Sabbath, Maiden, Metallica: the story of heavy metal contains plenty of big hitters.
Lurking just outside the spotlight, however, are countless albums that deserved far more love than they ever received. These are the records that slipped through the cracks – too experimental, too ahead of the curve, too unfashionable, or simply too unlucky to break into the mainstream. Yet ask dedicated fans, crate-diggers, or musicians in the know and you’ll hear the same refrain: some of metal’s most thrilling ideas were forged far from the arena headliners.
From Texan trailblazers who mixed gospel harmonies with thunderous riffs to symphonic auteurs pushing metal into operatic territory, these albums show how rich and varied the genre becomes when freed from commercial expectations. They’re cult favourites, secret influences, and lost classics – records that reward anyone willing to venture beyond the usual suspects.
1. King’s X – Faith Hope Love (1990)
Back in the mid- to late-‘80s, many considered Texan trio King’s X to be rock’s brightest hope. Their unique music was a blend of gospel, soul, Beatles-y pop and progressive metal that pigeonholers found difficult to categorise.
It came as something of a surprise to many of us when Nirvana walked away with the kudos, and most of the audience, that King’s X so richly deserved. In retrospect, however, it’s easy to see how a trio fronted by a tall, homosexual black man with a mohican struggled to connect with teens in the same way as surly Kurt and chums.
Another factor that worked against King’s X was the perception that they were a Christian band. In fact, they wore their faith lightly – certainly more lightly than fellow travellers the Galactic Cowboys – and eventually dropped it altogether. Their third album Faith Hope Love almost gave the band the breakthrough they so richly deserved. Sublime songs like ‘It’s Love’, ‘Fine Art of Friendship’ and ‘Six Broken Soldiers’ played to the trio’s strengths, while tours with Iron Maiden and AC/DC introduced them to a wider audience.
But it was not to be and the album peaked at number 70 in the UK. The good news is that they continue to tour and record – and are still an amazing live act.
2. Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding (1998)
Yep, that Bruce Dickinson – the Iron Maiden frontman. So what’s he doing in this list?
Truth is that Bruce’s solo career after leaving Maiden in 1993 wasn’t spectacularly successful, though it was an object lesson in creative evolution. After his often jokey, incohesive solo debut Tattooed Millionaire in 1990, Bruce teamed up with songwriter and producer Roy Z for a string of albums which reached their apogee with this concept piece inspired by the works of William Blake.
Despite a magnificent, state-of-the-art heavy metal production job, and being superior to anything released by Maiden in years, this magnificent, wholly successful collection peaked at a pitiful number 55 in the UK album chart in 1998. The following year, Bruce returned to Iron Maiden.
3. Lone Star – Firing On All Six (1977)
Times were tough for new rock bands during the punk years, but if anyone seemed to have what took that band was Lone Star. For a while the Welsh rockers were inescapable on rock radio, especially the track ‘The Bells of Berlin’, and they were even championed by John Peel. But by 1978, it was all over for this promising band after two excellent studio albums, the second of which, Firing On All Six, is the best. It reached number 36 on the UK album chart. SInger John Sloman went on to front classic rockers Uriah Heep.
4. Nutz – Nutz (1974)
These days, it’s remembered – if it’s remembered at all – for its, er, ‘of its time’ album cover, but the debut by Liverpool’s Nutz is something of a lost classic that should appeal to anyone who enjoys ‘70s hard rock/metal. Lead single ‘As Far as the Eye Can See’ deserved to be a career-making hit but wasn’t and despite opening for Queen on their 1974 tour, Nutz faded into obscurity.
They enjoyed a brief revival in fortunes when their song ‘Bootliggers’ was chosen for inclusion on the 1980 New Wave of British Heavy Metal compilation album Metal for Muthas. But even a late name change to Rage couldn’t push them into the big time.
5. Jaguar – Power Games (1983)
Being ahead of the curve can be just as fatal as being behind the curve, as these great Bristol rockers discovered to their cost. Jaguar’s debut album was harder, faster and more aggressive than most metal of the time and was an acknowledged influence on Metallica. Songs like the aptly named ‘Axe Crazy’, released as a single in 1982 and featuring the superb guitar work of Gary Pepperd, were unlike anything else being recorded at the time. Little wonder a certain Lars Ulrich was paying close attention.
Although the production is a little thin, Power Games laid down the blueprint for much of the thrash metal of the next decade. Alas, restless Jaguar swiftly moved on. Their next release, This Time, was just as impressive but very much in the style of slick, polished mainstream metal acts like Def Leppard, which only served to confuse fans of the original album. But they remained huge in the Netherlands which was, bizarrely enough, always their key market.
6. Hellanbach – Now Hear This (1983)
Imagine if Van Halen came from South Shields and were obliged to record for an indie label on a tiny budget and you’ve got the measure of the marvellous Hellanbach. Their chief asset was incredible young guitar player Dave Patton. Alas, they didn’t last long, releasing just one more album, The Big H, in 1984. Patton went on to play with the great Glenn Hughes.
