Podcasts by Category
It's the world's loudest podcast as hosts Steve Davies, Richard Napthine and Mark Norman take their collective 120 years of worship at the altar of golden era hard rock and heavy metal (1970-ish to 1996-ish), cut the ribbon on their newly-built Hard Rock Hall of Fame - and debate the albums that have earned their places in its gilded rooms.
- 83 - Episode 76 - You’ve Got Another Think Coming (ft. Black Sabbath, Ratt & Van Halen)
So this episode is all about the albums you bought and lisened to and thought, fuck me that's a great album! Or possibly, fuck me, that's terrible! And then, 30 years later, you discovered your opinion had done a 180 degree turn. In this episode, Mark revisits he much maligned Black Sabbath experiment that saw Ian Gillan step up to the mic, Steve discovers that Ratt's Detonator tickles his ears a little differently to he wya it did in 1990, and Richard recalls he moment Van Hagar suddenly made sense ....
Tue, 04 Jul 2023 - 1h 32min - 82 - Episode 75 - Drummers (ft. Genesis, Y&T & Toto)
Yes, Sadfans, we're giving over our 75th episode to the unsung heroes of every band that ever set foot in a recording studio or onto a stage - those apparently indefatigable timekeepers without whom there would be little or no momentum. Stuck behind the kit at the back of the stage, these are the artisans of the hard rock and heavy metal engine room. Whether it's a sense of rhythm combined with a diver's boot (h/t to Gillan's Mick Underwood), the professorial science of Neil Peart, or the tour de force blunt trauma approach of Bonzo, these are the men and women who provide the metronome when you're standing with your feet apart and headbanging your way to an early aneurysm. Naturally, the list of noteworthy sticksmen is ineffably long, so consider this part one of a theme the Sadmen will undoubtedly return to in episodes to come. But for this episode the lads have picked three drummers who have, to some extent, shaped the technical art of hitting the skins with a lump of wood. First up, Phil Collins in his second outing with Genesis for 1972's Foxtrot. Having already helped to shape the Charterhouse proggers' sound on his debut release, Nursery Cryme the year before, Collins, Banks, Gabriel and Rutherford return a year later with a release that would achieve immortality in the genre. The boys' next stop was six years later, as Y&T - then known still as Yesterday and Today - drop their sophomore 1978 release Struck Down. Though three years away from the standard-bearing Earthshaker, this is the album that perhaps best showcases the undeniable talent of their man on the kit, Leonard Haze. And the lads round off proceedings with Jeff Pocaro and TOTO's commercial juggernaut IV, which boasts the ghost notes on album opener Rosanna that to this day separate the men from the boys when it comes to high drumming art. Enjoy!
Mon, 29 May 2023 - 1h 39min - 81 - Episode 74 - Making Magic (ft. Dokken, Survivor & Piledriver
Episode 74 sees the lads tackling the subject of inventions. If ever there was scope to push the envelope on a theme this, surely, is it. And so it proved, as Mark fishes out a set of what can only be described as 15th Century blueprints to qualify Dokken's 1981 debut, Breakin' The Chains. (Don't get antsy, America - we know the better known version of the album was released in Amercia in 1983 with a title tweak - Breaking The Chains rather than Breakin' The Chains - and a very different running order, but where there's a reissue the Sadmen always take the original release for the review - and, besides, in this case it has a better back story!) Not for the first time on the podcast, Rich went soft, opting for a post-Balboa and post-Dave Bickler Survivor and their 1984 album Vital Signs (the invention? An oscilloscope ... yeah, yeah ... they're all tenuous on this show, friends). And (also not for the first time) Steve went hard, opting for a band that has never actually existed with Piledriver's Stay Ugly from 1986. And if you don't know the PIledriver back story, that's worth this episode's admission price alone. (The admission is free, by the way. You know ... just in case that's a dealbreaker).
Sun, 30 Apr 2023 - 1h 23min - 80 - Episode 73 - Creeping Death (ft. Witchfinder General, Candlemass & Entombed)
The latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast finds the boys in more familiar territory as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes serves up 'Death' as the theme for Episode 73.End of life certainly offers up a wealth of stuff to go at in the world of hard rock and heavy metal, which makes it even more bewildering that Steve and Rich didn't follow Mark's lead and go with something completly literal. As it was, Mark arrived at the Sadmen party with an album in another one of those covers that, much like the Scorpions Lovedrive, had post-pubescent teenagers nursing a boner in the record shop. Witchfinder General's 1982 debut Death Penalty, was a marketing man's dream, yet the band still managed to evade mainstream celebrity. The songs on offer may provide good clues as to why, but Mark argues that there's lots of fun to be had ... if, in 2023, you can get beyond the gratuitous presence of female breasts on the cover. And so to Steve and Richard,m who could have gone with pretty much anything buit instead chose to plough a furrow in Scandinavia's death metal scene. First up, Richard with the npw-legendary Epicus Doomicus Metallicus from Candlemass - a 1986 release that was determinedly ignored by the record-buying public until after the band was dropped by its record company - at which point they went out and bought it by the truckload. And finally, in this episode, Steve puts forward the case for Entombed's Wolverine Blues, now a neo-classic, but then, in 1993, another radar-avoiding old skool throwback.Prepare for laughter in the face of Death Metal.
Wed, 12 Apr 2023 - 1h 23min - 79 - Episode 72 - I Am, I’m Me (ft. Andy Taylor, Doro & Robert Plant)
Sometimes artists feel the need to escape the confines of the environment in which they made their name and give voice to the individuality of their art. Or some such bollocks. In any event, whether going solo or, in the case of Doro Pesch, being forced by a legal ruling to cease and desist using the name of the band which made her famous, rock and roll's highways and byways are crisscrossed by the tracks of musicians who have wandered off the well-beaten track. We meet three of them in this edition of Enter Sadmen - an episode in which the lads were sent off to find famous rock musos who, for whatever reason, decided to ply their trade under their own name. They don't come much bigger than Percy Plant, of course. The erstwhile golden-maned lead singer of demigods Led Zeppelin first tasted artistic life outside that particular juggernaut in 1982 with Pictures At Eleven - and a very successful sojourn it turned out to be. But it is 1990's Manic Nirvana that commands our attention for part of the next 80 minutes. Doro, still smarting from losing control of the Warlock brand in the courts, was canny enough to know that sentiment aside, she was Warlock and that her fanbase would hang on her every note, regardless of the collective name she and her musicians gave themselves. And no one would be hanging on those words more fervently than Steve. What wasn't quite so clear, when she released her first 'solo' album - the presumably self-referencing Force Majeure - was why she chose a decidedly iffy cover as the calling card. Luckily, things got rapidly better thereafter. But first of all we encounter a man who could make girls swoon at the mere suggestion he might be on Top Of The Pops on a Thursday night with the other guys in Duran Duran. Yes, you read that right. Mark turned up to this party with the other Taylor in the Durannies - Andy - and his 1987 solo debut, Thunder. Now go and look up the word 'eclectic' and see if that don't just sum up Episode 72 ...
Tue, 28 Mar 2023 - 1h 22min - 78 - Episode 71 - Epic (ft. Deep Purple, Motӧrhead & Exodus)
So, a question. How maqny albums can you name where the title track is worthy of its status? And of those, how many eclipse even that honour to be classed asd truly epic? That was also the question that was asked of our hardy rock and roll adventurers by the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes for this, the latest leg of the marathon attempt to review the greatest hard rock, heavy metal, prog (etcetera, etcetera) albums of all time (well, of 1970 to 1995, at least). It's worth saying from the outset that Steve managed to misinterpret the brief as incorporating title tracks that he simply liked, which is how Exodus's 1985 debut Bonded By Blood managed to find its way into proceedings. But, y'know, hey ho. Rich and Mark, on the other hand, rocked up - literally and metaphorically - with two bonafide essentials. First on the turntable for this episode is the first vinyl offering from Deep Purple MKIII, complete with Coverdale and Hughes on shared voal duty -1974's Burn. As with all three albums, the track opens the album's account. But would it be the best of the collection? That was definitely up for debate. So, too, the question of the title cut from Motӧrhead's 1979 offering, Overkill. Mark unapologetically claims this to be not just streets ahead of the following year's chart-bothering Ace Of Spades, but entire cities ahead. You can judge for yourselves, and see if Steve (a self-confesed Lemmy-sceptic) and Richard agree. And then there's Bonded By Blood. A criminal omission from what should be termed the Big 5, or just a lot of noise and little substance? Steve dons his gown and wig and presents the case for the defence.
Tue, 28 Mar 2023 - 1h 19min - 77 - Episode 70 - A Vulgar Display Of Power (ft. AC/DC, Rush & Tesla)
And on we go to Episode 70, in which the lads work to a brief that shouldn't have been too challenging to meet, even for men of singular taste and discernment. Yes, in this run through another three albums from hard rock and heavy metal's golden era (that's 1970 to 1995, for the uninitiated) the boys were tasked by the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes to find examples of 'Power'. Whether electrical, nuclear, steam, wind, strength or gas was up to them to decide. And so we end up slap bang in the middle of the 1980s with a trio of offerings spanning six years between 1983 and 1989. First up come our old friends AC/DC - and yet again it's not the band's uber fan Mark bringing their 8th studio album Flick Of The Switch to the party (go with us, here - it's listed in Wiki as their 10th, but Wiki has counted High Voltage and its derivative and territory-specific alternate versions as three different albums). An unloved misstep rightly cast into the depths fans' memories? Or a much-maligned and under-appreciated neo classic? You'll get both ends of that spectrum in this episode.Next up, Rush uber fan Richard doesn't disappoint - although he ducks the obvious Power Windows and instead opts for 1984's Grace Under Pressure, the band's 10th studio release and the first of a quartet of albums that were, to varying degrees, considered disappointing by fans when compared to Rush's earlier canon. That doesn't mean the Sadmen will also conform to mass opinion, of course. If nothing else they are rarely inclined to toe the party line. And bringing up the rear - and what a glorious rear it is - Mark pops up with the second offering from Tesla (and we mean that both in terms of their discography and their pod appearances) The Great Radio Controversy from 1989. Hair metal with a gritty edge? Or inhabitants of a genre of one? The boys answer that question, too.
