Enter Sadmen: The Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame

So this episode is all about the albums you bought and lisened to and thought, fuck me that's a great album! Or possibly, fuck me, that's terrible! And then, 30 years later, you discovered your opinion had done a 180 degree turn. In this episode, Mark revisits he much maligned Black Sabbath experiment that saw Ian Gillan step up to the mic, Steve discovers that Ratt's Detonator tickles his ears a little differently to he wya it did in 1990, and Richard recalls he moment Van Hagar suddenly made sense ....

Yes, Sadfans, we're giving over our 75th episode to the unsung heroes of every band that ever set foot in a recording studio or onto a stage - those apparently indefatigable timekeepers without whom there would be little or no momentum. Stuck behind the kit at the back of the stage, these are the artisans of the hard rock and heavy metal engine room. Whether it's a sense of rhythm combined with a diver's boot (h/t to Gillan's Mick Underwood), the professorial science of Neil Peart, or the tour de force blunt trauma approach of Bonzo, these are the men and women who provide the metronome when you're standing with your feet apart and headbanging your way to an early aneurysm. Naturally, the list of noteworthy sticksmen is ineffably long, so consider this part one of a theme the Sadmen will undoubtedly return to in episodes to come. But for this episode the lads have picked three drummers who have, to some extent, shaped the technical art of hitting the skins with a lump of wood. First up, Phil Collins in his second outing with Genesis for 1972's Foxtrot. Having already helped to shape the Charterhouse proggers' sound on his debut release, Nursery Cryme the year before, Collins, Banks, Gabriel and Rutherford return a year later with a release that would achieve immortality in the genre. The boys' next stop was six years later, as Y&T - then known still as Yesterday and Today - drop their sophomore 1978 release Struck Down. Though three years away from the standard-bearing Earthshaker, this is the album that perhaps best showcases the undeniable talent of their man on the kit, Leonard Haze. And the lads round off proceedings with Jeff Pocaro and TOTO's commercial juggernaut IV, which boasts the ghost notes on album opener Rosanna that to this day separate the men from the boys when it comes to high drumming art. Enjoy!

Episode 74 sees the lads tackling the subject of inventions. If ever there was scope to push the envelope on a theme this, surely, is it. And so it proved, as Mark fishes out a set of what can only be described as 15th Century blueprints to qualify Dokken's 1981 debut, Breakin' The Chains. (Don't get antsy, America - we know the better known version of the album was released in Amercia in 1983 with a title tweak - Breaking The Chains rather than Breakin' The Chains - and a very different running order, but where there's a reissue the Sadmen always take the original release for the review - and, besides, in this case it has a better back story!) Not for the first time on the podcast, Rich went soft, opting for a post-Balboa and post-Dave Bickler Survivor and their 1984 album Vital Signs (the invention? An oscilloscope ... yeah, yeah ... they're all tenuous on this show, friends). And (also not for the first time) Steve went hard, opting for a band that has never actually existed with Piledriver's Stay Ugly from 1986. And if you don't know the PIledriver back story, that's worth this episode's admission price alone. (The admission is free, by the way. You know ... just in case that's a dealbreaker).

The latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast finds the boys in more familiar territory as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes serves up 'Death' as the theme for Episode 73. End of life certainly offers up a wealth of stuff to go at in the world of hard rock and heavy metal, which makes it even more bewildering that Steve and Rich didn't follow Mark's lead and go with something completly literal. As it was, Mark arrived at the Sadmen party with an album in another one of those covers that, much like the Scorpions Lovedrive, had post-pubescent teenagers nursing a boner in the record shop. Witchfinder General's 1982 debut Death Penalty, was a marketing man's dream, yet the band still managed to evade mainstream celebrity. The songs on offer may provide good clues as to why, but Mark argues that there's lots of fun to be had ... if, in 2023, you can get beyond the gratuitous presence of female breasts on the cover. And so to Steve and Richard,m who could have gone with pretty much anything buit instead chose to plough a furrow in Scandinavia's death metal scene. First up, Richard with the npw-legendary Epicus Doomicus Metallicus from Candlemass - a 1986 release that was determinedly ignored by the record-buying public until after the band was dropped by its record company - at which point they went out and bought it by the truckload. And finally, in this episode, Steve puts forward the case for Entombed's Wolverine Blues, now a neo-classic, but then, in 1993, another radar-avoiding old skool throwback. Prepare for laughter in the face of Death Metal.

