Make Way For The Metal Of The 80's

Make Way For The Metal Of The 80's

Sure, a lot of our readers appreciate the hard sounds of Deep Purple, Kiss, the Scorpions, Judas Priest and other stunning acts that've been with us for quite some time. But, increasingly, we’ve noticed that many of you find your ultimate satisfaction in the newest metal acts: Poison, Cinderella, Europe and other chart-toppers of 1987.

Frankly, we’re pleased as punch that there’s metal aplenty for everyone. It’s healthy, not unlike a steady diet of carrots and bran cereal! This, then, is our nod to you who’ve written in (both pro and con) about these newcomers to the metal scene. Long may diversity reign!

EUROPE: EXCELLENT,

BUT NOT METAL!

Thanks for the interesting, although much too brief, article in your March 1987 issue on Sweden’s dynamite hard-rock group, Europe.

Even though they are not “heavy metal,” they are the most talented, exciting and unique group to appear on the rock scene in many years. Kee Marcello, John Leven, Ian Haugland and Mic Michaeli are excellent musicians, and lead singer Joey Tempest is the finest singer in the business today, bar none! The future of hard rock belongs to Europe, so how about an in-depth article on these sensational musicians? All of their fans here in the U.S.A. would be forever grateful.

Joanne M. Elmore

Fairfield, OH

HOW??

I’d like to tell you I love your magazine. It’s one of the better heavy metal mags.

I especially liked your article on Cinderella in the February 1987 issue. But one thing I absolutely hate about it is a bunch of dicks keep writing in and say s— things about my favorite groups, like Bon Jovi and Motley Crue. And you keep printing their damn letters! Well, here is just a few words to those people: you think Metallica, Ozzy, Venom, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax are so great? They have no musical talent whatsoever! You call that music they try to sing?! Well, I call it s—! Cinderella, Motley Crue, Stryper, Ratt, Tesla, Europe and of course, Bon Jovi make what I call music! Let’s face it, they are the best and they always will be! Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet album has been #1 on Billboard's charts for I don’t know how long and you call them a bunch of pretty boys with no talent. If they have no talent then how in the hell can they be #1?! I have never seen Iron Maiden, Venom, Slayer, Anthrax, etc., make it to #1. So how can they be the best metal bands around?!

Pissed Metal Fan

Osceola Mills, PA

POISON WOULD BE ON COVER EVERY MONTH IN “GOOD WORLD”

Hey bud! What is you people’s problem? Why the hell isn’t Poison in your mag? Everybody knows Poison rules! Get them in here and you guys would be perfect! Grow up and get Poisoned. Posion rule 4-life. 4-ever.

Christie Chasas

Stuart, FL

OR, MAYBE NOT!

I just want to say a few words about the band Poison. “They suck,” and I don’t want to see a bunch of letters saying I have a lot of nerve. Because I’m sure there’s a million and one people out there that would back me up when I say they look like a bunch of fags. Look at their clothes. They wear girl’s boots, makeup, pink shall over their guitars and themselves. Not only that, their music sucks, and they look like they’re trying to pick up other guys! They have only one thing that makes them look like a heavy metal band. That’s right; long hair. And the singer looks and sounds exactly like Vince Neil. Note: another poseur. Just to inform you people that didn’t yet notice what a poseur is, it’s a band that wears makeup and goes into their sisters’ wardrobe and grabs some clothes for the next show. And don’t you just hate it when MTV starts off the heavy metal half hour with Twisted Sister, Motley Crue or Ratt; they should have a poseur half hour, and then real heavy metal half hour. I know where Dave Mustaine is coming from, he’s a man of brains. And I do hope you save MTV, they got some problems.

Megadeth, Overkill Fan

Bristol, PA

P.S. I want an honest opinion: What do you think about Megadeth and Metallica if they toured together?

UNMANLY = UNMETAL?

Those fags. I needn’t introduce them because we all know who I’m talking about and it’s Poison. These are the guys (or should I say gals) who probably went into their mothers’ closets and tried on their dresses and spiked heels. What really pisses me off is that if they have to dress like women and put make-up on they may as well go ahead and get sex changes. Remember, Poison is just an example of the groups out there that dress like women. Why can’t they be more masculine like the great groups AC/DC and Iron Maiden?

