4a) Heavy Medal

4a1) Take Five: Heart of Thunder

An adrenaline pumping short stack of heavy medal motivation. For those who dare with hearts of thunder to go beyond, I salute you.

4a2) I but follow the masters. In this case, Hollywood Steve Huey at the Beyond Yacht Rock podcast.

There’s a fanfare of synthesizers, typically, that open the song to warm up the listener for the battle at hand. The meat? Hard-driving rhythms, a rough-and-ready guitar, and a vocalist who can hit the high registers. Lyrics are filled with metaphors: things are always on fire and people are on the edge.

 
Beyond Yacht Rock – Heavy Medal 

4a3) John Farnham "Break the Ice" from Rad (1986)

4a) Daily Zen

 

4a1) VH1 Behind the Music: Def Leppard

4a2) One of my favorite episodes of BtM. This is a later cut featuring updates on Def Leppard that were probably unnecessary, but most of it is still classic.