Friday, December 02, 2005

Number nine

The countdown for the top ten hard rock/metal albums of 1985 continues with the number nine spot which goes to.....

Agent Steel- Skeptics Apocalypse

I have long been a fan of their 1987 album Unstoppable Force, but wasn't as thrilled about their debut when I first heard it. However when I was making my long list of 20 some considerations for this list, I thought this album would be included but that it would not make the top ten. As I listened to it in recent months, I begin to realize that it was quite a bit better than I remembered. Eventually I realized they certainly deserved a spot in the top ten. Agent Steel were and currently are an LA thrash band. The band included former Abattoir members vocalist John Cyriis and guitarist Juan Garcia. Skeptics Apocalypse is a very tight album and the band contributed more to the speed metal/thrash scene than they normally get credit for. Some critics were not too fond of the vocals, but I think John Cyriis had a very unique voice that blended well this type of music. Agent Steel were probably influenced some by more classic metal bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and they managed to combine this solid metal sound with their own style of speed metal. In a year of debuts, some bands like Megadeth, Dark Angel and Kreator were an album or two away from being really solid, but Agent Steel had it together the first time out and got even better over the next two years.

Okay, so tomorrow I will unveil number eight. I said that I would give a hint for the next band, but I don't have a really good hint. Uh, how about the band that gets the number eight spot had a lead singer whose first name was Flemming.

2 Comments:

Blogger T-_Bone said...

So far this list is really interesting. I looked through the list of 1985 albums, as I am almost there in my top 10, and only one stood out for me as an album I would classify as "great". For the most part, for me, 1985 was a relatively weak year. Anyway, I look forward to the rest of the list.

11:54 AM  
Blogger Metal Mark said...

Thanks. When I first started doing this blog I thought 1985 was a weaker year and the thing may be that it came between two great years in 1984 and 1986. A lot of big name bands released in albums in 1984 so they were not ready to release an album in 1985. In determining my number one album for 1985 I did realize that there were only two clear contenders and it was fairly easy to decide from there. However it was a year when the underground and the independent bands really got to shine. I think there are maybe three major label releases on my top ten for 1985. At this point I think 1988 may have been the weakest year of the decade, but I may change my mind when I get to doing a top tne for that year.

12:38 PM  

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