Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Piece of Mind by Iron Maiden is the one album that set the course for my now 40 plus year music career back as a thin metalhead in a wheelchair. It lit my creativity, showing me how to balance heaviness, melody, lyrics with my own spin. The album was a gift to that young headbanging musician I was, and led to who I am today.

From start to finish, Piece of Mind is only one of 7 albums I can put on, and let play without skipping one track.

It's in a selective group of albums that fuels my passion every time I hit a stage or record.

I ask you, fellow worshipers of NWOBHM... what are your thoughts on this album.

1980 I believe

He was one of my favourite guitarists ever and i'm absolutely devastated by this loss, truly among one of the worst losses of this year.

A T-shirt of Demon’s ‘British Standard Approved’ album, from back in the day. I think I won it in a competition on the Radio 210 rock show here in the UK.

I always loved Demon - but especially the two last albums they did with Mal Spooner as co-leader with Dave Hill, ‘The Plague’ (1983) and ‘British Standard Approved’ (1985). They weren’t standard metal - they were super-sharp in the songwriting department, conceptual, proggy, dark and dystopian, and breathtakingly original and ambitious. It was the most exciting feeling listening to them - they made whole worlds to get into.

Mal died and a new songwriting team formed around the transitional ‘Heart of our Time’ (also ‘85) and a more straight-ahead direction going forward from there. There were flashes of the old ambition, but less world building and less adventurous songwriting.

‘British Standard Approved’ is a wild listen even today. A metaphor involving the Titanic’s past journey and Britain’s economic and political plight in the 1980s, it’s thrilling and adventurous as it was. It’s not typical NWOBHM, but lots of you would love both this and ‘The Plague’ (especially ‘The Plague’) if you haven’t had the pleasure.

And I’ll never fit into this T-shirt again.

Hi all,

I'm very new here but I have something extremely rare that may pitch someone's interest.

What I have is an A1/B1 1st press of Angel Witch's self-titled debut album from December 1980.

As for condition just from *eyeballing it (*FYI: Not qualified AT ALL in record grading) the Sleeve and inlay are in Very Good (VG) condition (The sleeve has a minor crease at the back upper right corner) and the record would probably be graded as Excellent (EX), since there is minimal dust, no cracks/scratches and it plays very well throughout with only some faint pops here and there with a quiet background hiss.

I decided to play it today after a short while of it sitting in my collection and only just noticed the back of the cover has actually been signed by all 3 of the band members at the time (Kevin Heybourne, Dave Hogg and Kevin Riddles).

Naturally, I immediately went to look on Ebay for any other signed copies. There were zero. I've tried looking for any images of signed copies elsewhere. Nothing. I don't want to assume anything right away, but this might be one of the only original signed copies in existence. Even if many more signed copies exist, this is likely to be the first one on the internet.

P.S - This is the 5th time I've tried to upload this to Reddit. Being in the NWOBHM sub-reddit, you probably already know what the back cover has on it. Well, it keeps get flagged as NSFW. So for now, just to ACTUALLY get this post up, I've only uploaded the front cover for now.

IF reddit will allow me to upload the back cover (which has the signatures!) as well as pictures of the record's pressing to prove its authenticity I 100% will do.

P.P.S - This album is pure gold and you should absolutely listen it. As far as New-Wave albums go, it doesn't get much better!

RIP to an absolute legend of NWOBHM. More than just a bassist, Riddles was a visionary. With Tytan, he fused melody and might, carving out a space for emotional depth in a genre too often defined by aggression alone.

Luke Appleton Iced Earths bassist for the incorruptible and plagues of babylon albums is livestreaming the mighty incorruptible album on bass on his twitch channel tonight at 7pm uk time.

Currently the bass player for british heavy metal band Absolva and the mighty Blaze Bayley

https://m.twitch.tv/lukeappleton666

Come join in and chat while listening to sone fantastic heavy metal 🤘🤘

Hello everyone! The first issue of Overdrive Zine, a magazine exclusively about the NWOBHM, will be available at the end of February. This 72-page first issue will feature the following bands: Saracen, Damascus, Fist, Axis, Harvest Moon, Titan, and Hammerhead, with unique and exclusive interviews, a retrospective, and a detailed discography for collectors. A Saracen/Harvest Moon double poster will also be included. The print run is extremely limited to 250 English-language copies with no reprints, so hurry to get your hands on this collector's item! To pre-order, please email: [email protected] The magazine costs €5 + shipping. For an additional €5, the last copies of Bombenhagel (old-school heavy and thrash) in Italian featuring Exciter, Whiplash, Fast Eddie Clarke, and others are still available. For €5, we'll include two different copies of Bombenhagel with your copy of Overdrive Zine, along with a Whiplash/Game Over double poster. Thanks in advance for your support!!

