Young Toronto trio Cauldron dedicates itself to metal’s lost early Eighties, when thrash and glam bands hadn't yet gone separate ways, and low-rent burnouts in jean jackets imagined themselves stomping like Hannibal's pachyderms across the Pyrenees. Between over-the-top Flying V solos as pretty as they are speedy, and borderline tongue-in-cheek lyrics shrieked clear enough to highlight every teen-anthemic cliché, this might be metal’s catchiest album in eons. The most prominent topic is girls — "Miss You To Death" is a hilariously mythic, astoundingly melodic breakup song. And the titles of "Queen Of Fire," "Taken By Desire," and the implausible "Frozen In Fire" all rhyme.

Listen to "All or Nothing":

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“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."