Mon, 27 Mar 2023 - 1h 04min - 76 - Episode 69 - Keeper of the Seven Keyboards (ft. Uriah Heep, Kansas & Gillan)
For their latest journey down hard rock and heavy metal's many-faceted highway, the Sadmen's destination was that utopian land of pianos, synthesisers, Moogs and mellotrons. Yes, friends, having done vocalists, singers and bass players, it was time to pay tribute to some of the ivory tinklers who help to make up rock's great tapestry. But if you thought we were going all Tony Banks, Jon Lord, Rick Wakeman or Richard Wright on you, think again, fans. Yes, in this episode we do touch on some obvious waypoints, but of Genesis, Purple/Whitesnake, Yes and Floyd there is no sign (or is there?) And though Mark and Rich go fully prog rock (or 'prock' as no-one ever calls it), Steve manages to keep it real with a big slice of late-70s hard rock. With three albums released over a period of just seven years, we start back in 1972 with Uriah Heep who, at this point were shelling albums like peas, yet still managed to trump early successes like Look At Yourself and Salisbury, with the huge cornucopia of Ken Hensley-inspired sound that was Demons And Wizards (their 4th album in just 23 months - and release #5 would follow just 6 short months later). We follow that another fourth release, this time from Kansas, and an album full of material that, staggeringly, wasn't deemed good enough for the band's previous two issues. Yes, folks, the clue is in the name - 1976's Leftoverture (though the 'after the mayor's ball' nature of the track listing didn't stop it becoming widely recognised as Kansas' seminal release) features the sloppy seconds from Song For America and Masque. Enter, then, one Kerry Livgren (among many others) on keyboard duty. And you know we said there wasn't a sign of Deep Purple in this show? Well of course, there is, as Steve rolls up with Ian Gillan, now fronting his own eponymously titled band and their second release, Mr Universe, from 1979. On keyboards, and widely appreciated as the man who steered his honey-larynxed boss off a jazz-fusion march into oblivion, one Colin Towns - a man so mercurial that he counts the theme tune to Angelina Ballerina among his many TV theme credits. So ... it's fair to say an eclectic show lay ahead ...
Mon, 27 Mar 2023 - 1h 23min - 75 - Episode 68 - All White Now (ft. White Sister, White Lion & Anthrax)
And so following the previous episode, which - according to Rich - featured Diet Cult and Diet Marillion, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes rumbled ever on and this time spat out a topic which challenged the boys to find albums that had a 'white' theme. After they all studiously avoided the apparently 'obvious' Whitesnake, they each entered the Sadmen Sound Studio with more white stuff than you'd find at a mid-Eighties Motley Crue after show party. First up for discussion was Steve's personal comfort blanket - the 1984 debut effort from the crown princes of melodic hard rock, White Sister. After coming through the shock of realising this would be the last time they'd feature in the pod (Episode 39 had already dispensed with the band's sophomore and final effort), Steve rallied gamely to prosecute the case for the eponymously titled debut to be admitted to the highest echelons of the Hall of Fame. The same year also gave us White Lion's debut, Fight To Survive, Richard swerving the opportunity to deliver the band's career-altering Pride or Big Game to the party. So, would this be a saccharine-laden amuse bouche for those two titans of commercial melodic metal, or would the original lion's roar have a harder edge to it? And after all of that harmonising, what were the lads to make of the career changing (at least with regard to the direction of travel) of Anthrax's 1993 issue The Sound Of White Noise, their first without Joey Belladonna at the mic? Would the fact it's their biggest-selling album of their career (yes, really) also mean it was their best? We were about to find out...
Sun, 26 Mar 2023 - 1h 20min - 74 - Episode 67 - This Was My Life (ft. Alice Cooper, Mother Love Bone & Marillion)
And so to an episode in which Richard, Steve and Mark were tasked with marking important life moments. Mark and Steve opted for a broadly similar seam to mine - that of parenthood. Rich, on the other hand, eschewed the opportunity to reflect on bringing new life into the world, or discovering love for the first time. He spat in the face of death and pooh-poohed the notions of age, friends and work. No, it seems that Richard's most notable moment in life is, in fact, stowing a lilo under his arm and heading off to the Mediterranean. And so it came to be that the lads ended up spending a week or so in the company of Alice Cooper, Mother Love Bone and Marillion. Steve kicks off the show with a look back at Alice Cooper (the band, not the man - he was just common-or-garden Vince Furnier at the time of this particular release) and their much-admired Billion Dollar Babies from 1973. Over 30 minutes or so the Sadmen try to come to a definitive answer to a simple question: Is it really that good? Next up is Mother Love Bone, a one-album sensation (thanks to yet another rock and roll overdose that robbed the world of a young talent) that ultimately gave us the behemoth that is Pearl Jam, and their sole 1991 release Apple. Meanwhile, over in Ibiza, Richard was whacking up the volume on the Steve Hogarth version of Marillion, who were vacationing in paradise in 1992 with Holidays In Eden. As the show rolls past album 200 in the big list, would these three manage to elbow their way into its upper echelons?
Sat, 25 Mar 2023 - 1h 26min - 73 - Episode 66 - Alive,Too! (ft. Cheap Trick, Saxon & Nuclear Assault)
The lads were having such a good time, dipping a gnarly toe into the cool waters of the late 70s and early 80s, when Steve decided to spoil the party with a dirty protest in the form of a thrash album that burned through 14 songs in fewer than short - albeit painful - minutes. Luckily, you, dear listener, have dodged the bullet that Mark and Richard took on your behalf, and you'll only have to endure about 2 minutes of Nuclear Assault's live offering, Live At The Hammersmith Odeon. Before that, though, the boys consider the altogether more sophisticated (by comparison, at least) 1978 commercial behemoth At Budokan from Cheap Trick and every NWOBHM aficionado's favourite live offering, The Eagle Has Landed from Yorkshire's finest, Saxon.
Sat, 25 Feb 2023 - 1h 37min - 72 - Listener’s Choice #1 (Ft. Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction, The Cult & The Angels
A landmark moment for the Sadmen as listener Tony, from Australia, picks three albums for the boys to cast their ears over - and what an eclectic three they turned out to be. First up, novelty sensation Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction with their debut, Tattooed Beat Messiah. With their 'out there' look, hilarious alter ego names and chart-bothering single Prime Mover, was this British oddity just a very clever joke - or is there more to it than that? Following hot on the heels of Zodiac comes the pod's second encounter with The Cult who in 1989 executed a smart right turn away from their Gothy native American roots and headed off down the metal highway with Sonic Temple. And the show closes out, fittingly, with an old-fashioned, heads down rock and roll band. Proving there's more to Oz than the Young brothers (or is there?), we say hello for the first time to The Angels and their breakthrough album Beyond Salvation. It's no spoiler alert to say the boys enjoyed Tony's selections very much - so cheers mate! If you've got 3 albums you'd like the lads to review, just find us on Facebook, on Twitter or at www.entersadmen.co.uk and let us know!
Fri, 25 Nov 2022 - 1h 36min - 71 - Episode 65 - Supergroups (ft. Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve, Lionheart & Phenomena)
In their latest journey down hard rock and heavy metal's Memory Lane, the boys are checking out supergroups - those bands formed by musos who made their names in other bands. There were some obvious ones to choose from - Bad Company, Audioslave and, erm, Revolting Cocks, for example - but the boys dived deep and came up with three outfits that were all new to at least one of them. Anything involving Sammy Hagar and Neil Schon was probably dependably good (or was it?) so they all felt comfortable with Hagar Schon Aaronson Shrieve's Through The Fire from 1983. But then Mark rocked up with Dennis Stratton side project Lionheart and their eponymous 1984 debut, and Steve went full toto and picked a band that, in a different genre, might have had a lot in common with One Direction (insofar as they were manufactured for the purpose of achieving commercial success). It was promising to be an interesting chat ... www.entersadmen.co.uk
Wed, 21 Sep 2022 - 1h 40min - 70 - Episode 64 - 1989 (ft. W.A.S.P., Bang Tango & Faith No More)
After a short hiatus, the Sadmen are back with the latest instalment of the Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame - an ongoing mission to create the definitive best-to-worst list of hard rock, heavy metal and prog released between 1970(ish) and 1995(ish). The Hall of Fame unique's selling point is the fact that each and every track on each and every album is marked individually, with the averages of those scores calculated to give the album as a whole an overall score - often to 5 decimal places. And because the boys each have different tastes - Steve likes his metal delivered at pace, Richard is the professorial wise head with a penchant for prog, and Mark is a simple man who's happy with a big fat riff and a glorious hookline - each is a check and balance to the others' hyperbole. For this edition of the show the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes threw out the year 1989, setting the lads the task of finding three albums released during that year worthy of being pulled apart. Welcome, then, W.A.S.P.'s The Headless Children, Bang Tango's Psycho Cafe, and Faith No More's genre defining The Real Thing. Let the arguments commence.
Fri, 16 Sep 2022 - 1h 39min - 69 - Episode 63 - Humans Being (ft. Coney Hatch, Spinal Tap & Metallica)
Human biology is the theme of the 63rd instalment of the lads' quest to compile the ultimate 'best of' list of hard rock and heavy metal albums. It's also an episode that sees debut appearances for two bands, along with the fourth of the six Metallica albums that are eligible for consideration under the pod's strict 1970-1995 (okay, 1996) parameters. The task was straightforward: parts of the human body. Steve went for 'hand'. Check. Mark went for 'spine'. Check. Richard went for ejaculate, blood, and urine. Hmmm. And not for the first time. Enter, then, Outa Hand, the second album from Coney Hatch, the Canadian wing of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, released in 1984; another sophomore release, this time from Spinal Tap with Break Like The Wind, the follow-up to 1984's seminal (that's seminal, not semen-al) This Is Spinal Tap; and last but not least Metallica's last properly decent album (in our humble opinion) Load.
