Well I guess one way to start is to preface this with a bit of history.
Music wasn't a big deal for me until my teens. The only two songs I remember “being into” from my childhood are Paper Lace's Billy Don't Be A Hero (which left such an impression on the young me that I don't volunteer for anything!), and ABBA's Eagle. Football was my thing. And comics.
I used to see adverts for KISS in the comics I read and didn't even know they were a band, but once I saw an album of theirs (Unmasked in 1980) I had to have it. I never looked back.
One of my schoolfriends had older brothers who were bikers and into Metal, and I became exposed to it through them.
Then one day I was at said mates house and his brother showed me a certain album in a reverential “you're ready for this now” kind of way. My time had come.
I fell in love with the sound of the electric guitar and I've been in love ever since. Big riffs, sweep arpeggios, whammy bar histrionics- I love it, but I can appreciate a nice clean guitar too. Safe to say there won't be any electronica here. Sorry.
So onto my top 50. I had to set some ground rules for myself just so it wouldn't be filled with the discogs of 3-4 groups and a top 10 filled with DT albums, so I was a bit brutal and limited it to 2 albums per group. That means a lot of great albums have been left out. After 30-odd years and thousands of albums heard, choosing 50 is almost impossible. One thing I noticed, most of these were chosen because of the impact they had on me as I look back over those 30 years, so it was difficult to include newer music – maybe next time. It's just so hard in the limited time I have available for albums to make that same impact as when music was the biggest thing in my life.
Following Wolfie's lead I'll cheat and start with 5 albums I couldn't fit in my list but had to be here. I've never been good at sticking to the rules so it's a top 55 I guess. A Top 100 probably wouldn't be enough to be honest.
Right let's get this party started.
Facing The Animal
The last great Yngwie Metal album for me. He concentrated on the songwriting here and came up with a varied Hard Rock album. Mats Leven is on powerful form with the vocals but he's helped by some of Yngwie's best vocal melodies. The guitar playing is to the usual standard, as you would expect, but there's a bit more variety to it than he's shown since. The album is also notable for being the great Cozy Powell's last recorded performance.
Best tracks- Sacrifice, Alone In Paradise, Only The Strong, End Of My Rope
Westworld- S/T (1999)
This project brought together two talents of the hard rock world in Mark Reale (RIP) of Riot and Tony Harnell, helium fuelled vocalist of TNT. An excellent album of melodic hard rock with a hint of the Euro Metal sound. Great performances all round. This just beats out Harnell's other project, Starbreaker, maybe just because I've had it longer, but it's a very similar beast tbh- the Starbreaker is probably just a touch more metal. Great guitar playing, great vocals, big choruses and some good keyboard colour too. A classy album all round really, with good use of light and shade.
Best tracks- Illusions, I Belong, Heart Song, Bring The Water, Shame
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWPEuGDGw74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsjFNUIxN1ABat Out Of Hell
Well, what can I say about this album that hasn't been said? It's a bombastic, absurd, funny, heartfelt masterpiece. I defy anyone not to sing along with the title track. I dare say a few DTF-ers will not agree, but it is an all-time classic for good reasons. Todd Rundgrun is the unsung hero here. His production and guitar playing are top drawer.