Hey you! Did you miss our retrospective Top 10s highlighting specific years in metal history? Well, after months of pondering how I was going to go about reviving such themed lists, considering we’ve already covered albums from 1970 to 2019, we’ve arrived at the next logical step: EPs! Granted, I’m not going to be doing these EP lists in chronological order, nor will they be a bi-weekly occurrence, so I figured if we’re going to hop around from year to year on this new venture, why not go back in time 40 years to 1985? The halfway mark of the ’80s proved to be a crucial period for metal, with many of the releases on this list not just shaping the genre the remainder of the decade, but influencing the wave of extreme metal to come in the early ’90s. Without further ado, here are our Top 10 Metal EPs of 1985!
10. Hurricane – Take What You Want
By 1985, Quiet Riot’s star was fading, but not to the point where a record company wouldn’t have taken a chance on a band featuring not one, but two siblings of the “Metal Health” hitmakers. Featuring Robert Sarzo (brother of Rudy) on guitars and Tony Cavazo (brother of Carlos) on bass, Hurricane strutted their way from the Sunset Strip onto home stereos in ’85 with their debut EP, Take What You Want. Admittedly, this release is significantly lighter than those that make up the rest of this list, but is still a top shelf slab of melodic metal, toeing the line between heaviness and accessibility in a manner reminiscent of Dokken and Icon. Cavazo still leads Hurricane to this day, while Sarzo has since moved onto other musical ventures. As for frontman Kelly Hansen and drummer Jay Schellen, the former has fronted Foreigner for the better part of 20 years, while the latter currently holds down the beat in Yes. Not bad!
9. Anthrax – Armed and Dangerous
Despite releasing a triumphant debut in Fistful of Metal, Anthrax and frontman Neil Turbin split in a manner than could be described as anything but amicable. Eager to strike while the iron was hot, the search was on for a new voice. Little did they know that said voice would come from a self-professed Journey nut. With his pitch-perfect delivery, heroic range, and Steve Perry-esque tone, Joey Belladonna helped take Anthrax to the next level of thrash superstardom, starting with the Armed and Dangerous EP. The title track, initially conceived while Turbin was still in the band, is a brilliant show of thrashing traditional metal force, on which Anthrax does their best attempt at a Judas Priest/Mercyful Fate fashioned epic. “Raise Hell”, meanwhile, is a nasty midtempo headbanger, setting the stage for the fare that would dominate their sophomore album, Spreading the Disease (1985). As for the B side, we’re treated to a raucous cover of Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen”, as well as Belladonna tackling a pair of Turbin era songs in “Metal Thrashing Mad” and “Panic”, and nailing it. There’s a reason he still fronts the band today!
8. Odin – Don’t Take No for an Answer
Odin’s story arc is quite the bizarre one. Despite hailing from the Sunset Strip scene, and certainly dressing the part, their early output was full blown USPM in the vein of Jag Panzer and early Lizzy Borden, as demonstrated on their debut EP, Don’t Take No for an Answer. Every song on this outing is a no-nonsense display of US steel supremacy, from the melodramatic “The Writer” and atmospheric “Shining Love”, to the ferocious “Solar Eye” and blistering “Judgement Day”. Unfortunately, Odin wouldn’t pursue this vein further, instead succumbing to peer pressure and opting for pedestrian glam metal on their debut full length, The Gods Must Be Crazy (1987). Today, they’re best known for their cameo in The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, in which the infamous Bill Gazzarri promised they’d be “bigger than David Lee Roth”. Make of that what you will.
7. Saint Vitus – The Walking Dead
“Welcome to darkness!” With this greeting, frontman Scott Reagers introduces us to the release that would conclude his era of Saint Vitus until 1995’s Die Healing, The Walking Dead. Far from a hastily put together collection of leftovers from Hallow’s Victim sessions, The Walking Dead might be Saint Vitus’ most traditional metal flavored outing, with the opening “Darkness” boasting the flair and flavor of a ’70s Sabbath jam session, and “White Stallions” sounding like what could only be described as doom metal Diamond Head, even more fired up than the Hallow’s Victim version. As for the closing 11 and a half minute title track, it carries on the tradition established by cuts like “Saint Vitus” and “Mystic Lady”: Slow, low, and crushingly heavy.
6. Stormtrooper – Armies of the Night
Little is known about Stormtrooper. The band formed in 1983, released an absolutely brilliant slab of barbaric USPM via the infamous Iron Works label entitled Armies of the Night, then fell off the face of the earth. I wish I was joking, because Armies is a release that, despite its anthemic songs, top notch musicianship, and aggressive delivery, is virtually ignored by everybody, save for only the biggest of underground traditional metal nerds. Perhaps it’s just a matter of “ignorance is bliss”? I hope so. If you fall into this camp, I highly implore you crank this rager of a release up LOUD. Your muscles will grow muscles! Oh yeah, and while the rest of the members faded into obscurity, guitarist Mick Sweda did go on to join BulletBoys, so there’s that!
