Holy shit thats my dad...Billy Toth. I love that I get to watch my dads music play on after he passed. I have an original Assassin Record. This is so awesome and great job putting this video together
Hey thank you so much! Really glad you enjoyed it. Assassin and the License to Kill album had a great combo of attitude and fun that is hard to pull off. Those awesome guitar solos sure help tho!
Loved seeing this. Brings back so many good memories. My brother was Billy Toth from Assassin. Not only was he a phenomenal guitar player, he was the most caring and loving brother possible. Miss him so much. I'm sure he is in rock and roll heaven and playing up a storm! Thanks Rick Darr for letting me know this was on youtube!
@@southeastbikelife400 Billy and Kiki, so sorry for your loss. It is cool that your father/brother lives on through his music. I was born in and my family is from Little Washington, so Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh culture are near and dear to me. Yins know what I'm sayin' n at? May Billy 💐🙏REST IN PEACE🙏💐
@@HotRod12667Stone Vengeance were right after Black Death, formed in 1978. They were also one of the earliest Bay Area thrash bands, along with Exodus (formed in '79).
I miss getting demo cassettes from bands. Nothing was more exciting to me back in the day than getting a tape with a homemade cover. You didn't know what to expect before you popped it in the radio. Fun stuff.
Friend of mine made a habit of buying tapes of every obscure band he could find. He’s the fellow who turned me on to Savatage, so... turned up some real gems. I still say music to suit every taste is being made RIGHT NOW but it requires a lot more work to find than it used to... simply because there’s so much more to sort through. For me an amazing intro can be ruined instantly by vocals I don’t care for.
@@Saje3D that second part is always my response too. Great bands of all genres ARE out there, but especially in America, we have no quality filtration process. There was a time when terrestrial radio and, to some degree, record labels filled that role. Now you really have to do all your legwork on your own. And that’s not even mentioning the lack of incentive for new bands to start, work at their sound, and try to be different on a mainstream level.
@@MetalSchoolChannel Yes, but they are too rare.... seems like it’s based much more on looks nowadays as opposed to raw talent doesn’t matter if you’ve a weak voice, the labels and producers can abuse auto tune and melodyne to make you sound better. I was about to make a reference to a certain song by Loudness but stopped myself 😉😏
Nowadays, wish we had competently written music by people who are actually talented people now record execs don’t (for the most part) seem to care if you can actually sing or not, it seems to be conventionally beautiful people/ezx-disney stars who seem to be landing multi-million dollar contracts left and right...
Very cool video. Amazingly well detailed for such a short video. Excellent job. I'm Steve, the guitarist from Cities. One of my guitar students sent me this video & I really enjoyed seeing it. I'm still teaching guitar as I was even in the 80s. My last band is Circle Of Thorns, which I formed in 2008. A.J. Pero was in that band with me.
Woah, thanks so much, Steve! Really glad you dug the video. That Cities album is killer! Would love to have heard more. But I’ll check out Circle of Thorns for sure! 🤘🏻
@@jeffdubuque5622 facebook dot com/midnightowlradio. Click the "Use App" button on top of the page. You can also download the Live365 app on iOS and Android and search for Midnight Owl Radio.
Having turned 10 in 1979, my teen years were spread out over the entire span of the 80's. I had only ever listened primarily to Top 40 pop hits/Casey Kasem Top 40 stuff, but...all of that changed summer of 82', only 2 months after turning 14 while visiting my 13 year old cousin, Dennis in Huntington Beach, C.A. First day there,, Dennis had asked me if I liked the following bands as he one by one pulled each album/record from a stack of fairly new releases: Iron Maiden/Number of the beast Judas Priest/Screaming for Vengeance Def Leppard High and Dry Ozzy Osborne Blizzard of Oz I answered him..."WHO...never heard of them bands"!! He pulled out a box record player, and dropped the needle and proceeded to play each album front to back, starting with Def Leppard/High and Dry. Long story short, when finished, I insisted we listen to each of the aforementioned albums again and again and again and again! All of that being said, the 80's Metal scene stamped my Teen years, making this UA-cam channel...AWESOME! 🙏🇺🇲💪
This was very informative. I'm very grateful that I came by all this music history. I loved to hear that many of the musicians are still active in the heavy metal scene.
Wow...nice to see label mates Commander listed here. They were signed by Dave Richards and IronWorks WAY before we were (I was the singer for Comatose). We only had one release: IW1060 - Deep Sleep (EP) 1994 (Co-Released by Nymphonic Records in 1995). I have plenty of stories about Dave Richards. He really was a genius, although not everybody saw it. Thrash was pretty dead when we were signed, but he gave us a shot regardless. Anyway, I totally appreciate guys like you and videos like this continuing to give these bands some airtime. Great stuff man!
Hey, thanks so much, Todd! Glad you dug it. Wish I could have found a little more info on Commander but some stuff is just lost to time I guess. Anyway, thanks again for watching and I will definitely check out Comatose!
Respect to all these bands. Black Death was my favorite. Lost track of them, they were more non commercial and underground at the time. If memory serves me well one of my friends had a homemade cassette of them before they recorded this album. It was really deep heavy and rocking.
The guys from DESTRUCTOR in Cleveland were awesome. Our band Chalice practiced in the same building with them around '85-'86. We only had a 3 song EP at the time. Great job on this 👍
Great video, with some equally good and obscure bands. My favorite thing is the discovery of some "unknown" band and that used to be daily 10 or so years ago when you could go to 30 pawn shops and a a half dozen HPB and spend a hundred bucks on 300 hundred or so cd's. hose days are LONG gone, but what great memories. Being from the PNW, that Gargoyle nod is killer. Other "local" PNW bands that would fit right into this topic: Invader, Near Infinity, Culprit, Upper Echelon, Mistrust, Soren, Villan, Trespasser, Depth Charge, etc etc etc...
