Episode 55 - The Black Albums (ft. AC/DC, Scorpions & Y&T)

Well, it was only a matter of time. After swerving Back In Black for 162 albums, the hand of fate intervened as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out the ball that correlated to a theme simply called "Black". 

With most of hard rock and heavy metal's behemoths already admitted to the Enter Sadmen Hall of Fame only four albums have occupied the #1 slot in the list - Priest's British Steel, reviewed in Episode 1, spent a week there before being toppled following Episode 2 by Moving Pictures from Rush, which itself occupied the slot for just a week before it was casually usurped by Zeppelin's IV.

For 39 weeks it seemed that no matter what the boys threw at it, Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones were never going to be overtaken. And then the unstoppable force of IV met the immovable object of Ride The Lightning in Episode 42 and it all changed.

But, faithful followers, we all knew that somewhere round the corner lurked a grown man in a school uniform brandishing a Gibson SG, four of his mates and the blackest of all the Black albums.

Given the theme, the lads could hardly justify sidestepping it again, and so Mark duly deferred to moral obligation.

Joining the 31 million seller on the show were two albums that, even in such austere company, would have every right to expect to be challenging for a place in the Top 10.

Both released in 1982, the episode rounds out with the Scorpions' Blackout and Y&T's Black Tiger - two albums that in the hands of most other bands might reasonably be considered the undisputed high watermarks.

But the boys tackle both juggernauts knowing that their predecessors, Lovedrive and Earthshaker respectively, cast long shadows ...