1990. It was a new year, the first one in the last decade of the millennium. A gallon of gas cost about 99 cents. Fat chicks had a new friend called spandex that would grow with them, and Dana Carvey was doing the best Bush impersonation ever seen.

There was also a radio show called Nasty Habits, which aired every Sunday night from 11pm - 2am. This program used a streaming technology called "FM" to transmit heavy and thrash metal to a metal-depraved audience. After all, at the time the music played on Nasty Habits could not be heard on traditional, bubble gum style hard rock radio.

As today is Sunday, Dec. 30th, it was 17 years ago today on another Sunday Dec. 30, that Jeanine Lombardo the "Metal Queen" of Nasty Habits counted down a list of the top 15 metal songs of 1990. These songs were selected by listeners using a messaging technology called "The US Postal Service." My god, that must have been horrible. But it worked.

I was sifting through old cassette tapes working on transferring them to mp3s, when I came across this best-of program, just a few days ago. So I thought I would digitize it and give some of us that remember a chance to reflect back on the first year of a new decade, while on the fringe of entering the final years of our current one. Whether you grew up listening to these songs or not, I think you'll find the selection interesting. Remember, this list was voted on by "fans" and not based on record sales. Here we go:

15. No Lies (Bruce Dickinson - Tattooed Millionaire)
Although at the time I loved listening to Iron Maiden, and even Samson, I never got used to listening to Bruce solo.

14. Mr. Johnson and The Juice Crew (Scatterbrain - Here Comes Trouble)
Who the hell were Scatterbrain? I do barely remember them from these radio programs, but this was a band I don't hink went anywhere. Hard to believe they made it to a best of list.

13. Crimes Against Humanity (Sacred Reich - The American Way)
This is another band most may not heard of, but commanded a part of the underground scene for a short time.

12. Gutter Ballet (Savatage - Gutter Ballet)
Did... anyone actually like Savatage? I mean I guess they were ok but, I wouldn't ever go out and actually buy one of their albums. I think a fat chick in spandex did once.

11. Lost and Found (Prong - Beg To Differ)
Now here's a band that's been lost, but was great at the time. I remember when Prong was still "new". They had a promising sound that one would think would sustain the metal sound of the day. Until Nirvana got on the air the following year.

10. The Misery Shows (Trouble - Touble)
I barely remember Trouble, so I can't say much about them, except I can understand why I barely remember them after hearing it again.

9. The Witching (Meliah Rage- Solitary Solitude)
Most of you probably never heard of Meliah Rage. They made it to this list because they were a local Boston band. I was also told by a local musician in the late nineties that Sully from Godsmack used to be a drummer in this band. The Witching was made in 1990 and should stay in 1990.

8. Tripping on Ecstasy (Warrior Soul - Last Decade Dead Century)
This is a band I never heard of at the time, and in the last 17 years I never heard of them again. I guess they were different enough in 1990 to make it to number 8.

7. Cowboys From Hell (Pantera - Cowboys From Hell)
Now I imagine a good bunch of you are stunned to see this at 7 instead of 1. Even Jeanine Lombardo (the radio host) was both surprised and disappointed. Although Pantera had been around for years, this song was an introductory of the band to me and many others.

6. Night Crawler (Judas Priest - Painkiller)
Well, I might get razzed for this, but Preist was a bit cheesy, of course, not at the time. But listening back now, it definitely has a bit of that feeling to it. Although not musically horrible, it does seem "engineered".

5. Suicidal Tendancies (Suicidal Tendancies - Light...Camera...Revolution!)
Wow, what a great song, and what a great band. ST was definitely cutting edge for the day, and in my opinion, still passes for great unique content for todays day and age. If it weren't for this song, I'd have glassy eyes, a pushbroom mustache and be watching the religious channel right now.

4. Best I Can (Queensryche - Empire)
Now Queensryche's an impressive and talented band. I can understand why they made it high on the list. But I was never a fan. They were a bit too... dramatic for me. But I guess we loved drama in 1990.

3. In My World * (Anthrax - Persistence of Time)
Unfortunately, this song is a best guess. Songs number 3 and 2 were not on the tape I found. I am sure I remember what #2 was, but not three. However, There's no doubt it was an Anthrax song, and probably this classing from their 1990 album. If anyone disagrees, tell me what you think would be better here.

2. Seasons in the Abyss (Slayer - Season in the Abyss)
Although missing on the recording, I am almost sure this was number 2 for 1990. My memory isn't great, but I still remember listening to this show live. Anyway, lots of Slayer fans complained about this album, that it was not true "Slayer". I was not a big Slayer fan back in the eighties, so I was able to appreciate this album quite a bit, although, will agree it's quite a change of pace from previous albums.

1. Holy Wars (Megadeth - Rust In Peace)
And for number 1, who can disagree with Holy Wars? Relevant at time time as well as today, we (the USA) were in Saudi Arabia with our police caps on ready to fight another foreign war. Perhaps we can make this the number one song for 2007 as well? Rust In Peace was one of the best Megadeth albums I believe they produced and Holy Wars gets no argument from me being number 1.

Accompanied with this article is a recording of the show I made on a crappy k-mart tape recorder. I did my best to eq and remove noise from this source, it did restore better than I thought, but it still sounds highly compressed and some slight FM noise. I had to pull in a college radio signal from 25 miles away. But it's fun to listen to. The first few songs are not part of the top 15, but see if you can remember them.

To get the file, download this torrent and use your favorite Bitorrent client. If you need help with downloading it, post a comment and myself or someone else can help you out. Enjoy.