Nazareth-No Mean City (1979)

In the mid-seventies, Nazareth's sound shifted towards a more melodic direction, which diminished their credibility within the hard rock community and among their own fans. Therefore, with "Expect No Mercy" (1977), they returned to a harder sound with an album packed with powerful hard rock tracks. A year later, they repeated the formula with "No Mean City", the band's tenth album. By then, the Scottish band had expanded with the addition of guitarist Zal Cleminson, formerly of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, adding greater depth to Nazareth's unmistakable style. Replete with memorable moments like the irresistible hard rock track “Simple Solution”, which structurally recalls “Free Wheeler” from the legendary “Loud ’n’ Proud” of years past, while the energetic “Just To Get Into It” and the dark and heavy “Claim To Fame” once again leave that lingering taste of the band's powerful and forceful hard rock. Meanwhile, the rhythmic “No Mean City (Parts 1 & 2)” brings us back to Nazareth at their most dynamic. On the opposite end of the spectrum are “May The Sunshine” and “Star”, tracks with folk influences that alternate acoustic sounds with catchy choruses. Despite the positive reception from their fans, the band would choose with the following album "Malice In Wonderland" to return to playing with AOR sounds, combining the sound of melodic rock with powerful hard rock tracks, which meant acceptance or resignation (depending on how you look at it), from some sectors of their large legion of followers.

Toto-Hydra (1979)

After the enormous success of Toto's self-titled debut album, the American band decided to continue exploring new sounds and avoid becoming stuck in melodic rock geared towards radio hits. Unlike their debut, on their second full-length album, keyboardist David Paich didn't unilaterally take the reins of songwriting, as he had on their first album. Here, of the eight tracks, four are credited to the rest of the band, while Paich himself wrote the remaining four and co-wrote the other four. Due to David Paich's affinity for progressive rock, "Hydra" features more complex and ambitious tracks, such as the opening, progressive title track, "Hydra", which culminates in the following track, "St. George and the Dragon", in a kind of small conceptual suite. With “99”, the band returns to its comfort zone: melodic and addictive AOR, closing the first side with the epic and dynamic “Lorraine”. For the second side of the album, the band reserves its more rock-oriented tracks, such as “All Us Boys”, a hybrid of hard rock and melodic rock, the powerful “Mama”, the potent “White Sister”, and the ballad “A Secret Love”. These tracks bring to a close a release that, despite being musically far superior, received less commercial success than their debut. Even so, “Hydra” would reach high positions on the charts, achieving both gold and platinum status.

Birth Control-Backdoor Possibilities (1976)

"Backdoor Possibilities" was the sixth album by the German band Birth Control, considered one of their most ambitious works, though somewhat overshadowed by the success of its predecessor, "Plastic People", released the previous year. Conceived as a concept album based on the story of a powerful corporate executive trapped by his own success, who ultimately reflects on his life and commits suicide on the subway, it maintains the band's musical philosophy, fusing rock with jazz and symphonic passages. Featuring the same lineup as the previous album, with the addition of vocalist Bernd Noske, this new release showcases the band's brilliant compositional creativity, along with superb arrangements and excellent musicianship, including impressive instrumental passages. The album is mainly divided into three extensive suites "One first of April", Beedeepees and "La Cigüena de Zaragoza", where they show that characteristic humor inherited from Frank Zappa and those classic arrangements influenced by Gentle Giant, while their hard rock roots appear in the melodic "No Time to Die".

Budgie-Squawk (1972)

One of the best bands in British hard rock was the Welsh group Budgie, who released a series of fantastic albums, almost all of which are now considered cult classics in the proto-hard rock and early heavy metal community. Founded in Cardiff in the late 1960s, their initial lineup consisted of bassist Burke Shelley, drummer Ray Phillips, and guitarists Brian Goddard and Tony Bourge. In 1971, they released their first album on the MCA label, though Goddard was no longer with the band, thus solidifying their status as a powerful power trio. On this debut album, Budgie showcased their effervescent hard rock sound in a very early stage, featuring powerful guitar riffs and constant rhythmic shifts. A year later, and under the same label, came "Squawk", which, with a superb cover by Roger Dean, definitively confirmed the band's progression and maturity. It featured outstanding tracks such as the progressive "Young Is A World", with its great keyboard passages, and the powerful "Whisky River", "Hot As A Docker's Armpit", "Drugstore Woman", and the heavy "Stranted", while the bucolic "Make Me Happy" added a melodic touch to this interesting album from the Welsh band. A year later came the band's magnum opus and one of the best albums of the 1970s, the monumental "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend".

UFO-A Conspiracy Of Stars (2015)

Well into the 21st century, the legendary UFO were experiencing a second, or perhaps more accurately, third youth, after so many years in the music industry. In 2015, the band still retained three of its original members (Phil Moog, Paul Raymond, and Andy Parker), along with guitarist Vinnie Moore and drummer Rob De Luca. That year they released their twenty-first studio album, "A Conspiracy of Stars", an album that holds its own against many of their earlier works, especially those from their second phase in the 1980s. The distinctly 70s-tinged style of Vinnie Moore's powerful guitar work, the spectacular vocals of the seasoned Phil Moog, and the force and power of the rest of the band resulted in an album brimming with energy and intensity. Songs of tremendous hard rock hits such as "The Killing Kind", "Run boy Run", "The Real Deal", "Ballad of the Left Hand Gun", "One and Only" or "Devil's In The Detail", continue to give great credibility to a band that in 2015 had behind it more than 50 years of fruitful and successful career.