Nazareth

After spending much of 1981 involved in a successful tour, Nazareth returned to the studio with a newfound sense of vigor the next year. The album they produced was 2XS, an outing that stands alongside Malice in Wonderland as one of their finest achievements during the 1980s. Although its sound goes for the sonic sleekness of AOR, it does not skimp on the hard rock elements. For instance, "Love Leads to Madness" boasts the kind of sumptuous power ballad melody that helped it become a radio favorite but is also layered with plenty of surprisingly heavy power chords. 2XS also finds the group cranking out some of their most furious rockers since the days of Expect No Mercy and No Mean City:

Razamanaz is the third studio album by the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, released in 1973. It was the band's first LP record to break the charts and was produced by Deep Purple's Roger Glover who the band was on tour with at the time. Loud 'n' Proud is the fourth studio album by Nazareth, and their second to be released in 1973.

After putting themselves on the hard rock map with Razamanaz, Nazareth took their new, forceful style even further the next year on Loud & Proud. With Roger Glover once again at the controls, the group added even higher levels of distortion and energy to create one of the hardest rocking items in their catalog: "Go Down Fighting" starts the album with a sonic boom thanks to its blend of furious riffing with a breathless tempo, and the group's cover of "Teenage Nervous Breakdown" transforms this Little Feat into a runaway locomotive of hard rock riffing. However, the album's definitive moment of heaviness is their extended reworking of Bob Dylan's "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," which drenches the tune in ungodly levels of feedback to create an ominous, horror movie-style feel.

After slowly but surely building a fanbase around the world with albums like Razamanaz and Loud 'N' Proud, Nazareth finally hit the big time in 1975 with Hair of the Dog. The title track sets the mood for this stark album of hard rock with its combination of relentless guitar riffs, a throbbing, cowbell-driven beat, and an angry vocal from Dan McCafferty that denounces a "heart-breaker, soul-shaker." The end result is a memorably ferocious rocker that has become a staple of hard rock radio stations.

After putting themselves on the hard rock map with Razamanaz, Nazareth took their new, forceful style even further the next year on Loud & Proud. With Roger Glover once again at the controls, the group added even higher levels of distortion and energy to create one of the hardest rocking items in their catalog: "Go Down Fighting" starts the album with a sonic boom thanks to its blend of furious riffing with a breathless tempo, and the group's cover of "Teenage Nervous Breakdown" transforms this Little Feat into a runaway locomotive of hard rock riffing. However, the album's definitive moment of heaviness is their extended reworking of Bob Dylan's "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," which drenches the tune in ungodly levels of feedback to create an ominous, horror movie-style feel.

Nazareth's second album of 1974 finds the group tempering the four-on-the-floor hard rock attack they developed on Loud and Proud by working a surprising and effective Southern rock edge into the songs. The end result is an album that sounds like a crossbreeding of early AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd at their hardest rocking. Some of the country-tinged highlights include "Glad When You're Gone," a funny kissoff to an unwanted lover that pairs hillbilly-styled singing with wah-wah-drenched guitar riffs, and "Jet Lag," a tongue-in-cheek look at life as a touring rock & roller that is driven by some.

Rock 'n' Roll Telephone is the twenty-third album by Scottish rock band Nazareth, released in June 2014 by Union Square Music. It is their last album with original singer Dan McCafferty who left the group before its release…