OK, for those of you who don't know already, NWOBHM stands for: New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. This phrase refers to a musical phenomenon that occurred in Britain between the years of 1979 and 1985 or so and produced a TON of new young metal bands. These new bands were influenced by the early British metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, UFO, Judas Priest, Budgie, Status Quo, etc.

The hallmark of these bands was freshness, rawness, hunger, camaraderie and a "do-it-yourself" attitude borrowed from the punks. These things, along with their British heritage, all combined to produced some exciting guitar-driven heavy metal in the early 80's!

Some bands produced one or two singles and faded into obscurity (i.e. Fireclown, Geddes Axe). Others went on to produce one or two full length albums (i.e. Witchfinder General, Handsome Beasts) on underground labels (i.e. Neat Records, Heavy Metal Records) before calling it quits. Still others produced many albums, first on underground and then on bigger labels while still retaining their cult status (i.e. Raven, Diamond Head, Venom), and a few actually went on to worldwide fame on major labels, though their NWOBHM appeal seemed to diminish as they got bigger (i.e. Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Saxon).

So there you have it! Talk about your faves and what albums you have by these great bands!

Here's a list of NWOBHM albums I have:

ANGEL WITCH - Angel Witch
DEF LEPPARD - The Def Leppard EP
DEF LEPPARD - First Strike
DEF LEPPARD - On Through the Night
DEF LEPPARD - High 'n' Dry
DEF LEPPARD - Pyromania
DEF LEPPARD - Bringin' on the Heartbreak/Me and My Wine (7 inch)
DIAMOND HEAD - The White Album (aka Lightning to the Nations)
DIAMOND HEAD - Borrowed Time
DIAMOND HEAD - Four Cuts (EP)
DIAMOND HEAD - Canterbury
DIAMOND HEAD - Behold the Beginning
DIAMOND HEAD - Death and Progress
DIAMOND HEAD - To Heaven from Hell
DIAMOND HEAD - Evil Live
DIAMOND HEAD - Singles
DIAMOND HEAD - Live at Reading: The Friday Rock Show
DIAMOND HEAD - First Cuts Acoustic (EP)
FASTWAY - Fastway
FASTWAY - All Fired Up
GIRLSCHOOL - The Collection
GRIM REAPER - Fear No Evil
HANDSOME BEASTS - Beastiality
HOLOCAUST - The Nightcomers
HOLOCAUST - Live: Hot Curry & Wine
HOLOCAUST - Primal
IRON MAIDEN - The Soundhouse Tapes
IRON MAIDEN - Iron Maiden
IRON MAIDEN - Women in Uniform (EP)
IRON MAIDEN - Killers
IRON MAIDEN - Maiden Japan
IRON MAIDEN - Number of the Beast
IRON MAIDEN - Piece of Mind
IRON MAIDEN - Powerslave
IRON MAIDEN - Live After Death
IRON MAIDEN - Somewhere in Time
IRON MAIDEN - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
IRON MAIDEN - No Prayer for the Dying
IRON MAIDEN - Fear of the Dark
IRON MAIDEN - A Real Live Dead One
IRON MAIDEN - Live at Donington
IRON MAIDEN - Dance of Death
JAGUAR - Power Games
RAVEN - Rock Until You Drop
RAVEN - Wiped Out
RAVEN - Crash Bang Wallop! (EP)
RAVEN - All for One
RAVEN - Born to Be Wild (7 inch)
RAVEN - Live at the Inferno
RAVEN - Mad (EP)
RAVEN - Life's a Bitch
RAVEN - Nothing Exceeds Like Excess
SAMSON - Survivors
SAMSON - Live at Reading '81
SAMSON - Samson
SATAN - Court in the Act
SAMSON - Past, Present & Future
SAVAGE - Loose 'n' Lethal
SAXON - Saxon
SAXON - Wheels of Steel
SAXON - Strong Arm of the Law
SAXON - Denim and Leather
SAXON - The Eagle Has Landed
SAXON - Power and the Glory
SAXON - Crusader
SAXON - Innocence is No Excuse
SAXON - Rock the Nations
SAXON - Destiny
SAXON - Solid Ball of Rock
SAXON - Forever Free
SAXON - Dogs of War
SAXON - The Eagle Has Landed - Part II
SAXON - Unleash the Beast
SAXON - Metalhead
SAXON - Killing Ground
SAXON - Heavy Metal Thunder
SAXON - Lionheart
SAXON - The Eagle Has Landed III
SWEET SAVAGE - Killing Time
TANK - This Means War
TANK - Honour and Blood
TOKYO BLADE - Tokyo Blade
TOKYO BLADE - Night of the Blade
TYGERS OF PAN TANG - Wild Cat
TYGERS OF PAN TANG - Spellbound
TYGERS OF PAN TANG - Crazy Nights
TYGERS OF PAN TANG - The Cage
VARDIS - The World's Gone Mad
VARIOUS ARTISTS - Metal for Muthas
VARIOUS ARTISTS - Metal for Muthas II
VARIOUS ARTISTS - The Metallic-Era
VARIOUS ARTISTS - NWOBHM: '79 Revisited
VENOM - Antivenin (cdr comp)
WARFARE - Two Tribes (EP)
WARFARE - Pure Filth
WITCHFINDER GENERAL - Death Penalty
WITCHFINDER GENERAL - Soviet Invasion (EP)
WITCHFINDER GENERAL - Friends of Hell

