I was digging for records while on vacation down in St. Augustine, Florida and at one of the stores, I came across a vinyl that brought back so many memories.  I had this on cassette and I remember loving it and listening to it constantly.  I had to get it and at only $5, it was a no brainer.

The album is not something I normally buy and that is because it is a compilation album mixed with numerous artists.  The album was K-Tel’s “Master of Metal”!  Now, don’t let the name confuse you because it isn’t really that heavy or metal, but it was full of songs that I loved from bands that sometimes do much heavier stuff.  The album is from 1984 and had hit songs from some of the biggest bands at that time.

There were so many bands on here that had connections with each other.  Such as Black Sabbath is on it with Ian Gillan on vocals, Dio is on here and Ronnie James Dio used to sing with Black Sabbath, Rainbow is on here with Joe Lynn Turner and Dio sang with them as well.  Kiss is on here and so is Rush who opened for Kiss.  All pretty cool, but back in 1984, I had no idea about these connections.

And there are a ton of greats songs on this release…13 to be exact.

1. Black Sabbath – “Trashed”
2. Y&T – “Mean Streak”
3. Dokken – “Breaking the Chains”
4. Zebra – “Who’s Behind the Door”
5. Dio – “Rainbow in the Dark”
6. Krokus – “Screaming in the Night”
7. Kiss – “Lick it Up”
8. Rainbow – “Street of Dreams”
9. Iron Maiden – “Run to the Hills”
10. Rush – “Tom Sawyer”
11. Triumph – “A World of Fantasy
12. Twisted Sister – “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll”
13. Van Halen – “Dancing in the Street”

And as you can see from the list, the songs aren’t really that heavy.  They are hard rock, but metal…no!  However, this is one compilation that I liked basically 100% of the songs.  That just didn’t happen very often which is why I don’t buy compilations.  However, most of these songs were all over MTV and I had to have it. MTV was how I spent my afternoons after school so this gave me the opportunity to have MTV with me at all times minus the videos, but I didn’t care.  That cassette got worn out!

Just look at the artist…these bands were huge!  “Run to the Hills” was the only Iron Maiden song I really knew and loved at the time, I was huge in to Krokus with a poster on my wall, and Zebra was so cool and unique with those high pitched vocals from Randy Jackson.  I was getting in to Triumph at the time, but hadn’t yet bought an album, and where to begin on how great “Tom Sawyer” is by Rush. The only two I really didn’t care that much about was the Black Sabbath “Trashed” song and I wasn’t a huge fan of Van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away”.  That is one of their weaker songs.

All those memories came flooding back when I saw this and had to have it.  I actually think this will get pulled out from time to time and played when I don’t know what to listen to at the time.  The only down side to this is I don’t think any of these are any kind of special mix or rare cut.  Maybe they are the singles mix, but that doesn’t bother me in the least if it isn’t anything rare.  I am not going to go through each song because you know them so well so there really is no point.  I only wanted to put a spotlight on a great compilation album.  Grab it if you see it.  Oh, I guess I need to give it a ranking…easy…5.0 out of 5.0 Stars!!!