Top-10 Favorite Sleazy Hard Rock & Glam/Hair Metal Bands

Anyone who's been reading this blog before will know what an open-minded kind of metal listener I am. During my early days of exploring and discovering metal music, my biggest genres were NWoBHM, thrash and typical glam/hair metal. Just like with any metal sub-genre there were some bands which I liked in particular and some others not so much at all.

During my first five years as a metalhead I was still somewhat of a casual listener to hair metal and similar sounds. I pretty much stuck to the more obvious choices - GN'R, the Crüe, and so on - as I spent so much time discovering all kinds of metal sub-genres during those years. Around 2008, however, I really got into this particular style of metal and I kinda considered myself a "hair metalhead" between 2008 and 2010.

For two years there I really dug into the genre and all of its largely unnoticed bands. I quickly realized that my favorite era of hair metal was 1988-1992, where the genre kind of bloomed better than ever, but with many great bands unfortunately slippin' under the radar due to the success of thrash and death metal, but also particularly (and obviously) grunge in the early 90's.

I will now present to you: ten of the greatest bands in glam/hair metal and sleazy hard rock music, all according to my personal taste. I hope you enjoy!

Starting at...

10. Mötley Crüe

Comment: The kings when it comes to glam metal and for good reason. Nikki Sixx sure knows how to make great songs, but at the same time I can't really say that I'm a huge fan of all the Crüe's albums. I'm the kind of fan who jammed "Too Fast For Love" a lot, truly loved "Shout At The Devil", was confused by "Theatre Of Pain", thought "Girls, Girls, Girls" was misunderstood, and absolutely hated "Dr. Feelgood" (ironically enough felt very bad about it). I'll just leave it at that.


9. Ratt

Comment: Possibly the best guitar tone of the genre. I just love that crispy guitar sound! The guitar work is overall great as well, accompanied by some very distinctive vocals and great grooves. Ratt is just one very solid band in the genre. Particularly the first two full-length albums are great.


8. Skid Row

Comment: Back in my teens I wanted to be Sebastian Bach (or have his looks at least) to get the chicks. Around 2009 my buddy started calling me "Seb Bach" because of my long and straight blonde-ish hair and feminine face features. It felt good, in a way. But it was not all about Bach either. Skid Row's one of the best bands in the genre. The debut is great but "Slave To The Grind" stepped up things even further. I just love how heavy it is.


7. Warrior Soul

Comment: With no disrespect meant against these guys, I'm aware they might not really qualify for this genre. Seeing as they are often put in the same batch as these bands, however, I will use that to my advantage of praising them. Hailing out of NYC, a city I've got an obsession with and a dream of moving to, I just love the dark and gutter-y vibe to their sound. It's hard and straight to the point. The lyrical themes are also real, unlike most bands in this genre who are - well, honestly - quite a bunch of posers and love failures.


6. Cinderella

Comment: Something with this band is just perfection to me. The vocals, guitars and vibes are all there. They are great at combining gutter-rockers with really good ballads. I usually despise a lot of glam ballads because of how cheesy they are, but Cinderella are just pros at their craft. "Night Songs" and "Long Cold Winter" are two of the genre's very best albums.


5. The Almighty

Comment: One truly underrated band in my opinion. These guys were, according to themselves but also somewhat accurately put, a bunch of Motörhead wannabes. With that said, I love their first two albums - "Blood, Fire & Love" and "Soul Destruction" - which are great sleazy hair metal. The rest of their albums, however, changed in musical styles and did not fare too well me though.


4. Sleeze Beez

Comment: These guys hailed from the Netherlands but they sounded very much like genuine L.A. hair metal, albeit better than a lot of those bands. Their sound was quite heavy and definitely rockin' with a high energy level. Great songs, great vocals. "Screwed Blued & Tattooed" and "Powertool" are two of the best albums you can get your hands on.


3. Saigon Kick

Comment: A very unique band within the genre. They actually covered a lot more musical styles than just typical hair metal of the time, which is something I enjoy a lot. Any fan of these guys will know what I'm talking about. On a single album they would go between playing thrash-y hair metal to acoustic ballads to funk to soul-esque stuff. They were rather musically entertaining as they made anything turn out great. The first album is the most pure hair metal release they did, but I'd really recommend anyone of their first four(!) albums, which I think is saying a lot.