Other bands I have on various comps:

A II Z
BLITZKRIEG
CHEVY
DARK STAR
EASY MONEY
E.F. BAND
ETHEL THE FROG
GASKIN
GRAND PRIX
HOLLOW GROUND
HORSEPOWER
NUTZ
PARALEX
PRAYING MANTIS
THE RAID
RED ALERT
SLEDGEHAMMER
TOAD THE WET SPROCKET
TRESPASS
VENOM
WEAPON
WHITE SPIRIT
WITCHFYNDE
XERO

And here is an online NWOBHM site with a TON of great info: http://www.nwobhm.com/

By the way, in trogspeek it's pronounced "noowobbem"!

I was wondering if Def Leppard would qualify

Yeah, the early stuff up to and (possibly) including Pyromania definitely fits. After that, they are NWOBHM by association only because their style changed SO radically. (IMO, of course )

Yeah as far as Def Leppard goes Hysteria is what drew me in, but Pyromania is good too

I honestly never ranked hysteria or even pyromania as NWOBHM album's myself. Then again , it was recorded before 1989 so I'll allow it LOL

Pyromania would have been total NWOBHM if Mutt Lange hadn't gotten ahold of it.

But Pete Willis' initial involvement in the album makes it NWOBHM enough for me.

Oh yeah man, totally. They were on NEAT Records and that right there pretty much cements it.

They also had some friends in a band called WARFARE that played a similar style without all the satanic trappings. They were also on NEAT. I'd like to track some of their stuff down again. It was good thrashy metal and some of it was just hillarious in content.

Yeah, I liked those three albums also. I always hated Venom because of their image at the beginning of my high school years. Even before I was a Christian I hated that stuff - I was brought up Catholic though.

But do you know what hooked me in? The song "AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" from the At War With Satan album! It cracked me up so much that I ended up checking out more of their stuff. (The same thing happened to me with Slayer and Mercyful Fate too.)

oh wow, I am almost wetting my pants realizing you left out.........

SLEDGEHAMMER who were one of the first NWOBHM christian bands.

I have a cut by SLEDGEHAMMER on one of my comps.

Tell me more about why you are saying they were a Christian band.

Here's a few write ups on them at nwobhm.com: http://www.nwobhm.com/shammer.htm

when I hunt down and find my metal blade comp NWOBHM 79 revisited I'll post that fine print underneath the track listing (unless i can find a legible version of it online...the print is super small, magnifying glass worthy small.) which proclaimed the bands belief in Christ.

hmmm never heard Sledgehammer

okay, from the liner notes (below the band/track information) of the NWOBHM '79 revisited on metal blade records.....

Sledgehammer
Sledgehammer is a song about sitting on the fence, pretending not to notice. Mike Cooke is now a committed Cristian and together with the other former member Terry Pearce and Ken Revell, has been working againstmanifestations of evil such as rape and pornography and therefore disclaims any suggestion that the NWOBHM is best described by a rapist's mask.