5 insanely obscure 1980s rock albums that are a perfect 10/10

A montage of album covers featuring Sea Hags, Watchtower, Arc Angel, David + David and Jaguar — (Image credit: Geffen/Zombo/CBS/Portrait/A&M/Neat)

Rock had dominated the 70s and its stranglehold continued into the next decade, thanks in a large part to the MTV revolution, which ensured a constant stream of new bands could be beamed directly into the homes of music fans in the US and beyond.

But not every band could be as huge as Dire Straits or Guns N’ Roses. For every multi-million selling album, there were thousands upon thousands that barely left a mark.

But lack of success doesn’t necessarily mean lack of quality. Some absolutely classic albums slipped through the cracks in that wild decade, destined to unfairly languish in obscurity. Some have been belatedly heralded as classics, but many others remain long-forgotten curios known to all but the most ardent connoisseur.

Here are five of those records that would score a perfect 10/10 if they came out today.

Jaguar – Power Games (1983)

Released via the legendary Neat Records label at the end of the NWOBHM, Power Games might just be the most underrated album of the entire genre. If you’ve ever heard Metallica’s No Life ’Til Leather demo – and if you haven’t, why the hell not?! – you’ll know where this Bristolian outfit are coming from.

Raw like a weeping wound and blistering like a Bunsen burner to the bicep, this is speed/thrash metal in its glorious infancy. We advise you to avoid the basic version of Power Games; there are must-hear extended versions available. Seek out the ones that include the fierce’n’furious Back Street Woman and the deliriously demented Axe Crazy (neither on the original LP) to relish the full-fat rubber-burnin’ E-Type experience. Geoff Barton

Arc Angel – Arc Angel (1983)

Just when you thought pomp rock peaked in the 70s, a record arrived to blow that theory right out of the water. Arc Angel’s self-titled 1983 debut should have gone multi-platinum – and beyond.

It was the work of two men, Jeff Cannata and Michael Soldan, who had played in various cult-level bands since the late 60s. The pair surrounded themselves with crack East Coast session men – including future Bon Jovi bassist Hugh MacDonald – and entered the studio with producer Tony Bongiovi (aka Jon Bon Jovi’s unvle).

The results boasted keyboards and guitars dive-bombing in unison, hooks’n’choruses exploding in brilliant formation. Check Stars, Tragedy and Wanted Dead Or Alive for superlative examples of glorious melodic AOR, topped off with the kind of magical vocal that made Aldo Nova’s debut album so instantly appealing.

If you rediscover just one pomp rock album then please let it be Arc Angel, a work of sublime brilliance. Derek Oliver

Watchtower – Energetic Disassembly (1985)

Jazz and progressive rock are not two genres one might normally associate with thrash metal. Yet both are present within the story of Austin, Texas quartet Watchtower who combined an over-the-top love of prog rock with metallic power at a time when it was largely unheard of. But the sound of their 1985 debut Energetic Disassembly proved to be very popular in Europe, mixing an Iron Maiden-like metallic charge with the technical prowess of Rush. Singer Jason McMaster decamped to hair metal posers Dangerous Toys for reasons best known to himself, just prior to the follow-up Control And Resistance. Malcolm Dome

David + David – Boomtown (1986)

Studio musicians and sometime producers David Baerwald and David Ricketts would find real, if fleeting, fame in 1993 as part of Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club band. But that was a world away from the pair’s collaboration Boomtown, released seven years earlier.

A bleak reading of America’s underclass in the depths of the Reagan era, this was a collection of vignettes of lives full of wrong turnings, of dead-end jobs, of drink and drugs. First single Welcome To The Boomtown began with the desperate howl of Ricketts’ guitar, before Baerwald dispatched his bitterly ironic lyric about a high-living drug addict and her lowlife dealer: ‘Pick a habit, we got plenty to go around,’ he sang over a thrumming pop-rock hook that date-stamped it to the mid-80s. Both unnerving and eminently hummable, it gave the duo a US Top 40 hit. The album followed it to No.39.

The success was short-lived. Ricketts was apparently put off by the hard rock fans they were attracting, and they disbanded before the album caught its second wind. Sheryl Crow beckoned, ensuring neither David would get this bloody again. Phillip Wilding

Sea Hags – Sea Hags (1989)

If ever there was a band that had it all and then blew it, it was the Sea Hags. After getting Metallica’s Kirk Hammett to produce their demo, the San Francisco quartet roped in the hottest producer around for their debut album: Mike Clink, fresh from working on Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction.

Sea Hags came out at the height of hair metal, but it was closer the kind of dirty, funky rock that Aerosmith made in the 70s, loaded with great songs, from the charged Half The Way Valley to the menacing finale Under The Night Stars.

Sea Hags shared Aerosmith’s fondness for booze and drugs too, which ultimately proved their undoing, and after the album stalled at No.150 on the US chart the band split up. Singer Ron Yocom planned to re-form the Sea Hags, but bassist Chris Schlosshardt died in February 1991. This one great album became his, and the band’s, epitaph. Paul Elliott

Artists

Classic Rock is the online home of the world's best rock'n'roll magazine. We bring you breaking news, exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes features, as well as unrivalled access to the biggest names in rock music; from Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple, Guns N’ Roses to the Rolling Stones, AC/DC to the Sex Pistols, and everything in between. Our expert writers bring you the very best on established and emerging bands plus everything you need to know about the mightiest new music releases.

With contributions from