Francesco

Hi all,

So yesterday (or rather today early this morning) I posted a thread about what (probably) is an ultra rare signed copy of the 'Angel Witch' album. Currently, the post has nearly 2k views and 60 upvotes, so I'm glad to see a lot of you are interested!

Anyway, I mentioned that the back cover was giving me issues due to the (explicit?) nature of it. So I've now censored it and it should be viewable. The signatures are on the wings of the Baphomet + Dave Hogg's below it. (Also now got some High-res captures of each one) Along with that, there are pictures of the record itself and its pressing which prove it being a true (A1/B1) 1st press.

By the way, if any record experts are on this sub-reddit, I would really like to know if you can estimate this thing's value!

My favourite Witchfinder General track

Northeast legend.

Their best song IMO, never get tired of it

One thing I love about the NWOBHM is the range of stuff in it! You got glam-type bands like Girl, punky bands (early Iron Maiden, Tank, Warfare), proto-thrash (early Diamond Head, Atomkraft), retro hard-rock (White Spirit, later Samson), bluesy metal'n'roll (Saxon), early stoner/doom (Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar).

But alongside that, a LOT of GREAT NWOBHM music came out with a whole lot of prog in it – this great mass of ambition, complexity, great production and really interesting lyrical themes.

Diamond Head and Demon both waited until album No.3 to go completely wild – Diamond Head with 'Canterbury' and Demon with what I personally rate as their best, of joint-best, the realist-dystopian concept album 'The Plague'. (Which they followed up with an even deeper, more proggy and also excellent meditation on Thatcher's Britain, around the concept of the Titanic hitting the iceberg, called 'British Standard Approved'.

But alongside them were Mournblade, a Michael Moorcock-infuenced, Stonehenge-playing bunch of Hawkwind-heads; Tredegar, in which Carl Sentance of Persian Risk sang with ex members of Budgie on bangers like the semi-hit 'Duma'; Shiva, with their mystical approach to metal; legendary names like the Isle of wight's own Legend (ha!) and Saracen, whose debuts ('Death In The Nursery' and 'Heroes, Saints and Fools' are both still hailed as major albums, both matching massive scope, concepts and ambition with fantastic songs. And there was Nightwing, whose successive albums featured a brilliant singer called Max Bacon, who'd go on to be poached by Steve Howe and Steve Hackett for their mid-80s US-hit AOR-prog album as GTR.

For some (Diamond Head) the progginess of Canterbury was seen as a bit of a head-scratcher by metal fans who'd tuned in for the hook-filled rawness 'Lightning To The Nations' only three years earlier. For Demon, these albums also meant a shift away from the vibe of a name that had metal written all over it, and a change of label. They're still going and making excellent music today, but they never came close to the success of their first two among rockers.

None of these bands ever became big, in the way that other NWOBHM breakouts did. Maybe because proggy metal is a harder sell than glossy hard rock (Def Leppard), or they never had the visual identity that Iron Maiden (who ironically would go on to embrace quite a bit of prog i ntheir metal) had with Eddie and the rest.

Still, we have these albums - and they're fantastic.

Hey everyone! I'm u/migrainedujour, a new moderator of r/nwobhm in its relaunched form.
This is our new home for all things related to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal aka NWOBHM. We're excited to have you join us.

What to Post
This is a broad and friendly sub! Music, discussions, reviews or opinions on music from the time, interviews, recollections, people, places, memorabilia - if it’s NWOBHM-centric, this is the place! So feel free to anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring, or that they’d enjoy in any way. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about bands you particularly loved - from the obscure self-pressed single available for one week only in the Redcar area, to the big names like Saxon, Iron Maiden and early Def Leppard. Which brings us neatly to…

Realistically, as a musical wave, the NWOBHM is hard to pin down. Samson and Saxon released their first stabs in summer ‘79, though gigs in ‘78 were already creating the groundswell. And for the end? Some put it as early as ‘83, while others point to the fact that bands like Preyer, Desolation Angels and Elixir were releasing distinctly NWOBHM debuts as late as ‘86. So let’s try and be broad and not gatekeep around dates too much. And again, the work of NWOBHM bands after the end of the wave itself will always be relevant here!

Some (Martin Popoff etc) like to include bands from overseas such as EF Band, Shakin’ Street, Baron Rojo as ‘honorary NWOBHM bands’. Some will agree, some not. In the same way, elder statesman bands like Judas Priest, Budgie, Quartz and Motörhead which rode the wave or used it to redefine themselves, sometimes get included. They’re not core, but if the post is interesting, let’s try and remain open to all. So long as it’s not irrelevant, or spammy, let’s have it.

We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.

2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.

3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.

4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/nwobhm amazing! \m/