Sometimes artists feel the need to escape the confines of the environment in which they made their name and give voice to the individuality of their art. Or some such bollocks. In any event, whether going solo or, in the case of Doro Pesch, being forced by a legal ruling to cease and desist using the name of the band which made her famous, rock and roll's highways and byways are crisscrossed by the tracks of musicians who have wandered off the well-beaten track. We meet three of them in this edition of Enter Sadmen - an episode in which the lads were sent off to find famous rock musos who, for whatever reason, decided to ply their trade under their own name. They don't come much bigger than Percy Plant, of course. The erstwhile golden-maned lead singer of demigods Led Zeppelin first tasted artistic life outside that particular juggernaut in 1982 with Pictures At Eleven - and a very successful sojourn it turned out to be. But it is 1990's Manic Nirvana that commands our attention for part of the next 80 minutes. Doro, still smarting from losing control of the Warlock brand in the courts, was canny enough to know that sentiment aside, she was Warlock and that her fanbase would hang on her every note, regardless of the collective name she and her musicians gave themselves. And no one would be hanging on those words more fervently than Steve. What wasn't quite so clear, when she released her first 'solo' album - the presumably self-referencing Force Majeure - was why she chose a decidedly iffy cover as the calling card. Luckily, things got rapidly better thereafter. But first of all we encounter a man who could make girls swoon at the mere suggestion he might be on Top Of The Pops on a Thursday night with the other guys in Duran Duran. Yes, you read that right. Mark turned up to this party with the other Taylor in the Durannies - Andy - and his 1987 solo debut, Thunder. Now go and look up the word 'eclectic' and see if that don't just sum up Episode 72 ...

So, a question. How maqny albums can you name where the title track is worthy of its status? And of those, how many eclipse even that honour to be classed asd truly epic? That was also the question that was asked of our hardy rock and roll adventurers by the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes for this, the latest leg of the marathon attempt to review the greatest hard rock, heavy metal, prog (etcetera, etcetera) albums of all time (well, of 1970 to 1995, at least). It's worth saying from the outset that Steve managed to misinterpret the brief as incorporating title tracks that he simply liked, which is how Exodus's 1985 debut Bonded By Blood managed to find its way into proceedings. But, y'know, hey ho. Rich and Mark, on the other hand, rocked up - literally and metaphorically - with two bonafide essentials. First on the turntable for this episode is the first vinyl offering from Deep Purple MKIII, complete with Coverdale and Hughes on shared voal duty -1974's Burn. As with all three albums, the track opens the album's account. But would it be the best of the collection? That was definitely up for debate. So, too, the question of the title cut from Motӧrhead's 1979 offering, Overkill. Mark unapologetically claims this to be not just streets ahead of the following year's chart-bothering Ace Of Spades, but entire cities ahead. You can judge for yourselves, and see if Steve (a self-confesed Lemmy-sceptic) and Richard agree. And then there's Bonded By Blood. A criminal omission from what should be termed the Big 5, or just a lot of noise and little substance? Steve dons his gown and wig and presents the case for the defence.

And on we go to Episode 70, in which the lads work to a brief that shouldn't have been too challenging to meet, even for men of singular taste and discernment. Yes, in this run through another three albums from hard rock and heavy metal's golden era (that's 1970 to 1995, for the uninitiated) the boys were tasked by the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes to find examples of 'Power'. Whether electrical, nuclear, steam, wind, strength or gas was up to them to decide. And so we end up slap bang in the middle of the 1980s with a trio of offerings spanning six years between 1983 and 1989. First up come our old friends AC/DC - and yet again it's not the band's uber fan Mark bringing their 8th studio album Flick Of The Switch to the party (go with us, here - it's listed in Wiki as their 10th, but Wiki has counted High Voltage and its derivative and territory-specific alternate versions as three different albums). An unloved misstep rightly cast into the depths fans' memories? Or a much-maligned and under-appreciated neo classic? You'll get both ends of that spectrum in this episode. Next up, Rush uber fan Richard doesn't disappoint - although he ducks the obvious Power Windows and instead opts for 1984's Grace Under Pressure, the band's 10th studio release and the first of a quartet of albums that were, to varying degrees, considered disappointing by fans when compared to Rush's earlier canon. That doesn't mean the Sadmen will also conform to mass opinion, of course. If nothing else they are rarely inclined to toe the party line. And bringing up the rear - and what a glorious rear it is - Mark pops up with the second offering from Tesla (and we mean that both in terms of their discography and their pod appearances) The Great Radio Controversy from 1989. Hair metal with a gritty edge? Or inhabitants of a genre of one? The boys answer that question, too.

