Happy 1984

It's 1984 in the Year-a-Month project, and after trimming off the Ted Nugent and Deep Purple albums originally planned for this month, I'm left with the following:

Anthrax: Fistful of Metal - this is Anthrax's debut album, and has a different line-up than the rest of Anthrax's career, with Neil Turbin on vocals. I actually like Turbin's voice better than Joey Belladonna, his eventual long-term replacement. Most of this album sounds like a clone of Metallica's Kill 'Em All, except for an incongruous and IMHO terrible cover of Alice Cooper's "Eighteen".

Dio: The Last In Line - A year and a half ago I bought Holy Diver, and I've been waiting patiently for Year-a-Month to catch up with Dio's solo career. The time has finally come, and this album has more of the same power-metal stuff as in Holy Diver. It's nice to hear The Master's voice again.

Iron Maiden: Powerslave - I saw the album cover for this one, with its departure from the prominent Crypt Keeper-style depiction of Eddie The Head, and I was worried the music might have succumbed to the same Asia-style nonsense as the cover. It didn't. This album rocks along with the same galloping style that I've come to expect from Iron Maiden. And Eddie is actually there as the center pharaoh, if you look closely.

Judas Priest: Defenders of the Faith - The song Eat Me Alive on this album got Tipper Gore all hot and bothered, and she ranked it #3 on her "Filthy Fifteen". Oh Tipper, you're so cute. This is the only album that Amazon is charging me more to download than to have delivered, so I won't get to hear it for a few days.

Pantera: Projects in the Jungle - Sadly, this second album suffers from the same problems as last month's Metal Magic. It costs about twice what the other albums do, and it has a reputation of being more glam rock than metal. I didn't pick this one up.