A look back at 1987 in HEAVY METAL Music – The genre as it was 25 years ago! - National Heavy Metal

As we are a culture obsessed with nostalgia, I thought it might be a wee bit of fun to take a look back to see what is now a quarter-century old in the world of heavy metal.

Sherman, set the Waybac Machine for 1987, “turn it on, open the door, and there we are (or were, really)!”

As with any year in the 1980s, it seemed like things were in a constant state of upheaval, eventually shaping the future piece-by-piece. The American government was knee-deep in the Iran-Contra debacle. Televangelist Jim Bakker was caught in an infamous sex scandal with Jessica Hahn, and politician R. Budd Dwyer committed suicide on a live televised press conference.

But it wasn’t all bad news for the nation. In sports, the Minnesota Twins won the World Series, the New York Giants won Super Bowl XXI, Bill Elliot won the Daytona 500 (with Dale Earnhardt winning the NASCAR Championship), and the Edmonton Oilers edged out the Philadelphia Flyers in a 7-game Stanley Cup Finals slugfest!

Bam Bam Bigelow, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, One Man Gang, Marty Jannetty, Virgil, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, "Sensational" Sherri Martel, and The Ultimate Warrior made their WWF wrestling debuts in 1987, and Wrestlemania III featured a legendary rematch between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant!

In other television news, The Simpsons made their debut in a series of vignettes on The Tracey Ullman Show, and Unsolved Mysteries, Married... with Children, 21 Jump Street, DuckTales, Full House, A Different World, Jake and the Fatman, Star Trek: The Next Generation, thirtysomething, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also premiered. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Silver Spoons, The A-Team, Fraggle Rock, Remington Steele, Gimme a Break!, Fame, Hill Street Blues, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Airwolf, and The Transformers were all cancelled.

A pivotal year for video games, The Legend of Zelda, Contra, Castlevania, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Metal Gear, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Double Dragon, and Operation Wolf all made their legendary first appearances in America.

In film, Three Men and a Baby, Fatal Attraction, Moonstruck, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Good Morning, Vietnam ruled the box office. And in pop music, Los Lobos’ “La Bamba,” Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody Who Loves Me,” Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome To the Jungle,” and U2’s “With Or Without You” topped the charts.

And to the point of this retro-trip, metal swirled in a maelstrom of activity. Crossover metal was the order of the day in the underground, while thrash was beginning to poke holes in the mainstream bubble. In the deep underground, death metal was beginning to rumble.

But hair metal was still king, and solidly so, thanks to the pop ramblings of Def Leppard’s HYSTERIA, Mötley Crüe’s GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS, and the acidic accessibility of Guns N’ Roses’ APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION.

Bon Jovi headlined the 1987 Monsters of Rock festival, with Dio, Metallica, Anthrax, W.A.S.P. and Cinderella in tow. Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx experienced his infamous, near-fatal heroin overdose.

Udo Dirkshneider left Accept. Guitarist Mike Clark joined Suicidal Tendencies, and Andreas Kisser joined Sepultura. But probably the most significant addition to metal was the debut of MTV’s Headbangers Ball, which launched on April 18, 1987.

And one of today's major benefactors of metal, Nuclear Blast Records, was birthed by Markus Staiger in Germany. And in the UK, Snapper saw its first dawn.

A big year for the young and brazen, 1987 saw the formation of a slew of bands, including:

Alice in Chains, Arcturus, Asphyx, Autopsy, Biohazard, Burzum, Cynic, Danzig, Darkthrone, Deicide, Disharmonic Orchestra, Doom, Entombed, Epidemic, Evildead, Fleshcrawl, Impetigo, Kryst the Conqueror, Lawnmower Deth, Malevolent Creation, Meliah Rage, Meshuggah, Morgoth, Nihilist, Nocturnus, Order From Chaos, Pink Cream 69, Primordial, Ripping Corpse, Rotting Christ, Samael, Skid Row, Solitude Aeturnus, Therion, U.D.O., and Vengeance Rising.

And conversely, bands like Alcatrazz, Sound Barrier, Twisted Sister, Warlock, and Grim Reaper called it a day.

But most importantly, the following albums and EPs kept us headbanging and moshing 24/7/365: