If you asked any metalhead to name the single greatest year in metal history, chances are they’d either answer 1983 or 1984. This is for good reason. As you’ll soon see, pretty much every album that comprises this week’s list regularly cracks “Greatest Metal Albums of All Time” lists. It was a near impossible task ranking these 10, let alone coming up with 5 honorable mentions, but upon much consideration, I feel I’ve been successfully able to do so. Without further ado, here’s our Top 10 Metal Albums of 1983.
10. KISS – Lick It Up
Upon the release of 1982’s Creatures of the Night, KISS transformed themselves from 70s hard rock heroes to an 80s metal machine. Little did they know that their biggest transformation yet would take place a year later in 1983. On September 18, 1983, after years of waning popularity, KISS was in the limelight yet again. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Vinnie Vincent, and Eric Carr appeared on MTV without makeup for the first time ever. The following week, the band released Lick It Up. The album let the world more that there was more to KISS than outlandish personas and over the top stage antics. Thanks to the turbocharged songwriting and guitar playing of Vinnie Vincent, KISS was now toe to toe with the likes of Judas Priest and Scorpions for top of the heavy metal hill. Classic cuts like “Exciter”, “Fits Like a Glove”, and “A Million to One” speak for themselves. The title track found the band on mainstream rock radio for the first time since the Dynasty days. KISS was back and leading the pack, but unfortunately not for long. A clash of egos (surprise) led to the dismissal of Vinnie Vincent in 1984. I can’t help but imagine what the future of KISS would’ve been had they put out what would become the debut Vinnie Vincent Invasion album as the follow up to Lick It Up instead of Animalize. Don’t get me wrong. I dig most of those non-makeup era albums (sorry Hot in the Shade), but none match the intensity of Lick it Up.
9. Metallica – Kill ‘Em All
I never understood the narrative that thrash metal came out of nowhere, like an asteroid hitting earth. With the way English bands like Motörhead, Venom, Raven, and Tank were pushing the speed envelope, it only made sense a band would come along and up the ante. It just so happened that band was Metallica. More specifically, Metallica was one of a group of bands who together invented thrash metal, and it just so happened they were the first to release an album. Some like to give the title of “first thrash metal album” to Exciter’s Heavy Metal Maniac, released just a couple months earlier in June, 1983. With all due respect, Heavy Metal Maniac has the speed, but is still more in line musically with Judas Priest and Saxon. It lacks the punk aggression heard on Metallica’s debut, Kill ‘Em All. Whether the first crop of thrashers wanted to admit it or not, “Hit the Lights”, “Whiplash”, and “No Remorse” owed as much to Discharge and GBH as they did to the NWOBHM. Kill ‘Em All stands as a major turning point in the evolution of heavy metal. From this point onwards, the floodgates opened for all iterations of extreme metal to follow.
8. Dio – Holy Diver
It’s hard to believe today, but despite being perhaps the greatest voice in metal history, Ronnie James Dio put all his chips on the table with Holy Diver. After legendary stints with Rainbow and Black Sabbath, Dio refused to be constrained by the creative boundaries of yet another band. His next project would be solely his own: Dio. He recruited a band that captured the best of both Rainbow (Jimmy Bain on bass) and Sabbath (Vinny Appice on drums), as well as a young unknown guitar hero (Vivian Campbell). If this formula could work for one Sabbath singer, surely it could work for another. And it did. Holy Diver was a creative and critical success. The album spawned two MTV/rock radio hits, “Rainbow in the Dark” and the title track. While lyrically it continued the fantastical themes of Dio’s past, musically it was a step into the heavy metal future. Holy Diver is such an energetic and powerful album, that one would never believe Dio was 40 years old at the time of its recording. By today’s standard’s, 40 is young. In the world of 80s metal, 40 was ancient. The immaculate performances on tracks like “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “Stand Up and Shout” prove that age is just a number.
7. Black Sabbath – Born Again
Edging out both Ozzy and Dio in 1983 is none other than their former band, Black Sabbath. Born Again is an album that lives up to its title. After failed attempts at recruiting Robert Plant and David Coverdale, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler persuaded the equally legendary Ian Gillan to join after a night of hard drinking. How hard, you may ask? When Gillan woke up the next morning, he didn’t even remember agreeing to such a proposition. Nevertheless, he stuck around for the writing and recording of the heaviest, darkest, most evil album of Sabbath’s career, Born Again. There are naysayers who whine about this album’s, uh, “unorthodox” production. The band themselves are divided on it, with Iommi himself considering a remix upon discovering the master tapes. I say leave it the way it is. There’s something about Born Again that’s so raw and so sinister. It’s not just the lyrics, just the music, or just the production. It’s all three together, resulting in the unholy birth depicted on the cover. I still maintain that “Disturbing the Priest” contains the greatest vocal performance in metal history and I’ll die upon that hill.
6. Thin Lizzy – Thunder and Lightning
It’s hard to believe by today’s standards, but the 80s were not too kind to Thin Lizzy. Chinatown (1980) and Renegade (1981) were slammed by the pretentious music press as cheap attempts at jumping on the NWOBHM bandwagon. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It was Phil Lynott’s way of keeping up with the times, while also staying true to his own identity. By now Thin Lizzy had paid their dues. If they wanted to make a full blown 80s metal album, they could…so they did. Thunder and Lightning was the last Thin Lizzy album, but boy did they go out with a bang. Ex-Tygers of Pan Tang axeslinger John Sykes breathed new life into the veteran outfit. Ragers like “Cold Sweat”, “Heart Attack”, and the title track (“Goddamn it’s so exciting!”) are enough to make even the most ardent headbangers shake in their boots. There are so many moments on here that are nothing short of goosebumps inducing. The twin guitar attack of “The Holy War” immediately comes to mind. Feel free to share your favorite moments/tracks off this metal masterpiece in the comments below.
