Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly
2. Summertime Blues - Blue Cheer
3. Easy Livin - Uriah Heep
4. Highway Star - Deep Purple
5. Billion Dollar Babies - Alice Cooper
6. Lost Johnny - Hawkwind
7. Bad Motor Scooter - Montrose
8. Working Man - Rush
9. Man On the Silver Mountain - Ritchie's Blockmore's Rainbow
10. Detroit Rock City - Kiss
11. The Ripper - Judas Priest
12. Cat Scratch Fever - Ted Nugent
13. Lights Out - UFO
14. Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
15. Demolition Boys - Girlschool
16. White Witch - Angel Witch
17. The Phantom Of the Opera - Iron Maiden
18. Neon Knights - Black Sabbath

Disc 2:

1. Ace Of Spades - Motorhead
2. Am I Evil? - Diamond Head
3. Nice Boys - Rose Tattoo
4. Attack Of the Mad Axeman - Michael Schenker Group
5. Denim And Leather - Saxon
6. Blitzkrieg - Blitzkrieg
7. Gangland - Tygers Of Pan Tang
8. Witching Hour - Venom
9. You've Got Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest
10. The Number Of the Beast - Iron Maiden
11. Star War - Raven
12. Say What You Will - Fastway
13. Black Funeral - Mercyful Fate
14. Animal (F**k Like a Beast) - W.A.S.P.
15. Mean Streak - Y&T
16. Holy Diver - Dio
17. Queen Of the Reich - Queensryche
18. Whiplash - Metallica

Disc 3:

1. Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions
2. Metal Health - Quiet Riot
3. Into the Fire - Dokken
4. Balls To the Wall - Accept
5. Round And Round - Ratt
6. I Wanna Rock - Twisted Sister
7. The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams - Hanoi Rocks
8. Big Bottom - Spinal Tap
9. Midnite Maniac - Krokus
10. I'll See the Light, Tonight - Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force
11. Crazy Nights - Loudness
12. Shake Me - Cinderella
13. Watch the Children Pray - Metal Church
14. To Hell With the Devil - Stryper
15. A Little Time - Helloween
16. Wrecking Crew - Overkill
17. Caught In a Mosh - Anthrax
18. Peace Sells - Megadeath

Disc 4:

1. Still Of the Night - Whitesnake
2. Rock Me - Great White
3. Talk Dirty To Me - Poison
4. Bathroom Wall - Faster Pussycat
5. Hall Of the Mountain King - Savatage
6. Kiss Me Deadly - Lita Ford
7. Hail And Kill - Manowar
8. Trial By Fire - Testament
9. Welcome Home - King Diamond
10. South Of Heaven - Slayer
11. One - Metallica
12. Cult Of Personality - Living Colour
13. Youth Gone Wild - Skid Row
14. Cowboys From Hell - Pantera
15. Beg To Differ - Prong
16. Dead Embryonic Cells - Sepultura

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32527 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-02
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Limited Edition
• Dimensions: 1.99 pounds

Album Description
Rhino’s 4-disc HEAVY METAL box is the most comprehensive anthology of the influential genre ever. Featuring legendary stars from multiple labels, the box’s size lives up its thundering sound arranged chronologically, it collects 70 classic tracks tracing the evolution of metal through its first golden age, 1968-1991. Encompassing proto-metalists, hard rock icons, thrashers, progressive acts, speedsters, pop-metal MTV favorites, and more, a who’s who of masters get their due. The box also boasts essays from Ronnie James Dio and Lita Ford, plus and a detailed history of metal by Mick Wall. Surveying the last years covered by the box, Wall concludes, metal had come full circle to the point where it was simultaneously riven by so many new categories and subgenres that you needed an encyclopedia to make sense of it all and yet it was more universally popular than ever before. The same could be said today so fly your devil horn salutes and crank it to 11 for five hours of musical mayhem.

