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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“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.