7. Therion – Beloved Antichrist (2018)
Symphonic metal not overblown enough for you? Why have just one opera singer when you can have a whole bunch of them belting away? And why limit yourself to just one orchestra?
Originally known as Blitzkrieg, Sweden’s Therion are one of the most musically ambitious bands in metal. Not bad, considering that they’re the brainchild of just one bloke, guitarist Christofer Johnsson. Therion started out as a bog-standard death metal band, but Johnsson’s ambitions soon got the better of him and they developed into a full-blown operatic metal project.
A three-hour, 46-track concept piece, Beloved Antichrist stretches over three CDs and is arguably the most innovative metal recording ever released. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted, but is immensely rewarding if you’re prepared to immerse yourself in it.
8. Budgie – Power Supply (1980)
Welsh trio Budgie had a history that stretched back all the way to 1967. They specialised in a brand of imaginative proggy metal that never achieved the success it deserved back in the 1970s, despite such arresting song titles as ‘You’re the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk’, ‘In the Grip of a Tyrefitter’s Hand’ and ‘Crash Course in Brain Surgery’.
At the turn of the decade, however, Budgie hitched their wagon to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and adopted a harder-edged sound that was to win them a new, younger audience and secure their future in the decades that followed. This began with the 1980 EP ‘If Swallowed, Do Not Induce Vomiting’, which included the splendid ‘Panzer Division Destroyed’ and continued with the release of the excellent ‘Power Supply’ album later that year. This opened with the statement of intent that was ‘Forearm Smash’, on which splendidly named new guitarist John Thomas announced his presence in style. Alas, the album didn’t chart, but Budgie carried on as a cult act until founder Burke Shelley’s death in 2022.
9. Blood Ceremony – The Eldritch Dark (2013)
By the end of the first decade of this century, metal was getting louder and more extreme, with myriad sub-genres to contend with. So what place was there for a Canadian occult rock band fronted by a woman (Alia O’Brien) who played keyboards and flute and earned inevitable if somewhat lazy comparisons to Jethro Tull?
As those who have seen them at festivals will not need reminding, Canada’s Blood Ceremony’s brand of self-styled “flute-tinged witch rock” tends to stand out from the metal pack. They’ve demonstrated a remarkable consistency over the years, but this third album is as good a place as any to start. From the Wicker Man-referencing ‘Lord Summerisle’ to the clever and witty ‘Ballad of the Weird Sisters’ it’s a magnificent slice of Devilish entertainment. Green Lung fans should dive right in.
10. Strapping Young Lad – City (1997)
These days, Devin Townsend is a prog-metal titan who headlines festivals and plays the Royal Albert Hall. He rarely revisits his wayward youth as the founder of Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad. So let’s perform that service for him.
Originally a one-man project on debut album Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1996), Strapping Young Lad had become a real band by the time of follow-up, the industrial/death metal masterpiece that was City. This was thanks in no small part to Townsend’s recruitment of Gene Hoglan on drums and Byron Stroud on bass. Tracks like ‘All Hail the New Flesh’ and ‘Oh My Fucking God’ soon won Strpping a well-deserved cult audience and paved the way for Townsend’s solo career success.
11. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (2024)
Modern metal stands at a crossroads, with many bands trooping off in pursuit of the sort of cathartic sonic extremism that would have been unthinkable a couple of decades ago. Others take a more progressive approach. A very few try to combine the two, which is one of the reasons why Blood Incantation are one of the most exciting bands around today.
Long-in-the-tooth prog rock fans will recognise the title of their fourth album as a reference to the ‘70s outfit featuring a young Bill Bruford, before he joined King Crimson. In true prog style, there are just two lengthy tracks running for more than 20 minutes apiece – ‘The Stargate’ and ‘The Message’ – each of which are divided into three ‘tablets’.
Guests on the album include Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream on synthesizers and that uber-prog instrument, the mellotron. As for a description, lead singer and guitarist Paul Reid put it best when the described the album as: “. . . our most potent audial extract/musical trip yet; like the soundtrack to a Herzog-style sci-fi epic about the history of/battle for human consciousness itself, via a ’70s prog album played by a ’90s death metal band from the future.” Quite.
12. Michael Bolton – Everybody’s Crazy (1985)
Yes, that Michael Bolton. The mulleted housewife’s favourite, purveyor of chicken-in-a-basket soul. Bear with me on this and I’ll explain.
Although he’s tried to bury his early recordings for fear of confusing his MOR fan base, Bolton started out as a rocker. It was even rumoured that he once auditioned for the then-vacant role as singer with Black Sabbath, though he has denied this. But he was the frontman of US hard rockers Blackjack and subsequently released two excellent solo albums, of which 1985’s Everybody’s Crazy is the connoisseur’s choice.
Produced by Neil Kernon, whose credits include recordings by Queensryche and Cannibal Corpse, the album featured Bolton’s old Blackjack bandmate Bruce Kulick (later of KISS) on guitar and was mostly written by the singer himself. Although it didn’t chart at the time, Everybody’s Crazy has been subsequently been acclaimed as a melodic rock classic.
Pics Getty Images