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Top 5 Most Criminally Underrated Rock Bands

Dave2112

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Greetings pholks!

I come to you this evening with a Top 5 list actually agreed upon with the utmost seriousness. See...I have this group of friends that I get together with every week to hang out, discuss music, politics, etc. as we share some wine, a little pot and just have discussions for the sake of it while listening to the stuff we grew up on. One of the things we do every week is something we admittedly stole from VH1Classics' "That Metal Show" and agree upon a Top 5 list on some catagory we've decided upon.

This past week, we came up with our Top 5 list of the most criminally underrated hard rock bands. We didn't come to this list lightly. A LOT of debate went into this. We did not want to add bands that we, like..."This is a cool album everyone should know about 'cuz we like it!" We had some actual parameters to follow. We're talking about bands that had consistent albums of material, had some sort of influence and most importantly...were truly underrated while being really THAT good and having historical impact of some sort.

Of course, if you'd like to come up with your own, please feel free. However, I'd like to see people really stick to a true Top 5 and have them at least try and follow these parameters. A one-album wonder, however cool, does not count. So, without further ado...here's the Official Gang of Six Dudes' Top Five List of the Most Criminally Underrated Hard Rock Bands of All Time...

#5 - Angel Angel was an inventive band that preceded an 80's sound by about six years. No matter who you were in the 70's...if you were anybody, you eventually opened for Angel. The Runaways did...Rush did...well, then Angel opened for Rush, but that's why they're on this list. They were inventive, progressive and huge among everyone but mainstream critics and radio. Keyboardist Greg Giuffria was a monster who founded the one-album-wonder band "Giuffria" in the 80's and was also in the supergroup "House of Lords" in the same decade. While they never achieved critical success, Angel was one of the premier cult bands. They were featured in the film "Foxes" and on the "Flashdance" soundtrack. If you have not heard them, do yourself a favor.

#4 - Helloween This is the band that happened when Queensryche met Iron Maiden. The concept piece (spread over two albums) "Keeper of the Seven Keys" is brilliant and among the best of concept metal. Helloween were among the pioneers of late-80's progressive metal, although other bands got the credit. A listen to "A Little Time", "A Tale That Wasn't Right", "Dr. Stein" or the classic "I Want Out" (which SHOULD have been a teen anthem of the day) will make you a fan. Tecnichally proficiant guitars, searing Dickenson-style vocals and truly melodic thrash-meets-Prog metal puts Helloween on this list easily.

#3 - Zebra We had a huge discussion about including Zebra on this list because they only had three studio albums and a live album. However, we realized that bands like CCR and The Doors had a five-year career and we're still considering them "classic" 40 years later. This is the one example where quality won out over quantity. And in a big way. The thing is...we realized that for too long, the Canadian band Triumph (whom I LOVE, don't get me wrong) has been considered the "other" Rush. Mostly because they were a power trio AND Canadian. However, they are two very different bands. Zebra, on the other hand, was a power trio that truly WAS the heir apparent to Rush before a far-too-early departure from the scene. Zebra, with their keyboard-playing, pedal-using bassist and progressively-styled and structured songs was FAR closer to Rush than Triumph ever was. From blistering true metal tracks like "Tell Me What You Want" and "Wait 'Til the Summer's Gone" to progressive masterpieces like "Who's Behind the Door", "Can't Live Without" and "He's Making You the Fool", Zebra was a band that never gets metioned, but should be at the top of any list of great rock bands.

#2 - Slade While big in the UK in the 70's...Slade only "popped" with one album in the US in the 80's. Most know "Run Runaway", but don't realize how influential this band really was on American Rock. Slade was so far ahead of their time it wasn't even funny...even though the band themselves were. Quiet Riot made a career out of covering Slade songs...and even before THEY did, The Runaways, Sweet and other glam-rock bands of the 70's covered them in tribute. Think about it...Slade recorded "Cum On Feel The Noize" and "Mama We're All Crazee Now" in fucking 1972! No one was doing music like that back then. And who can forget Noddy Holder in those top hats?!? The funny thing about Slade is...they almost invented glam metal artistically without actually being glam musically. And I can promise you one thing...you have never seen a band live who was as much fun as Slade. One thing we all agreed on...the criminally-overlooked 80's ballad "My Oh MY" is one the top ten ballads in all of rock.

