16. Def Leppard- Pyromania(1983)- Rock/Metal Album Track Ranking

British hard/glam rockers Def Leppard are the newcomers on my album track ranking/rating serirs with the hugely successful Pyromania, so here is how I rank and rate the tracks from this record:

10. Action! Not Words- 8(Solid)

   9. Stagefright- 8

   8. Die Hard the Hunter- 8.5(Very Good)

   7.Billy's Got a Gun- 8.5

   6. Rock of Ages- 8.5

   5.  Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)- 9(Great)

   4. Too Late for Love- 9.5(Fantastic)

   3. Comin' Under Fire- 9.5

   2. Photograph- 9.5

   1. Foolin'- 9.5

    AVERAGE RATING: 8.95

A fierce battle was fought for the title of my favourite Pyromania track. Eventually, Foolin', an enthralling tune alternative slower parts in the verses with an intense and ecxeptional chorus, took the winning slot. Photograph, one of the English band's biggest hits, took the second spot. Even if I can include it in the category of tracks I have heard way too often, I can't deny its catchiness and appeal to the masses. It's an outstanding pop metal tune which exemplifica Def Leppard's shift from the hard'n'heavy sound of their first two albums to a more commercial approach that proved to be the recipe of big success for Def Leppard în the 80s.

Comin' Under Fire, a deep cut and one of the heavier tunes on Pyromania, takes the 3rd place ahead of the part ballad, part heavy track Too Late for Love, both of them being awesome tracks, which could climb to even higher positions if my preferences slightly changed one day. Rock of Ages, another massive hit from Pyromania, doesn't fascinate me as much as the songs from my Top 4, but I still appreciate its excelent chorus, so it's an enjoyable track too. In fact, there is no skippable material on this great album, as the other tracks also contain hooks and parts that are guaranteed to keepthe listeners engaged.

With an avergae of 8.95, Pyromania is a strong contender for the title of my preferred Def Leppard album, but it has some strong competition in the other album released by the band from Sheffield in the 80s, and I will analyze th as well to see who the winner is. Until then, I will close this post by saying yhat Pyromania is one of the catchiest hard/glam rock albums I can think of, and its huge success in the charts back in the 80s was fully deserved!

15. Ozzy Osbourne- Diary of a Madman(1981)- Rock/Metal Album Track Ranking

Ozzy Osbourne makes his second appearance in my series as a solo artist, and his fourth overall considering the two Black Sabbath albums I have ranked so far, with Diary of a Madman,  so here comes my usual ranking/rating, followed by more comments and thoughts:

8. Little Dolls- 8(Solid)

7.Believer- 8.5(Very Good)

6. Flying High Again- 9(Great)

5. S.A.T.O.- 9

4. Tonight- 9.5(Fantastic)

3. You Can't Kill Rock'n'Roll- 9.5

2. Over the Mountain- 10(Stellar)

1. Diary of a Madman- 10

ALBUM RATING: 9.18

Ozzy's sophomore solo album includes a series of outstabding tunes, and at the top of everything lies the title track, an ambițios, epic masterpiece with progressive elements, and a highly emotional middle section which sends shivers down my spine every time I hear the song, it's a beautiful piece of music which illustrates the inner turmoil of the protagonist, "the madman", no other than Ozzy himself.

The second perfect song for me on this amazing record, Over the Mountain, opns the album in full strength with a great drum intro and an awesome guitar riff. It's brilliant, catchy, dynamic and it includes an exceptional guitar solo from Rhandy Rhoades- it really makes you feel like flying high over a big mountain!

For the 3rd and 4th place I picked two slower, but also memorable tunes- You Can't Kill Rock'n'Roll and Tonight- which convey a lot of emotion and have remarkable choruses, which stick to my mind for quite a while after hearing them. 

Unlike Ozzy's debut solo album, which contains a track I'm not particularly fond of(read my ranking of Blizzard of Ozz and you will find out which one), here I enjoy every single track, so its high rating of 9.18 isn't surprising at all, placing it clearly above Ozzy's debut, which got a rating of 8.87, and allowing it ți make its way into my top 5 of the 15 records ranked so far. The high raking of Diary of a Madman is an obvious testimony of the brilliance of Ozzy's early solo work as it certified his return to the big league of hard rock/heavy metal giants, and he îs destined to remain there forever!

6. Deep Purple- In Rock(1970)- Rock/Metal Album Track Ranking Series

For the sixth episode of my rating/ranking series I go back in time to the year 1970 when, in addition to Black Sabbath's debut, another huge name from the world of hard rock released a special album, so here's my ranking of the tracks from Deep Purple's fourth studio album, 'In Rock':

7. Livin' Wreck- 8(solid)

6. Hard Lovin' Man- 8.5(very good)

5. Flight of the Rat- 9(great)

4. Into the Fire- 9.5(fantastic)

3. Bloodsucker- 9.5

2. Speed King- 9.5

1. Child in Time- 10(stellar)

OVERALL RATING- 9.14

Only seven songs on this album, but a strong tracklist! The Number 1 spot could only belong to 'Child in Time', a truly timeless masterpiece, one of the most beautiful, dramatic and touching Rock songs ever made! It's a 10-minute ride on a rollercoaster of emotions culminating with the final  fast section and Ian Gillan's haunting screams towards the end.

The next positions on my list belong to hard, dynamic, energetic bangers 'Speed King', 'Bloodsucker' and 'Into the Fire.' They all rock hard and may be seen as early heavy metal tunes, although the band doesn't want to be included in that category, but the influence of a track like 'Speed King' on the birth and evolution of 

genres like speed and thrash metal is undeniable.