Thu, 16 Jun 2022 - 1h 41min - 68 - Episode 62 - All About That Bass (ft. Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe & Megadeth)
So often pilloried and made to be the punchline of heavy metal jokes (Q: Where's the best place to hear a bass solo? A: In the bar/bog), this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast celebrates the 4-string virtuosos without whom much of the music we love would either not exist at all, or be significantly poorer. The lads were tasked with finding three bass players who each personified their band's sound. It was a remarkably difficult choice, with Geezer Butler, Lemmy, Geddy Lee, Phil Kennemore, JPJ, and Roger Glover all in contention. But in the end, our threesome narrowed the field to an eclectic, but influential trio (whilst also vowing to return to this much-maligned instrument before too much time could pass). Mark kicks off proceedings in 1980 with Iron Maiden's guvnor and chief songwriter, Steve Harris, and the band's self-titled debut; Steve followed suit with Mötley Crüe counterpart Nikki Sixx and their debut, Too Fast For Love; and Richard served up Dave Ellefson, whose effortless genius helped Megadeth to 1990s superstardom courtesy of '92's Countdown To Extinction..
Wed, 15 Jun 2022 - 1h 36min - 67 - Episode 61 - 1974 (ft. Epitaph, Blue Ӧyster Cult & Sweet)
For their latest journey down the time tunnel of hard rock and heavy metal the lads fired up the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes and found themselves transported back to 1974, where they discovered just how broad this church of hard rock and heavy metal really was. First up - and not for the first time on the pod - a bunch of German musicians who had hitched their wagon to that of an English vocalist. Epitaph's Outside The Law reflects a broad tapestry of influences that range from Southern Rock to prog to jazz and funk. A case, then, of 'so far, so early 1970s'. For the second time in the pod's history Rich and Steve rebuffed Mark's attempt to bring The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway into the Hall of Fame and sent him away to try again. Which was probably for the best, since it opened the door for a true classic in the shape of Blue Ӧyster Cult's Secret Treaties - a record fans and critics widely regard as the band's best release. Mark, on the other hand, prefers Fire Of Unknown Origin. Or does he? And finally, if you thought Sweet were just another early Seventies UK glam pop-rock band from the same stable as Mud, The Glitter Band, and Wizzard, think again. Desolation Boulevard features on more rock 'Best' lists than you can shake a stick at. Which was enough to convince Richard it deserved an airing on the pod.
Sun, 29 May 2022 - 1h 29min - 66 - Episode 60 - Supernatural (ft. Black Sabbath, White Spirit & Fates Warning)
The latest edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast heads off in search of hard rock and heavy metal band names, album titles, or cover art with a distinctly spooky flavour to them. Richard manages to push the envelope (again) by picking Sabbath's fifth outing, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath from 1973, on the basis that the images on the front and back of the cover depict a man being watched over by demons and angels respectively. Oh, and the whole shebang was recorded in a haunted castle. But when you're dealing with cuts as epic as the title track, A National Acrobat and Sabbra Cadabra, who's going to argue? Mark offers up the overlooked White Spirit with their self-titled 1980 debut, also their only release after the band imploded shortly after the departure of guitarist Jannick Gers to Gillan (and thence to Maiden). The band were lazily categorised as NWOBHM, but did their roots really lie back in the mid-70s and hard rock prog? And Steve sticks with the prog theme to bring in Fates Warning, a band once considered one of the so-called 'Big 3' that also included Dream Theater and Queensrÿche. In the spotlight, their 1991 release Parallels. With the Hall of Fame now approaching 200 albums, where would the three land in the list of best hard rock and heavy metal albums of all time?
Sat, 14 May 2022 - 1h 19min - 65 - Episode 58 - Angels & Towers (ft. Angel, Angel Witch, & Death Angel)
The latest episode of the Enter Sadmen Podcast turns its attention to three albums that feature either either angels or towers, or (in two cases) both. First up is the ambitious 1975 self-titled debut from American progressive band Angel, famous for both their white and outrageously angelic stagewear and for having Greg Guiffra as a member. We then spin forward 5 years to the birth of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (at least in its recorded form) and one of its most influential releases - the self-titled debut from London outfit Angel Witch. Finally, we bridge a 17-year gap to the third and final debut release of the show - Death Angel's 1987 release The Ultra-Violence, which is notable for the fact that at the time it hit record stores every member of the band was under the age of 20, and their drummer was out Philthy-ing Phil Taylor at the tender age of just 14 ...
Sun, 08 May 2022 - 1h 23min - 64 - Episode 57 - Symptoms Of The Universe (ft. Deep Purple, Hawkwind & Monster Magnet)
The lads head into outer space for the latest trip down hard rock and heavy metal's Memory Lane as they investigate and appraise the merits - or otherwise - of three very different albums boasting some sort of connection, however tenuous, to the worlds beyond our own. First up is Deep Purple with Fireball from 1971, the staging post between the previous year's In Rock and the genre defining Machine Head released in 1972. The band have since confessed to not being particularly enamoured with it; so how would it fare under the Sadmen spotlight? Next up, an album where you can almost taste and smell the drugs that went into making it as rock's ultimate beatniks, Hawkwind, serve up a sprawling space rock epic in Hall Of The Mountain Grill from 1974, released less than a year before their bassist, one Ian Kilmister Esq, was given his marching orders in what would turn out to be one of rock's most famous blessings in disguise. Having started at one end of the 25-year epoch that reflects the music that's covered by the Enter Sadmen podcast, Richard takes us all to the other, with Monster Magnet's Dopes To Infinity, released in 1995.
Sun, 13 Mar 2022 - 1h 32min - 63 - Episode 56 - The Weapon (ft. Twisted Sister, Magnum & L.A. Guns)
The Enter Sadmen podcast is on a relentless, merciless mission to identify the ultimate list of the best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal albums (yes, and prog, and Grunge, and AOR, and thrash) released between 1970 and 1995 by rating them ... track by track. Hard rocking fans and critics, Richard, Steve and Mark have so far admitted 165 records to the Hall of Fame and the next to queue up at its gilded doors like Charlie Bucket and his grandpa brandishing their golden tickets outside the Wonka Factory are an assorted motley crew of releases from the USA and the UK. First up, that band of much-loved Noo Yoik mascara merchants Twisted 'Fuckin' Sister with their 1982 release Under The Blade, Tony 'The Hat' Clarkin and the boys from Magnum with On A Storyteller's Night from 1985, and L.A. glam (or maybe sleaze?) outfit L..A. Guns showing the boys from G 'N' R how the other half lived with their own self-titled debut from 1988.
Mon, 07 Mar 2022 - 1h 23min - 62 - Episode 55 - The Black Albums (ft. AC/DC, Scorpions & Y&T)
Well, it was only a matter of time. After swerving Back In Black for 162 albums, the hand of fate intervened as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out the ball that correlated to a theme simply called "Black". With most of hard rock and heavy metal's behemoths already admitted to the Enter Sadmen Hall of Fame only four albums have occupied the #1 slot in the list - Priest's British Steel, reviewed in Episode 1, spent a week there before being toppled following Episode 2 by Moving Pictures from Rush, which itself occupied the slot for just a week before it was casually usurped by Zeppelin's IV. For 39 weeks it seemed that no matter what the boys threw at it, Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones were never going to be overtaken. And then the unstoppable force of IV met the immovable object of Ride The Lightning in Episode 42 and it all changed. But, faithful followers, we all knew that somewhere round the corner lurked a grown man in a school uniform brandishing a Gibson SG, four of his mates and the blackest of all the Black albums. Given the theme, the lads could hardly justify sidestepping it again, and so Mark duly deferred to moral obligation. Joining the 31 million seller on the show were two albums that, even in such austere company, would have every right to expect to be challenging for a place in the Top 10. Both released in 1982, the episode rounds out with the Scorpions' Blackout and Y&T's Black Tiger - two albums that in the hands of most other bands might reasonably be considered the undisputed high watermarks. But the boys tackle both juggernauts knowing that their predecessors, Lovedrive and Earthshaker respectively, cast long shadows ...
Sat, 05 Mar 2022 - 1h 40min - 61 - Episode 54 - Come On, Feel The Alloys (ft. Chrome Molly, Sword & Metal Church)
With more than a half a century of episodes under their belts, the most surprising thing for the Sadmen was that they hadn't yet been given an episode theme that centred on the word 'metal'. That all changed for this episode as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics & Themes finally did the decent thing and spat out the magic ball. But with two thirds of the eligible Metallica releases already housed in the Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, the field boasting the bleedin' obvious had narrowed considerably. What we got instead were three releases that all hit the shelves of Our Price, Andy's Records and Shades (among thousands of others) within 18 months of one another. Mark kicks off proceedings with You Can't Have It All ... Or Can You? - the debut album from Leicester's Chrome Molly, who were at vanguard of NWOBHM's post-'84 Second Invasion. Richard returned from a voyage of discovery with Metalized from Canadian power metal outfit Sword - an album he thought neither of his co-hosts would know, only to discover the band had featured prominently on a mixtape that Mark had given Steve back in late 1986. And while Steve didn't quite go for the bleedin' obvious, it was close enough as he rocked up to the recording with a dog-eared copy of Metal Church's The Dark under one arm.
Tue, 01 Mar 2022 - 1h 18min - 60 - Episode 53 - 1977 (Ft. Yes, Queen & Blue Öyster Cult
The Seventies are often lampooned as the decade that fashion and music forgot. Admittedly, it was rich on Gilbert O'Sullivan The Carpenters and The New Seekers, but it also brought us Sabbath and the golden eras of both Zeppelin and Purple, so it wasn't all bad. in fact, as the snot-nosed belligerence of punk prepared to make its invective-rich entrance, the world of rock music - and especially progressive rock music - was an interesting one to inhabit. This episode features three albums from 1977 - all, coincidentally, marking each band's second appearance on the podcast - but given the releases the lads chose the theme might just as well have been Prog Bands, because all three are high on eclectic experimentation. First up was the unapologetic tilt at commercial acceptance from Yes, with their chart-bothering 5-tracker Going For The One marking a distinct departure from its often-impenetrable though never mediocre predecessors like Fragile, Tales From Topographic Oceans and Relayer. Next comes Queen's News Of The World which is notable for many things, not least the realisation that there was a time in history when the world had never heard of either We Will Rock You or We Are The Champions. And finally, but by no means least, comes Blue Öyster Cult with Spectres, which gave fans the track that has become their second most-played concert tune of all time (behind ... Reaper, obviously) - Godzilla. Make way for mellotrons, more pianos than you can shake a stick at, and a glut of cowbell.