For their latest journey down hard rock and heavy metal's many-faceted highway, the Sadmen's destination was that utopian land of pianos, synthesisers, Moogs and mellotrons. Yes, friends, having done vocalists, singers and bass players, it was time to pay tribute to some of the ivory tinklers who help to make up rock's great tapestry. But if you thought we were going all Tony Banks, Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman or Richard Wright on you, think again, fans. Yes, in this episode we do touch on some obvious waypoints, but of Genesis, Purple/Whitesnake, Yes and Floyd there is no sign (or is there?) And though Mark and Rich go fully prog rock (or 'prock' as no-one ever calls it), Steve manages to keep it real with a big slice of late-70s hard rock. With three albums released over a period of just seven years, we start back in 1972 with Uriah Heep who, at this point were shelling albums like peas, yet still managed to trump early successes like Look At Yourself and Salisbury, with the huge cornucopia of Ken Hensley-inspired sound that was Demons And Wizards (their 4th album in just 23 months - and release #5 would follow just 6 short months later). We follow that another fourth release, this time from Kansas, and an album full of material that, staggeringly, wasn't deemed good enough for the band's previous two issues. Yes, folks, the clue is in the name - 1976's Leftoverture (though the 'after the mayor's ball' nature of the track listing didn't stop it becoming widely recognised as Kansas' seminal release) features the sloppy seconds from Song For America and Masque. Enter, then, one Kerry Livgren (among many others) on keyboard duty. And you know we said there wasn't a sign of Deep Purple in this show? Well of course, there is, as Steve rolls up with Ian Gillan, now fronting his own eponymously titled band and their second release, Mr Universe, from 1979. On keyboards, and widely appreciated as the man who steered his honey-larynxed boss off a jazz-fusion march into oblivion, one Colin Towns - a man so mercurial that he counts the theme tune to Angelina Ballerina among his many TV theme credits. So ... it's fair to say an eclectic show lay ahead ...

And so following the previous episode, which - according to Rich - featured Diet Cult and Diet Marillion, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes rumbled ever on and this time spat out a topic which challenged the boys to find albums that had a 'white' theme. After they all studiously avoided the apparently 'obvious' Whitesnake, they each entered the Sadmen Sound Studio with more white stuff than you'd find at a mid-Eighties Motley Crue after show party. First up for discussion was Steve's personal comfort blanket - the 1984 debut effort from the crown princes of melodic hard rock, White Sister. After coming through the shock of realising this would be the last time they'd feature in the pod (Episode 39 had already dispensed with the band's sophomore and final effort), Steve rallied gamely to prosecute the case for the eponymously titled debut to be admitted to the highest echelons of the Hall of Fame. The same year also gave us White Lion's debut, Fight To Survive, Richard swerving the opportunity to deliver the band's career-altering Pride or Big Game to the party. So, would this be a saccharine-laden amuse bouche for those two titans of commercial melodic metal, or would the original lion's roar have a harder edge to it? And after all of that harmonising, what were the lads to make of the career changing (at least with regard to the direction of travel) of Anthrax's 1993 issue The Sound Of White Noise, their first without Joey Belladonna at the mic? Would the fact it's their biggest-selling album of their career (yes, really) also mean it was their best? We were about to find out...

And so to an episode in which Richard, Steve and Mark were tasked with marking important life moments. Mark and Steve opted for a broadly similar seam to mine - that of parenthood. Rich, on the other hand, eschewed the opportunity to reflect on bringing new life into the world, or discovering love for the first time. He spat in the face of death and pooh-poohed the notions of age, friends and work. No, it seems that Richard's most notable moment in life is, in fact, stowing a lilo under his arm and heading off to the Mediterranean. And so it came to be that the lads ended up spending a week or so in the company of Alice Cooper, Mother Love Bone and Marillion. Steve kicks off the show with a look back at Alice Cooper (the band, not the man - he was just common-or-garden Vince Furnier at the time of this particular release) and their much-admired Billion Dollar Babies from 1973. Over 30 minutes or so the Sadmen try to come to a definitive answer to a simple question: Is it really that good? Next up is Mother Love Bone, a one-album sensation (thanks to yet another rock and roll overdose that robbed the world of a young talent) that ultimately gave us the behemoth that is Pearl Jam, and their sole 1991 release Apple. Meanwhile, over in Ibiza, Richard was whacking up the volume on the Steve Hogarth version of Marillion, who were vacationing in paradise in 1992 with Holidays In Eden. As the show rolls past album 200 in the big list, would these three manage to elbow their way into its upper echelons?