The rest of the songs are also quite remarkable, so obviously there is no skippable track, and the album's overall rating- a very high 9.14- places it in the first position among the 6 records I analyzed so far, but a lot more will follow and it's interesting to see how long will Deep Purple manage to keep its leading spot.

Deep Purple's 'In Rock' is a breakthrough album, and a perfect illustration of this legendary British band's influence on the growth of hard rock and heavy metal. The  members of the band at that time- Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice- should have their faces carved forever on the Pantheon of rock music. They definitely earned their place in the hearts of millions of fans with this masterpiece, among other great works!

A Look at My Spotify Stats for 2020

 

2020 has been an awful year for me, not necessarily because of the Coronavirus pandemic, but mostly because I lost someone very dear to me, so in these times the moral support and boost I got from listening to my favorite types of music, hard rock and metal, has been essential in helping me cope with the huge sadness and grief I went through. Heavy metal was here for me in my darkest moments of 2020 and will undoubtedly stay with me for as long as I live!

As for my listening stats for 2020, I have to say that the mail sent to me by Spotify in early December, which presents a short review of my listening habits for this cursed year, does not reflect the whole picture, because I also use Youtube Music for my auditions, therefore I can have an accurate picture of my 2020 year in music by consulting my stats on Last.fm, which I'm going to do in a future post, so for this article, I will only take a brief look at my Spotify 2020 wrapped and draw a few conclusions based on it.

1. MY TOP BAND- OVERKILL

Last year they were in second place, but thanks to their fabulous 2019 release 'The Wings of War' which also made me feel like listening to some of their older and great stuff more frequently in 2020,  the thrash metal veterans from New Jersey took the top spot. They fully deserve to be in this position because they're one of those few bands which sound better as they advance in age. To me Overkill sounds as fresh as energetic as they were 3 decades ago, and their latest album is absolutely stunning. As you can see, 'Where Few Dare to Walk' is my favourite songs from 'The Wings of War', but really all the songs from this album are at least very good, if not great. I think that, out of all the bands which put thrash metal on the map in the 80s, Overkill is the most enduring and consistent, as they have a remarkable catalog of 19 studio albums, some of them being truly fantastic, such as their latest one!

2. MY TOP 5 BANDS- ONLY CLASSICS HERE

Spotify is not very detailed in terms of stats, so it only offered me a top 5 of my favorite bands from 2020, just like it did last year. The first thing I can say about this Top 5 is that thrash metal heavyweights took the lead this year, replacing traditional heavy metal classics like Judas Priest(last year's winners) and Iron Maiden, which are probably still in my top 10, but Spotify doesn't bother showing us too much, as unfortunately, it doesn't show our top albums either. Anyway, the presence of symphonic metal veterans Therion in this chart shows that there is some variety in the metal I usually listen to, but nothing can beat thrash in my musical world for the time being. 

3. MY TOP 5 GENRES- PRETTY AMBIGUOUS HERE

Speaking of less accurate stats, this is where Spotify really is at its worst. I mean, of course, metal and rock are my favorite types of music, but what kind of metal and what kind of rock? I suppose thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, maybe hard rock would replace metal and rock if Spotify did a better job. Anyway, no surprises here as I love power metal and thrash metal is mentioned here in the form of the new wave,thanks to bands like Havok and Warbringer which in my opinion are at least as good as the old boys of thrash, and they will keep on growing in quality!

4. MY TOP 5 SONGS- WARBRINGER TAKES THE GOLD MEDAL

Speaking of Warbringer, they are the winners of my Top Songs category, not with a track from their latest release, which is truly great, but with fabulous songs from their previous album, 'Voe to the Vanquished.' The track 'Remain Violent' is one of the tunes I found repeatedly on the daily mixes made by Spotify based on my preferences, and I found it so damn catchy that I played it on repeat several times, which I don't do with many songs. Anyway, two more thunderous thrashers from Kreator and Overkill, a power metal tune full of hooks and an unbelievably catchy chorus from German band Orden Organ and a more melancholic track, a semi-ballad from the one and only Motorhead made me my top 5, but of course, this was a close call, and these are not necessarily my favorite tunes at the moments, they're just the ones I played most frequently.

 5. MY TOP DECADE- THE 90S

I cannot put an end to this article without mentioning that my favorite decade of 2020 was the 90s according to Spotify, and the aforementioned "Love Me Forever" by Motorhead was my top song from that decade. This doesn't mean that I like the music of the 90s more than other decades, but those were the years in which I discovered hard rock and metal and it isn't a surprise that I have some feelings of nostalgia about that decade, and that is probably why I listen to the music of that decade quite often. 

6. MY TOP PODCAST- THE HEAVY METAL HANGOVER

2020 was the year in this I started listening to podcasts on Spotify and, even if I tried to listen to shows related to a variety of topics, heavy metal was my first choice, and after trying several podcasts, I found one which I truly love- The Heavy Metal Hangover. I was captivated by the discussions between the two hosts, Chris and Jay, as soon as I started listening to the first episode in that series, and I kept on listening to them for several months as the podcast started in 2018 and I had many episodes to discover. It's highly entertaining and truly interesting to the hosts analyzing metal in its multiple aspects, and I can never get bored listening to them, so this is by far my favorite podcast on Spotify for the time being.

                                  

💀💀💀

That was my short analysis of my Spotify year wrapped. 2020 was full of sadness and misfortunes for me, as it was probably for a lot of people, but listening to heavy metal helped me a lot and I know that it is here to stay and make life more exciting and more pleasant for years to come. Long live heavy metal!