Going through a pile of old music mags, I was flicking through Kerrang! No. 220 from January 7, 1989, 95p by the way, and found this list.
We really didn't have anything super extreme or offensive in 89 in the way of hard rock and heavy metal did we? At least not in the public eye in record shops. NB: This isn't a ranked 20, just 20 the mag liked from 1988

Anyway:

1.King's X - Out of the Silent Planet
2.Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
3.Metallica - And Justice for All
4.David Lee Roth - Skyscraper
5.Slayer - South of Heaven
6.John Kilzer - Memory in the Making
7.Motörhead - No Sleep at All
8.Van Halen - OU812
9.Jimmy Barnes - Freight Train Heart
10.Robert Plant - Now and Zen
11.Cinderella - Long Cold Winter
12.Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
13.Michael Katon - Proud to be Loud
14.Bon Jovi - New Jersey
15.Living Colour - Vivid
16.Jimmy Page - Outrider
17.Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II
18.Kingdom Come - Kingdom Come
19.Death Angel - Frolic through the Park
20.Only Child - Only Child.

I've never heard of John Kilzer or Michael Katon.
My top two from that lot:
Halloween
Kingdom Come




Edited by LAM-SGC - January 21 2024 at 12:25

Voivod and Maiden for sure.

Some good and a lot of crap

Nice to see KX & QR top the list. I wouldn't have expected King's X to be first, considering what a big deal O:M was at the time (and should be #1).

LAM-SGC wrote: 2.Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime 3.Metallica - And Justice for All 10.Robert Plant - Now and Zen 17.Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Part II 18.Kingdom Come - Kingdom Come

^ at the time Maiden were bigging themselves up as being closer to Art Rock/Prog Rock than Metal or Hard Rock. I well remember the interviews. I know it's a very tenous theory but perhaps Kerrang thought the same thing and that Maiden were moving away too much from their core audience so preferred to list bands that were more 'the metal genre'.  Also I can remember Kerrang being more open to prog stuff earlier in the 80's but they were concertedly moving away from that genre and becoming more metal orientated. It wasn't always like that . I had long stopped bothering with it as a magazine by 1988 as wasn't catering for my tastes at all. It's says something (maybe) that the only 'metal' band I care about even to this day is Iron Maiden ( I don't count any prog metal such as for instance Caligula's Horse  as 'metal' as such) 

From the list, these are the albums that I purchased in 1988

Edited by omphaloskepsis - January 23 2024 at 05:36

Jared wrote: but I wouldn't have said Seventh Son was all that proggy

really? Before this album the usual prog nod from IM would be The Final Epic only. But SSOASS - time signatures, keyboards, tempo switches, song structures - is their proggiest LP from the 80s, front to back

LAM-SGC wrote: Going through a pile of old music mags, I was flicking through Kerrang! No. 220 from January 7, 1989, 95p by the way, and found this list. We really didn't have anything super extreme or offensive in 89 in the way of hard rock and heavy metal did we? At least not in the public eye in record shops. NB: This isn't a ranked 20, just 20 the mag liked from 1988 Anyway: 1.King's X - Out of the Silent Planet 2.Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime