'80s Metal History (March 13th)

March 13, 1982: Mötley Crüe played Chuck Landis' Country Club in Reseda, California. Promoting their self-released "Too Fast For Love" on their own label, Leathür Records, Crüe were getting close to a major label deal, signing with Elektra a few months later.

March 13, 1988: DIO with opener Megadeth performed in Sacramento, California. A day earlier, they played SoCal and the headline for the review in the L.A. Times was "Dio Upstaged By Megadeth At Long Beach". Metallica did the same to Ozzy two years earlier.

March 13, 1990: Damn Yankees released their debut album in North America, featuring singles "Coming Of Age", "Come Again" and "High Enough"... the latter reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The band toured with Bad Company, Poison and Jackyl.

Damn Yankees debut release date source: The Hard Report radio trade publication - March 2, 1990; The Hard Report spotlight - March 16, 1990; Billboard Magazine ad - March 24, 1990; Debuted Billboard 200 album chart on March 31, 1990.

March 1981: Krokus released their fifth studio album "Hardware" in North America (one month earlier in the UK) featuring singles "Easy Rocker" and "Rock City". The album didn't match the success of the previous year's "Metal Rendez-vous", but the band came roaring back in 1982 with "One Vice At A Time".

Krokus "Hardware" release information source: [US] FMQB radio trade publication 'notes 2 weeks since release' - March 20, 1981; LP debuted on Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart on April 4, 1981; [UK] Record Mirror ad - February 7, 1981.

March 13, 2018: Judas Priest launched the "Firepower" World Tour in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

March 13, 2007: Black Sabbath released the single "The Devil Cried" from "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years". A year earlier the band was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, 11 years after becoming eligible, but Ronnie James Dio excluded 🤨 Release date source: Blabbermouth.net - February 26, 2007.

March 1988: "White To The Top (Baby)", nearly a year after the release of "Whitesnake 1987", frontman David Coverdale reflected on the band's most successful album... "I must be doing something right." -Kerrang!

Italian extreme metal band Bulldozer released their major-label debut album "The Day Of Wrath" in 1985 on Roadrunner Records, who the band felt failed to promote the album effectively and chose cover art they deemed cartoonish.

Remembering Warlord co-founder and guitarist Bill Tsamis, who would have celebrated a birthday today (March 13, 1961). Bill died in 2021 at age 60. R.I.P.

March 1984: After getting a worldwide record deal, Norwegian rockers TNT issued a five-track EP featuring re-recorded versions (sung in English) of songs from their '82 debut EP before beginning work on their debut album. -Kerrang!

March 13, 2007: Dokken released "From Conception: Live 1981", supposedly from before the band's 1982 debut album "Breaking The Chains". Jeff Pilson is listed as bassist, but Juan Croucier played bass for Dokken until '82. 🤔 Release date source: Blabbermouth.net - January 19, 2007.

March 1990: Kerrang! reported "Slayer will begin recording a new album, titled 'Seasons Of The Abyss', next month... likely to be Slayer's fastest, most intense offering to date..."