Glam Metal

Catchy, concise and flamboyant, adorned with leather, lace and spandex, and designed to get the party started, it can only be one thing………..Glam Metal!

Inspired by British glam-rock and popularized by Eighties MTV, Glam Metal (aka hair metal) was an unadulterated celebration of misspent youth, with its Holy Trinity being “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.” It grew increasingly prettified and prefabricated, but the best albums still hold up musically.

Glam Metal germinated in the late ‘70s  along Sunset Strip in rock clubs like Gazzarri’s, the Troubadour, the Starwood and the Whisky a Go Go. Acts mixed the theatrical hard rock of Kiss and Alice Cooper with the androgyny of glam rock and punk like T. Rex and the New York Dolls.

Alpha male competition pushed the guitarists to best each other not just a shredding, but shagging too. For every OTT guitar lick there was a power ballad to lure the ladies in. Pretty soon the charts were full of big-haired singers, thunderous drums, killer riffs and dizzying solos, while the arenas were home to chest-beating party-metal anthems and bleeding-heart power ballads.

Critics hated it, we loved it. MoR Revisited looks back and makes a selection of the best albums from that era.

Playlist inevitable…………

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4L4v3yLjxwPN99knyXzea1?si=18c9f61064964bfb

Mr. Big,’ Lean Into It’ (1991)

Mr. Big abandons the virtuoso guitar and bass of Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan for the majority of Lean Into It, and the result is a big, shiny mainstream rock album.

Winger, ‘Winger’ (1988)

Guitarist Reb Beach earned wide praise from other musicians, and he brought a distinct progressive metal influence to many of the tunes on Winger.

Bang Tango, ‘Psycho Café’ (1989)

Bang Tango’s approach on this 1989 release is best described as a combination of Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, and Led Zeppelin with hints of the Red Hot Chili Peppers at times.

Badlands, ‘Badlands’ (1989)

With New York-bred singer Ray Gillen serving as the guitarist Jake E Lee’s perfect songwriting foil, Badlands’ self-titled debut featured a refreshingly stripped-down blues metal sound, which cut against the grain of the polished pop metal then in vogue.

Great White, ‘…Twice Shy’ (1989)

A tight, hard-rocking album that featured well-chosen covers (Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten Twice Shy”) and impressive originals that replicated the classic arena rock sound of the ’70s (“House of Broken Love,” “Mistah Bone”).

Slaughter, ‘Stick It to Ya’ (1990)

Mining the same territory as “corporate” bands like Bon Jovi, Winger and Warrant, Slaughter soared to the top of the charts and sold millions of albums. Slick and hook-laden tracks like “Up All Night,” “She Wants More” and “Burnin’ Bridges” are super catchy.

L.A. Guns, ‘Cocked and Loaded’ (1989)

L.A. Guns’ most consistent and effective album, Cocked & Loaded manages to balance the underlying darkness of Guns N’ Roses’ urban outlook with Mötley Crüe’s party-anthem glam metal.

Poison, ‘Open Up and Say… Ahh!’ (1988)

The agreeable raunch of album tracks like “Love on the Rocks,” “Good Love,” and “Look But You Can’t Touch” helps make Open Up and Say…Ahh! Poison’s best overall album.

David Lee Roth, ‘Eat ‘Em and Smile’ (1986)

A more than adequate substitute for the overtly commercial tendencies of the “new and improved” original. Why mess with a winning recipe, indeed. Guitarist Steve Vai, bassist Billy Sheehan, and drummer Gregg Bissonette sound perfectly at home aping their boss’ old cronies.

White Lion, ‘Pride’ (1987)

Pride was White Lion’s breakthrough album, thanks to the Top Ten hits “Wait” and the gentle ballad “When the Children Cry,” but the rest of the album is also well-constructed pop-metal, with little of the over-the-top, testosterone-heavy posturing of their peers, as well as a low sleaze factor.

Dokken, ‘Under Lock and Key’ (1985)

Dokken’s most “complete” album, with a little something for every type of fan including fist-pumping headbangers and saccharine ballads. Most importantly, Under Lock and Key also boasts two almost peerless examples of Dokken’s best songwriting template — bittersweet mid-paced rockers, both of which also pack fantastic solos from guitar wizard George Lynch.