Tue, 15 Feb 2022 - 1h 28min - 59 - Episode 52 - Chris Tsangarides (ft. Quartz, Tygers Of Pan Tang & Anvil)
The albums reviewed each week on the Enter Sadmen podcast have to meet a theme. These are often tenuous and the lads aren't averse to stretching the elastic quite a long way when it comes to interpreting the episode themes that the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics & Themes spews out. Especially is it means Rich can choose a Rush album. But among their favourite themes are those that require them to each choose and album relating to a specific producer. The third knob-twiddler to come under the scrutiny of the pod, after Max Norman and Bruce Fairbairn, was Chris Tsangarides - a producer whose work with Y&T and Thin Lizzy already occupied places in the Hall of Fame's top 10 albums. Lining up for this episode were the Tony Iommi-produced and Tsangarides-engineered 1977 self-titled debut from Quartz, 1981's Spellbound, the second album from North-East band Tygers of Pan Tang, and Canadian rockers Anvil with their third effort from 1983, Forged In Fire. Tune in and find out where the riff to the title track from Sabbath's Heaven And Hell album really came from...
Thu, 13 Jan 2022 - 1h 18min - 58 - Episode 51 - Night Crawlers (ft. Uriah Heep, Praying Mantis & Spider)
The next category to come out of the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes was 'insects', which the boys immediately changed to Night Crawler in homage to Judas Priest. The usual rules applied - a tangible link to entymology either in the band name, album title or album artwork. The natural choice would obviously have been the Scorpions, the obviousness itself being reason enough for the boys to neatly sidestep it in favour of something else.Which is how the lads came to spend a week in the company of Uriah Heep's Firefly from 1977 - the Brit-proggers' first album without the eccentric and erratic David Byron and with the excellent ex-Lucifers Friend and Les Humphries singers (yes, really) John Lawton. Joining the Heep for episode 51 were NWOBHM's blink-and-you-missed-them Praying Mantis and their one and only (for ten years and with this line up) album from 1981, Time Tells No Lies. Also along for the ride were Merseyside rockers Spider and their 1982 outing, Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies. We're not going to call them Quo soundalikes, but that doesn't mean no-one else did.
Tue, 11 Jan 2022 - 1h 16min - 57 - Episode 50 - Freebirds (ft. Atomic Rooster, Budgie & Europe)
The Hall of Fame hits 150 albums with this latest episode from the Sadmen, who were each tasked with finding an album with an avian theme after the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out Birds as the subject matter for the pod's half century. The lure of the most obvious choice also giving him the opportunity to head back to the early 1970s was too much for Mark to resist and so he rocked up with a copy of Budgie's 1973 album Never Turn Your Back On A Friend under his arm. Steve, a self-appointed child of 80s glam and thrash rock, surprised even himself as he dredged up memories of anaglypta wallpaper, orange and tan soft furnishings, avocado bathroom suites and, crucially in this context, his old man's copy of Atomic Rooster self-titled 1971 debut. Richard bowled into the mid-Eighties and the 1984 album that proved what its successor - The Final Countdown - belied. Namely that beneath the saccharine MTV-chasing veneer of Carrie Europe were an honest-to-goodness hard rock band at heart.
Sun, 09 Jan 2022 - 1h 18min - 56 - Episode 49 - Precious Metal (ft. Led Zeppelin, Foreigner & Meat Loaf)
And so the Sadmen turn their attention to three albums that sit among the most commercially successful of all time. Passing on the chance - again - to put AC/DC's Back In Black into the Hall of Fame, they instead went with three records that ticked the brief in their own way, notable for not only the sheer volume of sales achieved, but also taking into account the relative stages each artist was at on the albums' release. Two of the discs are debuts. Both were released in 1977 and 45 years later one of them is still the fouth best-selling record of all time. Foreigner's self-titled debut marked the start of a 4-album hot streak of million sellers. A few months later, and after being rejected by eight record companies before a small independent took a chance on it, Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell set off on a march to 35 million sales and a reimagining of how we define the word 'ambitious'.But the episode starts seven years earlier, in 1970, as a young British band stopped to draw breath following an epic and gruelling US tour that had seen them conquer America on a scale that no other band aside from The Beatles had managed to achieve. Led Zeppelin's third release may have been predictably titled - simply III, to follow II - but predictability ended there, with a soundscape so rich and so eclectic that it polarised critical opinion at the time, yet has come to be regarded as a pioneering classic.
Tue, 04 Jan 2022 - 1h 34min - 55 - Episode 48 - Doro’s Homework (ft. Saxon, Dio & W.A.S.P.)
Following their fireside chat with the Queen of Metal, Doro Pesch set the boys some homework, choosing the next three albums that would be up for review on the next episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast. Once Steve had got over the shock of actually talking to Doro rather than just watching her from afar on a stage, the lads divvied up the albums she'd chosen and got down to business. It wasn't exactly a chore. First up, Saxon's fourth album (the fourth in two short years, as it happened) Denim And Leather. Two hot singles, 9 fabulous tracks. Its place in the Hall of Fame was guaranteed. The only unknown was exacxtly where it would land. Next came Dio's sophomore solo album, The Last In Line. Often overlooked, the boys discovered, upon revisiting it, that time had been kinder to it rthan they perhaps expected. But kindlesws can also be cruel, so where would it end up in relation to its predecessor, Holy Diver? Finally, the concept album that should have been a solo album. 1992's The Crimson Idol from W.A.S.P. The mutual respect that Doro and Blackie had for one another is largely unchronicled - and you'll have to listen to the interview to understand why - but listening to Blackie's concept album it's not difficult to understand why the Metal Queen and the King of Sleaze found a (platonic) connection.
Sun, 02 Jan 2022 - 1h 25min - 54 - Episode 47 - The Four Elements (ft. Rainbow, FireHouse & The Wildhearts)
At the end of Episode 46, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out 'Four Elements', meaning our trio of trusty adventurers each had to find an album that had a clear and non-tenuous link to one or more of the four elements of life. Yeah, we had to look them up, too. But at least we can save you the bother of also heading to Google or Wiki. Fire, Earth, Air and Water. After a false start which saw Steve and Richard sniggering at the lack of creativity evident in Mark's original choice (Y&T's Earthshaker) the lads reconvened for a chinwag over three albums that had a claim to fame without actually being all that famous in their own right. First up, Down To Earth - Rainbow's 4th album, and their first without the Little Wizard's disproportionately enormous voice. Though it escaped broad critical acclaim at the time it did spawn arguably one of the all time great pop rock songs in Since You've Been Gone. The big question was whether the rest of the album could keep pace with its signature song. Next came the eponymous 1990 debut from FireHouse (yes, that incongruous capital in the middle of their name is deliberate, thank you) - an album that bagged the band the 'Favorite New Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist' award at the 1992 American Music Awards. But while their star burned bright in their native America, the UK and pretty much the whole of the rest of Planet Earth passed them by without so much as a sideways glance. And bringing up the rear was the some-might-say-cheeky-others-like-Mark-might-say-twattish Ginger and his post-Punk band The Wildhearts with their world-hating wink-and-a-smile 1993 effort Earth vs. The Wildhearts.
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 - 1h 19min - 53 - Episode 46 - 1987 (ft. Whitesnake, Mötley Crüe & Rush)
Big production. Big hair. Big names. Big albums. In Episode 46 the boys turn the Enter Sadmen spotlight on the year that marked the commercial peak of hard rock and heavy metal. Following the path forged for them the previous year by the likes of Slippery When Wet, 5150 and Eat 'Em And Smile, the big guns rolled themselves into the fray in 1987. The podcast has already reviewed, rated and ranked some of the year's other big hitters - most notably Hysteria, Crazy Nights and Appetite For Destruction (coincidentally, in consecutive episodes - #25 and #26) - but two of the three selected by the lads for this show perhaps define where rock and metal had landed as the decade neared its close. But where Whitesnake's 1987 and Mötley Crüe's Girls Girls Girls epitomised the decadence of the era, the album that closes this show - Rush's Hold Your Fire - shows that some bands didn't need media fireworks and furore to keep pace with the times.
Wed, 29 Dec 2021 - 59min - 52 - Episode 45 - In Your Direction (ft. Axis, .38 Special & Threshold)
So here we go again, thrill-seekers, with another three albums looking for admittance to the Enter Sadmen Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Hall of Fame - an always evolving homage to the great and the good of that broad church we all worship in. This week, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out Points of the Compass as the theme against which the boys' album choices needed to be made. But since they'd already reviewed South Of Heaven in Episode 34, the lads got a bit stuck. After rejecting some obvious choices, Steve and Richard turned up with a couple of corkers. Mark's, on the other hand, choice set him and Steve on a collision course that no-one foresaw. Welcome, then, Axis and It's A Circus World, .38 Special and Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, and Threshold's Psychedelicatessen. All three albums were previously unknown to at least two of our tres hombres, and one that at least one of our merry band wished one of them had remained unknown.
Tue, 12 Oct 2021 - 1h 31min - 51 - Episode 44 - Fast As A Shark (ft. REO Speedwagon, Manowar & Flotsam and Jetsam)
n the latest edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast the boys are challenged to find three albums oin the theme of Things That Swim. Rich managed to hit the brief with You Can Tune A Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish, REO Speedwagon's forerunner to their commercial smash hit Hi Infidelity (which the boys reviewed way back in Episode 7). Unfortunately, Mark and Steve stretched the elastic a bit too far by choosing things that float rather than things that swim. So, making up the trio of albums aiming for a place in the Top 100 of the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Hall of Fame are Kings Of Metal by Manowar - not, as Mark thought, a ray but instead a jellyfish-like organism totally incapable of self-propulsion; and, washing up on rock's shoreline, No Place For Disgrace by Flotsam And Jetsam (see what we did there?)
Mon, 11 Oct 2021 - 1h 18min - 50 - Episode 43 - Round And Round (ft. ZZ Top, Warrior & Accept)
For the latest leg of their journey through the history of hard rock and heavy metal from 1970 to 1995, the boys were each tasked with finding an album that broadly met the theme of 'things that spin'. That made for an episode that began in 1973 with the album that most afdicionado's widely regard as ZZ (spinning) Top's finest - the raucous Tres Hombres. From there it was a 12 year sprint to the mid-Eighties and Fighting For The Earth, the 1985 debut effort from ahead-of-their-time Los Angeles environmentalists Warrior, ahead of a final stop at 1986 where German rockers launched album #6 on an expectant world.Would any of these high rollers garner enough critical acclaim to gain a coveted spot in the top 100 of the lads' increasingly competitive Hall of Fame?
