So I had a strange encounter at a used record store. With the help of the friendly (if not extremly pierced) clerk, he pointed me towards a couple of bands with a very 80's sound that came well after the 80's.

The first one he hooked me up with is a band called Hammerfall. Imagine all the style of a Big Hair Metal band from the mid 80's, but with the power of the 90's. I cant remember the name of the album that I picked up (Crimson Thunder, I think it was) - but man did that rock!

The other one I got was a german techno group called Welle-Erdball. They're kind of like kraftworks merged with the synth-pop that was so big in the 80's. And they use an old Commidore 64 for some of the effects and music - how cool is that?

Imagine that - two bands from the 00's that dont completly suck. What is the music industry coming to?

Anyway, I'm asking the peanut gallery - any other suggestions of bands from the last 10 or so years that have emulated the 80's sound?

Andrew W.K. and The Sounds imitate different 80s styles. But what do I know? I associate the 80s with Sonic Youth, Husker Du, and the Replacements, not Twisted Sister or RATT.

Hammerfall are at the forefront of a revival of the classic NWOBHM sound in Europe. If you liked Crimson Thunder, I would recommend any of their other recordings, as they follow the same formula. The EP "I Want Out" features killer covers of the Helloween song of the same name and Rainbow's "Man on the Silver Mountain."

In Flames is a side project of the guitarist from Hammerfall, but they have more of a modern death metal/speed metal sound.

I would also highly recommend the bands Dream Evil (pure 80's sound), Gamma Ray (former members of Helloween), and Blind Guardian (more modern sounding but very powerful).

It's nice that were all entitled to our own opinion, with that said I associate the wonderful 80's with Twisted Sister and Ratt along with many other bands of that style, loved hair - metal then still love it today maybe even more...

Never heard of In Flames called as a side project before. I think their guitarist did Hammerfall's first album, but didn't contribute to any of their later albums. In Flames is probably the first melodic death metal band, which is basically 80's thrash and NWOBHM sound with death metal vocals.

Errrrr Jason,
Have you checked out www.metal-rules.com ? I have a feeling you'd like the site and the board. Allot of those bands are there.

Great question.

Here's a few off the top of my head...
Slaughter, Firehouse, Trixter, Babylon AD, Baton Rouge
well, HEY! technicaly they all came first out in 1990 and 1991!!
it always annoyed me when I would look at "Best of 80's Rock" CD's and half the songs were from 1990-1992, anyway...

ok, ok, I'll be serious..

like someone said above, Hammerfall is wonderful. Great Priest/Maiden/Dio sounding stuff.

but my favorite new band has got to be the Darkness, by far the best band in 10 years, actual singing, actual guitar solos, long hair and david lee roth outfits, the over the top rockstar attitude. the best.

I just bought the Darkness for $8 at Target. Haven't played it yet though.

There are lots of good pop/power pop bands with an 80's sound.

If you like 80's Spanish pop, the La Oreja De Van Gogh albums sometimes feel a lot like Mecano or Flans..

And Ana Torrojas new releases have a few songs just like her big hits in the 80's.

The Darkness
The Donnas
Ima Robot

they all have an 80's sound to me, and I love them all.

hmm The Faint which sounds like a ripped off Duran Duran.

I haven't checked out Hammerfall, but of course Halford and Maiden and Dio are still going strong today, so I don't feel much need for "substitutes".

For fans of 80s synthpop, I definitely recommend seeking out current bands like Mesh and De/vision.