The Screaming Blue Messiahs, a postpunk/blues/rockabilly power trio led by glowering chrome-dome guitarist and shouter Bill Carter, were one of the best bands of the 1980s, period. Their debut album was a collection of ear-blistering songs propelled by gigantic, booming drums as Carter’s guitar clanged and scraped in a way that combined early U2 with the metallic noise-worship of Neil Young at his most electrified. The ranting lyrics, meanwhile, were full of surrealist Americana imagery (Cadillacs, JFK, soaring into the empty sky in a jet) and a fierce apocalypticism. They’d get heavier on subsequent releases, but this album is a bolt of lightning.