Saxon have the distinction of being the NWOBHM band which (A) lasted the longest AND (B) changed their sound the least – quite the opposite of Def Leppard.  The lead singer, Biff Byford, appears frozen in 1980.  Their top albums are Wheels of Steel, Denim & Leather, and Strong Arm of the Law, which provides my favorite Saxon song, “Heavy Metal Thunder.”  They still put out albums, still tour, and to listen to Saxon, it may well still be 1981.  By now, former guitarist Graham Oliver and bassist Paul Dawson have split off to form “Oliver/Dawson Saxon”, with Biff retaining the rights to just plain “Saxon”.  Like Leppard, Saxon love to wave the Union Jack, or white/red English flag, around, and embrace their heritage; they were kicked off a slot at a metal festival in Dubai due to their older song, “Crusader”.  They just need to stop in the middle of the show, sit down, and drink tea, maybe a likely outcome as they get older and Biff’s long hair turns grey.

Def Leppard.  From Sheffield (North England), their equivalent of Pittsburgh.  To me their peak was High’n’Dry, produced by John “Mutt” Lange, released back in 1981.  Still forged steel balls, especially “Lady Strange”, “Another Hit & Run”, “Bringing on the Heartbreak”, and “Switch 625.”  Not a bad cut on the whole album.  Pyromania, which followed, was a step in the commercial direction.  But if we thought Pyromania was a sellout album, Hysteria, which followed, showed us what the band would REALLY put out had they signed their souls away to the Devil for as much commercial success, money, and pussy as they could possibly handle – apparently Rick Allen’s arm, and Steve Clark’s life, were the price they paid to Eric Bloom’s friend Lou C. Fer for all that success.  Despite these losses, they’ve kept going since then.  We saw the Hysteria Tour in 1987 (supported by Tesla!) but lost interest after that.  Their newest album, Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, is not bad, but it might as well be Hysteria II.  If you’re nostalgic for 1990, by all means knock yourself out.  They’ve had a bit of a Union Jack gimmick going on for awhile, either Rick Allen wearing Union Jack boxers, or Joe Elliott wearing a Union Jack sleeveless t-shirt (who says Americans have a monopoly on flag-waving – though I’m not aware of any other country whose own people actually BURN the flag!).

Iron Maiden.  I mentioned this band earlier, referring to Live After Death.  Maiden come somewhere between Saxon and Def Leppard.  They achieved phenomenal commercial success, particularly in the late 80s.  Unlike Def Leppard, they did this without selling out.  And unlike Saxon, they have improved their sound and progressed:  Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, etc. show a remarkable maturing of ability over the first two, very raw albums Iron Maiden and Killers – and I don’t mean just replacing Paul D’ianno with Bruce Dickinson. [By the way, I’ve heard “Sanctuary”, “Iron Maiden”, and “Wrathchild” enough times by now.  “Phantom of the Opera” is a good song, and a nice bone to be thrown to us as an early classic, but can we please hear “Strange World” or “Prodigal Son”?].  A Matter of Life and Death, their most recent album, is 100x more advanced and different than Iron Maiden, than Saxon’s most recent material is from Saxon.   Fortunately, after two loser albums with loser vocalist Blaze Bayley (hardly surprisingly, X Factor and Virtual XI have easily the lowest sales numbers of any Maiden albums) Bruce Dickinson came back - with a haircut.  I can’t say that Brave New World, Dance of Death, or A Matter of Life and Death are as high caliber as their earlier work with Dickinson – unfortunately, they are undeniably past their prime – but they certainly don’t stink as much as the Blaze Bayley albums and are better than No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark, the last two Dickinson albums before he went solo.  If you count their popularity in Brazil, Iron Maiden are as big as ever.

Motorhead.  Funny, I never considered them a NWOBHM band.  Lemmy was kicked out of Hawkwind in 1975 after being busted for amphetamines in Canada, on their Warrior on the Edge of Time tour.  Shortly after, he formed Motorhead.  Lemmy was already famous in an established band, Hawkwind, during its classic period, and he got Motorhead up and running – first album in 1977 (not counting On Parole’s delayed release) - long before the NWOBHM thing got going, so it’s hard to qualify Motorhead as a NWOBHM band, although their sound is certainly consistent, and Ace of Spades came out around the right time (1980).  It’s probably more accurate to consider them the #2 influence, after Black Sabbath, on the NWOBHM bands.  Lemmy tends to bitch that we consider Ace of Spades their peak, and insists that the band has been productive since then.  Yes, they still put out albums and tour.  But every Motorhead album sounds exactly the same, like a yearly copy of Iron Fist, Bomber, Ace of Spades, etc., with 1916 and Another Perfect Day being rare exceptions.  Maybe they have been cranking out new albums, but if they sound exactly like every prior album, there is little reason to buy the new albums and listen to them.  I’ve seen them a few times and they are good in concert – I particularly remember seeing them at the Bayou in Washington DC, in January 1996 in the middle of a huge blizzard.  Lemmy and the guitarist like to leave their instruments leaning up against the amps at the end of the show to feed back.

