METAL MASSACRE (Metal Blade, 1982)

It’s hard to pick just one compilation from a 14-disc series spanning 30+ years, but Metal Blade’s first release was a bona fide music history game-changer. Californian metal hopefuls Malice, Bitch, Cirith Ungol and Ratt displayed bucketloads of promise, while the crazy am-dram horror of Demon Flight’s Dead Of The Night stuck in people’s heads for eternity. But the killer blow came right at the end, when a hasty assortment of LA teens stuffed firecrackers up the arse of their NWOBHM influences on righteous neck-wrecker Hit The Lights, and the world got its first (misspelt) taste of ‘Mettallica’.