Having turned 10 in 1979, my teen years were spread out over the entire span of the 80's. I had only ever listened primarily to Top 40 pop hits/Casey Kasem Top 40 stuff. All of that changed summer of 82'!! Only 2 months after turning 14, while visiting my 13 year old cousin, Dennis in Huntington Beach, C.A. (me, from Beaufort, SC) First day there, Dennis had asked me if I liked the following bands as he one by one pulled each album/record from a stack of fairly new releases: Iron Maiden/Number of the beast Judas Priest/Screaming for Vengeance Def Leppard High and Dry Ozzy Osborne Blizzard of Oz I answered him..."WHO...never heard of them bands"!! Dennis looked at me with a perplexed look on his face, almost a look of disgust! He then pulled out a box record player, dropped the needle on the vinyl and proceeded to play each album front to back, starting with Def Leppard/High and Dry. Long story short, when he finished playing the final record...I insisted we listen to each of the aforementioned albums again and again and again and again! All of that being said, the 80's Metal scene stamped my Teen years, making this UA-cam channel...AWESOME! 🙏🇺🇲💪
COMMANDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that album. So awesome! It's basically a King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table concept album. One of the VERY best power metal albums I have EVER heard. I feel like it could have made a great soundtrack to a King Arthur movie or cartoon. I love that it has songs about King Arthur and a sort of mirror song about a Goth invasion. Dude, you are the first one I've ever heard mention this band. Man, I love these guys. So awesome that you're giving them credit. Hopefully they get some extra fans and some deserved exposure off of this video.
Excellent video. I love hearing stuff I've never heard before. I'd never heard of any of these bands. I'm gonna buy all the albums if I can find them. It's very interesting how some bands hit it big while others never got the chance.
I met and worked with Jon from commander when I was in the Navy. He was working for southwest marine as a crane rigger. He as Jon Goth back then. He was one of the most humble and real guys you could meet. Never came off as an ass, he loved to promote the band and would always let’s us know where they were going to be playing. So sad to hear that he passed.
BEHOLD MATES... FOR IT IS I... THE IRON MESSIAH... SIKI SPACEK FROM BLACK-DEATH... I'VE JUST GOT BACK HOME SAFELY NOW FROM THE RECORDING STUDIO TODAY... WORKING ON THE 3RD BLACK-DEATH RECORD CALLED "BREAKING THE CHAINS OF HELL"... WHICH WE HOPE TO H
The only band on here I heard of before was Assassin. They were somewhat local. I'm from Philly and they of course from Pittsburgh. There's a Philly band that could've been on this called Abolish. Tap The Nerve was their only album but they had a few demo's and EP's before they cut the record.
Another great hard rock/metal band that only put out one album is the Swiss-American group Cobra. They had Mandy Meyer from Krokus and singer Jimi 'The Voice' Jamison, later of Survivor. Their album "First Strike" showed an immense amount of potential, but the guys went in different musical directions so they split up.
Another great video with amazing bands.. (I'd like to see more like these).. Also worth mentioning a few more American metal bands with just one release.. Apollo Ra - Ra Pariah Iron Cross (Florida) - Iron Cross Killen Leather Nunn - Take the night Lord - Second coming Ion Britton - Eat metal Ivory Tiger - Metal Mountain Emerald - Armed for Battle X-Caliber - Warriors of the Night (the list is endless...) Continue the great work !!
Two years ago I went to a kiss tribute band in Massachusetts and one of the band members announced the singer from the band new england was there at the show .if you didn't know the band New England Opened for kiss in 1978 I was there.this was a blast from the past.
All greats!!!! 🤘🤘🤘🍻🍻🍻🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 Do CANADA next!!! Like America, Canada had many great metal bands in the 80's!!! 🤘🤘🤘🍻🍻🍻🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 While maybe not as many bands as the USA, there were still a few here!! 😉 Off the top of my head favorite (no particular order*) 80's Metal Bands from Canada that only released 1 full length album: Beyond Possession - Is Beyond Possession Messiah Force - The Last Day Armoros - Pieces Dyoxen - First Among Equals Slaughter - Strappado **Honorable Mentions: Assault - Survival In The Street Dissection - Final Genocide Strike Force - S/T Tzar - Players of the Game Corpus Vile - What Does It Take Rapid Tears - Honestly
Absolutely solid content on this channel bro! Maybe another topic you could make a video on is bands that had that ONE magic line up. Scanner's Hypertrace comes to mind because its the only album with Michael MAJOR Knoblich. Killer freaking album. Just a thought. Keep the metal faith alive!
I used to hang around the band Damien. They had more than one album, but they were local, and everybody loved them. Years later, Kevin, the bassist, was trying to write some music, and had me pick up a guitar to play a bit while he worked on his bass line for another band he was in. I was so honored. He told me the chords while he played bass. I threw a little style I could mesh with while playing the chords. He liked it and added to his bass line. Hell of a good time for me.
The 80's produced a lot of great stuff. Just think of Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast, Dio's Holy Diver and Merycul Fate's Don't Break the Oath, to name but a few. It's definitely my favorite decade as far as music is concerned. BTW: you should do a video on Mercyful Fate someday.
