Thank you for your article. Love it or hate it, but you cant deny that Superstitious slays and it might just be Europes greatest ever track. While reviews at the time were mixed, retrospectively, it has been given high praise. Wake Me When It's Over (1989) Full of sleaze and attitude, one of the better hair metal albums to come out at the tail end of the 80's. Had a minor hit with "House of Pain," but never really went anywhere. Now, in the 80s, you basically had two types of Guitar Gods: the Neo-Classical speed shredders, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Vincent, Mark St. John, and Vito Bratta, and on the other side of the spectrum were the players who were more rooted in the 70s Classic Rock and Blues, such as Slash, CC Deville, Bruce Kulick and of course, Mick Sweda. Real Steel opened for the Bulletboys, Bang Tango, and Gorky Park in their day, and apparently had interest from several labels (almost signing with Warner Bros.). On the other hand, "Dog Eat Dog" represented what the band really wanted to do with their career, which included a much heavier sound and lyrics more diverse than drooling over girls. Google, here I come! All rights reserved. Also, Dog Eat Dog is significant to the bands history, as it is the final album to feature the bands quintessential five members. Also, weve added in a few that we feel could have, or maybe even should have, been on the first list as well. Not to mention the fact that Andrew W.K. Sadly, all of this complexity and diversity of "Dog Eat Dog" went under the radar of most mainstream music fans, as the association Warrant with all the corny aspects of glam was simply too strong. Best Song . Looking back, though, this record is awesome. If anyone at all loves Cock Rock, No Respect by Vain should be in their collection, and Davy Vains subsequent efforts have all been respectable. The Ozzy roots run just as deep as the KISS roots! If he doesnt belong at the top of this list, I dont know who does. Black 'N Blue Nasty Nasty (1986) 03. But the music on this album is so infectious, you really won't care if they had no gimmick. Blackie Friggin Lawless. Copyright All rights reserved "Don't Close Your Eyes" is one of the best ballads ever written. Of course, there definitely were more than six '90s "glam" albums that deserve a second chance, so you're more than welcome to post further suggestions in the comments below. I suspect I am going to get flack for this, but despite what you might think, this all-female Hair Metal masterpiece is supremely underrated. This album was Def Leppard's bridge between being a NWOBHM band and a hair metal band. Extreme is best known for their No. Wait, what? I can't tell if they're still active or not, but Wildside does have a Facebook page that's touting a remastered re-release of Under the Influence this year, and I'll be all over that if it becomes a reality. Thanks for the reminder! 04. Connor Shelton described it as one of the few bands from the era to bring a level of depth . Here are some trivia tidbits about their debut full-length, Under the Influence: The record was slated for release by late-1991, but ended up being delayed until May of '92, during which time Wildside lost their slot opening for Van Halen on the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge tour. This album gave a huge kick in the ass to the genre when it was spawning hundreds of wanna be's. A good snotty, snarly album. Simple answer underrated yes. all the bands on your list kick ass! Well, in the wake of the Hot In The Shade screw-job, the band still managed to book a nice tour of well-paying gigs and were set to depart, when Dean The Diva Davidson decided to split and make a go of it on his own. They had Michael Angelo Batio on guitar. 7800 Fahrenheit really pulls no punches, and it played a huge role in shaping the shaping of the sound that was to come for Bon Jovi. Check out the old TKO albums also, they are basically Q5 without Floyd Rose. Another decent glam band that came out of Chicago was Holland. Heavy Bones formed in Hollywood circa 1990 and featured in its ranks guitarist Gary Hoey (who later scored a surprise hit with "Hocus Pocus") and drummer Frankie Banali (of Quiet Riot and W.A.S.P.). True, I don't identify with (or in some cases approve of) elements of the lyrical content, but from a songwriting and musicianship perspective, I very seriously enjoy this stuff, and would be perfectly happy were it the majority of my day-to-day listening. What about the tactful keyboards, chorus hook, and big vocal harmonies of token power ballad "Dry Your Eyes"? 07. I'm not being "ironic" here. The album was recorded at Eddie Van Halen's 5150 home studio, and Wildside was the first band other than Van Halen to record there. Although they werent truly a hair metal band, Leatherwolfs Street Ready album has many of those kinds of sonic qualities and is packed with killer songs. - In my personal opinion, two of the best damn sleaze bands nobody has ever heard of Dripping with attitude. April 6, 2021 Connor Shelton Features, KTRM-FM, Music, Reviews. Probably one of the coolest hair metal albums you've never heard. The Toys could have been worthy successors to Guns N Roses, but this album pretty well fell flat in 1989. This is a band that was supremely talented but simply didnt hang around long enough to really make any waves. (I was gonna say Hair Metal but I hate reducing things to genres) JackOfAllTrades, Mar . When I wrote Return to the Sunset Strip: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal-Era Albums, I didnt really know what to expect. An album of pure attitude, arriving when most glam bands were changing over to pop metal. Just curious regarding the comment about lyrical content: Ive been reading you long enough to know that youre no prude, so the only thing I can think of is that some of this stuff is borderline (if not outright) mysogynistic. An around pop metal romp in the early 90's, one of the last bands to come out of the genre successfully before the ship sank. Southgang - Tainted Angel But "hard rock" is just too broad, and "cock rock"? So, what have you got to lose? The record stalled at #141 on The Billboard 200 and quickly fell off the charts. Johnny Rock N' Roll, Mar 3, 2023 at 9:55 AM . The band's debut album, "Out of the Silence", was recorded at Joni Mitchell's private studio in Beverly Hills, and released in 1988 on A&M Records. I know I'm not alone in crossing my fingers that the band will agree to have their recordings properly reissued on CD at some point! A couple of other amazing and underrated glam albums that didnt make this list (but easily could have)- "Surrender" is a great ballad. Most of their material follows a slower, pulsing paceat times leaning a touch more towards classic, traditional heavy metal than much of this list (notably during "On My Way," dueling leads 'n' all). More straight hard rock, than pop metal. http:// There's an additional layer of irony to this since Warrant's main arranger and vocalist Jani Lane admitted that he wasn't exactly fond of "Cherry Pie", and that the whole album ended up being a dollop of glam cheese (although the cheese in question must have been some gourmet shit) simply because that's what was selling at the time. Erotic Suicide - Abusement Park & Perseverance Were much better - especially live. You'll find this album at at least the top five of any hair metal list, and mine is no different. They're kind of like Skid Row, the Bulletboys, and Faster Pussycat thrown in a blender. It's a shockingly awesome record, easily in my all-time Top 10 as far as hair metal goes. The greatest hair meatl band album on parole with GNR??? They had stars at every position and deviated from the traditional fun hair bands at the time. With Kiss being one of the biggest names from rock's history that continued kicking in a (more or less) healthy manner to this day, I'm not sure you could really call any Kiss album underrated. Rough Cutt Rough Cutt (1985) The album that gave "hair" to the hair metal genre. I wouldnt exactly call them glam. There are tons and tons of other glam/hair metal bands that never quite received their due (hell, I'd argue that bands like Lynch Mob and Vain still deserve a little more love). He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago. The hairspray and makeup came off, and Lane's songwriting simply shined. 3) This album was produced by Eddie Kramer, and it simply rocks. Songs like "Rest in Peace", "Tragic Comic", and "Warheads" had cleverly arranged harmonies, featured very diverse stylistic approaches, and all had engaging lyrics, but the album produced no hit singles and ended up a commercial disaster despite being the highlight of Extreme's career. Seriouslyher lead work is some of the best of the era, in my opinion. Buy it, you will be pleasantly surprised. In short, Vixen kicked ass and they proved once and for all that women could rock and shred as hard as their male counterparts. Dont believe me? Remember Rough Cutt? Other bands just because I am biased, but from Divebomb - SARGANT FURY, DIMAGE and CASANOVA. Better late than never and all, but oh how I wish I had known about Wildside when I was a kid. 08. Vinnie Vincent Invasion Vinnie Vincent Invasion (1986) These guys got popular fast and then went absolutely nowhere. Best Moment: The ambient breakdown in the title track, which leads to a gut-punch guitar solo whose final note resonates for almost 30 seconds. The LA band had been kicking around the Sunset Strip for a decade by the time they released Law Of The Order, and lost classics like Paris Calling and slow-burning semi-ballad, Why Should I Believe were slicker, smarter and classier than any of the candy floss being churned out by most of the chinless bozos who came along in their wake. You cannot hear that album with seeing the menacing face of Bolo Yeung staring at you in a windows reflection. Vinyl Writer MusicsThe Road to The Roxy: 10 Underrated Glam & Hair Metal Era Albums Part II: . The only thing louder than the clack of high heels on the pavement outside the Rainbow was the ker-ching of cash registers as Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Poison, Cinderella, Ratt, Slaughter and the rest hoovered up the record sales. And yeah, anyone unfamiliar, Divebomb has reissued some GOLD in this realm, so pick them up while you still can: The production, helmed by underrated hair metal architecht Michael Wagener, is nearly perfect, as are the earnest heart spills of frontman Mike Tramp and fret-board gymnastics of guitarist. Of course, it turned out to be a put-on Stanley was really a rich kid called Chris Stann, and the whole thing was somewhere between performance art, social commentary and plain bad taste. With the success of all-female Hair Metal group Vixen, MCA was certain that Femme Fatale would rise hard and fast, but it was not to be.