After these three, you get the lesser known bands who have fallen by the wayside and probably deserve more attention:

Diamond Head.  From Stourbridge (southwest of Birmingham).  Easily the top “underrated” band of the NWOBHM thanks to Metallica.  “Am I Evil”, “The Prince”, “Helpless” were all covered by Metallica, though my favorite, “Sucking My Love”, only appears on Metallica bootlegs.  Like Iron Maiden, they languished in the wilderness for years before getting a record deal – mainly because they were so atrociously managed.  They broke up in 1985 after three albums, the third of which, Canterbury, was a light & fluffy commercial turd.  It seemed they were bored with metal and wanted to try something else, but couldn’t get anyone to listen to them, or a record deal, in Def Leppard mode.  After a few brief reunions including Sean Harris, the singer, and a few times opening for Metallica and Megadeth (Sean Harris collaborated with Dave Mustaine on a song) they are back again, with only guitarist Brian Tatler as the remaining original member, Nick Tart handling the vocals now.  Diamond Head seem to be the sturdiest, most substantial bridge between Black Sabbath (70’s metal at its heaviest and finest) and Metallica (late 80s-90s metal at its finest).

Vardis.  From Wakefield (Yorkshire), led by Steve Zodiac, a remarkable cross between Mark Farner and Johnny Winter.  He played Telecasters exclusively (and got a good, meaty tone like Page on the first Zeppelin album) and insisted on going on stage in bare feet. Vardis were a 3 piece, with the one of the most bluesiest sound of all the NWOBHM bands.  Their first album, 100 MPH, was a live album, described as a continuous guitar solo (sounds like Man’s set at the Greasy Truckers show to me).  After some management problems, their record company went broke, so 1986 was as long as they lasted.

Witchfynde.    Another northeast band, from Nottinghamshire.  Their first and notable album, Give ‘Em Hell, features one of the best NWOBHM songs, “Leaving Nadir” (Lars Ulrich’s favorite, and mine as well).  Their major problem was various record labels going under or failing to promote them.  After some time apart, they have reformed, including guitarist Montalo, and have new material pending.

Angel Witch.  From London, of all places.  In fact, I lump them in with Witchfynde not only by name, but also having a good first album (Angel Witch) and being somewhat of a fairly decent ripoff of Black Sabbath; their sound has been described as “the first Sabbath album played through a cement mixer.”  Along with Witchfynde, one of the better obscure NWOBHM bands given that Diamond Head have been so heavily publicized by Metallica.  Instead of having (A) management issues, or (B) record company issues, Angel Witch suffered the “Deep/Snake/Crimson/Rainbow” problem of personnel issues, Kevin Heybourne (vocals/guitar) being the only consistent member.  In one case a US version of the band led by him was undone by the INS….which deported him back to England.

Grim Reaper.  I got one album of theirs, See You In Hell, but wasn’t overly impressed (apparently sharing Beavis & Butt-head’s opinion).  Oddly, they have reformed without Nick Bowcott.

Venom.  Talk about over the top.  I got Black Metal, and we had tickets to see them in fall 1985, but the show was cancelled.  Later, at college, my buddy Baron had a video of Venom which we watched, hammered with a few dozen beers between us, and fell out of our chairs laughing so hard, it was so awful.  Cronos, Mantos, and Abaddon (no, not their real names) could barely seem to play their instruments to save their lives.  It was like KISS meets Alice Cooper, or even Spinal Tap.  I hate to imagine anyone who took these clowns seriously.

Budgie.  Here’s a judgment call.  Budgie, from Wales, predate the NWOBHM movement by a long shot (starting off around 1971) but when the NWOBHM trend came around, they had lost guitarist Tony Bourge, gained guitarist John Thomas, and jumped on the bandwagon.   Power Supply, Nightflight, and Deliver Us From Evil were the three albums with JT, and sound almost exactly like Saxon and the other NWOBHM bands.  It’s a shame, because with their last 3 albums with Bourge, Bandolier, If I Were Britannia I’d Waive The Rules, and Impeckable, they finally transcended their Black Sabbath influence and injected some looser jazzy elements – even somewhat bossa nova (???) – and achieved what could finally be called their own unique sound.  With these JT albums, they’re just another (competent) NWOBHM band.  It’s ironic, though: Metallica, more than any other band, has been responsible for bringing bands like Diamond Head to light, but the two Budgie songs they cover, “Breadfan” and “Crash Course in Brain Surgery”, date from the earlier Tony Bourge era, not the John Thomas NWOBHM era.  And they’re not even Budgie’s best songs.  Their newest album, You’re All Living in Cuckooland, the first since they reformed after the John Thomas era, bears more resemblance to the Bourge material, but is somewhat undefinable.

Honorable Mentions:  As I noted, the list is not exhaustive.  Here are the other bands commonly considered part of the genre: Tygers of Pan Tang (notable for John Sykes), Praying Mantis, Samson (prior band of Bruce Dickinson), Holocaust (Metallica covered “The Small Hours”), Sweet Savage (prior band of Vivian Campbell, Metallica covered “Killing Time”), White Spirit (prior band of Janick Gers), Jaguar, Fist, Cloven Hoof (I saw their album at FNAC but passed on it, they looked a bit too goofy), Girlschool & Rock Goddess (both all-female bands of not only dubious talent, but unfortunately dubious attractiveness as well), Pretty Maids (who we saw open for Saxon), and Demon (I remember seeing their albums at FNAC but never bought one – they seemed to steal their logo right from Dodge!).

Bottom line: A surplus of talent, an absence of luck, all too often the story for many of these bands, especially when you consider that of the bands that ended up being least successful, those are the ones who most influenced Metallica, with the major exception of Motorhead, who Metallica consistently cite as a major influence even though I don’t think they really qualify as a NWOBHM band.  In a sense, Metallica scooped up their influence and used it to start their own career.  The three bands who were independently successful – Saxon, Iron Maiden, and Def Leppard – have the least connection to Metallica in terms of influence.