Head On Into NWOBHM

I haven't done a good job of keeping up with collecting New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records. I had been steadily picking up pieces but saw it come to a grinding halt in recent years. Picking up the Gaskin record from Tim's collection earlier this year was a good reminder that I needed to get back to it. I don't spend the time obsessing over the NWOBHM like I used to, but there are still a number of classic records that I still need to get into my collection.

Recently I'd taken a roadtrip with my friend Jeff to catch a show over in New Hampshire, and since Jeff is also a big NWOBHM fan I set it up so that we would be listening to a lot of it while we were on the road. One of the albums that we listened to was Samson's Head On. Samson were one of those cornerstone NWOBHM bands in the early 80's, and had Bruce Dickinson on vocals for a couple of records before he joined Iron Maiden... and after listening to the songs with Jeff in the car, mentioning that I still didn't own the vinyl for the Head On album, I knew that I needed to make filling that hole in my collection a priority.

It's kind of wild that it has taken me this long to pick up a Samson album. This is such a NWOBHM classic.

Riding With Samson

Before Bruce Dickinson joined Iron Maiden late in '81, he was the man behind the mic for Samson. They were a pretty big deal in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal scene at the time, and recorded a couple of albums with "Bruce Bruce" before he split for bigger stages with Maiden. Still those early Samson albums are a good time, and I can't believe that I still don't own them.

I've been obsessing over NWOBHM records a bit this year, specifically the singles from that period, and so when I saw this 7 inch for Samson, I figured that I'd it was a good time to finally add a piece of Samson vinyl to the collection. I wouldn't normally go for a picture disc, but since the regular 7 inch pressing didn't come with a picture sleeve, I guess the picture disk is the most attractive option.

I'm all about the exclusive b-side song on singles, and Little Big Man from Samson is a killer. I'm glad that I finally found this long lost song. Now maybe I will finally get off my ass and pick up those Dickinson-era Samson albums!