Following a suggestion from the Bean, my run-in with Soundtrack Day today recalls the first album I can remember buying. Well, actually, the first album I can remember asking my parents to buy for me and and another album I recall listening to an awful lot for an 11- and 12-year-old.

First, Quiet Riot’s history-making 1983 mega-album Metal Health. History-making because it was the first metal album to top the Billboard Album Chart and first to have a single in the Top 5 of the Singles Chart (the “Cum On Feel The Noize” Slade cover). Mega-album because it was multi-platinum and really marked the launch of metal in the early-1980s. Dude, it’s a classic and a number of the tracks still rock hard to this day! (Devil Horns! Yeah!)

And, second, oh, yes, 1983 was a good year for rock. Udo Dirkschneider’s Accept – a dark and vaguely absurd Teutonic bridge between early speed metal songs by various groups and the later speed metal genre. I hadn’t listened to Balls To The Wall in yonks and (Devil Horns!) “Balls To The Wall” really throbs (weak pun intended). Heavy, grinding, weird. Excellent.

The soundtrack of 1983 and 1984! (Devil Horns!)

   Quiet Riot – Cum On Feel The Noize
   Quiet Riot – Metal Health (Bang Your Head)
   Accept – Balls To The Wall