The lads were having such a good time, dipping a gnarly toe into the cool waters of the late 70s and early 80s, when Steve decided to spoil the party with a dirty protest in the form of a thrash album that burned through 14 songs in fewer than short - albeit painful - minutes. Luckily, you, dear listener, have dodged the bullet that Mark and Richard took on your behalf, and you'll only have to endure about 2 minutes of Nuclear Assault's live offering, Live At The Hammersmith Odeon. Before that, though, the boys consider the altogether more sophisticated (by comparison, at least) 1978 commercial behemoth At Budokan from Cheap Trick and every NWOBHM aficionado's favourite live offering, The Eagle Has Landed from Yorkshire's finest, Saxon.

A landmark moment for the Sadmen as listener Tony, from Australia, picks three albums for the boys to cast their ears over - and what an eclectic three they turned out to be. First up, novelty sensation Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction with their debut, Tattooed Beat Messiah. With their 'out there' look, hilarious alter ego names and chart-bothering single Prime Mover, was this British oddity just a very clever joke - or is there more to it than that? Following hot on the heels of Zodiac comes the pod's second encounter with The Cult who in 1989 executed a smart right turn away from their Gothy native American roots and headed off down the metal highway with Sonic Temple. And the show closes out, fittingly, with an old-fashioned, heads down rock and roll band. Proving there's more to Oz than the Young brothers (or is there?), we say hello for the first time to The Angels and their breakthrough album Beyond Salvation. It's no spoiler alert to say the boys enjoyed Tony's selections very much - so cheers mate! If you've got 3 albums you'd like the lads to review, just find us on Facebook, on Twitter or at www.entersadmen.co.uk and let us know!

In their latest journey down hard rock and heavy metal's Memory Lane, the boys are checking out supergroups - those bands formed by musos who made their names in other bands. There were some obvious ones to choose from - Bad Company, Audioslave and, erm, Revolting Cocks, for example - but the boys dived deep and came up with three outfits that were all new to at least one of them. Anything involving Sammy Hagar and Neil Schon was probably dependably good (or was it?) so they all felt comfortable with Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve's Through The Fire from 1983. But then Mark rocked up with Dennis Stratton side project Lionheart and their eponymous 1984 debut, and Steve went full toto and picked a band that, in a different genre, might have had a lot in common with One Direction (insofar as they were manufactured for the purpose of achieving commercial success). It was promising to be an interesting chat ... www.entersadmen.co.uk

After a short hiatus, the Sadmen are back with the latest instalment of the Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame - an ongoing mission to create the definitive best-to-worst list of hard rock, heavy metal and prog released between 1970(ish) and 1995(ish). The Hall of Fame unique's selling point is the fact that each and every track on each and every album is marked individually, with the averages of those scores calculated to give the album as a whole an overall score - often to 5 decimal places. And because the boys each have different tastes - Steve likes his metal delivered at pace, Richard is the professorial wise head with a penchant for prog, and Mark is a simple man who's happy with a big fat riff and a glorious hookline - each is a check and balance to the others' hyperbole. For this edition of the show the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes threw out the year 1989, setting the lads the task of finding three albums released during that year worthy of being pulled apart. Welcome, then, W.A.S.P.'s The Headless Children, Bang Tango's Psycho Cafe, and Faith No More's genre defining The Real Thing. Let the arguments commence.

Human biology is the theme of the 63rd instalment of the lads' quest to compile the ultimate 'best of' list of hard rock and heavy metal albums. It's also an episode that sees debut appearances for two bands, along with the fourth of the six Metallica albums that are eligible for consideration under the pod's strict 1970-1995 (okay, 1996) parameters. The task was straightforward: parts of the human body. Steve went for 'hand'. Check. Mark went for 'spine'. Check. Richard went for ejaculate, blood, and urine. Hmmm. And not for the first time. Enter, then, Outa Hand, the second album from Coney Hatch, the Canadian wing of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, released in 1984; another sophomore release, this time from Spinal Tap with Break Like The Wind, the follow-up to 1984's seminal (that's seminal, not semen-al) This Is Spinal Tap; and last but not least Metallica's last properly decent album (in our humble opinion) Load.