5. Def Leppard – Pyromania
Pyromania: The very utterance of the album’s title is enough to divide a room in half. There are those who love this album, regarding it as the peak of pop metal before Def Leppard fully went head first into the Top 40 deep end. Then there are those who hate this album, viewing it as a sugar coated betrayal of their gritty NWOBHM roots. I fall into the former. I’d also argue that Pyromania isn’t nearly as lightweight as its naysayers would have you believe. Sure you’ve got the power pop leanings of “Photograph” and the anthemic shout-along that is “Rock of Ages”. Other than that, you’ve got a straightforward English metal album, albeit with a commercialized sheen. “Stagefright”, “Foolin'”, and “Comin’ Under Fire” would fit right in on High ‘n’ Dry (1981). “Die Hard the Hunter” and “Billy’s Got a Gun” even feature some prog elements last heard on their debut, On Through the Night (1980). Pyromania is peak performance, peak production, and peak Leppard, period.
4. Mötley Crüe – Shout at the Devil
Two years after emerging from a rat infested L.A. sewer, Mötley Crüe traded their sleaze glam threads for all leather uniforms on their second album, Shout at the Devil. The 70s hard rock influence that was ever present on Too Fast for Love was all but gone. Just like KISS and Thin Lizzy earlier on this list, Mötley Crüe adapted to the times. Perhaps no other album captures the frenzy of the 80s satanic panic like Shout at the Devil does. Its flirtation with pseudo-occultism (“Shout at the Devil”), violence (“Bastard”), and misogyny (practically every other song) in both the lyrics and imagery was the ire of Tipper Gore, and millions of other likeminded paranoids who thought a band of makeup clad hedonists would lead their children to hell. Little did they know of what was to come later on this list (read on). I think it’s universally agreed that Shout at the Devil is Mötley’s finest hour. After this album, they’d spend the remainder of their career jumping from trend to trend, before settling on playing the hits every summer on the nostalgia circuit. Such is life!
3. Manilla Road – Crystal Logic
Manilla Road spend years sharpening their swords before unleashing their crowning achievement, Crystal Logic. Although it’s the least known album on this list, Crystal Logic‘s importance on the metal underground cannot be overstated. Their steely riffs, picturesque lyrics, and godlike musicianship set the standard for what we know today as epic metal. Let the record show that Crystal Logic is the most epic of epic metal albums. Cirith Ungol’s King of the Dead comes close, but if you asked me the textbook definition of “epic metal”, I’d point you towards Crystal Logic. Nobody could tell a story like Mark “The Shark” Shelton. Even his unusual, nasally vocal delivery played a role in the genre’s development, with scores of bands to follow having similar peculiar vocal styles. The epic metal feast that is Crystal Logic contains servings of power (“Necropolis”), doom (“The Riddle Master”), prog (“Dreams of Eschaton”), and even hard rock (“Feeling Free Again”), but at the end of the day, it’s distinctly Manilla Road.
2. Slayer – Show No Mercy
There are those who pan Slayer’s Show No Mercy as “unfocused”, “uneven”, and “the sound of a band trying to find their direction”. Those people are idiots. Yes, Show No Mercy sounds like Judas Priest meets Venom. That’s why it rules. That’s why it’s #2 on this list. Matter of fact, that’s why it’s the best Slayer album. Yep, I said it. The energy of Show No Mercy absolutely destroys Kill ‘Em All. Slayer may not have sounded like Slayer yet, but they were fierce, hungry, and ready to set the world ablaze. They’d get more brutal on future releases, but neither Hell Awaits nor Reign in Blood captures the savagery of Show No Mercy. It’s unholy thrash metal at its purest. Even Kerry King and Tom Araya couldn’t deny their roots, playing three songs from the album on their (alleged) farewell tour: “Black Magic”, “Evil Has No Boundaries”, and the title track.
- Mercyful Fate – Melissa
Melissa is one of those albums like Rainbow’s Rising, Judas Priest’s Stained Class, and Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell. Not only is it commonly regarded as the greatest metal album of its respective year, but regularly titled “the greatest metal album of all time”. King Diamond and company gave the underground just a taste of what they were capable of on their self titled 1982 EP. Melissa upped the ante six hundred and sixty sixfold. If Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast was considered the peak of metal songwriting and musicianship just a year earlier, it was now yesterday’s news. Mercyful Fate’s grandiose brand of operatic heavy metal was and still is groundbreaking. From a personal standpoint, Melissa was the first metal album I heard that made me fear for my mortal soul. “Into the Coven”, “Satan’s Fall”, “Black Funeral”: This was not your typical “The Number of the Beast” or “Runnin’ with the Devil” fare. This was a musical portal to hell itself. Almost 40 years on, Melissa has not lost any of its infernal charm. It’s truly timeless and the undisputed greatest metal album of 1983.
Honorable Mentions
- Accept – Balls to the Wall
- Alcatrazz – No Parole From Rock ‘n’ Roll
- Grim Reaper – See You in Hell
- Iron Maiden – Piece of Mind
- Krokus – Headhunter