Amazon.com
The trouble with a genre as sprawling as heavy metal--and one as identified with brawn and intensity--is that its adherents certainly won't agree on the shape of their obsession. And the disagreement won't necessarily be polite. Halfway through disc two, you find one of the precise moments that can split metalheads into two camps: Judas Priest's "You Got Another Thing Comin'," whose crossover success set the table for the likes of Y&T, Dokken, Ratt, Stryper, and Skid Row as they took metal into the primping realm of pop music. Metal purists will want disc one, with Hawkwind, UFO, and even Dio-era Black Sabbath reveling in their status as early headbangers. The question is: Are their heirs truly Dokken and their ilk or are the heirs Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax? It might be an academic point only, but across the back half of this 4-CD set, the "truer," faster, thornier metal lies intermingled with the more vapid, hair-teased stuff of the 1980s, before Nirvana nuked the whole genre. And people who love Metallica won't want Skid Row polluting the chugging air. One thing certainly is true: The physical box, with its Marshall amp vibe, is impressive, something any self-respecting metalhead would cherish. It's the track list that'll make 'em kick and scream. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Filling the cracks!
This set isn't perfect and you can't please everybody, but for die hard metal fans this set is great because die hard fans already have Sabbath,Led Zep,Ac-Dc, Van Halen, Ozzy and others in their collection, so this fills in the missing classic tracks we might not have because there's alot of heavy metal out there and you can't have every band in your collection. Rock on!

Minor flaws, but really rockin'
Rhino's Heavy Metal box does a whole lot right and a few things wrong. Fortunately, the good far outweighs the bad here, and this box is a great listen overall. I'll break down the good and bad disc by disc here:

DISC 1

The Good: Just about everything. This disc contains classic tracks from Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Rush, Montrose, Iron Maiden, UFO, Ted Nugent and others. Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin'" is absolutely awesome.

The Bad: An edited version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." For shame!

DISC 2

The Good: Lots. Great rock from Motorhead, Diamond Head, Mercyful Fate, Y&T, Priest, and Queensryche. Plus, Blitzkrieg and Rose Tattoo...YES YES YES!!!

The Bad: MSG's "Attack Of The Mad Axeman" is just awful.

DISC 3

The Good: Some really rockin' tracks, like "Shake Me" by Cinderella (the best song AC/DC never made), "Wrecking Crew" by Overkill, and "Peace Sells" by Megadeth. Ratt's "Round And Round" has aged well, and tracks by Quiet Riot and Accept are wonderfully dumb.

The Bad: Dokken's "Into The Fire" is woefully tied to its time. Hanoi Rocks. And I could have done without Spinal Tap.

DISC 4

The Good: "Still Of The Night" by Whitesnake, which reaches almose Zeppelinesque heights. Great tracks by King Diamond, Great White, Living Colour, Pantera, Metallica, and "Talk Dirty To Me" still sounds pretty good. Plus, Faster Pussycat's "Bathroom Wall" is hilarious.

The Bad: I could have done without Savatage, and Manowar is ridiculous.

To sum up: If you like your music heavy and rockin', this is a good set of songs. A few duds, but plenty of great tracks that make it well worth the purchase.

Really good with few flaws
I've been listening to this box set all week, and it is a pretty comprehensive collection of classic metal. The focus of the box set is really from the 70's & 80's, though there are some songs from the 60's and 90's tacked on as well. If you don't see a particular band represented, the liner notes explain that some bands did not want to contribute to the box. The booklet included in the set is pretty cool, including a History of Heavy Metal by journalist Mick Wall. You also get a track by track summary which is pretty cool, as well as some interviews with Lita Ford and Ronnie James Dio. Here is the breakdown of what is on each of the four disks:
Disk 1:
1.In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Iron Butterfly - Great song, but be warned it is heavily edited down from the normal 17 minute running time to under 5 minutes.
2.Summertime Blues - Blue Cheer
3.Easy Livin' - Uriah Heep
4.Highway Star - Deep Purple (Younger listeners will recognize this song as the commercial for the video game "Rock Band")
5.Billion Dollar Babies - Alice Cooper
6.Lost Johnny - Hawkwind (featuring Motorheads Lemmy on vocals)
7.Bad Motor Scooter - Montrose (Sammy Hagar on vocals)
8.Working Man - Rush (Early heavier Rush before Neil Peart)
9.Man on the Silver Mountain - Rainbow
10.Detroit Rock City - Kiss (without the intro found on Destroyer)
11.The Ripper - Judas Priest
12.Cat Scratch Fever - Ted Nugent
13.Light Out - UFO
14.Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
15.Demolition Boys - Girlschool
16.White Witch - Angel Witch
17.The Phantom of the Opera - Iron Maiden
18.Neon Nights - Black Sabbath (the folks who compiled this box set must LOVE Ronnie James Dio as he is present on several tracks with various bands and is featured in an interview in the booklet!!)

