Dark Room by The Angels

Dark Room, the Angels' 1980 album, came out in June that year on Liberation Music, and it catches the Adelaide band at the height of their pub-rock rampage. John Brewster produced it and keeps it lean and loud: his rhythm guitar locked in with brother Rick's lead, Chris Bailey's bass and Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup's drums driving from below, and Doc Neeson up front, howling like a man possessed.

This is hard-driving boogie with every ounce of fat trimmed off, and it made the Australian top 10 between No Exit and Night Attack, with "No Secrets" going top 20 as a single. Abroad, the band's records had to go out as Angel City to dodge similarly named acts, a name they never warmed to. Guns N' Roses and Pearl Jam later counted the Angels as an influence, and one spin of this makes the case.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.