Customer Reviews

Monsters of Rock

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a terrific collection of metal songs that dominated the the music scene from 1983 through 1991. The era of pop-metal has been highly underrated in its place in rock history. Much of the best material from amny of the top artists are here. Some songs like the hard to finds "Turn Up The Radio" by Autograph and "The Final Countdown" by Europe are graciously included as are the huge and most memorable hits, Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel The Noise" Great White's "Once Bitten Twice Shy" Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", Whitesnakes "Here I Go Again", "Cult Of Personality" by Living Colour, along with only slightly smaller hits including, Winger's "Seventeen", Cinderella's "Nobody's Fool", Ratt's "Round And Round" and Night Rangers underrated epic ballad "Sister Christian". They even highlight some of the genras founding fathers like Alice Cooper and Judas Priest. The only real foul-upss are in the form of Warrant deplorible top ten smash "Cherry Pie" and "Hold On Loosely" by 38 Special, which is an excellent song but also has no purpose on an album devoted to 80's metal and hair bands, not southern rock! MONSTERS OF ROCK isn't perfect ofcourse, but as perfect as it could be with the limited ability a company like Razor & Tie has with sighning top artists. By no means can a perfect 80's collection be made without missing its biggest stars like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, major non commercial acts like Metallica and AC/DC, perhaps a take from those worn out veterans used to be known as Aerosmith, and ofcourse the decades biggest star, VAN HALEN.

Man ain't it a shame that you don't get to hear half of those songs on the radio anymore, man music these days don't even have the magic like music from those days did, this Cd has everything from heavy metal anthems, power ballads and classic rock and this CD is a must for music lovers with an open mind.

Quiet Riot: Cum on Feel the Noize
This song is a cover hit from Slade who scored a #1 hit in England with that song and this was Quiet Riot's biggest hit reaching #5 and that's how the heavy metal/rock became a revolution throughout the 1980's, great song to party with. 5/5

Great White: Once Bitten Twice Shy
Another cover hit which was originally done by Ian Hunter in 1975 and the song became Great White's biggest hit also reaching #5 on the charts. 4/5

Alice Cooper: Poison
Alice Cooper made a huge comeback in 1989 with a monster Top 10 hit with this song and it was the very first song I've ever heard by the wonderful Alice, I had no idea that he was huge back in the early 1970's. 5/5

Europe: The Final Countdown
Europe had a Top 10 hit with this song and although they are a metal band, but they do a great job making music for the pop oriented fans and this song gives alot of good memories. 5/5

Ratt: Round and Round
Ratt was the prime for those 80's metal bands and they scored a Top 15 hit in 1984 with this song and it was a huge hit with MTV (back when MTV played nothing but videos). 5/5

Warrant: Cherry Pie
I think that Warrant is one of the most talented bands of all time cause they have a variety range of music from power ballads, metal anthems and mid tempo rock songs. 5/5

Whitesnake: Here I Go Again
Whitesnake reached their biggest hit in 1987 with this song and it still gets timeless airplay to this day, I had no idea that singer David Coverdale was also the singer for Deep Purple (he's the one who replaced the immortal Ian Gillan). 5/5

Poison: Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Poison had a #1 hit ballad and they were huge on MTV and I grew up watching their videos back in the late 1980's/early 1990's and it gives me back alot of memories, but I think that this song isn't good enough to be on this CD, I felt that either Talk Dirty to Me or Nothin' But a Good Time would've been a better choice. 4/5

Winger: Seventeen
Believe it or not, singer/bassist Kip Winger actually use to be in Alice Cooper and he would go onto fame for a few years with 17, Headed For a Heartbreak, Miles Away and Easy Come, Easy Go before he vanished in 1993 due to the alternative wave. 5/5

Living Colour: Personality
Living Colour had their only major hit in 1988 with this song and it recieved alot of airplay on MTV and I still hear this song on the radio and they were a African metal group. 4/5

Twisted Sister: Were Not Gonna Take It
Twisted Sister had their only major hit in 1984 with the rebellious Were Not Gonna Take It and they recieved plenty of MTV airplay with I Wanna Rock as well, Twisted Sister is a great band with a bad attitude. 5/5

Judas Priest: You Got Another Thing Coming
Judas Priest had their only chart hit in 1982 with this song and they've been selling records since 1974, and I think that Judas Priest is one of the best metal bands of all time and believe it or not, they got sued from inciting two young boys in Sparks, Nevada to commit suicide (One successful), oh well at least Judas Priest sold more records than scoring hit singles. 5/5

Cinderella: Nobody's Fool
We return to the ballad format with Cinderella's first major hit in 1986 and personally, I think that either Shake Me or Shelter Me would've been a better choice for this compilation than this song but oh well. 4/5

.38 Special: Hold On Loosely
The weakest choice for this CD cause .38 Special isn't a metal band, they're more of a classic rock band than a metal band but this song recieves heavy classic rock airplay. 3/5

Autograph: Turn Up the Radio
Autograph scored their only hit in 1984 with this heavy metal anthem and it's a good clean way to listen to heavy metal, I think that Autograph was one of the most talented metal bands of the 1980's and they didn't recieve huge success like they deserved. 5/5

Night Ranger: Sister Christian
Night Ranger had their biggest hit in 1984 with this power ballad but this song isn't a great choice for this compilation, Don't Tell Me You Love Me or You Can Still Rock In America would've been much better choices than this, but it's a great song. 4/5

If you're a beginner with those hair bands or slowly filling holes in you're music collection, then Monsters of Rock is a great choice but avoid Monsters of Rock Volume 2 isn't that great.