Sun, 29 Aug 2021 - 1h 03min - 49 - Episode 42 - Crofty's Picks (ft. Iron Maiden, Metallica & The Black Crowes)
After spending the evening chatting music, darts and very fast cars with Sky Sports F1 lead commentator David Croft a few weeks back, it was time for the lads to review the albums that Crofty had picked out for them to feature on the pod. After wrestling with the thorny issue of whether one of them - Springsteen's Born To Run - should be included (a question that prompted comparisons of an F1 car with a Le Mans prototype) the boys settled down to a week of listening that, as Steve observed, was never going to be a chore. First up, in place of The Boss (but featuring solidly in Crofty's Top 10 albums of all time) 1982's The Number Of The Beast by Iron Maiden. Having dealt with the band that ruled the metal globe in the late 80s, the Sadmen turned their attention to the band that would steal that crown for the 90s as they gorged on Ride The Lightning, the 1984 the coming of age release from Metallica.And making up this episode's trio, as incongruous in this company as the Foreign Secretary turning up to an ambassadorial dinner in a pair of silk pajamas, The Black Crowes with 1992's The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion.
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 - 1h 33min - 48 - Episode 41 - 1986 (ft. Baby Tuckoo, Queensryche & Loudness)
In this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast the lads are travelling back to explore another year from hard rock and heavy metal's golden era of 1970 to 1995. This time, they're slap bang in the mid-80s - they year Bon Jovi's hair exploded and you weren't anyone unless you had a keyboard player in the band. First up was Baby Tuckoo, a blink-and-you'll-miss-'em melodic hard rock band out of Bradford with their second - and. as it turned out, final outing Force Majeure. Lead singer Rob Armitage would briefly join German metallers Accept, but their two-album tilt at the big time left the world with some superior tunes that should have been bigger than they were.Next up, Seattle's other prodigal son Queensryche who followed up their debut album The Warning with Rage For Order, the record that would essentially lay down the marker for both sound and partiality to a concept album. And rounding off the episode, a jaunt to the Land of the Rising Sun and the gazillionth album from the mighty Loudness - this time launching their own bid for superstardom with the Max Norman-produced Lightning Strikes.
Thu, 15 Jul 2021 - 1h 27min - 47 - Episode 40 - Welcome to the Machine (ft. Motorhead, Machine Head & Earth Crisis)
This time out the boys are told to find three albums on the theme of 'machines' - which ended up being trickier to pull off than they had first imagined. But never ones to back down from a challenge, they each returned to Enter Sadmen HQ with an album each that met the brief - and gave them their hardest listening week since Tool and Kyuss were on the show back in Episode 10. This edition of the podcast features Orgasmatron from 1986 - Motorhead's first album as a four piece following the departures of both 'Fast' Eddie Clark and Phil 'Philthy Animal' Taylor, industrial US rockers Machine Head with 1994's Burn My Eyes, and Earth Crisis' 1995 offering Destroy The Machines.
Mon, 28 Jun 2021 - 1h 10min - 46 - Episode 39 - Colours (ft. Thin Lizzy, White Sister & Living Colour)
In this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the next three albums to join the list on the definitive all time hard rock and heavy metal hall of fame are linked by colours and include two bands yet to be considered by our trio of intrepid reviewers. First up is Thin Lizzy's Black Rose from 1979, the album that marked the final appearance - albeit briefly - of Gary Moore in his third visit to the line-up (two as a fully-fledged recording member and one as a touring substitute for Brian Robertson). It's hard to find a Lizzy album that doesn't feature a stone cold classic - but how would this one fare following the rapturous reception given to 1983's Thunder And Lightning in episode 9? Next up, Steve introduces the first of the episode's newcomers, American melodic rockers White Sister and their second (and, to all intents and purposes, final) album - 1986's somewhat under-appreciated (one might go so far as to say unappreciated) Fashion By Passion. And helping to make the episode quorate, Richard introduces Anglo-American politicos Living Colour with their sophomore release from 1990, Time's Up. Three diverse albums by three diverse bands. But where would they end up in the big list?
Sun, 20 Jun 2021 - 1h 25min - 45 - Episode 38 - The Producers: Bruce Fairbairn (ft. Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & Gorky Park)
After a forensic examination of the work of Max Norman in Episode 22, the second visit to the control desk by the Enter Sadmen podcast headed for America and the man behind some of the biggest selling rock albums of the 80s - the late Bruce Fairbairn. Mention Fairbairn in a game of word association and the chances are the words that immediately spring to mind are Bon and Jovi. closely followed by Slippery, When and Wet. In fact, record a show about Fairbairn's work and it would be an act of near criminality to omit New Jersey's finest (with apologies to Springsteen fans) from consideration. Joining Jon and the boys were veteran rockers Aerosmith and their renaissance album from 1987, Permanent Vacation. And Steve deals up the joker in the pack with Gorky Park, the band mentored and championed by JBJ back in the day, and their self-titled debut.
Wed, 16 Jun 2021 - 1h 24min - 44 - Episode 37 - 1970 (ft. Bloodrock, Mountain & Lucifer's Friend)
The lads fired up the time machine for the latest episode in their quest to find the greatest rock album of all time, journeying back to the farthest limits of the Enter Sadmen Podverse. 1970 is the arbitrary stepping off point for the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Hall of Fame, so it was no surprise when the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes finally cranked it out as the focus of episode 37. The boys went off in search of musical riches and reconvened on WhatsApp a week before the show was recorded to share their discoveries. Mark, it turned out, went more or less mainstream, breaking the elasticity of time to offer up Climbing!, the debut album from Mountain (if you discount the Leslie West solo album Mountain, which is now largely viewed as the spiritual start of Mountain's recording career). Steve went deep into the unknown and unearthed a then much admired but long since forgotten self-titled debut from US prog rockers Bloodrock. And Richard emerged clutching the better-known and eponymously-titled calling card from Lucifer's Friend, featuring future Uriah Heep vocalist John Lawton, the only Brit in an otherwise all-German line-up. Get your bell bottoms ready - 'cos this one's a banger ...
Tue, 25 May 2021 - 1h 04min - 43 - Enter Sadmen meet ... John Verity
In the latest special edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast the lads catch up with John Verity - guitarist, vocalist, record producer and, as it turned out, a fount of great rock and roll stories. In the course of their hour and a bit the boys were taken on a journey that included guns at dusk with Jimi Hendrix's road crew, a manager dropped from a 4th floor Miami window in a drug bust, life on tour with Argent, being 'encouraged' to leave the United States by the US immigration service, the trials and tribulations of getting the Verity-produced Saxon debut over the line, and a far from conventional production gig on a Motorhead live album ... Strap in for a hilarious ride through a rock and roll life that starts back in the 1960s ... and discover what albums mark the emotional waypoints of one of Britain's great blues rock guitarists ...
Sat, 22 May 2021 - 1h 10min - 42 - Episode 36 - Wheels of Steel (ft. Def Leppard, Terraplane & Tesla)
For the latest leg of their tour through rock and metal's highlights and lowlights the boys were given the brief of 'transport'. The rules were simple - the band name, album title or album cover had to have a demonstrable link to a form of transport. Like all the pod themes, it should have been easy. But then Steve and Rich hadn't factored in Mark's wide-ranging interpretation of what transport might actually mean, nor the fact that he failed to make the link between Steve's album choice and a well-known electric car brand. Eventually, though, they settled down to chew over the various merits - or otherwise - of three debut albums from three 1980s outfits who would go on to have varying degrees of success. First up was Def Leppard's 1980 cherry-popper On Through The Night - an album the band has since more or less airbrushed from their own history - and completely airbrushed from their live set. Which, according to Mark, gives a small insight into how fast and loose musicians can play with the loyalty of fans who were there at the start. Next in line was Terraplane's Black And White, a record that sowed the first seeds of what would set the band on the road to public affection once they rebuffed their label's attempts to turn them into Rick Springfield-esque pop rockers, changed their name to Thunder and dialled up the guitars. Finally, another of rock's finest debuts from Sacramento rockers Tesla and Mechanical Resonance, released in 1986. As Steve said - it's hard to imagine a time without the majesty of Modern Day Cowboy ...
Wed, 19 May 2021 - 1h 38min - 41 - Episode 35 - Metal Health (ft. Y&T, Ted Nugent & Poison)
For this edition of the pod, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out the ball with 'HEALTH' written on it, which meant the lads each had to find an album that not only had a medical theme, but was also infectious enough to merit consideration for a place in the Top 100 rock and metal albums of all time. Richard tunnelled back to 1977 and emerged with the Ted Nugent classic Cat Scratch Fever. Mark put on his rose-tinted spectacles and relived a 1987 holiday in L.A., a lot of West Coast sunshine and the then-newly released Contagious from Bay Area veterans Y&T. And Steve returned to 1988 and the day Poison released their second album, Open Up And Say ... Ahhh! The only thing left to decide was the prognosis for each, which was easier said than done.
Sun, 16 May 2021 - 1h 19min - 40 - Episode 34 - Watch The Children Pray (ft. Genesis, The Cult & Slayer)
Episode 34 of the Enter Sadmen podcast sees the lads taking a more spiritual approach to their listening as the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spits out the ball labelled Religion to determine this instalment's theme. But even though the show's title is a nod to all you Metal Church fans out there, the boys managed to avoid the dark (see what we did there?) and instead chose another ecelctic selection of albums spanning two decades. Leading the charge is Steve with the first of what he considers to be Genesis's holy trinity of albums, 1971's Nursery Cryme. Richard fast forwards to 1985 and adds a neo-gothic hue to proceedings by picking Love from The Cult. And in a surprise move, Mark opts for expertly crafted blunt force trauma with Slayer's 1988 release South Of Heaven. Let the arguments commence!
Wed, 12 May 2021 - 1h 24min - 39 - Episode 33 - On A Storyteller's Night (ft. Helloween, Warfare & Fear Factory)
So, for this episode the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out Concept Albums, which gave the boys a very large playing field to go at. A night, surely, for the big hitters to make an appearance ... who would choose Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway? Who would earmark Thick As A Brick to represent Tull's third visit to the pod? And surely to God Richard couldn't resist the temptation to slide Operation: Mindcrime into the mix, could he? The reality, as it turned out, was very different. Richard turned up with Helloween's Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part I which certainly tells a story - but would the l;ads be able to work out what it was? Then Mark threw the curve ball from left field as he rocked up with Warfare's tribute to the UK's best-loved horror studio, 1990's Hammer Horror. We're still not sure if Steve and Rich have forgiven him for that. Although arguably Steve had bigger questions to face as he delved into the box marked 'Noise' for Fear Factory's Demanufacture, an album which by his own admission met the brief in only the most gossamer-thin sense.