Sick Of Fags In Heavy Metal Alberta, Canada

TESLA RULES:

THE PROPOSITION

We would like to see more pics and articles in METAL about the new group Tesla. We were fortunate enough to meet up with them a couple of times while they were touring in Ohio, and we couldn’t believe how down-to-earth they are and how wonderfully we were treated by them and their crew. We would just like to say, “thanks, boys” and all the best on your Mechancial Resonance album. See ya again soon (hopefully).

Anne and Amy Dayton, OH

ACCEPT ALSO QUITE GOOD!

I am continually confounded by certain writers to Chaimail who lump in false metal bands like Ratt, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi and Ozzy Osbourne. Accept is an outstanding band! Sure, they’re on a major label, but they’re still one of the most unpretentious groups around. I would rather listen to a band that plays good music but doesn’t look too cute like Accept, than a band that plays bad music but looks good like Motley Crue, any day.

Also, I think your review of Russian Roulette was an injustice. OK, so it’s not the greatest, but it didn’t deserve the flaying your reviewer (forgot who) gave it, either. Especially cruel was the lambasting of Udo Dirkschneider for his name. Can he help it if that’s his given name?! I respect him for not changing it for “star” purposes. Accept is not even my favorite band by a long shot but they deserve more than they get credit for.

One more thing: the Waaktaar tots should have their close ’n’ play taken away from them for the uncalled-for things they said about us metal fans. Sounds like my two-year-old daughter could out-rock them, but she can’t write yet.

Beth Herpe

Suburban, MO

LIZZY COOLER THAN EVERYONE!

I’ve been reading your mag for about a year now, I must say that it’s good and well-balanced as far as different types of metal are concerned. One band that I’ve never seen on the pages of your mag is Lizzy Borden. Lizzy Borden has been around for two-and-half years, and have released an EP, two studio albums and a blistering double-live album. Lizzy Borden will piss on anything in metal and as well as newer bands such as Cinderella and Bon Jovi who rely on eyeliner, hairspray and lipstick, not powerful metallic music, such as Lizzy Borden! It’s time Lizzy is recognized! Lizzy Borden is God!

Lon Patello

Audubon, NJ

VINNIE VINCENT, THE MAN:

HIGHLY-REGARDED

I’ll tell ya what I crave—it’s the new Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Not just over their new singer, Mark Slaughter (he’s in the “Boys Are Gonna Rock” video), but over the real rockin’ sound. Rob Fleischman, the old vocalist—was the only thing holding this band back. Mark Slaughter makes Jon Bon Jovi look like s—! Please, print something—anything, on this hot new band—the Vinnie Vincent Invasion.

Rock on

Lynne Stevens

Las Vegas, NV

EVERYONE GOOD!

Please print our letter! We are writing this to sincerely ask everybody to pull their heads out of their a—! We’ve read letters that put down bands like Motley Crue and Cinderella, just to name a few. Obviously, Cinderella are very talented musicians. Their album Night Songs went gold after only nine weeks! Crue just flat out kicks a-! Both of them have damn good material. We don’t see why you socalled “rockers” can't stick together and defend all heavy metal bands against whipped music like new wave. Get f—ing real—there’s already enough people putting down heavy metal, and we don’t need our own kind to do it also! These bands such as Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Slayer, Queensryche and Metallica, etc., are very talented or they wouldn’t be where they are today, have so many goddamn fans and be in so many heavy metal magazines! We get into everything from Cinderella to Metallica and if everybody pulled their bloated heads out of their rears maybe they would too.

Very Pissed Off,

Falicia and March Albuquerque, NM

CINDERELLA:

ELECT THEM PRESIDENT NOW!

Where do you fags hire your record reviewers? At Barry Manilow’s Rent-ACritic? First you cut down Cinderella in the November 1986 issue and again in the February 1987 issue. Joe “The Homo” Fernbacher hardly mentions the music and keeps talking about how they look! Well, for your information, they are God’s visual gift to women! As for the remarks about painted nails, you obviously never saw their hands, because they never wear nail polish. Their music is kickass'. How else would they get a platinum album?

A Very Pissed-Off Reader,

Diane Benham

Rutland, VT

CANT FORGET YNGWIE!

Yngwie rocks, ya know? KMET & KLOS were supposed to have started playing tunes in the heavy rock area. What happened? Whoever’s running those stations and type of music being played is really lost... None of it sounds like metal to me!