And the best underrated band in the opinion of six very wise musical "experts"? :triangle:

#1 - Y&T Why this band never made it bigger than they did is one of the great mysteries of rock. Yeah, they had a hit single off the standard 80's-style glam-rock-album-that-everyone-tried-once (think Crue's "Theater of Pain") "Down For The Count" (Summertime Girls)...but should have had dozens of hits from their true rock albums. The album "In Rock We Trust" alone should have spawned at least three singles. I could go on "Forever" (pun intended), but just think "25 Hours a Day", "Mean Streak", "Rock and Roll's Gonna Save the World", "Keep on Runnin'", "This Time", "All American Boy", "Contagious", "Lucy" or "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark". Y&T had everything that all the other successful bands had and more...but never made it past the popular-opening-act stage. In our opinion, and I know flak will come for this, but Y&T were better than Motley Crue, better than Ratt, better than Scorpions and even better than Van Halen (Roth-era) before Van Halen even were a band. The single most underrated band of all time simply MUST be Y&T. This was the ONLY unanimous decision among all six of us.

In future threads, we'll post examples spotlighting each of these bands. Hope you enjoyed! :triangle:
 
Slade's "My oh My" has to be one of the all-time lamest songs ever recorded. That said, they were a great group back in the 70s, and had many good albums. "Everyday" or "How Do You Feel" are two of their greatest ballads.

Now......top 5 most criminally underrated rock bands:


Uriah Heep
Stone the Crows
Blodwyn Pig
Spirit
Love



Drew
 
Bloodrock, Captain Beyond, Moxy and since you mentioned Canadian bands when you listed Zebra how about Mahogany Rush? (Frank Marino is still touring). But my all time underrate was Be Bop Deluxe. Listen to the guitar phrasings of BBD's guitarist Bill Nelson on their 1975 album: Futurama, song: Sound Track.
 
I saw Angel back in the 70s, they opened for Uriah Heep I think. I have their first album on CD and listen to it now and then, when I'm in a certain mood. I also caught Slade once, in 1977 or 78. Very underrated bands at the time I thought. I'm not familiar with the other bands on your list though.
 
Slade's "My oh My" has to be one of the all-time lamest songs ever recorded. That said, they were a great group back in the 70s, and had many good albums. "Everyday" or "How Do You Feel" are two of their greatest ballads.

Now......top 5 most criminally underrated rock bands:


Uriah Heep
Stone the Crows
Blodwyn Pig
Spirit
Love



Drew

I always thought Slade's Nobody's Fool was a great album, and could not agree with you more about Uriah Heep. Remember Come Away Melinda?
 
I always thought Slade's Nobody's Fool was a great album, and could not agree with you more about Uriah Heep. Remember Come Away Melinda?


Slade's "Nobody's Fools" was interesting cause they were starting to stretch out as a band. There was some country and reggae style songs as well as rock. I always thought that album cover kinda killed it for them though, stupid idea having the band wear goofy red noses.


Uriah Heep's early records are classics. Especially "Salisbury", "Look at Yourself", and "Demons and Wizards".


Drew
 
Slade's "Nobody's Fools" was interesting cause they were starting to stretch out as a band. There was some country and reggae style songs as well as rock. I always thought that album cover kinda killed it for them though, stupid idea having the band wear goofy red noses.

I don't know, I kind of liked that album cover myself; it certainly was different. To each his own.


Uriah Heep's early records are classics. Especially "Salisbury", "Look at Yourself", and "Demons and Wizards".


Drew

No agrument there.
 
See, I love "My Oh My" probably because of the memories attached to it. However, you're right Drew, "How Do You Feel" is awesome. 🙂

For the record, Uriah Heep almost made this list at #5. In the end, we voted that Angel were just a little more truly underrated while Heep did have more success.

BTW Vasker...I have that BBD album on vinyl! 😀
 
See, I love "My Oh My" probably because of the memories attached to it. However, you're right Drew, "How Do You Feel" is awesome. 🙂

For the record, Uriah Heep almost made this list at #5. In the end, we voted that Angel were just a little more truly underrated while Heep did have more success.

BTW Vasker...I have that BBD album on vinyl! 😀


I was gonna mention Nazereth or Status Quo, but they also had some degree of success. They had a lot of great songs that no one knows about.



Drew
 
Dunno man, that list seems a bit too populated by 70s and 80s bands. I'd have listed some from a bit of a longer timeline myself, such as The Lovin' Spoonful and The Beta Band.
 
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