You mean it should be a double feature, with both Mercyful Fate & King Diamond? Seriously Kim Petersen’s a legend, dunno how he keeps two of Denmark’s best metal bands going concurrently, but he does to this day. Anyway, what’s your opinion on Candlemass? I love them personally..: Johan & Messiah are my fave vocalists - as for my fave Candlemass release it would have to be 88’s Ancient dreams.... with “A cry from the crypt” being my fave track by far.
@@dragonqueen6589There's also Denner/Shermann with Sean Peck on vocals. I can recommend the Masters of Evil album to Mercyful Fate fans. I love the Candlemass albums with Messiah. Ancient Dreams is also my favorite Candlemass album. If you like doom metal you should check out Sorcerer who have made two great albums so far.
@@wimvanderstraeten6521 The 90s for metal in general is pretty meh, I mean Maiden had decent releases, but Dokken... Christ, what was Don thinkin’ there with Shadowlife?! Alt-rock, George Lynch didn’t sound like himself.... and yet he learned nothing from it, cos he goes back and reforms Lynch Mob with a bunch of nobodys and then decides “Yeah, let’s try Numetal.” and o’course it didn’t work..... but Oni Logan was in an out for years but out full time as of two years ago... “Wicked Sensation” will always be a fave track of mine. Sorry for switching it up so abruptly dude.
I love bands like these. It is so hard to keep a band together and having members with similar tastes and focus, they are lucky they got 1 album out before falling apart.
My dad still has Black Death on Vinyl, and after seeing this he didn't know about the re release with the little record with bonus songs. So, he went to the closet and pulled it out, gave it to me and said "check that out do I have that?" I pulled out the record and then opened up cover and there it was! I pulled it out and he goes "Whaaaat?! I've had this for over 30 years and I never knew that was there!" We wouldn't have known if not for this video, thanks bro for all you're research in the metal community \m/ \m/
I'm a huge 80's metalhead even though I was born in 1981 and was too young at that time, these bands are all top notch and are my favorite which I have on my Itunes playlist and on CD. ❤️🤘
@@MetalSchoolChannelFantastic bands, I really loved the video. Been following these bands for quite a while and didn't realise the backstory on how these bands formed and what happened to them after the 80's. Very sad that some aren't with us any more.
Born in 1980, but I had the good fortune of having two parents who were musicians so at a very young age I was exposed to Motley Crue, Van Halen, Y&T etc. as a young kid my parents took me to festivals and shows. Got to see Crue, Guns n' Roses, Metallica, Faith No More etc. as a kid when these bands were in their prime.
@@RockLibertyWarrior That's so cool, I'm the only one in my family that loves Hard Rock/Heavy Metal. I've seen 3 of my artist live Judas Priest, W.A.S.P. and Dark Angel which all were awesome.
@@robertobuatti7226 Dude, I love W.A.S.P., the first four releases only though... We could’ve had more classic W.A.S.P. If Blackie hadn’t penned “Mean man” The main issue I have with 2000s W.A.S.P. Is the fact the religious elements in the lyrics [which were even present in tracks like the Heretic) are more obvious - Modern W.A.S.P. sounds like a clone of Stryper, let that sink in.... and plus, are we all aware Blackie’s a born again Christian now?
Fun Facts regarding Gargoyle. Singer Tim Lachman's brother is Patrick Lachman, who was guitar player on Halford's first two solo albums and was also the Lead singer for brother's Dimebage and VInnie's band "Damageplan". Patrick was also guitarist for Gargoyle for a short time as well before the band broke up.
That’s cool bro, god we all miss Dimebag & Vinnie. Isn’t it an odd coincidence that John Lennon & Dimebag Darrell not only died on the same day but also under eerily similar circumstances? Sorry for being so dark dude... but You did mention but Dime & Vinnie so....
I'm surprised these bands had one album. They reminded me of Lizzy Borden and Iron Maiden. Circumstances were in play, as it seems, for them. It was nice to see A.J. in here. He's missed by so many of us.
I went to school with the lachmans'. Gargoyles frontman Tim lachman is the older brother of Patrick lachman of Diesel Machine Halford and Damageplan. Incidentally Tommy Thayer of Black and Blue and Kiss also attended the same school although a few years earlier and Chris Carrie of Poison Idea and Andrew McKeag of The Presidents Of The United States of America.
Got that vinyl... Vengeance is mine has insane guitar solos. Kamakazi is so atmospheric and the chorus kinda takes you in for a ride. Les Claypool is just brilliant and the bass lines on Smash the crystal or the opening theme wich gives the name to the album, Sane asylum is great. I have a special affection towards this record. Seems like I m not the only one
Thanks for a good thought-provoking video. I think the first two, Gargoyle and Assassin suffered from being a tier or two lower versions of Rising Force and Iron Maiden. Cities was obviously a group of guys with talent looking to hook up with a big time group, and their manager saw his possibility of future cash dwindling with each gig as the Big Guys liked what they saw. Commander is good but, again, the singer -- we've got a ton of those. Now Black Death I didn't know about. If they were around the same time as Burnin' Vernon, then I'm sorry I missed them. They have a definite personality to their sound that does NOT say "oh, this sounds like..."