2. W.A.S.P.

Comment: It's been well-discussed over the years whether they are glam or simple heavy metal. Considering they dressed like trannies and made glam-esque music on their first three efforts, I'd definitely include them as a glam metal band, even if they actually were rather heavy. There's just something magic about 'em. Blackie Lawless voice is so haunting and one of the best voices I know. His voice's also aged gracefully in my opinion. Just an amazing band with many truly great albums under their belt.


1. Spread Eagle

Comment: And the winner are these guys from NYC. These guys came too late, debuting in 1990 and basically failed to make an impact in the then-dying hair metal scene. It's kinda funny that they would take the first spot considering they only made two albums, with one of them (the debut) being fuckin' awesome while the second is no good at all (in my opinion as well as many others'). Quite interesting, I think. But at the same time it's just a proof of exactly how good the debut is! Think of a rawer and heavier Skid Row and you've got these guys. Too bad they never did any more good stuff.

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So that was my top-10 favorite glam/hair metal and sleazy hard rock bands. I think it's safe to say that I definitely prefer the heavier bands in the genre, and also the bands with the least amount of make-up and emptied cans of hairspray. Not that most of those "girlie" hair metal bands (if I may call 'em that) were bad or anything, I just like the bands that, obviously, were into heavier sounds. As far as hair metal hairdos go, I definitely like it on band members in bands such as Vixen. Not so much Poison or Tigertailz. Chicks with big 80's hair are great. The males just looked like my grandmas.

Just my five cents thrown here. I hope you enjoyed the list at least! Maybe there was some surprising choices and maybe even a new band or two to check out? I hope so!

Another 7 Great Metal Records Of 2016

Some of you might have read my top-10 list of the best metal records of 2016, which I posted shortly before last year's end. In that article I mentioned how I haven't really dug too deep into the music released in 2016. Well, I certainly have done a lot of diggin' through last year's releases this year (so far) instead, and guess what - I did find some more great records!

So what I did with my top-10 list was that I chose an actual top-10, but I also mentioned quite a bunch of other records and why they didn't end up within the ten best. Because they were already mentioned (somewhere in the article) I won't include them again. Instead I will simply bunch together another seven great metal records, albeit in no particular order this time, all released in 2016.

I also feel like I could alter my top-10 of 2016 a bit, but I don't really want to or have the energy for it. Just enjoy an additional seven recommendations down below.

• Tarot - Reflections

Actually kind of more like 70's hard rock, but I'll let it pass as metal (it's got its heavier moments). I definitely feel this like some bastard child between Uriah Heep and Manilla Road, but also with sweet soundscapes/atmospheres reminiscent to that of Deep Purple and Rainbow. A great one!

• Inquisition - Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith

Black metal wasn't actually my biggest craving in 2016. I'm the kind of music listener who delves into more of one particular style at the time and stay in there until I get bored for the time being. I simply didn't get any larger cravings for black metal last year. This one, however, did eventually show up on my radar and I gave it a try. It's my first listen to this particular band I enjoyed it a lot.

• Deströyer 666 - Wildfire

I've been aware of this band for a long time and had heard some stuff a bunch of years ago, but I never was an active listener or fan of theirs. This one sounds great, however, as it reminds me of some darker thrash bands as well as bands such as modern-day Watain. Some really great tunes and overall a solid album.

• Spell - For None And All

Probably my favorite one on this list, and definitely one that would've ended up in my top-10 of 2016 if I had heard this one earlier. Late is better than never though. This stuff is really good. Think of a hard rock-ish heavy metal sound around 1980 (actually anytime between like 1978-'82), like Rush meets Ozzy solo or something along those lines. These guys also recorded the album with analogue equipment, which I think resulted in a great outcome. Fuck Pro-Tools and "Drumkit from hell".

• Trap Them - Crown Feral

A so-called "Entombed-core" album with relatively short and straight-to-the-point tracks filled with rage and heavy-ass guitars. This shit will totally rip you a new one!

• Gatecreeper - Sonoran Deprevation

More "Entombed-core" but compared to Trap Them this is somewhat more true to the death metal aesthetics, in my opinion. Lots of heavy double bass assault on this one. If you like metal sounding like a sledgehammer swingin' at your head, this will satisfy your needs.

• Grey Wolf - Glorious Death

Some old school-style (true) heavy metal. Nothing extra ordinary but does a great job at what it's supposed to be. Definitely better than most modern run-of-the-mill wannabe:s playing old school heavy metal.