5. Glacier – Glacier
Five songs, three singers, one release: It sounds like a disaster of Spinal Tap proportions waiting to happen, and yet Glacier managed to prove all the naysayers wrong with their masterpiece eponymous EP. Admittedly, the strongest cut of the five is the bloodthirsty “Vendetta”, on which vocals are handled by Rex McNew, but the Christ-approved stylings of “When Heaven’s at Hand”, which creeps in at a close second, is no slouch either. Nor are the three “Glacier” Mike Podrybau songs that make up the B-side: “Ready for Battle”, “Devil in Disguise”, and “Speak No Evil”. Every song rules in its own unique way, and holds up to this day.
4. Overkill – Overkill
Overkill’s self-titled debut EP is a textbook tale in the music biz if there ever was one. It goes like this: Young band cuts a demo. Against their better judgement, young band sells demo to record label, in hopes of exposure. Said label puts out said demo as an EP, in which said young band receives exactly $0.00 for their hard work. For a lesser band, this would be the beginning and end of their saga. Not for Overkill! Despite being royally screwed out of rightfully earned money, Overkill caused enough of a stir to catch the attention of Megaforce Records, who’d go on to release the band’s debut full length, Feel the Fire. On this here release, we’re treated to two FTF songs in rough and tumble forms (“Rotten to the Core”, “Overkill”), as well as an early version of “Fatal If Swallowed”, which would appear on 1987’s Taking Over.
3. Helloween – Helloween
Trick or treat! After establishing themselves on 1984’s Death Metal split, Helloween struck out on their own a year later with their eponymous debut EP. While there are moments from bands like Running Wild, Warlock, Pretty Maids, and even Europe leading up to this EP that can be described as precursors to euro power metal, it’s on this five song offering of glorious speed that the genre/scene is officially established. Every song on here serves as a template for what’s to follow, from the in-sync twin guitars and rapid fire drumming, to the liberating lyricism and over the top vocals. If Helloween had folded after this release, we’d still be talking about them today, but alas, Helloween was only the beginning.
2. Celtic Frost – Emperor’s Return
Despite being universally panned by metal zines during their initial run, first as Hellhammer and then as Celtic Frost, Tom G. Warrior and company stayed true to their creative vision, refusing to surrender and only pushing musical boundaries further with each subsequent release. Come the band’s sophomore EP, Emperor’s Return, it was as if the band had shed any leftover Hellhammerisms that were present on 1984’s Morbid Tales. This was the sound of a band crafting something far too brutal and bleak to stand amongst the thrash metal crop of the day. Sorry nerds, but THIS is black metal. From the opening onslaught of “Circle of the Tyrants”, Celtic Frost refuses to let up, unleashing pure first wave black metal hell with cuts like “Morbid Tales”, “Visual Aggression”, and “Suicidal Winds”. Meanwhile, “Dethroned Emperor” foreshadows the unholy sonic explorations that’d follow on To Mega Therion, lumbering around with a doomy avant-garde aura.
- Sodom – In the Sign of Evil
Yes, the best metal EP of 1985 just so happens to belong to 1984 in every way imaginable. Sorry, I don’t make the rules here. I mean, I do. It is MY webzine, but here me out. After a couple years of terrorizing Germany with their diabolical brand of “Witching Metal”, Sodom hit the studio in October of 1984 to record their debut album, In the Sign of Evil. Similar to their New Jersey counterparts in Overkill, this process did not come without its road bumps. Due to issues with the label (Devil’s Game), the release had to be recorded and released as the EP we all know and love today. Not long after its recording, a handful of test pressings surfaced later that month, meaning the earliest possible time one could’ve heard In the Sign of Evil was late October, 1984. However, considering it didn’t officially hit record store shelves until January, 1985, we are considering it an ’85 EP, and the best of its year at that.
Much like Celtic Frost, Bathory, and fellow countrymen Destruction, Sodom too helped pioneer and develop black metal as a proper metal subgenre, not just a tagline used by Venom. The blasting drums, rasped vocals, blasphemous lyrics, and bestial lo-fi production are all tropes that would become crucial to Scandinavian black metal come the ’90s, for better or worse. Hell, I’d even argue “Burst Command ’til War” as being the first war metal song proper, but I digress. In the same breath, Sodom executed these characteristics far better than the imitators who would follow, crafting one black-thrash banger after the next. For its all killer, no filler attack, and its undisputable influence on all metal to follow, In the Sign of Evil easily tops this here list, and is the best metal EP of 1985. “Witching Metal” forever!
Saw that one coming! Haha, great rankings