Nice to see some non-standard bands listed. There's lots of 1-album-only bands (united states), mostly privately released: SLAUTER XSTROYES!!!!!!, Hammeron, Dragonne, Stormtrooper, Paradoxx, ESP, Titanic, Attakk, Lord, Eden/August Redmoon, Leather Nunn, Iron cross... You name it. 😎👍
It’s a shame when record labels don’t promote the bands they sign. I always wondered how big Kix would have gotten if Warner Brothers didn’t f..k them around
Great point... a similar thing happened to Loudness when they tried to break into the American market in 88/89, after Soldier of fortune & on the prowl they went back to purely Japanese releases... as of now they either release the Japanese & US versions within months of each other or just one language or the other.
@@dragonqueen6589 actually 1985 - 1991. Loudness did get air play on MTV ( kind of ) the Head Bangers Ball. on the prowl was some songs re done. Akiras idea. however there is a Japanese release of Thunder in the east, But i think only a few songs were Recorded in Japanese.
@@MetalHeart8787 Yup, the late 90s was a shit time for Dokken also, reckon it was mostly Don’s idea to try Alt-rock and the resulting release Shadowlife was terrible. Yet George Lynch learned nothin’ cos he went back and reformed Lynch Mob with a bunch of unknowns and tried his hand at Nu-Metal which sucked also. And eh, at least Hot wire’s title track is good.
I just subscribed to. Look up a band called Splitbeaver from England. They only put out one album. They have a song on their called “Gimme Head”. Every song on that album is good. Splitbeaver- When Hell Won’t Have You is the album. I think 1983 is when it came out.
Holy shit thats my dad...Billy Toth. I love that I get to watch my dads music play on after he passed. I have an original Assassin Record. This is so awesome and great job putting this video together
Hey thank you so much! Really glad you enjoyed it. Assassin and the License to Kill album had a great combo of attitude and fun that is hard to pull off. Those awesome guitar solos sure help tho!
❤️
I was a fan of your Dad here in StLouis, “No Parole” was what turned Me onto the band.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Loved seeing this. Brings back so many good memories. My brother was Billy Toth from Assassin. Not only was he a phenomenal guitar player, he was the most caring and loving brother possible. Miss him so much. I'm sure he is in rock and roll heaven and playing up a storm! Thanks Rick Darr for letting me know this was on youtube!
Thanks, Kiki! This was a lot of fun to put together. Billy was an awesome player! Really glad you enjoyed it :)
Hey aunt kiki...thank u so much for showing me this
@@southeastbikelife400 Billy and Kiki, so sorry for your loss. It is cool that your father/brother lives on through his music. I was born in and my family is from Little Washington, so Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh culture are near and dear to me. Yins know what I'm sayin' n at? May Billy 💐🙏REST IN PEACE🙏💐
@@MetalSchoolChannel How about the band 313 from Pittsburgh. Check them out..👍
@@funzjag PITTSBURGH proud. 52 years here..💜
There will never be another time for metal like the 80s. The 80s were the best time\,,/
Mate I'm 52 years old and all I listen to is 80's metal there is nothing around that comes close to it
80's music is as relevant now as rotary phones or cassettes
@@blindg7092 no
@Ken Clark II Because you could still hear the experimentation going on in the music. There was still a lot of uncharted territory to discover.
@@blindg7092 and your comment\,,/
Those Metal Massacre compilations had a lot of gems. We traded them around and hunted down the full albums from the bands we dug.
If you like those then hunt down a magazine called Transcending The Mundane. It usually comes with a free CD. Good Luck 🤘
If I was offered the chance to replace Ace Frehly and my manager kept it to himself I wouldn't be able to guarantee his safety.
He'd be walking with a severe limp, if at all.
@@mainzergirl9610 i don’ think that he would be walking at all
Agreed! Reminds me of another story!
Yup he’d be deceased
That's messed up because Steve was awesome and so nice!! I roadied for him for a few shows and he was not an ego maniac.. he was super cool!!
I've known about Black Death for awhile. Great 80s metal band. Well worth researching. First all black metal band.
Followed by Sound Barrier.
@@HotRod12667Stone Vengeance were right after Black Death, formed in 1978. They were also one of the earliest Bay Area thrash bands, along with Exodus (formed in '79).
I remember playing Black Death and Assassin on my college radio station's metal show in 1988-91.
During that era, remember the NYC thrash band Primal Scream?
I miss getting demo cassettes from bands. Nothing was more exciting to me back in the day than getting a tape with a homemade cover. You didn't know what to expect before you popped it in the radio. Fun stuff.
Totally! And when demo tapes had titles
Friend of mine made a habit of buying tapes of every obscure band he could find. He’s the fellow who turned me on to Savatage, so... turned up some real gems.
I still say music to suit every taste is being made RIGHT NOW but it requires a lot more work to find than it used to... simply because there’s so much more to sort through. For me an amazing intro can be ruined instantly by vocals I don’t care for.
@@Saje3D that second part is always my response too. Great bands of all genres ARE out there, but especially in America, we have no quality filtration process. There was a time when terrestrial radio and, to some degree, record labels filled that role. Now you really have to do all your legwork on your own. And that’s not even mentioning the lack of incentive for new bands to start, work at their sound, and try to be different on a mainstream level.
@@MetalSchoolChannel Yes, but they are too rare.... seems like it’s based much more on looks nowadays as opposed to raw talent doesn’t matter if you’ve a weak voice, the labels and producers can abuse auto tune and melodyne to make you sound better. I was about to make a reference to a certain song by Loudness but stopped myself 😉😏
Not just was the 80s metal music great, but so were it’s live shows. Arena or club scene, it was all awesome.
actually.. the best, was the late night radio stations that would play metal after midnight.... yup.
