RIDE INTO GLORY GUIDES: HOLD HIGH THE FLAME - A LOOK AT POST- NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY METAL (NWOBHM)

This is a back-up article from the site RIDE INTO GLORY. The site is still up, but haven't been updated since October 2021. Since this blog is all about documented the classic Metal years, with focus on the 1980's scene, and in the case that the Ride Into Glory site is taken down, I want to preserve it. Mainly their excellent guides.

If the site is starting to be active again, contact me and I'll take this down.

INTRODUCTION

Published by Marco on October 25, 2021

Looking back, it’s hard to view 1984 as anything other than a banner year for heavy metal. The sheer amount of world-beating releases across a wide range of styles is almost unmatched by any year to follow. What we now call traditional metal provided an onslaught of classics, thrash and power metal both launched themselves headlong into the international fray, Sabbath’s legacy was in fine form via the first releases from Trouble, Saint Vitus and Paul Chain Violet Theatre, and thirty-five years on most black metal still comes up short against the triumvirate of Apocalyptic Raids, Morbid Tales, and Bathory’s self-titled debut.

It would also mark the (semi-official) end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the very movement which sowed the seeds for much of the development that followed. A veritable eruption of new bands from the United Kingdom in the wake of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, UFO, Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Budgie, Motörhead and Judas Priest, in its earliest stages you could argue the bands under the NWOBHM banner shared significant stylistic overlap. However, before long that was not to be the case, and the acronym simply became a way to refer to a collective group of bands from the same region and time period, rather than any specific style or genre. (But if you want to argue Def Leppard, Witchfinder General, Cloven Hoof, Shiva, and Venom are essentially the same style of metal, by all means go ahead.)

If the etymology of the term is somewhat concrete, the time range is a more common topic of debate. Most people can at least agree on 1978 being the start (the term was originally coined by Geoff Barton in a review of an Angel Witch/Iron Maiden/Samson concert the following year), while the end point is a more contentious matter, with 1982, 1983 and 1984 all in the running. For the purposes of this article we’re going to go with 1984 as the stopping point, and pick things up starting in 1985 where the amount of releases from the U.K. tapered off dramatically.

You could write an entire encyclopedia about the NWOBHM. Fortunately, no one else has to since Malc MacMillan already undertook the Herculean task, and there’s no accolade high enough to do justice to said tome. (It should go without saying his book, The N.W.O.B.H.M. Encyclopedia, was an invaluable research tool for this article.)

So then, with metal exploding worldwide on an previously-unmatched level, with this article we’re taking a look at what happened in the wake of the NWOBHM. The goal here isn’t a fully comprehensive list of everything that eked its way out all the way down to rehearsals and audience-recordings of live sets. Instead, we’ve compiled a bunch of worthwhile releases from the biggest names on down through some hidden gems.

In the interests of keeping this to a manageable length, with a few exceptions we’re leaving out glam (Black Rose, Wrathchild, etc.) and the more hard rock-leaning bands (Tobruk, Ezy Meat, Spider, Nightwing, Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts, Mama’s Boys, etc.). Same for the releases recorded years prior but not released until later on, like the Tytan full-length, and – for more obvious reasons – we’re also leaving out the releases from the old guard bands who flushed everything in failed attempts to capture some of Def Leppard’s success. On the opposite end of the extremity scale from that, no thrash, grind, crust or death, either … no matter how Hell-ish that Sabbat flexi might’ve been at times.

… and no matter how good that final EF Band album was, they were still Swedish.

AUTHOR'S PICK

There’s a lot to get through ahead, so here’s a playlist comprising some favorites from the biggest names all the way on down to some more overlooked acts. Please note that this playlist is not ranked in order of “best” releases, but rather it’s put together to create a great listening experience!

Tank – “Reign of Thunder”
Iron Maiden – “Sea of Madness”
Cloven Hoof – “Reach For the Sky”
Blitzkrieg – “Inferno”
Masque – “No Light to Die By”
The Blood – “Incubus”
Charger – “Desperadoes”
Satan – “Key to Oblivion”
Tröjan – “Hypnotized”
Virtue – “High Treason”
Traitors Gate – “Devil Takes the High Road”
Omega – “The Dark”
Sacrilege – “Father Time”
Persian Risk – “Dark Tower”
Desolation Angels – “Evil Possessor”
Excalibur – “Haunted By the Shadows”
Tredegar – “Richard III”
Hammer – “Contract with Hell”
Full Moon – “Highlander”
Raven – “On the Wings of an Eagle”
Marshall Law – “Under the Hammer”
Elixir – “Son of Odin”

The A to Zs of the Post-NWOBHM

A
Angel Witch
April 16th
Atomkraft
Avenger

B
Badger Bell Band/Badger
Beg to Differ
Bitches Sin
Blackmayne
Blade Runner
Blind Fury
Blitzkrieg
Blood, The
Blood Money

C
Charger
Chariot
Chateaux
Cloven Hoof
Cobra
Cockney Rejects

D
Dealer
Deep Switch
Deliverance
Desolation Angels
Dragonslayer

E
Egypt
Elixir
Excalibur
Exocet

F
Fast Kutz
Full Moon

G
Grim Reaper

H
Hammer
Hell

I
Iron Maiden

K
Karrier
Kruizer

M
Marshall Law
Masque

N
Nemesis

O
Omega

P
Pariah
Persian Risk
Phasslayne
Praying Mantis
Predator
Preyer
Prowler

R
Raven

S
Sacrilege
Samurai
Satan
Satanic Rites
Scrubs, The
Sherwood
Shocksplit
Siege

T
Talan
Taliön
Tank
Tokyo Blade
Traitor’s Gate
Tredegar
Tröjan
Truffle
Tyga Myra
Tysondog

V
Venom
Virtue

W
War Machine
Warfare
Wild Pussy

Z
Zenith