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

Episode 42 - Crofty's Picks (ft. Iron Maiden, Metallica & The Black Crowes)

After spending the evening chatting music, darts and very fast cars with Sky Sports F1 lead commentator David Croft a few weeks back, it was time for the lads to review the albums that Crofty had picked out for them to feature on the pod.

After wrestling with the thorny issue of whether one of them - Springsteen's Born To Run - should be included (a question that prompted comparisons of an F1 car with a Le Mans prototype) the boys settled down to a week of listening that, as Steve observed, was never going to be a chore.

First up, in place of The Boss (but featuring solidly in Crofty's Top 10 albums of all time) 1982's The Number Of The Beast by Iron Maiden.

Having dealt with the band that ruled the metal globe in the late 80s, the Sadmen turned their attention to the band that would steal that crown for the 90s as they gorged on Ride The Lightning, the 1984 the coming of age release from Metallica.

And making up this episode's trio, as incongruous in this company as the Foreign Secretary turning up to an ambassadorial dinner in a pair of silk pajamas, The Black Crowes with 1992's The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion.

 

Episode 41 - 1986 (ft. Baby Tuckoo, Queensryche & Loudness)

In this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast the lads are travelling back to explore another year from hard rock and heavy metal's golden era of 1970 to 1995. This time, they're slap bang in the mid-80s - they year Bon Jovi's hair exploded and you weren't anyone unless you had a keyboard player in the band.

 

First up was Baby Tuckoo, a blink-and-you'll-miss-'em melodic hard rock band out of Bradford with their second - and. as it turned out, final outing Force Majeure. Lead singer Rob Armitage would briefly join German metallers Accept, but their two-album tilt at the big time left the world with some superior tunes that should have been bigger than they were.

Next up, Seattle's other prodigal son Queensryche who followed up their debut album The Warning with Rage For Order, the record that would essentially lay down the marker for both sound and partiality to a concept album.

 

And rounding off the episode, a jaunt to the Land of the Rising Sun and the gazillionth album from the mighty Loudness - this time launching their own bid for superstardom with the Max Norman-produced Lightning Strikes.

Episode 40 - Welcome to the Machine (ft. Motorhead, Machine Head & Earth Crisis)

This time out the boys are told to find three albums on the theme of 'machines' - which ended up being trickier to pull off than they had first imagined.

But never ones to back down from a challenge, they each returned to Enter Sadmen HQ with an album each that met the brief - and gave them their hardest listening week since Tool and Kyuss were on the show back in Episode 10.

This edition of the podcast features Orgasmatron from 1986 - Motorhead's first album as a four piece following the departures of both 'Fast' Eddie Clark and Phil 'Philthy Animal' Taylor, industrial US rockers Machine Head with 1994's Burn My Eyes, and Earth Crisis' 1995 offering Destroy The Machines.

Episode 39 - Colours (ft. Thin Lizzy, White Sister & Living Colour)

In this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the next three albums to join the list on the definitive all time hard rock and heavy metal hall of fame are linked by colours and include two bands yet to be considered by our trio of intrepid reviewers.

First up is Thin Lizzy's Black Rose from 1979, the album that marked the final appearance - albeit briefly - of Gary Moore in his third visit to the line-up (two as a fully-fledged recording member and one as a touring substitute for Brian Robertson). 

It's hard to find a Lizzy album that doesn't feature a stone cold classic - but how would this one fare following the rapturous reception given to 1983's Thunder And Lightning in episode 9?

Next up, Steve introduces the first of the episode's newcomers, American melodic rockers White Sister and their second (and, to all intents and purposes, final) album - 1986's somewhat under-appreciated (one might go so far as to say unappreciated) Fashion By Passion.

And helping to make the episode quorate, Richard introduces Anglo-American politicos Living Colour with their sophomore release from 1990, Time's Up.

Three diverse albums by three diverse bands. But where would they end up in the big list?

Episode 38 - The Producers: Bruce Fairbairn (ft. Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & Gorky Park)

After a forensic examination of the work of Max Norman in Episode 22, the second visit to the control desk by the Enter Sadmen podcast headed for America and the man behind some of the biggest selling rock albums of the 80s - the late Bruce Fairbairn.

Mention Fairbairn in a game of word association and the chances are the words that immediately spring to mind are Bon and Jovi. closely followed by Slippery, When and Wet. In fact, record a show about Fairbairn's work and it would be an act of near criminality to omit New Jersey's finest (with apologies to Springsteen fans) from consideration. 

Joining Jon and the boys were veteran rockers Aerosmith and their renaissance album from 1987, Permanent Vacation.

And Steve deals up the joker in the pack with Gorky Park, the band mentored and championed by JBJ back in the day, and their self-titled debut.

