Top 10: Metal Albums of 1975

This ain’t no jive! Today we reveal our Top 10 Metal Albums of 1975! In this week’s edition, Sabbath returns, Rush reinvents, and Rainbow rises. Meanwhile, Pol Pot conquered Cambodia, Saturday Night Live made its debut, and President Ford was nearly assassinated…twice! If that one sentence was enough world news to last you the year, I don’t blame you. Now here’s 10 albums that will last you a lifetime.

10. Rainbow – Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow

Having become disillusioned with the funk driven direction Deep Purple was headed, Ritchie Blackmore bid the band he co-founded adieu and formed Rainbow. This new band was presented as what Deep Purple would’ve sounded like had Blackmore put his foot down and not let those mischievous unrighteous brothers Coverdale and Hughes assume creative control. In fact, legend has it Ronnie James Dio was supposed to replace Ian Gillan upon his departure in ’73. The only reason he didn’t get the gig was due to being contractually bound to flailing blues rockers Elf. When the band was on life support, Blackmore took them in as the first lineup of Rainbow. Together, they created classics that stand the test of time, like “Catch the Rainbow”, “The Temple of the King”, and the proto-power metal epic, “Man on the Silver Mountain”.

9. UFO – Force It

The English have a great sense of humor and even greater sense of metal. UFO combined both on their fourth full length, Force It (get it?). Seeing the marvelous results of 1974’s Phenomenon, the band decided to let their new dynamo guitarist Michael Schenker assume creative control. The formula was simple: He wrote the riffs. Phil Mogg wrote the lyrics. Thanks to the intoxicating steel of “Let it Roll”, “Shoot Shoot”, and “Mother Mary”, UFO became the premiere British metal band of the mid 70s. No other group so perfectly bridged the gap between the old guard (Sabbath, Purple, Heep, etc.) and the soon to be NWOBHM.

8. Thin Lizzy – Fighting

Thin Lizzy fought 5 years and 4 albums for their place in the spotlight. They finally earned it on album #5, Fighting. After tinkering with the twin guitar formula on Nightlife (1974), Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham reached new heights on songs such as “Wild One” and “Ballad of a Hard Man”. From vicious, biting riffs, to mesmerizing melodies, Robertson and Gorham could do it all. Phil Lynott would accept nothing less to accompany his ever cool, cunning introspections. Lynott was a triple threat: A superb bassist, a smooth singer, and a sincere songsmith. In his head, he was merely following the footsteps of his heroes Elvis and Van the Man. In our heads, he changed the landscape of not just hard and heavy music, but music in general forever. Fighting was just the beginning.

7. Rush – Fly by Night

How could Rush follow the fly by night success of their debut album, led by the 7 minute FM staple, “Working Man”? With an album entitled Fly by Night, of course! Joining Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson for album #2 was new drummer Neil Peart. And to say this might be the most important personnel change in rock history would be an understatement. Sure, an argument could be made for Ringo Starr replacing Pete Best, but at the end of the day, Lennon and McCartney were going to write those hits regardless. A libertarian manifesto (“Anthem”)? A fantastical tale (“Beneath, Between & Behind”)? A Tolkien inspired epic (“By-Tor & the Snow Dog”)? Mind you, all of this coming from a band who just a year earlier was singing about being “In the Mood” and “Needing Some Love”. Neil Peart gave Rush their identity, whether Geddy and Alex “got it” or not. Although considering this lineup lasted 40 years, it’s safe to say they eventually “got” “the new guy”.

6. KISS – Dressed to Kill

Only a year and three albums into their career, KISS was on life support. Scratch that. KISS wasn’t on life support. Their label was. Before striking gold…no…platinum with KISS and disco in the latter half of the decade, Casablanca Records essentially put guns to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s heads and said, “We need a hit. Now.” That hit became the defining song of their career, yet least memorable song on Dressed to Kill. Who needs “Rock and Roll All Nite” when you’ve got the stoner sleaze of “She”, the Motown worship of “Anything for My Baby”, and the second greatest song entitled “Rock Bottom” (See our 1974 list for the first greatest)? I rest my case.

5. Ted Nugent – Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent’s self titled debut was more than just another hard rock album. It was a call to arms. As soon the needle dropped, America’s youth were greeted to perhaps the greatest riff ever recorded in the form of “Stranglehold”. And if you were able to survive that 8 minute opening barrage of venomous vocals, skull fracturing riffs, and smoking hot guitar solos, you were treated to a collection of hard and heavy rockers that could’ve only come from the Motor City. More importantly, these rockers could’ve only come from the messed up mind of one Sweaty Teddy A.K.A. Atrocious Theodosius A.K.A. “If it’s too loud, yer too old!”

4. Nazareth – Hair of the Dog

On Hair of the Dog, Nazareth reached their creative and commercial peak. Their rendition of The Everly Brothers’ “Love Hurts” peaked at #8 on the Top 40, while the nasty title track remains an album rock radio staple to this day. As warranted as the success of these two singles were, they tend to overshadow the rest of this genius album and that’s a real shame. Everyone should be acquainted with the Sabbath worship of “Miss Misery”, the honest blues of “Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman”, and one of my personal favorite songs of all time, “Please Don’t Judas Me”.

3. Scorpions – In Trance

Isn’t it funny how a genre built on the idea of experimentation and artistic freedom can still manage to trap an artist in a box? Scorpions knew this all too well. They wanted to break from the oppressive clutches of krautrock so bad. You could hear it on the previous year’s Fly to the Rainbow. They finally did so on their third album, In Trance. The most psychedelic thing about this album are the occasional Hendrixisms in Uli Jon Roth’s playing, heard on the title track and “Night Lights”. Other than that, In Trance is a teutonic metal assault, five years ahead of its time.

2. Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare

Goodbye Alice Cooper, the band. Hello Alice Cooper, the man. Equipped with an established name and an equally established producer, the Coop began this new creative chapter with a grandiose rock opera in the vein of The Who. Only instead of deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizards or mods and rockers battling it out in the streets, we got songs about spiders (“The Black Widow”), mental illness (“Steven”), and necrophilia (“Cold Ethyl”). The lyrics were shocking enough to appeal to the core fanbase. The music was polished enough to appeal to your average suburbanite. It was a win-win situation for both Alice and the record company. The Cooper/Ezrin collaboration was a creative triumph, while the album itself went platinum and spawned a Top 40 hit with “Only Women Bleed”.

1. Black Sabbath – Sabotage

If Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is Black Sabbath’s Sgt. Pepper’s, then Sabotage is their Abbey Road. By this point in the Sabbath saga, egos and emotions are running high for various reasons. Some members wanted to push the musical experimentations of SBS a step further. Others not so much. The old story goes that when they were recording “Supertzar”, Ozzy walked into the studio, only to walk out and go home. Upon seeing a full orchestra set up, he assumed he either got studios or the days mixed up. Although considering Ozzy’s lifestyle choices around this time, that wasn’t the only thing “mixed up”.

It wasn’t just Oz facing demons. The rest of the band were as well. This resulted in further examinations into the tortured human psyche (“Megalomania”, “Am I Going Insane (Radio)”), a plea for freedom (“Hole in the Sky”), and a scathing takedown of their management (“The Writ”). Yes, anger, fear, and depression ran deep through the creation of Sabotage, resulting in yet another raw, heavy, and brutally honest masterpiece.

Honorable Mentions

• Aerosmith – Toys in the Attic
• Angel – Angel
• Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
• Dirty Tricks – Dirty Tricks
• Rush – Caress of Steel