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10.) Hell – Human Remains

The story behind Hell is really weird. OK, so in the early 1980s, as contemporaries like Iron Maiden and Diamond Head were ushering in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, there was a band poised to join those elite ranks. That band was called Hell. Their demo was the stuff of legends for many years. Why didn’t they break big? Because their guitarist died of carbon monoxide poisoning and their vocalist quit the band and they split up in 1987. In 2008, the members of Hell reunited. They still had that killer, influential demo after all. They got the brother of the original vocalist to join the band; that brother just so happens to be renowned British stage-and-screen actor, David Beckford.

Beckford provides a unique vocal quality. It’s nearly cartoonish in the way he enunciates words; it’s definitely a stage actor’s singing voice. But considering this album, Human Remains, is a concept album about Satan, the style totally works. The songs themselves are pretty remarkable. They’re mostly based off of riffs that were written (and stashed away once the band broke up) in the mid-80’s. And that material absolutely holds up here in 2011. My God, this album is a straight shot of heavy metal. It kicks your ass up and down and has the temerity to be all theatrical about it. Linked above are two thundering heavy metal songs that show off Beckford’s unique voice and those classic, timeless riffs. This is an album that metal fans never thought would see the light of day, but let me speak for all metal fans when I say that we’re so happy it did.