Nowadays, wish we had competently written music by people who are actually talented people now record execs don’t (for the most part) seem to care if you can actually sing or not, it seems to be conventionally beautiful people/ezx-disney stars who seem to be landing multi-million dollar contracts left and right...
@@razblack here in Phoenix Az, our 80s radio dj was considered a rockstar celebrity. Dave Pratt on 98 KUPD.
Very cool video. Amazingly well detailed for such a short video. Excellent job. I'm Steve, the guitarist from Cities. One of my guitar students sent me this video & I really enjoyed seeing it. I'm still teaching guitar as I was even in the 80s. My last band is Circle Of Thorns, which I formed in 2008.
A.J. Pero was in that band with me.
Woah, thanks so much, Steve! Really glad you dug the video. That Cities album is killer! Would love to have heard more. But I’ll check out Circle of Thorns for sure! 🤘🏻
Loved the Cities album still 1 of my Favs to this very Day
I host an internet radio station that plays nothing but rock and metal classics, so videos like this are a godsend.
cool what channel?
@@jeffdubuque5622 facebook dot com/midnightowlradio. Click the "Use App" button on top of the page. You can also download the Live365 app on iOS and Android and search for Midnight Owl Radio.
I love this obscure stuff. Great video!
Finally, a high quality channel about underground real metal! Damn dude, don't stop uploading.
Having turned 10 in 1979, my teen years were spread out over the entire span of the 80's.
I had only ever listened primarily to Top 40 pop hits/Casey Kasem Top 40 stuff, but...all of that changed summer of 82', only 2 months after turning 14 while visiting my 13 year old cousin, Dennis in Huntington Beach, C.A.
First day there,, Dennis had asked me if I liked the following bands as he one by one pulled each album/record from a stack of fairly new releases:
Iron Maiden/Number of the beast
Judas Priest/Screaming for Vengeance
Def Leppard High and Dry
Ozzy Osborne Blizzard of Oz
I answered him..."WHO...never heard of them bands"!!
He pulled out a box record player, and dropped the needle and proceeded to play each album front to back, starting with Def Leppard/High and Dry.
Long story short, when finished, I insisted we listen to each of the aforementioned albums again and again and again and again!
All of that being said, the 80's Metal scene stamped my Teen years, making this UA-cam channel...AWESOME!
🙏🇺🇲💪
Great video...Huge work...Thanks😃👍
Gargoyle playing at the old "Starry Night" on Burnside. Yupp, I'm from Portland.
Wish they would bring that 80s sound back
This was very informative. I'm very grateful that I came by all this music history. I loved to hear that many of the musicians are still active in the heavy metal scene.
I never even heard of Black Death until I watched this video a few months ago. After giving their s/t a few listens, I'm definitely a fan!
Wow...nice to see label mates Commander listed here. They were signed by Dave Richards and IronWorks WAY before we were (I was the singer for Comatose). We only had one release: IW1060 - Deep Sleep (EP) 1994 (Co-Released by Nymphonic Records in 1995). I have plenty of stories about Dave Richards. He really was a genius, although not everybody saw it. Thrash was pretty dead when we were signed, but he gave us a shot regardless. Anyway, I totally appreciate guys like you and videos like this continuing to give these bands some airtime. Great stuff man!
Hey, thanks so much, Todd! Glad you dug it. Wish I could have found a little more info on Commander but some stuff is just lost to time I guess. Anyway, thanks again for watching and I will definitely check out Comatose!
@@MetalSchoolChannel Commander singer copy Steve Grimmett of Grim Reaper and Onslaught...
This channel got me into Cities, I now own an Annihilation Absolute vinyl. Thanks man, Metal School’s the best!
Some solid reporting here. Great job keeping this music alive.
Commander was the highlight of this video for me thanks for the recommendation. 🤘
A new Metal School upload? Yes please!
Respect to all these bands. Black Death was my favorite. Lost track of them, they were more non commercial and underground at the time. If memory serves me well one of my friends had a homemade cassette of them before they recorded this album. It was really deep heavy and rocking.
Thanks for the recommendations, that band Black death sound particularly cool.
I love Black Death! Amazing band, classic album.
The guys from DESTRUCTOR in Cleveland were awesome. Our band Chalice practiced in the same building with them around '85-'86. We only had a 3 song EP at the time. Great job on this 👍
Excellent video (again). Your band research and video footage is very impressive! Thank you
Thank you!
Great video, with some equally good and obscure bands. My favorite thing is the discovery of some "unknown" band and that used to be daily 10 or so years ago when you could go to 30 pawn shops and a a half dozen HPB and spend a hundred bucks on 300 hundred or so cd's. hose days are LONG gone, but what great memories.
Being from the PNW, that Gargoyle nod is killer. Other "local" PNW bands that would fit right into this topic: Invader, Near Infinity, Culprit, Upper Echelon, Mistrust, Soren, Villan, Trespasser, Depth Charge, etc etc etc...
Yins see dat bit about Assassin n' at ? I seen dem guys signin' albums down Eides back in the day. Go Stillers🏈
Cities were a kick ass band. Love the old Lamour footage
Having turned 10 in 1979, my teen years were spread out over the entire span of the 80's.
I had only ever listened primarily to Top 40 pop hits/Casey Kasem Top 40 stuff.
All of that changed summer of 82'!!
Only 2 months after turning 14, while visiting my 13 year old cousin, Dennis in Huntington Beach, C.A.