Thu, 06 May 2021 - 1h 32min - 38 - Episode 32 - Shot Down In Flames (ft. Grand Prix, Fastway & Vain)
In the latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast, Steve, Mark and Rich get to grips with three albums from bands they believe should have been a much bigger deal than they ultimately were. First up is British NWOBHM/AOR outfit (if one band can be both) Grand Prix with their second release There For None To See from 1982. They'd release one final album - Samurai - in '84 before finally calling it a day. Singer Robin McAuley went on to work with Michael Schenker as the McAuley Schenker Group, whilst keyboard player Phil lanzon and original singer Bernie Shaw would briefly join Brit-proggers Uriah Heep. Next in line for the boys was Fastway - the short-lived collaboration between former Motorheads guitarist 'Fast' Eddie Clarke and ex-UFO bass player Pete Way. Way would ultimately play no part in the project due to contractual issues, but his name was retained in band's moniker and, with a line-up completed by Northern Irish singer Dave King, the first iteration of Fastway would go on to record six albums. In this episode, the boys appraise album #3 - 1986's Waiting For The Roar. Making up this show's trio are California rockers Vain with their debut (or was it?) No Respect from 1989. According to Mark, this was a band that transcended the lazy 'sleaze' tag that dogged them from the start and hit a winning formula of superior songs that belied the hair metal image that was de rigeur at the time. But would Steve and Rich agree?
Mon, 03 May 2021 - 1h 36min - 37 - Episode 31 - Leaders Of The Pack (ft. Queen, Jethro Tull & Krokus)
For the latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out Leaders of the Pack, which meant the boys had to choose three albums that had some kind of link to a deck of playing cards. When they returned from their record collections and a deep dive into Google they discovered that Episode 31 would start in 1973 and end in 1988. The albums reflecting those 15 golden years and looking for a place in the top 100 of the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Hall of Fame couldn't be more eclectic if you tried: The 1973 debut album that brought a little know rock band called Queen to public attention, a newly rocked up Jethro Tull with their controversially Grammy-winning 1987 opus Crest Of A Knave (look away now, Metallica purists!) and Swiss veterans Krokus with Heart Attack.
Mon, 26 Apr 2021 - 1h 27min - 36 - Enter Sadmen meet ... Doro Pesch
In the latest special edition of the show, the Sadmen sit down for an intimate chat - if being separated by hundreds of miles can be described as intimate - with the Queen of Metal, Doro Pesch. Over the course of a candid hour, Doro discusses the re-release of her 1998 Love Me In Black album, befriending Motorhead's Lemmy, the break-up of Warlock and the 1986 Donington Monsters of Rock slot that brought her properly to public consciousness and affection (though how anyone could have missed her up to that point given the press she was getting at the time is mind-boggling in itself. And just what was in the strange package that arrived in the post at her mother's Dusseldorf home?
Sun, 25 Apr 2021 - 1h 01min - 35 - Episode 30 - Fight For Your Reich (ft. Scorpions, Grave Digger & Warlock)
We may still be in lockdown - just (hopefully) - but it's time for the Sadmen to spread their wings and flit beyond the shores of old Blighty and shine the torch of enlightenment into a land far, far away. Well, a hop and a skip beyond Belgium, at any rate. This episode sees Mark, Richard and Steve taking a close look at three bands from the heart of the European rock and metal landscape: Germany. The Scorpions make their first appearance in the podcast as Richard blows the cobwebs off the band's third album, 1975's In Trance. Mark ignores the obvious choices and picks a band with a big reputation for cranking out big riffs - but a band that passed him by when they first came to prominence in the mid 80s: Grave Digger with their '86 effort War Games. And Steve takes the opportunity to spend a little time snuggled up with Warlock, led by his the Metal Queen, Doro Pesch, and their 1985 commercial breakthrough record True As Steel. Enjoy - and look out for our special epsiode featuring an extended interview with Doro which will be out in the next few days!
Tue, 13 Apr 2021 - 1h 25min - 34 - Episode 29 - Four Play (ft. Faster Pussycat, Britny Fox & Jackyl)
The latest adventure with the Sadmen takes us into the animal world and, more specifically, to albums that are linked in some way - tenuous or otherwise - with four-legged creatures. For this episode the boys welcomed a cat, a fox and, spelling aside, a jackal. They also welcomed an ozone layer's worth of hairspray and a hat trick of self-titled albums. All the Enter Sadmen reviews are done in the chronological order of the albums' release dates, which means this episode kicks off with Faster Pussycat from 1987, pauses long enough for the boys to check the bouffant level of their hair before cracking on with the following year's Britny Fox and then fires up the chainsaw from hell to run the rule over Jackyl from 1992. When the dust had settled, we discovered where in the growing Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame the three albums fell.
Wed, 07 Apr 2021 - 1h 15min - 33 - Episode 28 - For Those About To Shock (ft. Judas Priest, Suicidal Tendencies & Rammstein)
The latest edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast sees the lads getting to grips with three bands that found their way into rock and metal's Big Book of Notoriety. In the spirit of avoiding the bleeding obvious, they completely ignored the PMRC's 'Filthy 15' - largely on the grounds that the bands on that infamous Washington Wives hit list were so tame they barely qualified as rock and roll ne'er-do-wells, never mind bad boys. No, this episode needed behaviour and notoriety of scale - and the boys found it in plentiful supply. Coming to the naughty table for this episode, then, are: Judas Priest with Stained Class from 1978 - an album that landed them in the US courts accused of a song from the album triggering the suicides of two teenage friends; Suicidal Tendencies, a band so notorious that they only had to suggest they were going to play a live show to start a riot, with 1988's How Can I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today; And Germany's groundbreaking industro-electonic tanzmetallers, Rammstein, with their 1995 debut Herzeleid, the US tour for which saw them up on charges for a whole litany of onstage sexual shenanagins. If you like your metal badass, then this is the baddest episode yet.
Fri, 02 Apr 2021 - 1h 37min - 32 - Episode 27 - Wherever You May Roam (ft. Nazareth, Marseille & Babylon A.D.)
The boys get all geographical for the latest edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast as they put another three albums under the microscope in their bid to build the definitive hard rock and heavy metal Hall of Fame. The brief? The name of the band or the title of the album had to relate to a location - ideally real (either now or once upon a time) or one that would be reasonably accepted to be a well known fiction, such as Xanadu - though if you've suddenly started panicking, relax ... no Olivia Newton John of ELO is to be found herein). So the boys packed their bags, pocketed their spending money and headed off for a change of scene. Richard went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands (well, either that or a small Belgian town to the south west of Ghent) where he discovered not Jesus but Scottish rockers Nazareth and their 1975 album Hair Of The Dog. Mark took the M6 northwest to Liverpool and reacquainted himself with one of his favourite bands from the Second Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, Marseille, and their 1984 release Touch The Night. Steve took the brief to a new level by travelling back in time to the capital of the ancient Babylonian empire, where he and the natives were surprised to find long-haired San Francisco titans Babylon A.D. and their self-titled 1989 debut. As usual, they hadn't arrived back long before they got down to some serious squabbling.
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 - 1h 10min - 31 - Episode 26 - Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter (ft. Van Halen, Def Leppard & KISS)
Good parenting requires that learning doesn't just take place in the classroom. To really give your kids a rounded view of the world, any self-respecting parent should ensure they take a hands-on roll in continuing their children's education out of school. The Sadmen are united by their love of rock and metal, but another thing they have in common is that they each also have one daughter, and one day they discovered those daughters have all been subjected to many attempts at rock and roll conversion therapy in the car. So, for this episode the boys decided to let their daughters choose the albums that would be reviewed. Steve's daughter, Sian, picked Van Halen's 1984. Richard's daughter, Alice, picked Def Leppard's 1987 commercial behemoth Hysteria. And Mark's daughter, Holly, chose KISS' Crazy Nights, also released in 1987. Prepare for an episode so 80s you can almost smell the hairspray ...
Sun, 21 Mar 2021 - 1h 28min - 30 - Enter Sadmen meet ... Crofty
Petrolhead, metalhead, talking head ... who knows, maybe even Motorhead. In this special edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the boys sit down for a cosy fireside chat with the voice of Formula 1, Crofty. Or David Croft, to give him his birth name. From his earliest brushes with Deep Purple at the mudbath that was Knebworth 1985 to his all consuming love of Bruce Springsteen and penchant for Metallica, Maiden and Parkway Drive, Crofty gives the lads the lowdown on his 'other' life as an unashamed hard rock and heavy metal fan. In this episode we discover fellow Stevenage lad Lewis Hamilton's go-to karaoke tune, get the lowdown on Crofty's beer-soaked Bon Jovi duet with Nico Rosberg at a Mercedes Petronas Christmas bash, talk rock radio and the sad death of the independent record shop - and find out which albums make his top ten records of all time. Ladies and gentlemen ... start your engines.
Tue, 09 Mar 2021 - 1h 25min - 29 - Episode 25 - Sheer Chart Attack (ft. Bad Company, Guns 'N' Roses & Skid Row)
In the latest episode of the loudest podcast in the world, the Sadmen look at three rock albums that topped the US Billboard 200. The episode spans three decades, stopping off at 1974 and 1987 for the respective debuts of Bad Company and Hollywood bad boys Guns 'N' Roses, and checking in on 1991 for Skid Row's sophomore release, Slave To The Grind. Just how good were they, and where did they end up in the Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame?
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 - 1h 35min - 28 - Episode 24 - 1992 #1 (ft. Kiss, Hardline & Stone Temple Pilots)
For the latest adventure in the quest to review, rate and rank the all time great hard rock and heavy metal albums of rock's golden age, the boys take a rare trip to a world beyond the 1980s and explore a less well-charted land: 1992. It was a time when the established old guard were trying to find a way to stay relevant and when new kids were on every block. Kiss personified the former, Neil Schon side project Hardline typified the latter. But what was that dark smudge on the horizon? A smudge that was growing larger by the day and carried with it the soon-to-be unmistakeable sound of de-tuned guitars and stories of epic misery ...
