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

Episode 9 - Broxit (ft. Thin Lizzy, Yngwie J. Malmsteen & Accept)

In the latest episode of the loudest podcast in the world, the boys challenge themselves to review albums recorded by bands from Europe. There was only one snag: this was a Europe that felt very much like it might in 2021, in the sense that it doesn't include the UK.

With the whole continent - bar a smallish northerly island state - to choose from, would they be tempted to go for the obvious? Or inspired to find a hidden and long forgotten gem?

In fact, it was a bit of both - although Richard's reputation for playing a wild card hit new highs. Or should that be lows?

In the spotlight in this episode: Thunder And Lightning (Thin Lizzy), Odyssey (Yngwie J Malmsteen's Rising Force) and the thundering Balls To The Wall (Accept)

Episode 8 - The Little Wizard (ft. Rainbow, Black Sabbath & Dio)

Roughly a decade on from his death, the latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast looks back at the life of Ronnie James Dio through his vocal work on three classic albums from three different bands over a seven-year period between 1976 and 1983 - from Rainbow's Rising, through Heaven & Hell from Sabbath to his 'solo' debut Holy Diver.

What Dio lacked in physical stature he made up for through astonishing vocal power and range. But would it be enough to see his legacy cemented in the Hall of Fame?

Episode 7 - AOR Heaven (ft. Journey, REO Speedwagon & Strangeways)

After the all-out thrash assault of the last episode, the boys were in need of some soothing sonic balm. What better solution, then, than immersing themselves in the keyboard-laden delights of some honest to goodness AOR?

For a while it looked as though it would be a clash of titanic heavyweights as first Journey's Escape and then REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity entered the arena. But then Steve unveiled Strangeways' Native Sons - the AOR equivalent of Rocky Balboa stepping up to challenge Journey and REO's combined Apollo Creed. 

Okay, so this analogy is getting stretched painfully thin. Suffice it to say that one of the three albums this week started off as an underdog in the race to the Hall of Fame. But would it floor the big guns?

Episode 6 - Caught In A Mosh (ft. Flotsam & Jetsam, Overkill and Testament)

This week the boys strap in for a 200mph ride through three thrash metal albums released during a 6-year period between 1986 and 1992.

Steve has rocked up with Flotsam and Jetsam's 1986 debut Doomsday For The Deceiver (he hasn't stopped going on about it since he bought it on the basis of that fabled Kerrang! 6K review, but is his passion for a pre-Metallica Jason Newstead and the 'Marmite' Eric AK enough to swing Mark and Richard into the church of the converted?

Richard, a self-proclaimed thrash novice, did a few hours of research and ended up with Overkill's The Years of Decay under his arm.

And Mark pitched in with an album he fell in love with in 1992 but has largely ignored since. Will this odyssey down thrash's Memory Lane might explain the 28-year separation between Mark and Testament's commercial behemoth The Ritual?

You'll need to listen to find out ...

 

 

Episode 5 - Girls Are Loud (ft. Girlschool, Vixen & Phantom Blue)

Oh yes it’s Ladies’ Night, And the feeling’s right, Oh yes it’s Ladies’ Night, Oh what a night, crooned Lemmy. Or Kool and the Gang. Hell, sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart.

Don’t worry, Enter Sadmen hasn’t gone all disco on you – Rage Against The Machine’s funk-metal fusion from Episode 4 is about as dance-hall as we’re gonna get, let me tell you – but ‘tis true that we have gone girlie.

Yes, simmer down lads but episode 5 of the coolest, loudest podcast around is a paean to the fairer sex as we assess the merits of a trio of vinyl throwbacks from Girlschool (Demolition, 1980), Vixen (Vixen, 1988) and Phantom Blue (Built To Perform, 1992) and consider their application for a place in the Hall of Fame.

 

Episode 4 - Calling Cards #1 (ft. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rage Against The Machine & Ratt)

In the latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the boys debate three signature debut albums from three decades.

Mark's still finding it difficult to let go of the 1970s and turns up with (Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd), the 1973 freshman offering from southern rock pioneers Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Steve's stopped off at Boots and Chelsea Girl (that's what River Island was in old money, kids) to stock up on hairspray, lipstick and lace and a lifesize poster of Tawny Kitaen before slipping Ratt's full debut Out of the Cellar onto the turntable.

And Richard has decided the whole damn shooting match needs a bit of a shake up, so he's brought Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha to do some angry stuff loudly on Rage Against The Machine's eponymous debut, even though Mark would rather eat his own eyes than listen to it (or would he?)

As Steve points out, life is about to get interesting in Enter Sadmen land ...

Episode 3 - The Godfathers of Rock (ft. Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple & Black Sabbath)

The boys are back with a question that is as old as time itself (or at least since 1970): just who was it that invented hard rock and heavy metal? Steppenwolf may have been the first to use the term heavy metal (in Born to Be Wild), but the real roots of classic hard rock lie elsewhere.

The question is, where? 

Steve, Mark and Richard identify three locations as the possible source of the holy riff:

Birmingham - the beating industrial heart of England; London - the epicentre of cultural change as the floral Sixties slid into the flared, bell-bottomed Seventies; and Hertford - the leafy county town of the well-to-do. 

Representing them, respectively, are Black Sabbath with 1970's Paranoid, Led Zeppelin with their arguably peerless IV from 1971 and Deep Purple with their 1972 offering Machine Head)

 

Episode 2 - Our Favourite Albums of All Time (ft. UFO, Rush & Van Halen)

After the inaugural episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast saw the boys debating the merits of the first albums they'd each bought with their own money, Mark, Steve and Richard follow up by chewing over the records that sit at the very top of their personal tables.

Mark picks out British rockers UFO and their 1979 double live hook-laden classic Strangers in the Night for special attention; Steve returns to early 80s Los Angeles and Van Halen's unconventional third release, Women and Children First; and, fittingly after the loss of Neil Peart earlier this year, Rich takes his co-hosts on a Canadian odyssey through Rush's epic 1981 release, Moving Pictures.

Entry to the Hall of Fame would seem to be assured for all three contenders - or is it?

Episode 1 - The First Albums We Bought With Our Own Money (ft.Van Halen, Judas Priest & AC/DC)

The loudest podcast in the world kicks off in style with three of the biggest albums of the late 70s and early 80s vying for entry into the imaginarium that is the Enter Sadmen Hard Rock Hall of Fame.

 Steve turns up to the party with Dave Lee Roth, Michael Anthony and Eddie & Alex Van Halen, their eponymous 1978 debut and a Watneys Party 7; Richard ushers in the boys from AC/DC with their make-or-break 1979 release Highway to Hell; and, clutching a dog-eared copy of British Steel, Mark arrives on a large motorcycle, clinging onto Rob Halford for dear life.

Will they all make it into the hallowed auditorium beyond? Well probably, yes. But which of them do the boys consider to be the most deserving to sit, for at the next week, at least, on the Hall of Fame throne?