Grim Reaper: Rock You To Hell (blue vinyl) [REAPER]

Why you'll love it

This limited edition presses the album on blue vinyl in a gatefold jacket. Rock You to Hell gave the British band their biggest moment, as the title track's video rotated on MTV's Headbangers Ball and album-oriented rock radio.

This edition

• Blue vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Limited edition

About the album

Every metal fan of a certain age remembers where they were when they first saw the video for "Rock You to Hell." The clip had the band EZO in jail and a cameo from Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna, and it put the British band on screens across North America thanks to regular rotation on Headbangers Ball.

Producer Max Norman recorded and mixed the album at Atlantic Studios in New York, and he gave the band a big, glossy sound to match the ambition. Steve Grimmett's soaring voice leads the charge on the title track, "Night of the Vampire" and "Lust for Freedom," while Nick Bowcott's riffs and arrangements drive "When Heaven Comes Down" and "Rock Me 'Til I Die." Dave Wanklin on bass and Marc Simon on drums keep it all galloping, and "You'll Wish That You Were Never Born" and "I Want More" bring it home at full tilt.

It was the classic line-up's last album, and Grimmett later revived the name for Walking in the Shadows in 2016. Garry Sharpe's cover art remains a fine example of the era's approach to subtlety, which is to say there wasn't any.

Also at Kops: more Grim Reaper on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Reaper Records (cat# GRIMM03), a reissue of the 1987 album.