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 - 1h 17min - 27 - Episode 23 - Metal By Numbers (ft. Bon Jovi, Rush & Q5)
For the latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes spat out NUMBERS. The brief? Choose a classic album released between 1970 and 1995 where either the album title or the band's name contained a number. Then, as usual, listen to them end to end as many times as possible over the course of a week and reconvene to review them, rate them track by track, average out the overall scores to give each album an average score - and then put each one into the fabled Hall of Fame. By the end of the episode there would be 69 albums on that list as the boys edged ever closer to the first ton of titles. Stepping into the fray? Bon Jovi with 7800 Fahrenheit, Rush with 2112 and AORsters Q5 with their secondf album When The Mirror Cracks. Beyond Episode 33 - now just ten episodes away - lies a trapdoor as the Sadmen aim to create the definitive list of the very best hard rock and heavy metal albums from the genre's classic quarter century- and find the 100 that cvan truly be described as the greatest of all time.
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 - 1h 25min - 26 - Episode 22 - Max Norman (ft. Megadeth, Armored Saint & Savatage)
Over time the lads shine a spotlight on the producers who've been responsible for some of the very best music hard rock and heavy metal offered up between 1970 and 1995. First up on the Sadmen stage is legendary British producer, Max Norman, whose contribution to the genre stands comparison with any of the big names on the other side of the glass during rock's classic era. With a list of production and engineering credits as long as Methuselah's beard, all the boys had to do was pick the three they thought worth of particular attention (at least until Max Norman Part 2 rolls around)... Which is how they end up spending 90 minutes talking through Megadeth's Youthanasia, Armored Saint's sophomore record Delirious Nomad and pre-operatic Savatage with their early release Power Of The Night.
Sun, 24 Jan 2021 - 1h 31min - 25 - Episode 21 - 1971 #1 (ft. Uriah Heep, Yes & The MC5)
For the latest edition of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the boys fired up the Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes and waited for it to spit out a theme. Which, as sure as night follows day, it duly did. The result? A journey back to 1971 and a land that time forgot. Luckily, it was also a time when a group of earnest and committed young men, together comprising three bands, discovered their musical muse and the succumbed to the allure of experimentation ... First out of the gate was Detroit antiheroes The MC5 with High Time, followed by Brit-prog darlings Uriah Heep and their acclaimed Look At Yourself. Bringing up the year, another bunch of proggers in the soon-to-be supergroup Yes with Fragile...
Fri, 08 Jan 2021 - 1h 29min - 24 - Episode 20 - The Rock Goddess Homework (ft. The Runaways, AC/DC & Metallica)
Just before recording this episode, the Sadmen sat down for a chinwag with Jody and Julie Turner - the drum- and guitar-playing sisters behind fan favourites Rock Goddess. After an hour in which they all laughed a lot, discussed Jody's pipework and Julie's memories - or lack thereof - of debuting at the Reading Rock Festival at the age of 14, and shared their own Top 10 albums of all time, the girls chose three records for the boys to review, rate and rank in their next show. Stepping up to the mic, The Runaways, AC/DC and Metallica with Waiting For The Night, If You Want Blood and Metallica respectively - and a show that covered one of the greatest back stories in rock and roll history.
Sun, 03 Jan 2021 - 1h 44min - 23 - Enter Sadmen meet ... Rock Goddess
In the latest of their occasional specials in conversation with rock's royalty, Mark and Richard sit down with two thirds of Rock Goddess - sisters Jody and Julie Turner - to talk about everything from being bribed with new jeans to practice their instruments in the early days of the band to sharing the Reading Festival bill with Iron Maiden as teenagers and how technology has changed the way they work.And, as all the Enter Sadmen guests do, Jody and Julie also each get to choose their own Top 10 albums of all timeStrap in for an hour of laughter, reminiscences and Abba.
Sat, 02 Jan 2021 - 1h 05min - 22 - 2020 Review
As we prepared to get say goodbye to 2020, Mark, Steve and Rich sat down together virtually with a glass of mulled wine and a few mince pies and looked back at the first 19 shows of the Enter Sadmen podcast.The 57 albums they've reviewed over the last 8 months threw up some predictable moments, but their forensic track-by-track approach to reviewing and rating every single second of every single album gave some weeks the same sort of results that sometimes define the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. It was a year in which some big guns underachieved and some minnows scaled heights of recognition they may until now have thought lost to them. More than that, it was a year of bloody good music and bloody good fun!
Fri, 01 Jan 2021 - 57min - 21 - Episode 19 - Rock and Roll Siblings (ft. Raven, Heart & Rock Goddess)
In the penultimate full episode of 2020, the Sadmen get to grips with three albums recorded by bands featuring siblings within their ranks. Stepping up to the amps for this show, then, are the Wilson sisters from Heart with Little Queen, Raven's Gallagher brothers John and Mark and the noisy Rock Until Your Drop, and Jody and Julie Turner from Rock Goddess and their cracking little self-titled debut.
Tue, 29 Dec 2020 - 1h 29min - 20 - Episode 18 - Donington 1987 (ft. Anthrax, Cinderella & W.A.S.P.)
Six bands (or seven, depending on which Donington you happened to be at) in the August sunshine of the British East Midlands. For this episode the boys take a trip back to the Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival in 1987 and choose three three different bands who were on the bill that day. The rules? None - other than the stipulation that the album from each band had to be the one released closest to the date of the festival. Which all added up to Among The Living from Anthrax, Long Cold Winter from Cinderella and a sting in the tail from W.A.S.P. with Inside The Electric Circus.
Sun, 27 Dec 2020 - 1h 28min - 19 - The Christmas Playlist Special
The boys take a break from normal business this Christmas Eve to bring you the ultimate rock and metal playlist. It's available for you to follow in Spotify - so listen along as Mark, Steve and Richard talk through a clutch of songs to make your metal Christmas as merry as possible.Just don't forget to turn it down when the kids are around ...
Thu, 24 Dec 2020 - 41min - 18 - Episode 17 - 1981 #1 (ft. Blue Oyster Cult, Gillan & Ozzy Osbourne)
On the latest leg of the Sadmen's journey through the annals of hard rock and heavy metal, they headed for the NWOBHM-rich year of 1981 and three albums that were about as diverse as it was possible to get at the start of the denim-rich Eighties. It's an episode that also has echoes of the Enter Sadmen podcast's beginnings, as two of the albums saw the lads picking their way through the new 'solo' adventures of two vocalists who we last met in Episode 3. Under the microscope in this episode: Future Shock from Gillan, Fire Of Unknown Origin from Blue Oyster Cult and Ozzy's Diary Of A Madman
Sun, 06 Dec 2020 - 1h 25min - 17 - Episode 16 - The Albums That Changed Our Lives (ft. Y&T, Pink Floyd & Boston)
We've all got albums that have sentimental value because they were greater than the sum of their parts. In this episode the boys discuss the albums that made them feel differently about music. It's an eclectic collection that includes Boston's self-titled debut, the seminal offering from Floyd - 1973's Dark Side Of The Moon and the third album (or perhaps fifth, depending on your take) from San Francisco veterans Y&T - Mean Streak.
Mon, 02 Nov 2020 - 1h 31min - 16 - Episode 15 - Sheer Art Attack (ft. Marillion, Blackfoot & Bad Steve)
In this episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the lads pay tribute to the late and truly great Eddie Van Halen before digging out some of the albums they bought on the strength of the album cover alone: Marillion's Fugazi, Blackfoot's Strikes and a little known German outfit with links to Accept - Bad Steve and an album called Killing The Night. As is often the case with the Enter Sadmen pod, the show manages to swing effortlessly from the sublime to the utterly ridiculous. www.entersadmen.co.uk
Fri, 09 Oct 2020 - 1h 08min - 15 - Episode 14 - Metallica, Motley or Maiden?
One of the questions the Sadmen had to answer for the Enter Sadmen website (www.entersadmen.co.uk) was very simple. Maiden, Motley or Maiden? With no conferring allowed, all three of them picked Metallica. Episode 14 was the time to find out if that was true. The Tico Torres Tombola of Topics and Themes randomly selected 1983 as the year that would anchor the show and the three albums up for review would be those released closest to that particular year - which proved to be quite easy, since all three bands released albums in that year (all within 4 months of one another, as it happened). So, here we go with Piece of Mind, Kill 'Em All and Shout At The Devil. A corking episode in prospect - but which of these seminal releases would find itself furthest up the Hall of Fame ladder at the end of the show?
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 - 1h 22min - 14 - Episode 13 - Wake Up With Makeup (ft. KISS, Mercyful Fate & Hanoi Rocks)
In the latest edition of the hard rocking podcast Enter Sadmen, the boys reach deep into the vanity case and tackle three albums that went big on slap. From early-70s New York City kitsch (KISS' self-titled debut) to two genre-defining Scandinavian bands (Melissa from Danish thrashers Mercyful Fate, and post-punk Finn-linked rockers Hanoi Rocks and Two Steps From The Move), this edition of the pod asks - and answers - the question: did the makeup mask a lack of musical talent ... or expose it?
Fri, 04 Sep 2020 - 1h 22min - 13 - Episode 12 - Brian Tatler's Homework (ft. Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin & AC/DC)
Regular Sadmen followers will know we were honoured to record a special edition of the podcast with Diamond Head legend Brian Tatler recently, in which he shared stories about 40 years of life in the band and also gave us a run down of his Top 10 albums of all time. If you're a DH fan and haven't heard the show, check it out now! But what we also ask our special guests to do is choose the 3 albums that we'll review on the next edition of the show. So, this latest episode sees the boys get to grips with the trio of giant releases that Brian felt should be put under the Enter Sadmen microscope - Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti, Priest's Sad Wings Of Destiny and AC/DC's shit-or-bust Let There Be Rock...
