Perfect Symmetry
Artist: Fates Warning
Community Score: 8.75

This was the recording that established Fates Warning as a progressive band. Their metal influences still dominate the group's overall sound; however, Mark Zonder's unique approach to drumming adds another level of depth and credibility to the music. His double bass, odd-time introduction to "Part of the Machine" is the session's defining... Read More

My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama
Artist: Dweezil Zappa
Community Score: 9.20
XYZ
Artist: XYZ
Community Score: 10.00
Bedtime Story
Artist: Waxing Poetics

...Playing no-frills, pop-inflected (albeit a tad predictable) rock and roll, they avoid the pitfalls of pretentiousness, preferring to kick out the jams...The payoff was having the smarts (and taste) to blow the dust off Wreckless Eric's "Semaphore Signals," one of the all-time great paranoid love songs. Vocalist/guitarist/songwriter David... Read More

The Best of the Rest
Artist: UFO

The title of this compilation may as well have been "No Schenker," as it collects the best (or least worst, as it were) moments of UFO's mostly lackluster career sans the mad axe-man. Sad but true, for try as he might, vocalist Phil Mogg never quite duplicated the volatile but thrilling chemistry he enjoyed with Schenker with any other guitarist... Read More

Second Heat
Artist: Racer X
Community Score: 10.00

Racer X's debut album, Street Lethal, established the band as little more than a vehicle for guitarist Paul Gilbert's virtuosic neo-metal soloing style. For its sophomore release, Second Heat, Racer X ups the intensity of its already terrifying instrumental attack by adding second guitarist Bruce Bouillet to the fold, thereby enabling some of... Read More

Hurricane Eyes
Artist: Loudness
Community Score: 8.00

Heavy metal Japanese style, "Hurricane Eyes" was their best effort. Earlier albums were slightly tacky, while later efforts lost the chances of Loudness becoming a household name. The album was good and it didn't sound typically Japanese, American or European. ~ John Book, All Music Guide Read More

L.A. Guns
Artist: L.A. Guns
Community Score: 8.00

Even amidst the already seedy underbelly of the late-'80s L.A. glam metal scene, L.A. Guns were the undisputed bottom-feeders. A ragged collection of outcasts from various other bands (guitarist Tracii Guns was the original "guns" in Guns n' Roses, drummer Steven Riley had recently vacated the stool with shock-kings W.A.S.P., and British... Read More

Blow My Fuse
Artist: Kix
Community Score: 8.60

By 1988, Kix had only managed to squeeze out three modest-selling records for Atlantic Records. Led in tandem by the endearing frontman Steve Whiteman and chief songwriter and bassist Donnie Purnell, for years, Kix would be unfairly categorized as a supposed "hair band." Worse still, Whiteman would later wake up to find his... Read More

Kingdom Come
Artist: Kingdom Come
Community Score: 5.00

It contains the hit single "Get It On." ~ Dan Heilman, All Music Guide Read More

Greg Howe
Artist: Greg Howe
Community Score: 10.00

During the mid- to late '80s, talent scout and Shrapnel Records owner Mike Varney was the ultimate source for new high-tech guitar virtuosos in the post-Yngwie Malmsteen era (Malmsteen was also one of his finds). Among the dozens of young guns who emerged from Varney's stable, Greg Howe was one of the best. His debut album, Greg Howe, was... Read More

Last of the Runaways
Artist: Giant
Community Score: 6.17