1985, the year Phenomena was released, was very much a watershed year for yours truly in terms of musical direction. Up until that point, although a nascent metal fan, my tastes had been broadly defined by the current crop of UK hopefuls: Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Motorhead and Saxon chief among them and, to be honest, I'd never really delved back into the history and roots of the music we all love. This was partly due to a lack of money (I was still at school at the time) and partly due to the fact I was stubborn and lived by the bands I loved at the time. Two albums released in 1985 changed everything for me. The first is obviously the Phenomena album given that your reading the review whilst the second will become apparent in my next installment in this series.

So lets talk about Phenomena. Actually it's a pretty ordinary album in nearly every respect and I only bought the LP (remember this was before the days of the CD) because it was heavily advertised in Kerrang! The songs aren't anything special, sure the opening pairing of Kiss of Fire and Still The Night are decent but other than that it's pretty forgettable fare. None of the musicians on the album, with the possible exception of the late Cozy Powell are virtuosos. There's no Steve Vai/Eddie Van Halen shredding, no Billy Sheehan bass runs and no Rick Wakeman-esque prog-tastic keyboards. So why did this album have such an effect - one reason and one reason alone, vocalist Glenn Hughes.

Not for nothing is Hughes known these days as the voice of rock. Even back in 1985 when he was in the midst of his own personal drug hell he could still sing the telephone book and make it sound interesting. On the back of the Phenomena album I desperately needed to hear more of that voice. Next up was Gary Moore's Run For Cover back in the days when Moore still rocked out and even though Hughes only contributed vocals to four songs it was enough. From Gary Moore it was an easy path to Thin Lizzy and the mighty Phil Lynott. However it was Hughes'  next outing that really made the difference.

Touted as a Black Sabbath album Seventh Star was really a Tony Iommi solo record that had the Black Sabbath attached under duress from the record company. Hughes again provided superlative vocals and I was hooked. I had to check out the Black Sabbath catelogue and hence "discovered" the equally superb Ronnie James Dio and of course Ozzy and from there it was more baby steps to Rainbow, Deep Purple, Whitesnake and the whole incestuous family that was British metal in the 70's. Even more intriguingly I bought tickets to catch Black Sabbath on the Seventh Star tour. Unfortunately Hughes was unable to fulfill the touring cycle due to his ongoing drug problems and the late Ray Gillen was recruited in his stead. This of course led on to Gillen singing on the second Phenomena album as well as joining former Ozzy guitarist Jake E Lee is the rather good Badlands - told you it was incestuous!

So there you go one chance purchase led me right back to the beginnings of metal and throughout the glam era I guiltily dug out my Rainbow, Whitesnake and Deep Purple cassettes in moments of solitude and played them till the tapes stretched and ultimately snapped.