(me, from Beaufort, SC)
First day there, Dennis had asked me if I liked the following bands as he one by one pulled each album/record from a stack of fairly new releases:
Iron Maiden/Number of the beast
Judas Priest/Screaming for Vengeance
Def Leppard High and Dry
Ozzy Osborne Blizzard of Oz
I answered him..."WHO...never heard of them bands"!! Dennis looked at me with a perplexed look on his face, almost a look of disgust!
He then pulled out a box record player, dropped the needle on the vinyl and proceeded to play each album front to back, starting with Def Leppard/High and Dry.
Long story short, when he finished playing the final record...I insisted we listen to each of the aforementioned albums again and again and again and again!
All of that being said, the 80's Metal scene stamped my Teen years, making this UA-cam channel...AWESOME!
🙏🇺🇲💪
The afore mentioned bands have more than one lp
Wow black death sounds cool. I wish there were more bands like them !
Another fantastic video! Please keep up the great work! 🤘🏻🤘🏻
Excellent show. Great production, well written. Nice.
Assassin wow they're pretty good and i never heard of them they remind me a lot of Saxon pretty good vocals
Diehard Records from Brazil just released remastered Cities EP this week 👍
@@thiagoribnog woah awesome!
COMMANDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that album. So awesome! It's basically a King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table concept album. One of the VERY best power metal albums I have EVER heard. I feel like it could have made a great soundtrack to a King Arthur movie or cartoon. I love that it has songs about King Arthur and a sort of mirror song about a Goth invasion. Dude, you are the first one I've ever heard mention this band. Man, I love these guys. So awesome that you're giving them credit. Hopefully they get some extra fans and some deserved exposure off of this video.
Keep these videos coming!
Excellent video. I love hearing stuff I've never heard before. I'd never heard of any of these bands. I'm gonna buy all the albums if I can find them. It's very interesting how some bands hit it big while others never got the chance.
I met and worked with Jon from commander when I was in the Navy.
He was working for southwest marine as a crane rigger. He as Jon Goth back then. He was one of the most humble and real guys you could meet. Never came off as an ass, he loved to promote the band and would always let’s us know where they were going to be playing. So sad to hear that he passed.
Cool to find this,i had Cities and Black Death records years ago and were they disappeared too is beyond me 🤘💣💥☠
Only one I know are Cities. Bough the album back then. I love Not Alone in the Dark
I would call Gargoyle US Power Metal. Brilliant metal!
I'll check Gargoyle out..Thanks for the suggestion
Auburn Records is owned by Bill Peters (Host of Metal on Metal on WJCU 88.7 FM). Yes, he named his show after the Anvil album.
I have the cities album, Sal lived around the corner
Black Death is awsome. Mix of Mercyfull, Thin lizzy, Venom.. Solos like Hendrix, voices like soul opera. I love tnis band.
Same! Wish they’d done more.
BEHOLD MATES...
FOR IT IS I...
THE IRON MESSIAH...
SIKI SPACEK FROM BLACK-DEATH...
I'VE JUST GOT BACK HOME SAFELY NOW FROM THE RECORDING STUDIO TODAY...
WORKING ON THE 3RD BLACK-DEATH RECORD CALLED
"BREAKING THE CHAINS OF HELL"...
WHICH WE HOPE TO H
The only band on here I heard of before was Assassin. They were somewhat local. I'm from Philly and they of course from Pittsburgh. There's a Philly band that could've been on this called Abolish. Tap The Nerve was their only album but they had a few demo's and EP's before they cut the record.
Great Job! I would love an episode on some of these Reginal Metal compilations.
Love you Videos! 👍
Greetings from germany.
I like the sound assassin
Another great hard rock/metal band that only put out one album is the Swiss-American group Cobra. They had Mandy Meyer from Krokus and singer Jimi 'The Voice' Jamison, later of Survivor. Their album "First Strike" showed an immense amount of potential, but the guys went in different musical directions so they split up.
Great video, thanks! And fckn great 5 albums too 🤘🏽 Hail from Argentina!
Another great video with amazing bands.. (I'd like to see more like these)..
Also worth mentioning a few more American metal bands with just one release..
Apollo Ra - Ra Pariah
Iron Cross (Florida) - Iron Cross
Killen
Leather Nunn - Take the night
Lord - Second coming
Ion Britton - Eat metal
Ivory Tiger - Metal Mountain
Emerald - Armed for Battle
X-Caliber - Warriors of the Night
(the list is endless...)
Continue the great work !!
Two years ago I went to a kiss tribute band in Massachusetts and one of the band members announced the singer from the band new england was there at the show .if you didn't know the band New England Opened for kiss in 1978 I was there.this was a blast from the past.
I think I may still have the Cities LP somewhere. Great band.
Man, I love this channel so much.
Give 80s glam metalcast a listen, bro... Metal Mike’s done interviews with guys like Mike Vescera, Stephen Pearcy and a whole bunch of others.
Man, my friends and I (and everyone else, it seemed) thought Cities were going to be HUGE! I still dig that one out pretty often.
All greats!!!! 🤘🤘🤘🍻🍻🍻🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
Do CANADA next!!! Like America, Canada had many great metal bands in the 80's!!! 🤘🤘🤘🍻🍻🍻🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 While maybe not as many bands as the USA, there were still a few here!! 😉
Off the top of my head favorite (no particular order*)
80's Metal Bands from Canada that only released 1 full length album:
Beyond Possession - Is Beyond Possession
Messiah Force - The Last Day
Armoros - Pieces
Dyoxen - First Among Equals
Slaughter - Strappado
**Honorable Mentions:
Assault - Survival In The Street
Dissection - Final Genocide
Strike Force - S/T
Tzar - Players of the Game
Corpus Vile - What Does It Take
Rapid Tears - Honestly
Will definitely check these out!