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 - 1h 37min - 12 - Enter Sadmen meet ... Brian Tatler
The Enter Sadmen podcast is all about reviewing, rating and ranking the good, bad and the ugly of hard rock and heavy metal to create the ultimate hall of fame. But it's always nice to get the perspective of the people who were there at the time - either making the music or contributing to the process of making it. Not only that, but we ask them to tell us their top 10 albums of all time - and then get them to decide which 3 albums we review, rate and rank in the following edition of the show.In the first of an occasional series of podcasts we had the privilege of sitting down with Brian Tatler - the founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist with the legendary Diamond Head. What followed was a discussion of recording, touring, lessons learned ... and the bifggest question of them all: had he ever cocked up that iconic six-note harmonic that ushers in the thundering riff of Am I Evil? ...
Fri, 14 Aug 2020 - 1h 00min - 11 - Episode 11 - 1980 #1 (ft. Diamond Head, Whitesnake & Motorhead)
40 years on - give or take a few months - from the dawn of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the boys of the Enter Sadmen podcast choose three of the most notable albums released during the the genre-defining year of 1980.One of them is Lightning To The Nations from Diamond Head - the band acknowledged as the inspiration behind the birth of Metallica. One is Ace Of Spades, the classic fourth album from Motorhead, the band that essentially set the blueprint for the thrash bands who would emerge in the early 80s. And if Deep Purple are the grandfathers of rock, then the laws of lineage demand that the final piece in this week's episode jigsaw is a band we must then view as one of its fathers - the David Coverdale-fronted Whitesnake and Ready An' Willing.
Tue, 11 Aug 2020 - 1h 36min - 10 - Episode 10 - Under the Radar (ft. Jethro Tull, Tool & Kyuss)
What seemed like a good idea at the time - choose an album you've never heard from any Top 100+ list on the internet - turns out to be anything but as the boys get to grips with early-70s prog rock (Jethro Tull's Aqualung) and argue about the merits (or not) of two albums that are to prog as Genghis Khan was to human rights - Blues For The Red Sun from Queens Of The Stone Age prototype Kyuss, and Tool's Undertow.
Thu, 30 Jul 2020 - 1h 29min - 9 - Episode 9 - Broxit (ft. Thin Lizzy, Yngwie J. Malmsteen & Accept)
In the latest episode of the loudest podcast in the world, the boys challenge themselves to review albums recorded by bands from Europe. There was only one snag: this was a Europe that felt very much like it might in 2021, in the sense that it doesn't include the UK. With the whole continent - bar a smallish northerly island state - to choose from, would they be tempted to go for the obvious? Or inspired to find a hidden and long forgotten gem? In fact, it was a bit of both - although Richard's reputation for playing a wild card hit new highs. Or should that be lows? In the spotlight in this episode: Thunder And Lightning (Thin Lizzy), Odyssey (Yngwie J Malmsteen's Rising Force) and the thundering Balls To The Wall (Accept)
Sun, 19 Jul 2020 - 1h 41min - 8 - Episode 8 - The Little Wizard (ft. Rainbow, Black Sabbath & Dio)
Roughly a decade on from his death, the latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast looks back at the life of Ronnie James Dio through his vocal work on three classic albums from three different bands over a seven-year period between 1976 and 1983 - from Rainbow's Rising, through Heaven & Hell from Sabbath to his 'solo' debut Holy Diver. What Dio lacked in physical stature he made up for through astonishing vocal power and range. But would it be enough to see his legacy cemented in the Hall of Fame?
Sat, 04 Jul 2020 - 1h 45min - 7 - Episode 7 - AOR Heaven (ft. Journey, REO Speedwagon & Strangeways)
After the all-out thrash assault of the last episode, the boys were in need of some soothing sonic balm. What better solution, then, than immersing themselves in the keyboard-laden delights of some honest to goodness AOR? For a while it looked as though it would be a clash of titanic heavyweights as first Journey's Escape and then REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity entered the arena. But then Steve unveiled Strangeways' Native Sons - the AOR equivalent of Rocky Balboa stepping up to challenge Journey and REO's combined Apollo Creed. Okay, so this analogy is getting stretched painfully thin. Suffice it to say that one of the three albums this week started off as an underdog in the race to the Hall of Fame. But would it floor the big guns?
Mon, 22 Jun 2020 - 1h 36min - 6 - Episode 6 - Caught In A Mosh (ft. Flotsam & Jetsam, Overkill and Testament)
This week the boys strap in for a 200mph ride through three thrash metal albums released during a 6-year period between 1986 and 1992. Steve has rocked up with Flotsam and Jetsam's 1986 debut Doomsday For The Deceiver (he hasn't stopped going on about it since he bought it on the basis of that fabled Kerrang! 6K review, but is his passion for a pre-Metallica Jason Newstead and the 'Marmite' Eric AK enough to swing Mark and Richard into the church of the converted? Richard, a self-proclaimed thrash novice, did a few hours of research and ended up with Overkill's The Years of Decay under his arm. And Mark pitched in with an album he fell in love with in 1992 but has largely ignored since. Will this odyssey down thrash's Memory Lane might explain the 28-year separation between Mark and Testament's commercial behemoth The Ritual? You'll need to listen to find out ...
Mon, 08 Jun 2020 - 1h 39min - 5 - Episode 5 - Girls Are Loud (ft. Girlschool, Vixen & Phantom Blue)
Oh yes it’s Ladies’ Night, And the feeling’s right, Oh yes it’s Ladies’ Night, Oh what a night, crooned Lemmy. Or Kool and the Gang. Hell, sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart. Don’t worry, Enter Sadmen hasn’t gone all disco on you – Rage Against The Machine’s funk-metal fusion from Episode 4 is about as dance-hall as we’re gonna get, let me tell you – but ‘tis true that we have gone girlie. Yes, simmer down lads but episode 5 of the coolest, loudest podcast around is a paean to the fairer sex as we assess the merits of a trio of vinyl throwbacks from Girlschool (Demolition, 1980), Vixen (Vixen, 1988) and Phantom Blue (Built To Perform, 1992) and consider their application for a place in the Hall of Fame.
Sun, 24 May 2020 - 1h 53min - 4 - Episode 4 - Calling Cards #1 (ft. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rage Against The Machine & Ratt)
In the latest episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast, the boys debate three signature debut albums from three decades. Mark's still finding it difficult to let go of the 1970s and turns up with (Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd), the 1973 freshman offering from southern rock pioneers Lynyrd Skynyrd. Steve's stopped off at Boots and Chelsea Girl (that's what River Island was in old money, kids) to stock up on hairspray, lipstick and lace and a lifesize poster of Tawny Kitaen before slipping Ratt's full debut Out of the Cellar onto the turntable. And Richard has decided the whole damn shooting match needs a bit of a shake up, so he's brought Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha to do some angry stuff loudly on Rage Against The Machine's eponymous debut, even though Mark would rather eat his own eyes than listen to it (or would he?) As Steve points out, life is about to get interesting in Enter Sadmen land ...
Sun, 17 May 2020 - 1h 46min - 3 - Episode 3 - The Godfathers of Rock (ft. Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple & Black Sabbath)
The boys are back with a question that is as old as time itself (or at least since 1970): just who was it that invented hard rock and heavy metal? Steppenwolf may have been the first to use the term heavy metal (in Born to Be Wild), but the real roots of classic hard rock lie elsewhere. The question is, where? Steve, Mark and Richard identify three locations as the possible source of the holy riff: Birmingham - the beating industrial heart of England; London - the epicentre of cultural change as the floral Sixties slid into the flared, bell-bottomed Seventies; and Hertford - the leafy county town of the well-to-do. Representing them, respectively, are Black Sabbath with 1970's Paranoid, Led Zeppelin with their arguably peerless IV from 1971 and Deep Purple with their 1972 offering Machine Head)
Sat, 09 May 2020 - 1h 24min - 2 - Episode 2 - Our Favourite Albums of All Time (ft. UFO, Rush & Van Halen)
After the inaugural episode of the Enter Sadmen podcast saw the boys debating the merits of the first albums they'd each bought with their own money, Mark, Steve and Richard follow up by chewing over the records that sit at the very top of their personal tables. Mark picks out British rockers UFO and their 1979 double live hook-laden classic Strangers in the Night for special attention; Steve returns to early 80s Los Angeles and Van Halen's unconventional third release, Women and Children First; and, fittingly after the loss of Neil Peart earlier this year, Rich takes his co-hosts on a Canadian odyssey through Rush's epic 1981 release, Moving Pictures. Entry to the Hall of Fame would seem to be assured for all three contenders - or is it?
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 - 1h 32min - 1 - Episode 1 - The First Albums We Bought With Our Own Money (ft.Van Halen, Judas Priest & AC/DC)
The loudest podcast in the world kicks off in style with three of the biggest albums of the late 70s and early 80s vying for entry into the imaginarium that is the Enter Sadmen Hard Rock Hall of Fame. Steve turns up to the party with Dave Lee Roth, Michael Anthony and Eddie & Alex Van Halen, their eponymous 1978 debut and a Watneys Party 7; Richard ushers in the boys from AC/DC with their make-or-break 1979 release Highway to Hell; and, clutching a dog-eared copy of British Steel, Mark arrives on a large motorcycle, clinging onto Rob Halford for dear life. Will they all make it into the hallowed auditorium beyond? Well probably, yes. But which of them do the boys consider to be the most deserving to sit, for at the next week, at least, on the Hall of Fame throne?
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 - 1h 46min
Podcasts similar to Enter Sadmen: The Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Hall of Fame
- Conversations ABC listen
- Global News Podcast BBC World Service
- El Partidazo de COPE COPE
- Herrera en COPE COPE
- The Dan Bongino Show Cumulus Podcast Network | Dan Bongino
- Es la Mañana de Federico esRadio
- La Noche de Dieter esRadio
- Hondelatte Raconte - Christophe Hondelatte Europe 1
- Dateline NBC NBC News
- 財經一路發 News98
- Más de uno OndaCero
- La Zanzara Radio 24
- L'Heure Du Crime RTL
- El Larguero SER Podcast
- Nadie Sabe Nada SER Podcast
- SER Historia SER Podcast
- Todo Concostrina SER Podcast
- 安住紳一郎の日曜天国 TBS RADIO
- TED Talks Daily TED
- アンガールズのジャンピン[オールナイトニッポンPODCAST] ニッポン放送
- 辛坊治郎 ズーム そこまで言うか! ニッポン放送
- 飯田浩司のOK! Cozy up! Podcast ニッポン放送
- 吳淡如人生實用商學院 吳淡如
- 武田鉄矢・今朝の三枚おろし 文化放送PodcastQR