So often pilloried and made to be the punchline of heavy metal jokes (Q: Where's the best place to hear a bass solo? A: In the bar/bog), this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast celebrates the 4-string virtuosos without whom much of the music we love would either not exist at all, or be significantly poorer. The lads were tasked with finding three bass players who each personified their band's sound. It was a remarkably difficult choice, with Geezer Butler, Lemmy, Geddy Lee, Phil Kennemore, JPJ, and Roger Glover all in contention. But in the end, our threesome narrowed the field to an eclectic, but influential trio (whilst also vowing to return to this much-maligned instrument before too much time could pass). Mark kicks off proceedings in 1980 with Iron Maiden's guvnor and chief songwriter, Steve Harris, and the band's self-titled debut; Steve followed suit with Mötley Crüe counterpart Nikki Sixx and their debut, Too Fast For Love; and Richard served up Dave Ellefson, whose effortless genius helped Megadeth to 1990s superstardom courtesy of '92's Countdown To Extinction..

For their latest journey down the time tunnel of hard rock and heavy metal the lads fired up the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes and found themselves transported back to 1974, where they discovered just how broad this church of hard rock and heavy metal really was. First up - and not for the first time on the pod - a bunch of German musicians who had hitched their wagon to that of an English vocalist. Epitaph's Outside The Law reflects a broad tapestry of influences that range from Southern Rock to prog to jazz and funk. A case, then, of 'so far, so early 1970s'. For the second time in the pod's history Rich and Steve rebuffed Mark's attempt to bring The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway into the Hall of Fame and sent him away to try again. Which was probably for the best, since it opened the door for a true classic in the shape of Blue Ӧyster Cult's Secret Treaties - a record fans and critics widely regard as the band's best release. Mark, on the other hand, prefers Fire Of Unknown Origin. Or does he? And finally, if you thought Sweet were just another early Seventies UK glam pop-rock band from the same stable as Mud, The Glitter Band, and Wizzard, think again. Desolation Boulevard features on more rock 'Best' lists than you can shake a stick at. Which was enough to convince Richard it deserved an airing on the pod.

The latest edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast heads off in search of hard rock and heavy metal band names, album titles, or cover art with a distinctly spooky flavour to them. Richard manages to push the envelope (again) by picking Sabbath's fifth outing, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath from 1973, on the basis that the images on the front and back of the cover depict a man being watched over by demons and angels respectively. Oh, and the whole shebang was recorded in a haunted castle. But when you're dealing with cuts as epic as the title track, A National Acrobat and Sabbra Cadabra, who's going to argue? Mark offers up the overlooked White Spirit with their self-titled 1980 debut, also their only release after the band imploded shortly after the departure of guitarist Jannick Gers to Gillan (and thence to Maiden). The band were lazily categorised as NWOBHM, but did their roots really lie back in the mid-70s and hard rock prog? And Steve sticks with the prog theme to bring in Fates Warning, a band once considered one of the so-called 'Big 3' that also included Dream Theater and Queensrÿche. In the spotlight, their 1991 release Parallels. With the Hall of Fame now approaching 200 albums, where would the three land in the list of best hard rock and heavy metal albums of all time?

The latest episode of the Enter Sadmen Podcast turns its attention to three albums that feature either either angels or towers, or (in two cases) both. First up is the ambitious 1975 self-titled debut from American progressive band Angel, famous for both their white and outrageously angelic stagewear and for having Greg Guiffra as a member. We then spin forward 5 years to the birth of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (at least in its recorded form) and one of its most influential releases - the self-titled debut from London outfit Angel Witch. Finally, we bridge a 17-year gap to the third and final debut release of the show - Death Angel's 1987 release The Ultra-Violence, which is notable for the fact that at the time it hit record stores every member of the band was under the age of 20, and their drummer was out Philthy-ing Phil Taylor at the tender age of just 14 ...

The lads head into outer space for the latest trip down hard rock and heavy metal's Memory Lane as they investigate and appraise the merits - or otherwise - of three very different albums boasting some sort of connection, however tenuous, to the worlds beyond our own. First up is Deep Purple with Fireball from 1971, the staging post between the previous year's In Rock and the genre defining Machine Head released in 1972. The band have since confessed to not being particularly enamoured with it; so how would it fare under the Sadmen spotlight? Next up, an album where you can almost taste and smell the drugs that went into making it as rock's ultimate beatniks, Hawkwind, serve up a sprawling space rock epic in Hall Of The Mountain Grill from 1974, released less than a year before their bassist, one Ian Kilmister Esq, was given his marching orders in what would turn out to be one of rock's most famous blessings in disguise. Having started at one end of the 25-year epoch that reflects the music that's covered by the Enter Sadmen podcast, Richard takes us all to the other, with Monster Magnet's Dopes To Infinity, released in 1995.