@@MetalSchoolChannel .. just realized I forgot Overthrow!! Album released in 1990, but band formed in 80's and had recorded demo then!!! 🤘🤘🤘🍻🍻🍻🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
Saw Cities in '84 or'85 at L'Amour's 3rd anniversary show with Talas. Ah the good old days!!!
Absolutely solid content on this channel bro!
Maybe another topic you could make a video on is bands that had that ONE magic line up. Scanner's Hypertrace comes to mind because its the only album with Michael MAJOR Knoblich. Killer freaking album. Just a thought.
Keep the metal faith alive!
THE 80's was like being a scientist mixing and guessing just how much it took to get
everything inline.
Nice to see ASSASSIN get talked about. Hey school teacher, get in touch with us.
Gargoyle is one of my favorite bands. They remind me a lot of Heir Apparent - Graceful Inheritance
I used to hang around the band Damien. They had more than one album, but they were local, and everybody loved them. Years later, Kevin, the bassist, was trying to write some music, and had me pick up a guitar to play a bit while he worked on his bass line for another band he was in. I was so honored. He told me the chords while he played bass. I threw a little style I could mesh with while playing the chords. He liked it and added to his bass line. Hell of a good time for me.
The 80's produced a lot of great stuff. Just think of Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast, Dio's Holy Diver and Merycul Fate's Don't Break the Oath, to name but a few. It's definitely my favorite decade as far as music is concerned.
BTW: you should do a video on Mercyful Fate someday.
You mean it should be a double feature, with both Mercyful Fate & King Diamond? Seriously Kim Petersen’s a legend, dunno how he keeps two of Denmark’s best metal bands going concurrently, but he does to this day.
Anyway, what’s your opinion on Candlemass? I love them personally..: Johan & Messiah are my fave vocalists - as for my fave Candlemass release it would have to be 88’s Ancient dreams.... with “A cry from the crypt” being my fave track by far.
@@dragonqueen6589There's also Denner/Shermann with Sean Peck on vocals. I can recommend the Masters of Evil album to Mercyful Fate fans. I love the Candlemass albums with Messiah. Ancient Dreams is also my favorite Candlemass album. If you like doom metal you should check out Sorcerer who have made two great albums so far.
@@wimvanderstraeten6521 The 90s for metal in general is pretty meh, I mean Maiden had decent releases, but Dokken... Christ, what was Don thinkin’ there with Shadowlife?! Alt-rock, George Lynch didn’t sound like himself.... and yet he learned nothing from it, cos he goes back and reforms Lynch Mob with a bunch of nobodys and then decides “Yeah, let’s try Numetal.” and o’course it didn’t work..... but Oni Logan was in an out for years but out full time as of two years ago... “Wicked Sensation” will always be a fave track of mine. Sorry for switching it up so abruptly dude.
Every music genre was at its best in the 80s it seems. Pop culture in general was it its peak.
Dio was a hack
Cities in my opinion, best band here
I love bands like these. It is so hard to keep a band together and having members with similar tastes and focus, they are lucky they got 1 album out before falling apart.
Was that a Les Paul Jr the guy from Cities was shredding on? Didn't see that much.
How do you like to be the guitarist for Cities. KISS wanted him as their new guitarist but their manager hid that from him.
80’s metal!!! Heck yeah!!!
My dad still has Black Death on Vinyl, and after seeing this he didn't know about the re release with the little record with bonus songs. So, he went to the closet and pulled it out, gave it to me and said "check that out do I have that?" I pulled out the record and then opened up cover and there it was! I pulled it out and he goes "Whaaaat?! I've had this for over 30 years and I never knew that was there!" We wouldn't have known if not for this video, thanks bro for all you're research in the metal community \m/ \m/
Haha that’s awesome!!
I’m from Oregon originally and it’s a damn shame that Gargoyle didn’t go far. They are awesome!
Very interesting, you've got a new suscriber
I'm a huge 80's metalhead even though I was born in 1981 and was too young at that time, these bands are all top notch and are my favorite which I have on my Itunes playlist and on CD. ❤️🤘
Haha, I was born in the same year 😄 Glad you like them!
@@MetalSchoolChannelFantastic bands, I really loved the video. Been following these bands for quite a while and didn't realise the backstory on how these bands formed and what happened to them after the 80's. Very sad that some aren't with us any more.
Born in 1980, but I had the good fortune of having two parents who were musicians so at a very young age I was exposed to Motley Crue, Van Halen, Y&T etc. as a young kid my parents took me to festivals and shows. Got to see Crue, Guns n' Roses, Metallica, Faith No More etc. as a kid when these bands were in their prime.
@@RockLibertyWarrior That's so cool, I'm the only one in my family that loves Hard Rock/Heavy Metal. I've seen 3 of my artist live Judas Priest, W.A.S.P. and Dark Angel which all were awesome.
@@robertobuatti7226 Dude, I love W.A.S.P., the first four releases only though... We could’ve had more classic W.A.S.P. If Blackie hadn’t penned “Mean man”
The main issue I have with 2000s W.A.S.P. Is the fact the religious elements in the lyrics [which were even present in tracks like the Heretic) are more obvious - Modern W.A.S.P. sounds like a clone of Stryper, let that sink in.... and plus, are we all aware Blackie’s a born again Christian now?
