Stadium/super-Catchy would-be Stormers from obscure bands?

[DaN]

Alan's love for Battle Axe's "Hats Off To Margaret" on the recent HM stream and Battle Axe review inspired this topic.



Killer track as you all can hear! Now I'm curious to know what other tunes you all love from the 80's HM underground that you think were super-catchy and with enough 'mainstream' appeal that could have made the band huge if circumstances were different? (Sounds like the start of a great mix-tape to me..)

I'll follow up with this all-time Swedish favourite. The LP is fairly known to collectors, but I always imagined the band could have been huge if they'd made a video of this track back in the days, competing with Helix, Twisted Sister and Dio for the hearts of all my fellow 12yo hardrockers..

[bigfootkit]

'Glasses Hi' by Canadian Hard Rockers China Blue from '87, the stand out track from their generallly wimpy s/t mini LP. In a fair & just world this Riot-esque rocker would have made them as big as Autograph.

[Kraignoss666]

Maybe it’s a bit too obvious for this topic, but « Rollin on » from UNIVERSE should be known worlwide: catchy as fuck, perfect FM song from a songwriting point a view, produced like it must be, killer voice that doesn’t scare the mainstream ears… In a perfect world, they should be more famous than EUROPE.

[VictimeDelExil]

Maybe it’s a bit too obvious for this topic, but « Rollin on » from UNIVERSE should be known worlwide: catchy as fuck, perfect FM song from a songwriting point a view, produced like it must be, killer voice that doesn’t scare the mainstream ears… In a perfect world, they should be more famous than EUROPE.

A lot of the more melodic Swedish bands like Madison, Treat, Spellbound, etc. really deserved to be bigger than Europe in my opinion. And I say this as someone who really enjoys most of Europe's 80s/90s output.

[mordred]

Maybe it’s a bit too obvious for this topic, but « Rollin on » from UNIVERSE should be known worlwide: catchy as fuck, perfect FM song from a songwriting point a view, produced like it must be, killer voice that doesn’t scare the mainstream ears… In a perfect world, they should be more famous than EUROPE.

A lot of the more melodic Swedish bands like Madison, Treat, Spellbound, etc. really deserved to be bigger than Europe in my opinion. And I say this as someone who really enjoys most of Europe's 80s/90s output.

You have to bear in mind all those bands were YEARS behind Europe. Europe formed in the late 70’s. In early 80’s they had a ton of original material and a strong following for an unsigned band. They won the national rock championship in 1982, and the first album came out early 83. It sold 30,000 copies in Sweden alone, and that’s when Swedish music industry went looking for “the next Europe” and all those other bands formed.

Before any of them got into a studio properly, Europe has released “Wings of Tomorrow” and was an international act in the making. All those other bands were good at what they did, but for any of them to actually dethrone Europe at that point was about as realistic as it was for Death Angel or Testament to outsell Metallica.

[VictimeDelExil]

Maybe it’s a bit too obvious for this topic, but « Rollin on » from UNIVERSE should be known worlwide: catchy as fuck, perfect FM song from a songwriting point a view, produced like it must be, killer voice that doesn’t scare the mainstream ears… In a perfect world, they should be more famous than EUROPE.

A lot of the more melodic Swedish bands like Madison, Treat, Spellbound, etc. really deserved to be bigger than Europe in my opinion. And I say this as someone who really enjoys most of Europe's 80s/90s output.

You have to bear in mind all those bands were YEARS behind Europe. Europe formed in the late 70’s. In early 80’s they had a ton of original material and a strong following for an unsigned band. They won the national rock championship in 1982, and the first album came out early 83. It sold 30,000 copies in Sweden alone, and that’s when Swedish music industry went looking for “the next Europe” and all those other bands formed.

Before any of them got into a studio properly, Europe has released “Wings of Tomorrow” and was an international act in the making. All those other bands were good at what they did, but for any of them to actually dethrone Europe at that point was about as realistic as it was for Death Angel or Testament to outsell Metallica.

Of course, was a bit ahead of myself saying this. It's easy to see why Europe got as big as they did. A lot of people seem to forget that even bands like 220 Volt had more international success than the average Swedish bands did back in the day.

[DaN]

'Glasses Hi' by Canadian Hard Rockers China Blue from '87, the stand out track from their generallly wimpy s/t mini LP. In a fair & just world this Riot-esque rocker would have made them as big as Autograph.

My doG you weren't kidding with the Riot-hinting there! Yeah, Riot-goes-stadium that would surely have made them at least semi-famous under different circumstances.
You know... because of your "generally wimpy"-comment I will never ever listen to the full album, ever. Just savouring this one track for the mix-tapes, mind unruined

I can safely 2nd Mordred's history lesson. The sad result of this whole biz it that Swedish rock labels went looking for The-Next-Europe-but-maybe-even-MORE-commercial, but that's a subject for another even more depressing thread...

Need to post K666's killer choice though:



Next track:
I'm with khnudh about this one - this is truly "one of those great sing along choruses that should have been played on every 80's metal youngsters backyard party when the parents are away, if only this obscure Indianapolis quartet had managed to catch the eye of an established record label."



It's one of those songs where the shitty rip/sound makes it even "better"...

[bigfootkit]

My doG you weren't kidding with the Riot-hinting there! Yeah, Riot-goes-stadium that would surely have made them at least semi-famous under different circumstances.
You know... because of your "generally wimpy"-comment I will never ever listen to the full album, ever. Just savouring this one track for the mix-tapes, mind unruined

You're very wise to remain unsullied by the rest of the China Blue record, every other track bends over backwards to attract radio play. 'Glasses Hi' was ironically the catchiest thing in their repertoire but they didn't (or couldn't) neuter that one. I forgot to give props to the vocalist for somehow managing to sound like Guy Speranza and Klaus Meine. A nifty trick.
Here's another overlooked vintage stadium-rocker-that-never-was, 'Virgin Queen' by Chicago's Rocken Horse from 1981's 'Rocken Roll' LP.:

[Pavlos]

The whole fucking album!!

You gotta love this crazy mix bewteen fucked up skills, sound(s) & attitude, and the nowadays seemingly lost art of making this weird mixture sounding catchy.


Besides that:

Cerebus - Distant Eyes
Crystal Pride - Knocked Out
Damascus - Open Your Eyes
Hammers Rule - Pool Of Piranhas
Kassu Halonen - I'm Rock
Sadwinder - Feed The Fire
Steelmaster - Closer To Me
Wreckage - Dogs Of War

[tbieri]

[tbieri]

Listen to the cool keyboard sounds imitating a police siren!

[tbieri]

[Khnud]

Great topic! Speaking of Battle Axe - the UK version of the band had a total AC/DC stadium smasher of a track called "Out In The Night" on their "Twilight Zone" EP, which was recorded on 1987 but not released until 2005. It's also on their "Live n Kicking" live album, but I'm not sure if it's the same version.
Check it out:

[Khnud]

And of course I can't keep myself from promoting RAZOR from the US. Sure, this isn't HM but rather melodic HR, but who cares? That chorus. If that isn't stadium quality I don't know what is.