Disc 2:
1. Ace of Spades - Motorhead
2. Am I Evil - Diamond Head (It's cool to hear the original, but I prefer Metallica's cover....same goes with Blitzkrieg below)
3. Nice Boys - Rose Tattoo
4.Attack of the Mad Axeman - The Michael Schenker Group
5. Denim and Leather - Saxon
6. Blitzkrieg - Blitzkrieg
7. Gangland - Tygers of Pan Tang (not the most accessible band name??)
8. Witching Hour - Venom
9. You've Got Another Thing Comin' - Judas Priest
10.The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden (where is the spoken intro??)
11.Star War - Raven
12.Say What you Will - Fastway
13.Black Funeral - Mercyful Fate (the first of two tracks featuring the high falsetto of King Diamond??)
14.Animal (F**K Like A Beast) - W.A.S.P. (Tipper Gore's PMRC anthem)
15.Mean Streak - Y&T
16.Holy Diver - Dio (again)
17.Queen of the Reich - Queensryche
18.Whiplash -Metallica

Disk 3: (THE RISE OF THE HAIR BAND!!)
1. Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions
2. Metal Health - Quiet Riot
3. Into the Fire - Dokken
4. Balls to the Wall - Accept
5. Round and Round - Ratt
6. I Wanna Rock - Twister Sister
7. The Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Hanoi Rocks
8. Big Bottom - Spinal Tap (yes...a parody metal band makes the set?)
9. Midnite Maniac - Krokus
10.I'll See the Light Tonight - Yngwie Malmsteen
11.Crazy Nights - Loudness
12.Shake Me - Cinderella
13.Watch the Children Pray - Metal Church
14.To Hell With the Devil - Stryper
15.A Little Time - Helloween
16.Wrecking Crew - Overkill
17.Caught in a Most - Anthrax
18.Peace Sell..But Who's Buying - Megadeth

Disk 4:
1. Still of the Night - Whitesnake
2. Rock Me - Great White
3. Talk Dirty to Me - Poison
4. Bathroom Wall - Faster Pussycat
5. Hall of the Mountain King - Savatage (a great metal band that went all holly jolly on us and became the Trans Siberian Orchestra know for their Christmas music?????)
6. Kiss Me Deadly - Lita Ford (in leather g-string naturally)
7. Hail and Kill - Manowar
8. Trial by Fire - Testament
9. Welcome Home - King Diamond
10.South of Heaven - Slayer
11.One - Metallica
12.Cult of Personality - Living Colour
13.Youth Gone Wild - Skid Row
14.Cowboys from Hell - Pantera
15.Beg to Differ - Prong
16.Dead Embryonic Cells - Sepultura (catchy song title there?!)

The only complaints I really have are duplicate tracks by a couple bands like Priest and Maiden. I would like to have seen them throw in a couple more bands like Y&T or Fastway, bands that didn't quite make it through to the next level. Also, and I know I'm gonna catch grief for this, but including bands like Pantera, Prong and Sepultura kind of ends the box set on a down note. Going from great bands like Uriah Heep and Alice Cooper featuring great musicianship and vocals to the 90's metal featuring a few chords played very fast over unintelligble lyrics really shows you how far Metal (and the music world in whole)has fallen.