Cinderella, ‘Long Cold Winter’ (1988)

Long Cold Winter is a transition album for Cinderella, mixing pop-metal tunes with better hooks than those on Night Songs with a newfound penchant for gritty blues-rock à la the Stones or Aerosmith.

Motley Crue, ‘Too Fast for Love’ (1981) OR ‘Shout at the Devil’ (1983)? BOTH!!

On their debut album, Mötley Crüe essentially comes across as a bash-’em-out bar band, making up in enthusiasm what they lack in technical skill. This is the Crüe playing it lean and mean, effortlessly capturing the tough swagger that often came off a bit more calculated in later years, and it’s one of their most invigorating records.

Shout at the Devil displays Mötley Crüe’s sleazy and notorious (yet quite entertaining) metal at its best. When compared to its predecessor, Too Fast for Love, one can see that the band’s musical range certainly widened over the course of its first two albums; the record features catchy, hard-rocking songs.

Ratt, ‘Out of the Cellar’ (1984)

Ratt transposed their high-energy hard rock (derived from usual suspects Van Halen and Aerosmith, plus the staccato riffing of Judas Priest) into a multi-platinum-bound juggernaut that reached number seven on the Billboard charts, and initially outsold the more notorious Shout at the Devil, released months earlier by their friendly rivals Mötley Crüe.

Bon Jovi, ‘Slippery When Wet’ (1986)

Slippery When Wet wasn’t just a breakthrough album for Bon Jovi; it was a breakthrough for hair metal in general, marking the point where the genre officially entered the mainstream. Released in 1986, it presented a streamlined combination of pop, hard rock, and metal that appealed to everyone — especially girls, whom traditional heavy metal often ignored. Yes please!

Whitesnake, ‘Whitesnake’ (1987)

David Coverdale built Whitesnake’s commercial breakthrough on a collection of loud, polished hard rockers, plus the band’s best set of pop hooks. The Led Zeppelin-ish “Still of the Night” offered headbanger appeal, but it was the big chorus of “Here I Go Again” and the quiet ballad “Is This Love” that really sold the album in spades.

Def Leppard, ‘Pyromania’ (1983)

The band and producer Mutt Lange began the process of sanding off most of the metallic edges left in Def Leppard’s sound and replacing them with a gleaming, studio-concocted sheen that was all high-end shimmer, stacked vocal harmonies, processed drums, and guitars that whooshed and soared like jet planes.

W.A.S.P., ‘W.A.S.P.’ (1984)

By merging lyrics that dealt with sex, Satanism etc. alongside Blackie Lawless’ rough vocals and Chris Holmes’ guitar riffing, the band sounded and looked more menacing than your average L.A. glam band at the time. The album contains most of their best-known tracks, such as the raging singles/videos “I Wanna Be Somebody” and “L.O.V.E. Machine.”

Quiet Riot, ‘Metal Health’ (1983)

Crashing the Billboard album chart’s number one spot with their multi-million-selling Metal Health LP — the first heavy metal record to ever do so. The album’s title track continues to deliver after all these years. With its crushing guitar riff, inane lyrics, and goofy bravado, it’s heavy metal personified in all its glorious, ridiculous excess.

Hanoi Rocks, ‘Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks’ (1981)

Hailing from Finland, Hanoi Rocks burst on the scene in the early ’80s with their debut release, Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks. Producing themselves, the band took the energy and D.I.Y. attitude of the punk movement, and fused it with a love for glam rock to create an in-your-face sonic attack.

Faster Pussycat – Faster Pussycat (Elektra, 1987)

Faster Pussycat’s self-titled debut is mostly Aerosmith boogie sleaze, glammed up by way of the fertile L.A. club scene. The band is somewhat similar to contemporaries Guns N’ Roses, but with that band’s urban grit and substance replaced by a Crüe-ish party-hearty attitude. The music is slick, but fun.

Warrant – Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (Sony, 1989)

Other bands were bigger, other bands were better, but no other group embodied the spirit of late-’80s hair metal as much as Warrant. They were slick and tuneful, cheerfully shallow and gussied up to look prettier than they actually are. It was the era in a nutshell — proud to be all surface and no depth.