Metal Health

About

Most people who encountered Quiet Riot’s 1983 hit <i>Metal Health</i>—one of the first heavy metal albums to become a mainstream phenomenon—likely didn’t realize that, by the time the record topped the US chart, the band had already been around for about 10 year. The group’s first two albums—which featured future Ozzy Osbourne guitar hero Randy Rhoads—had only been released in Japan, and by 1981, the band had actually broken up, only to reform with a new lineup a year later. In the meantime, metal had developed from its early years as a bruising, antisocial response to mainstream pop into something that aggregated loud guitar, obnoxious lyric, a lewd sense of showmanship, and a post-Beatles reverence for big, catchy hook. This was especially true of the scene in Los Angele, home to Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Ratt, W.A.S.P.—and, of course, Quiet Riot. The fact that the band’s most enduring hit, “Cum On Feel the Noize,” was a cover of a song by 1970s British glam-rock band Slade was telling: <i>Metal Health</i> wasn’t Iron Maiden or even Judas Priest—it was Thin Lizzy with more distortion (“Slick Black Cadillac”), or AC/DC with bigger, better hair (“Metal Health”). The album even offered a prototype for the metal power ballad: “Love’s a Bitch.” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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