IronChrist pioneered an entire genre with their only album; "Getting The Most Out of Your Extinction".
Fun Facts regarding Gargoyle. Singer Tim Lachman's brother is Patrick Lachman, who was guitar player on Halford's first two solo albums and was also the Lead singer for brother's Dimebage and VInnie's band "Damageplan". Patrick was also guitarist for Gargoyle for a short time as well before the band broke up.
That’s cool bro, god we all miss Dimebag & Vinnie. Isn’t it an odd coincidence that John Lennon & Dimebag Darrell not only died on the same day but also under eerily similar circumstances? Sorry for being so dark dude... but You did mention but Dime & Vinnie so....
I knew that about Lennon and Darrell and it's creepy.
What a great video! Thank you!
Holy shit this channel could be awesome.. . You've got something going here man... . . .
I know, he should have way more subs... and should also do a pod on the side.... that way he’s gonna be even bigger.
Good content love it watching while drinking coffee
Interesting vid, very informative. Will check out this music. Thanks for keeping it alive.
Assassin is pretty kickass..thanks for the video
I'm surprised these bands had one album. They reminded me of Lizzy Borden and Iron Maiden. Circumstances were in play, as it seems, for them. It was nice to see A.J. in here. He's missed by so many of us.
Gargoyle!!!
You mentioned destructor, they are actually on tour still and have a show in Cleveland Ohio on February 4th 2024
I was fully expecting to see Culprit Guilty As Charged on this list. I still love that album.
An episode just about the bands on New York Metal 84 would be great
Yeah, the guys that were staunchly repped by Thrax if ya know what I mean 😉
Great video one of my favorite one and done bands is Attila (from 1986 not the one from nowadays) with their album rolling thunder
I went to school with the lachmans'. Gargoyles frontman Tim lachman is the older brother of Patrick lachman of Diesel Machine Halford and Damageplan. Incidentally Tommy Thayer of Black and Blue and Kiss also attended the same school although a few years earlier and Chris Carrie of Poison Idea and Andrew McKeag of The Presidents Of The United States of America.
Really loved Assassin
The also band I can think at this moment for next time is Blind Illusion's The Sane Asylum. Thanks for the awesome video. 🤘🤘
What a masterpiece album....Debbie Abono the manager of Possesed dumbed them...
Got that vinyl... Vengeance is mine has insane guitar solos. Kamakazi is so atmospheric and the chorus kinda takes you in for a ride. Les Claypool is just brilliant and the bass lines on Smash the crystal or the opening theme wich gives the name to the album, Sane asylum is great. I have a special affection towards this record. Seems like I m not the only one
Thanks for a good thought-provoking video. I think the first two, Gargoyle and Assassin suffered from being a tier or two lower versions of Rising Force and Iron Maiden. Cities was obviously a group of guys with talent looking to hook up with a big time group, and their manager saw his possibility of future cash dwindling with each gig as the Big Guys liked what they saw. Commander is good but, again, the singer -- we've got a ton of those. Now Black Death I didn't know about. If they were around the same time as Burnin' Vernon, then I'm sorry I missed them. They have a definite personality to their sound that does NOT say "oh, this sounds like..."
I saw a Fifth Angel cassette in the thumbnail !
I've seen Black Death and Destructor live in 2016 on the same bill!
Woah, badass! Sounds like a hell of a show.
Nice to see some non-standard bands listed.
There's lots of 1-album-only bands (united states), mostly privately released:
SLAUTER XSTROYES!!!!!!, Hammeron, Dragonne, Stormtrooper, Paradoxx, ESP, Titanic, Attakk, Lord, Eden/August Redmoon, Leather Nunn, Iron cross... You name it. 😎👍
Formel 1 fan no?
Great list of bands!!
@@Overlorde79 yes, i'm a Formel 1 Fan. Well spotted. 😎👍
Also commander sounds great, wish I could find that album
It’s a shame when record labels don’t promote the bands they sign. I always wondered how big Kix would have gotten if Warner Brothers didn’t f..k them around
Great point... a similar thing happened to Loudness when they tried to break into the American market in 88/89, after Soldier of fortune & on the prowl they went back to purely Japanese releases... as of now they either release the Japanese & US versions within months of each other or just one language or the other.
Huge like at the top
well, maybe not much bigger, Blow my fuse was Great Hot wire & funny business were Not Great & came out during Bad times the 90's
@@dragonqueen6589 actually 1985 - 1991.
Loudness did get air play on MTV ( kind of ) the Head Bangers Ball.
on the prowl was some songs re done. Akiras idea.
however there is a Japanese release of Thunder in the east, But i think only a few songs were Recorded in Japanese.
@@MetalHeart8787 Yup, the late 90s was a shit time for Dokken also, reckon it was mostly Don’s idea to try Alt-rock and the resulting release Shadowlife was terrible. Yet George Lynch learned nothin’ cos he went back and reformed Lynch Mob with a bunch of unknowns and tried his hand at Nu-Metal which sucked also. And eh, at least Hot wire’s title track is good.
How many covers from Kill the King were made back in the 80's ?? I just discovered another one in this Commander's band.
Great group of 1 album bands. See if you can find some information on Fierce Heart.
Is that the band with Rex Carroll on guitars?
I just subscribed to. Look up a band called Splitbeaver from England. They only put out one album. They have a song on their called “Gimme Head”. Every song on that album is good. Splitbeaver- When Hell Won’t Have You is the album. I think 1983 is when it came out.
Great video, enjoyed watching it. I'd add Culprit - Guilty As Charged to that list.