Great bands that never really made it

[DLRDUDE]

Anyone remember Black-n-Blue with "Hold on to Eighteen" and Britney Fox with with "Girl's School" and "Long way to love"...awesome, still have the casettes around here somewhere

[SNIPER]

My idea of great band that never really made it are Death Angel, Flotsom And Jetsom, Overkill, and Testament.

[m_dixon1984]

Pride and Glory - would have loved Zakk Wylde to continue with this project. BLS is good but his biker gang look is a bit tired and over-the-top.

M

[bueno bob]

Saint Vitus
Cathedral
Sheavy
Electric Wizard
Coroner
Forced Entry
Conception
Count Raven
The Melvins
Racer X
Savatage (1983-1993)
Wolfsbane

...a lot of those are still active today, but I think it's a safe bet to say they're not going to enter Billboards top 10 anytime soon...

[DLRDUDE]

Originally posted by bueno bob
Saint Vitus
Cathedral
Sheavy
Electric Wizard
Coroner
Forced Entry
Conception
Count Raven
The Melvins
Racer X
Savatage (1983-1993)

Bob I must have lived a sheltered life because I have never heard of one of those bands but that's just me. There's a lot of bands out there that we just don't know about, they work their arses off and never get recognized and it's a shame.
Wolfsbane

...a lot of those are still active today, but I think it's a safe bet to say they're not going to enter Billboards top 10 anytime soon...

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by DLRDUDE

Of all the ones I listed, the one that REALLY deserved it the most was Savatage...quite frankly, Criss Oliva was the best fucking guitarist since Randy Rhoads and Yngwie, PERIOD. He managed to combine the styles of Eddie's and Randy's playing while keeping it METAL - straight ahead, slick, and he was simply an awe-inspiring guitarist. The cool thing about him was that he could have easily done anything...Malmsteen shred would have been simplicity itself for him (and he did at times dabble with it, but not very often), yet he restrained himself and was more concerned about how GOOD the solo was, not necessarily showboating (and don't get me wrong, I love Yngwie, but let's face it, he's a show-off).

Were you to try out anything I suggested, my pick would be Savatage for sure...but after Criss' death, it's not worth listening to, virtually a Broadway parody act (and I mean that honestly...it's rather pathetic).

Albums in particular:

"Sirens"
"The Dungeons Are Calling"
"Hall of the Mountain King"
"Gutter Ballet"
"Streets"
"Edge of Thorns"

All available on Atlantic, yeah, but out of print for the most part...Sirens and Dungeons are readily available since they were reissued a few years back on Metal Blade...easy to find a ton of shit to download, if that's your thing...eBay will pass copies of those CDs for $2 a pop, usually.

I can't recommend Savatage 1983/1993 highly enough. But avoid anything later than that like the plague...trust me.

[m_dixon1984]

Savatage sounded familiar to me. Did they have anything resembling a hit, or a video, Bueno Bob?

Your write-up certainly has me intrigued so I may track some their stuff down.

M

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I saw Dexy's Midnight Runner's as the next Zeppelin, but I may have been wrong about that...

[nosuchluck]

'Edge of Thorns' by Savatage! one of the all-time best ever heavy rock albums!

Gutter Ballet and Streets are definitely up there too.

[Mr Badguy]

Motorhead should have torn America a new arse.

Instead they are a cult band.

[m_dixon1984]

Thanks, Bueno. I tracked down the Savatage website where they had some song samples. From what I've listened to I prefer the older stuff you suggested, on Sirens and Dungeons, over the slightly newer stuff nosuchluck is raving about. However, the samples for those were mostly ballads and I suspect the full albums have heavier stuff as well. Very cool and will definitely be checking them out at the music stores in town.
M

[Jérôme Frenchise]

The Fleshtones have been great since 1977. Too bad they have almost changed labels for each release... It's a goddamn puzzle to gather their whole discography - even to find one single record...
Good time music, cheeky lyrics, smart musicians... "The greatest band that never really made it" IMO.

[nosuchluck]

Kings X never got the kind of recognition they deserved.
other bands that come to mind are
Badlands
Budgie
Fates Warning (though prog rock bands shouldn't count - none of them got the recognition they deserved)
UK (largely forgotten pioneers of prog)

[Mr. Vengeance]

Kings of the Sun
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction
The Almighty
Badlands
Circus of Power

among many many more.....

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by m_dixon1984
Thanks, Bueno. I tracked down the Savatage website where they had some song samples. From what I've listened to I prefer the older stuff you suggested, on Sirens and Dungeons, over the slightly newer stuff nosuchluck is raving about. However, the samples for those were mostly ballads and I suspect the full albums have heavier stuff as well. Very cool and will definitely be checking them out at the music stores in town.
M

Very much so. Most of the earlier stuff was straight ahead metal, but they're best known for the lighter fare at this point, for the most part. They had videos (that I known of) on MTV with "24 Hours Ago", "Hall of the Mountain King", "When the Crowds Are Gone", "Gutter Ballet", "Edge of Thorns" and "Sleep" - that's what I'm actually AWARE of, however, of course, MTV didn't play them very often...hardly at all...