1981 Year In Metal

1981

Written by: Blake Mossey

News Items from 1981

  • January 21 – The first DeLorean automobile rolled off the assembly line. Later made famous in the Back To The Future movies.
  • March 30 – Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan: U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
  • May 13 – Pope John Paul II assassination attempt: Pope John Paul II is shot by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman.
  • June 5 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States report that 5 men in Los Angeles have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, the first recognized cases of AIDS.
  • July 9 – Donkey Kong is released, marking the first Donkey Kong and Mario smash hit arcade game developed by Nintendo in Japan.
  • July 29 – A worldwide television audience of over 750 million people watch the Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, UK.
  • August 1 – The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) is launched in the United States and airs its first video, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.
  • August 24 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering John Lennon in Manhattan eight months earlier.
  • Use of crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, first reported in the United States and Caribbean.

New Wave of British Heavy Metal

1981 is going back to the time, when bands would have new albums almost every year. Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Saxon to name a few that had albums in 1980 and again in 1981. Nowadays were lucky to get a new album every 3-5 years from bands. So many classic Metal albums released in 1981 from our British Metal stalwarts. Here are a few more notable ones.

Iron Maiden – Killers
The 2nd studio album from Iron Maiden. The last to feature Paul Di’Anno on vocals. The 1st Maiden album to feature Adrian Smith on guitar and the first of many to be produced by the legendary producer Martin Birch. ‘Wrathchild’ is still played live at most shows. A great Maiden album but of course adding Bruce Dickinson for the next album The Number of the Beast really broke Iron Maiden to the world.
Best track: Killers

Ozzy Osbourne – Diary Of A Madman
The 2nd solo album from Ozzy and sadly the last to feature the late great guitarist Randy Rhoads who died in a plane crash in 1982. Despite his short career Randy inspired so many with his guitar work on these 2 Ozzy albums and that alone makes them classics. Some would even say the last great Ozzy album.
Best Track: Diary Of A Madman

Black Sabbath – Mob Rules
Following up the classic DIO debut with Sabbath Heaven And Hell with Mob Rules. Most would say not as good as the predesessor but still a great album with great tracks like ‘Turn Up The Night’ and ‘The Sign Of The Southern Cross’. This album also produced by Martin Birch. Dio left Sabbath after this album but only to return again about 10 years later for Dehumanizer.
Best track: Turn Up The Night

Venom – Welcome To Hell
Debut solo album from extreme metal band Venom. A very influential album along with their next release Black Metal as they influenced so many bands and opened the doors to more darker evil lyrics and of course creating the genre name of Black Metal with their 2nd previously mentioned album.
Best Track: Welcome To Hell

Motorhead – No Sleep’til Hammersmith
I think if my memory serves me well I saw this at the record store and bought it before I even heard of Motorhead before. Its my first live album I ever purchased and ‘No Class’ remains my favorite Motorhead song ever. A great introduction to the live show that was Motorhead.
Best Track: No Class

Canadian Metal/Hard Rock

As a Canadian back in the year 1981 before we had the internet and being able to listen to anything we wanted we would hear a lot of Canadian bands on our local radio. Canada’s 2 biggest hard rock and bordering on Metal bands were RUSH and TRIUMPH. Both 3 piece bands. Both making big waves in the USA. And for a lot of Canadians you were either in the RUSH camp or the TRIUMPH camp. I choose Triumph. Also 1981 featured the debut album from ANVIL – Hard ‘N’ Heavy but for me their next 2 releases were their masterpieces.

RUSH – Moving Pictures
Their 8th studio album Moving Pictures. Filled with shorter and more radio friendly songs then previous efforts like their classic 2112. ‘Limelight’ and ‘Tom Sawyer’ leading the way. This album sold over 5 millions copies in the USA alone.
Best Track: Limelight

Triumph – Allied Forces
After hearing their epic track Rock and Roll Machine from their 2nd album I was hooked on Triumph with Rik Emmett’s amazing guitar work. And this their 5th album featuring their massive hit ‘Magic Power’ but I was into the more heavy rocking songs like ‘Fool For Your Love’ and the title track. A few albums after this the band started to fall apart and just kept getting more and more commercial.
Best Track: Allied Forces

The Other Stuff

  • Late in the year Paul Di’Anno fired from Iron Maiden and replaced by Bruce Dickinson
  • AC/DC released For Those About To Rock (We Salute You), really the only Brian Johnson album I enjoyed
  • Girlschool released their 2nd studio album Hit And Run. One of, if not the first real all female Metal bands.
  • Iron Maiden released a live EP titled Maiden Japan which of course was a play on words on the classic Deep Purple live album Made In Japan. It featured 5 songs with Paul Di’Anno on vocals.
  • Motley Crue‘s debut album Too Fast For Love was released. One of the earliest hair metal albums even though this was more raw then anything they would release after.
  • The Canadian animated science fiction movie titled HEAVY METAL was released featuring voices of some notable actors like John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy and Harold Ramis. And the title track of the movie done by Sammy Hagar.
  • Motorhead and Girlschool joined forces for a EP title St. Valentines Day Massacre featuring 3 songs, ‘Emergency’, ‘Please Don’t Touch’ and a cover of the Motorhead song ‘Bomber’. They went by the name Headgirl.

Notable Metal Bands formed in 1981—Look what is on the horizon for Metal in 1982

  • Anthrax
  • Manowar
  • Metallica
  • Mercyful Fate
  • Motley Crue
  • Overkill
  • Pantera
  • Ratt
  • Queensryche
  • Savatage
  • Slayer
  • Suicidal Tendencies
  • Twisted Sister
  • Vixen

1981 was such a great year for Metal. Make sure to check out some of our podcasts on some of the album talked about on this page. To finish it off here is my top 10 albums of 1981.

  1. Iron Maiden – Killers
  2. Venom – Welcome to Hell
  3. Triumph – Allied Forces
  4. Motley Crue – To Fast For Love
  5. Judas Priest – Point of Entry
  6. Ozzy – Diary of a Madman
  7. Black Sabbath – The Mob Rules
  8. Saxon – Denim And Leather
  9. Motorhead – No Sleep’Til Hammersmith
  10. Def Leppard – High ‘N’ Dry


Check out our other years in Metal features HISTORY IN METAL