Episode 37 - 1970 (ft. Bloodrock, Mountain & Lucifer's Friend)

The lads fired up the time machine for the latest episode in their quest to find the greatest rock album of all time, journeying back to the farthest limits of the Enter Sadmen Podverse.

1970 is the arbitrary stepping off point for the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, so it was no surprise when the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes finally cranked it out as the focus of episode 37.

The boys went off in search of musical riches and reconvened on WhatsApp a week before the show was recorded to share their discoveries.

Mark, it turned out, went more or less mainstream, breaking the elasticity of time to offer up Climbing!, the debut album from Mountain (if you discount the Leslie West solo album Mountain, which is now largely viewed as the spiritual start of Mountain's recording career).

Steve went deep into the unknown and unearthed a then much admired but long since forgotten self-titled debut from US prog rockers Bloodrock.

And Richard emerged clutching the better-known and eponymously-titled calling card from Lucifer's Friend, featuring future Uriah Heep vocalist John Lawton, the only Brit in an otherwise all-German line-up.

Get your bell bottoms ready - 'cos this one's a banger ...

Enter Sadmen meet ... John Verity

In the latest special edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast the lads catch up with John Verity - guitarist, vocalist, record producer and, as it turned out, a fount of great rock and roll stories.

In the course of their hour and a bit the boys were taken on a journey that included guns at dusk with Jimi Hendrix's road crew, a manager dropped from a 4th floor Miami window in a drug bust, life on tour with Argent, being 'encouraged' to leave the United States by the US immigration service, the trials and tribulations of getting the Verity-produced Saxon debut over the line, and a far from conventional production gig on a Motorhead live album ...

Strap in for a hilarious ride through a rock and roll life that starts back in the 1960s ... and discover what albums mark the emotional waypoints of one of Britain's great blues rock guitarists ...

Episode 36 - Wheels of Steel (ft. Def Leppard, Terraplane & Tesla)

For the latest leg of their tour through rock and metal's highlights and lowlights the boys were given the brief of 'transport'. The rules were simple - the band name, album title or album cover had to have a demonstrable link to a form of transport.

Like all the pod themes, it should have been easy. But then Steve and Rich hadn't factored in Mark's wide-ranging interpretation of what transport might actually mean, nor the fact that he failed to make the link between Steve's album choice and a well-known electric car brand.

Eventually, though, they settled down to chew over the various merits - or otherwise - of three debut albums from three 1980s outfits who would go on to have varying degrees of success.

First up was Def Leppard's 1980 cherry-popper On Through The Night - an album the band has since more or less airbrushed from their own history - and completely airbrushed from their live set. Which, according to Mark, gives a small insight into how fast and loose musicians can play with the loyalty of fans who were there at the start.

Next in line was Terraplane's Black And White, a record that sowed the first seeds of what would set the band on the road to public affection once they rebuffed their label's attempts to turn them into Rick Springfield-esque pop rockers, changed their name to Thunder and dialled up the guitars.

Finally, another of rock's finest debuts from Sacramento rockers Tesla and Mechanical Resonance, released in 1986. As Steve said - it's hard to imagine a time without the majesty of Modern Day Cowboy ...

 

Episode 35 - Metal Health (ft. Y&T, Ted Nugent & Poison)

For this edition of the pod, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out the ball with 'HEALTH' written on it, which meant the lads each had to find an album that not only had a medical theme, but was also infectious enough to merit consideration for a place in the Top 100 rock and metal albums of all time.

Richard tunnelled back to 1977 and emerged with the Ted Nugent classic Cat Scratch Fever. Mark put on his rose-tinted spectacles and relived a 1987 holiday in L.A., a lot of West Coast sunshine and the then-newly released Contagious from Bay Area veterans Y&T. And Steve returned to 1988 and the day Poison released their second album, Open Up And Say ... Ahhh!

The only thing left to decide was the prognosis for each, which was easier said than done.

Episode 34 - Watch The Children Pray (ft. Genesis, The Cult & Slayer)

Episode 34 of the Enter Sadmen podcast sees the lads taking a more spiritual approach to their listening as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spits out the ball labelled Religion to determine this instalment's theme.

But even though the show's title is a nod to all you Metal Church fans out there, the boys managed to avoid the dark (see what we did there?) and instead chose another ecelctic selection of albums spanning two decades.

Leading the charge is Steve with the first of what he considers to be Genesis's holy trinity of albums, 1971's Nursery Cryme.

Richard fast forwards to 1985 and adds a neo-gothic hue to proceedings by picking Love from The Cult.

And in a surprise move, Mark opts for expertly crafted blunt force trauma with Slayer's 1988 release South Of Heaven.

Let the arguments commence!