Attention MTV: There’s a new station that puts KMET & KLOS to shame. KNAC no less—what I’m getting at is that we’ve been blessed with a prodigy whose name is “Yngwie.” He’s “Pagaini’s Voodoo, Child.” His ability is limitless. What he does on the guitar he can also do on the bass guitar. The man’s only 23 years old and KMET & KLOS are too good for my man? “Wrong.”

I really can’t express how great he plays. He’s so fast and clean... picking vitually every note? C’mon folks...

In December, 1986,1 saw him at Long Beach and he blew me away, totally away. He played “Eruption” with his teeth! That’s right, with his teeth—put his guitar on the ground, got on his knees, both hands up and down the neck with such clarity. Ecstatic is what the man is— He’s as good as there is or as you can get.

Note to Yngwie: I know what city you live in—stop by and see me at work. I work for Vista Ford, a dealership in Woodland Hills. What a thrill it would be to meet you again.

Joe Kaady #1 Yngwie Fan Toluca Lake, CA

RHOADS, OF COURSE, PERPETUALLY THE BEST

I read letters all the time where people say how wonderful Van Halen, Malmsteen, Hammett, Vai, and now Lynch are. I agree that all of them are excellent, but when someone says Randy Rhoads isn’t as good as these men, then we need a few lessons on guitarists. Randy Rhoads was and still is the BEST! Rhoads’s tragic death in 1982 destroyed all the hopes and dreams we had for him, and though he recorded only four albums in his lifetime, he had such an impact in the rock world he became a legend.

Malmsteen, Van Halen, Hammett, Vai, and Lynch are all excellent. All of these men have their own style that makes them a little better than the next. But, Rhoads’s style was so spectacular and unique that his legacy lives on today and will live on forever. There are a lot of people who can play what Randy played, but no one can, or ever will, be able to play it the way Randy did.

To you Ozzy and Kevin, we ask that you do cut a new version of “Thunderbird” so that the younger kids will understand how great Randy is and those of us who already know, can love him even more. Randy Rhoads is a true legend and he lives on in our hearts. We all love and miss him greatly.

Thanks,

Krisi Rouse Wahiawa, HI

ANQER DIRECTED AT MANOWAR

It’s always quite entertaining to read the angry blabber of Joey DeMaio. That’s what made the April ’87 METAL such a treat! DeMaio is living proof of the old truism that says, “Far better to be pissed off than to be pissed on.”

In light of his testimony to the fact that his band possesses the biggest, bestest, fastest, loudest everything, it is only fitting that he be awarded the first honorary doctorate in Metallurgy granted by the Allentown College of Hard Rock. When Joey brings that great white elephant of metal, to my hometown, I’ll be happy to present it to him.

Sincerely,

Dick Destiny, Ph.D.

St. Vincebus de Allentown

ULTIMATELY, BLACKIE RATHER QOD-UKE

This marks the who-knows-how-manyth consecutive issue of METAL without any coverage of America’s foremost metal band. Yes, I’m speaking of W.A.S.P. By the Left Horn of Satan, what in the universe is goin on? It seems that artists, critics, and fans alike are being intimidated into silence, unable even to mention in passing this wonderful group. A consipiracy, perhaps? With prime conspirators John Mendelssohn, Tipper Gore and John Kordosh striving at the forefront. Their ultimate goal: the banishment of W.A.S.P. from the face of the Earth. The old “don’t mention them and maybe they’ll go away” scheme. Well, hear me, Mendelssohn: we W.A.S.P.s are fully prepared to carry the battle to you and and your ilk. We shall make certain the W.A.S.P. message is carried to the farthest corners of the world, by boom box, car stereo and word of mouth.

How, by the Black Beard of Beelzebub, can anyone not appreciate the matchless might of W.A.S.P.? The unrivaled Blackie Lawless’s perceptive lyrics & lilting voice combine all the best aspects of Lennon & McCartney, Elvis & Gary Wright, and do it in the most delightful way, sacrificing nary a bit of the sadism, sex, violence, flash and utter twistedness of the jolly Old Devil himself.

You fools, W.A.S.P. is a demon that cannot be exorcised. Woe and affliction upon any who would try. Is one article with accompanying positive review of Inside The Electric Circus too much to ask? And please, Editor, no snide remarks. The Devil knows who respects him and who doesn’t.

The Dissident Agressor

Knoxville, TN