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Beyond the Valley of 1984 is the second album by punk-metal band The Plasmatics.

After the success of their first album and tour, the band began recording their follow-up album, Beyond the Valley of 1984. After the amount of time and money that was put into their last album, Bruce Kirkland at Stiff Records agreed to put up the funds as long as Rod produced and the album was done in less than 3 weeks at a quarter of the cost of the first.

Given the recent turn of events, Rod proposed the name Beyond the Valley of 1984 and the tour, in 1981, became "The 1984 World Tour". In between touring drummers, Alice Cooper's Neil Smith was brought in to do the drumming for the record, and the album, with its Orwellian and apocalyptic theme and songs such as "Masterplan", "Pig is a Pig", and "Sex Junkie", was released a few months later.

The album was recorded at THE RANCH in New York City, a studio owned by John Andrew "Andy" Parks, a singer-songwriter from Texas. A promotional tape exists with Andy doing the voice-over in an over-the-top Texan accent. The Ranch was equipped with a modified MCI JH-416 console, a 3M M-79 24-track and an Ampex ATR-102 1/4-inch two-track. Engineer Eddie Ciletti was brought in during the second phase to overdub Guitars, vocals, electric chain saw and mix.

Mixing was "unconventional," for a punk record due to rather "strict" parameters established by Rod. The record would not have any wide stereo panning, and it had to be mixed at a level low enough so that he could conduct business over the phone. The mix was done almost entirely on Auratone monitors.

During recording for the album, The Plasmatics were booked on the Tom Snyder late night TV show, where Tom Snyder introduced them as "possibly the greatest punk rock band in the entire world".

The album was re-released in 2000 by Plasmatics Media, Inc.

After the jackhammer, metal-tinged punk rock of their debut album New Hope for the Wretched, the Plasmatics got a lot more ambitious with their second long-player, 1981's Beyond the Valley of 1984. Opening with the arty gloom 'n' doom of the opening cut "Incantation," in which Wendy O. Williams and her bandmates chant in Latin (or something that sounds like it) over a plodding minor-key synthesizer line, Beyond the Valley of 1984 aims to sound bigger, more expansive and more "important" than the purposefully trashy debut, though as a consequence it also sounds a good bit more pretentious, especially when Williams launches a rant against cops, government and the press on the final cut "A Pig Is a Pig" (the latter target rather ironic, given the way the band courted media attention).

The album also includes an oddball girl group homage, "Summer Nite," about Williams losing the man of her dreams at a rock show (the Angels, of "My Boyfriend's Back" fame, add backing vocals), and an eight-minute instrumental, "Plasma Jam," which wears out its welcome at the half-way mark. However, the band does sound noticeably tighter and more potent on this disc; Richie Stotts and Wes Beech's guitar work is strong enough to pull off the metal-influenced leads they were straining for on New Hope, and the addition of former Alice Cooper skinsman Neal Smith on drums was an inspired choice, with his solid, muscular hard rock chops a genuine improvement over Stu Deutsch's work on the debut (and imagine what a record this could have been if the Billion Dollar Babies had all been hired as Wendy O.'s backing band?).

And Williams' vocals are much improved, having developed a welcome touch of nuance in the year separating the two LPs, though she still barks more than she sings. Beyond the Valley of 1984 sounds like the soundtrack to a show which leaves you without the excitement of watching the band blow things up, but it does reveal a more distinct musical personality than the group's earliest recordings, and suggests they could have won a following with the thrash metal crowd if they'd emerged a few years later.

Metal Priestess is the 1981 EP by punk-metal band The Plasmatics, fronted by Wendy O. Williams.

Dan Hartman, who produced acts such as .38 Special and James Brown, among others, had been working on a session in LA when he picked up a copy of Beyond the Valley of 1984 and couldn't stop playing it. It was "ground breaking," he said. "I knew I wanted to meet these people and do something with them." Dan came down to the Tribeca loft where he met Wendy O. Williams and Rod Swenson and a month later he and Rod Swenson were working on the production of the Metal Priestess EP.

The creation of the EP is a result of the needing to release something due to their popularity, with an album being premature, partly because Capitol Records was now making overtures for the next one. Metal Priestess was recorded at Dan's private studio off his schoolhouse turned home and studio in Connecticut and released early in the fall of 1981.

The EP received an alternative cover the same year through the Passport (PVC/Jem) record label.

In 2002, the EP was re-released through Plasmatics Media, LTD on the New Hope for the Wretched re-release.

01.Incantation (Beauvoir, Swenson) 2:13
02.Masterplan (Stotts, Swenson) 3:10
03.Headbanger (Stotts, Swenson) 3:25
04.Summer Nite (Stotts, Swenson) 4:46
05.Nothing (Beauvoir, Swenson) 3:42
06.Fast Food Service (Stotts, Swenson) 1:22
07.Hit Man [Live Milan] (Beech, Swenson) 3:46
08.Living Dead (Stotts, Swenson) 3:46
09.Sex Junkie (Beech, Stotts, Swenson) 3:08
10.Plasma Jam [Live Milan] (Beech, Stotts) 8:08
11.Pig Is a Pig (Beech, Swenson) 4:55

Bonus Album: Metal Priestess 1981
01.Lunacy
02.Doom Song
03.Sex Junkie (live)
04.Black Leather Monster
05.12 Noon
06.Masterplan (live)