I am an 80's music lover but my favorite genre is Heavy Metal so you can imagine how excited I was when I found out about this CD.
Actually; I have this collection although it is a 2 CD set (the one being sold here looks like a "Best of Monsters of Rock" (look for it at musicspace.com).

The songs found on the 2 CD set are as follows:

DISC 1

Cum on feel the noise - Quiet Riot
Once bitten, twice shy - Great white
Surrender - Cheap Trick
Round and round - Ratt
Every rose has it's thorn - Poison
Poison - Alice Cooper
Cherry pie - Warrant
Turn up the radio - Autograph
When the children cry - White Lion
Fantasy - Aldo Nova
Fly high Michelle - Enuff Z' Nuff
Bang bang - Danger danger
The warrior - Scandal
Girlschool - Britny Fox
(Can't live without your) Love and affection - Nelson
Heat of the moment - Asia
Owner of a lonely heart - Yes
(I just) died in you arms - Cutting crew

DISC 2

We're not gonna take it - Twisted sister
Here I go again - Whitesnake
The final countdown - Europe
Nobody's fool - Cinderella
Sister Christian - Night Ranger
Cult of personality - Living colour
Stone cold - Rainbow
You've got another thing coming - Judas Priest
Seventeen - Winger
Edge of a broken heart - Vixen
Fly to the angels - Slaughter
Your love - Outfield
Love of a lifetime - Firehouse
Hold on loosly - .38 special
Give it to me good - Trixter
Midnight maniac - Krokus
Bonus track:
Fade to blue - .38 special

I know that many of the songs left out of the edited version shouldn't even be here (Outfield, Cutting crew) but there are a few gems that are hard to find (Fantasy, Midnight maniac, edge of a broken heart) and deserve to be re-discovered.

I recommend the Monsters of Rock CD; in any of it's two versions because it puts together some of the greatest metal songs of the decade. If you lived it, you'll love it and if you are discovering 80's metal, this is the best place to start.

BTW: The title "Monsters of Rock" comes from the name given to an annual metal fest performed in Europe during the 80's. There was a one time Monsters of Rock tour in the US in 1988 with the following bands: Van Halen, Scorpions, Kingdome Come & Ozzy Osbourne.

Back in the late 90's they promoted this album ALL THE TIME while I was watching WWE wrestling (called WWF back then). It eventually got to the point where I simply HAD to buy the thing to see what the big deal was.

Unfortunately, while it was really appealing to me at first, it really began to lose its charm as the years past, as I began to find out the hit songs weren't the ONLY things these bands should be remembered for. In fact, these songs seriously aren't as good as many of the songs you'd find on any one of the Ratt, Quiet Riot, or Poison albums. Why should we remember *just* the hits? We shouldn't.

Furthermore, artists like Alice Cooper and Judas Priest shouldn't be on here in the first place, because they're mostly early to mid 70's rock artists, and this collection of tracks should mainly focus on the 80's, and NO other decade because the two decades are entirely different from each other. It doesn't matter to me if these songs are not from the 70's- Alice Cooper and Judas Priest are artists from the 70's, and that's the point.

I think they could have found a better selection of songs to stick on here. "Round and Round" is NOT the best Ratt song, and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" is not the best Poison song either. Not only are these NOT the best songs, but they also don't quality as the heaviest songs from either band either. The same applies to Great White and Whitesnake (though no one can deny "Here I Go Again" is a fantastic song- even people who normally hate heavy metal agree it's a great song).

"Hold on Loosely" is a pretty bad song though. .38 Special is MUCH better than that. "We're Not Gonna Take It" kind of stinks as well. I have a greatest hits disc from Twisted Sister that has a lot of better songs, such as "I Am, I'm Me" and "I Wanna Rock".

Luckily it DOES have some great songs such as "Cult of Personality", "Nobody's Fool", and "Sister Christian". It's just not a flawless collection. It's just an attempt to remember the 80's and act like the hits are the only songs worth remembering because of all the singles released in the decade. There's plenty of album bands from the 80's. Don't forget that.

This is an awesome album. All the songs are powerful. Most definitely this bands are the true monster of rock. If you like metal, this album is for you.

While not every song my be my favorite, they really did a great job compiling the popular and favorites from the great 80s hair band days!
All the monster CDS I have bought have been real gems.

This a great blast in the past for all of those that listened to headbanging music. It's a nice ride.

This is the best 80's metal compilation ever! I remember when I was in 1st grade, and I played this CD over and over! There is not one bad song on this CD! I still have it, and it's all scratched up! I think I need to buy another copy!

After searching through stacks of 80's compilations this one was exactly what we were looking for - pure 80's with no bubble-gum songs.

Nirvana came along and all of these guys had to go back to work at McDonalds or some car wash some where, but they left behind some fun, guilty pleasures. Try to listen to "Cherry Pie" and not sing along. They may be lame, but they are still more fun than hearing someone sing "I wish I could eat your cancer when it turns black." Nirvana took all the fun out of music and now all we can do is listen to this cd and remember the good old days. No Prozac needed after listening to this cd. The only song here that sounds out of place is "Sister Christian." I never realized how terrible that song was when I was in high school, but back then I also thought Tiffany and Debbie Gibson were good as well. LOL.