Old Skool Thrash

Just listening to Metallical ...and Justice

and got thinking.

Mid '80's thrash metal. I haven't got much, but the stuff I have is really good. At the time (the 80's that is) I was buying Bon Jovi and guns and roses pap.

Only got in to thrash in my 30's after seeing Metallica supporting AC/DC at Donnington.

Anyone got some recommendations for good old thrashy stuff?

 

Hi Jshack

I'll have a go.

Thrash was on the edge of what I was listening to at the time, so my reccomedations wont be as complete as some.

Old metallica - cant beat -
ride the lightening (my favorite at the time)
master of puppets
and justice for all

My other favorite at the time was Megadeth.
Some real classics, from when Dave Mustaine first set them up..
like..
peace sells
so far so good so what?

Nice artwork, I always thought too..



If youve already got a Megadeth and Metallica back catalogue, I cant really help you...

I remember Slayer were a lot heavier, and my mates liked them at the time, but it wasnt my cup of tea chap.

All the best
Chris

NB
grrrrr my link wont work. If you click on it though, you'll get taken to a great Megadeth site.

 

Cheers matey,

Go the Meatallica stuff. Me? Probably puppets, but they're all good apart from kill 'em all, which I regard as a bit of practice before ride the lightening.

Mustaine? don't like his voice, basically he can't sing, and that puts me off a band. (indie bands especially, why do they never get a bloke who can sing?).

Anyway, Slayer too right - to fast, too well, unmisical (which is strange coming from a thrash thread). My faves are Metallica and Anthrax from then.

Ony others of a similar vein?

 

God Anthrax!!

I used to like them too. Id forgotten about them.
All my music was on tapes back then,... had about 200 of them... chucked the lot a few years ago because the recording quality was so utterly pap.

Sorry mate, thats about all I was into thrash wise... I was more into van halen and iron maiden and things like that at the time...

in fact, Ive just bought my favorite maiden album of all time.. Im expecting it in the post in a few days.. cant wait .. this is REAL throwback stuff to me... I used to be a HUUUUGE maiden fan.... this is one of my favorite album covers of all time too...



hope this one works!

 

john Zorn - naked city

 

Cheers Johnhunt,

Zorn, pray tell more?

 

This is Zorn's infamous turn-on-a-dime band. Although they can play any style of music, the majority of their songs are noisy and complex. At any moment, a beautiful melody can degenerate into a hurricane of white noise  and then suddenly switch to something else. They've taken everything aggressive about jazz and heavy metal, blended it together, and tightened it. They are disciplined players, but the music is a lot of fun.

They look like a rock band: drums, electric guitar, bass, keyboards, and saxophone. On four of the albums, Yamatsuka Eye adds his unique vocals. He howls and snorts like a maniac instead of singing. It's very entertaining. (He is sometimes credited as "Yamataka Eye.")

The band formed in 1989, playing live before they recorded their first album. They recorded their final album in December of 1992. In 2002, Zorn began releasing live albums.

The series includes an album of ambient music (Absinthe), the soundtrack for an SM film (Heretic), an album that consists of a single 30-minute track (Leng Tch'e), a live album (Knitting Factory 1989), and four albums of hardcore/jazz/rock fusion (Radio, Naked City, Grand Guignol, Torture Garden).

Every member of the band has released a number of solo albums and played on other Zorn projects.

What are the chaces you'd like this then?
Go for some Napalm Death instead!! Or Bolthrower... or Venom...

 

early megadeth is definately in the metalica vein as dave mustaine (megadeths frontman) was origionally in metallica (and sued them for writing credit on kill 'em all) but was fired due to his heroin habit which he's battled ever since. megadeth haven;t done that much that is as thrashy as metallica and went 'mainstream' earlier than metallica in my opinion. so far, so good, so what and peace sells, so who's buying? are the seminal megadeth albums imho.
other stuff to try include those mentioned before but i'd also recommend queensryche - operation mindcrime
ministry
nine inch nails - broken.
white zombie / rob zombie - watch out as there are a lot of albums of re-mixes.

napalm death is probably going a little too far but...
cheers

julian

 

Ah, old skool thrash. That brings back the memories!! Back in the day, Metallica were about the only band I listened to (Ride the Lightning is still my favourite). Thankfully Faith No More opened my mind a bit!

Anyway, don't forget Sepultura's early stuff, especially their 'Arise' album. The title track has the fastest drums I have every heard - it still brings a smile to my face!

Honourable mention to Pantera too - 'A Vulgar Display of Power' is a great, raw, angry album. Both bands offered something different to run of the mill 80s thrash bands and are well worth checking out.

If you're stuck for ideas, you could always trawl through this list: http://go.to/thrashlist. Some of the band names are hilarious if nothing else. I remember Chronical Diarrhoea (yes, really!!) getting the worst review of any band ever in one issue of Kerrang!

PS I know it's nit-picking, but I wouldn't really class Queensryche as thrash, more prog rock, but Operation Mindcrime is a great album never the less.

Keep on moshing,

D.

 

danzig,
take another listen to spreading the disease from mindcrime. to me it';s got more in common with metalica than with yes or rush. mindcrime is a 'concept' album in that it tells a story and even has some calm songs on it however i'd class it in the speed or thrash category as one and fade to black are pretty calm too in places.

just my humble opinion.

cheers


julian

 

Hmm - I'm still not convinced that Queensryche are thrash Julian. Maybe it is an attitude thing or some inverted heavy metal snobbery (!?) on my part, but Queensryche seem too intellectual and have too diverse an output to be labelled thrash. (Hehe, this reminds me of some old playgound arguements!). Anyway I found the following Metal Forces interview with Geoff Tate of Queensryche: http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~bigoleg/queensryche/om/features/mf29.html

MF: "Where do you think QUEENSRYCHE fits then in this over-crowded metal scene?"

GT: "That's an interesting question! We're sort of on our own really! The best category I've seen us classified under is 'Progressive Metal', I think that's a good comparison."

How about that for a compromise?

(As you can see I had a lot of time on my hands this afternoon!)

D.

 

danzig,

purely in the spirit of being argumentative and burning another couple of minutes of your afternoon.....

metallica could also have this comment levelled at them, they've played with symphony orchestras. their most powerful songs are comments on the state of society and war and their origional stuff when cliff was in the band was almost classical in structure.

to me thrash means the ability to play very fast with a lot of energy and some of qr's songs on mindcrime fit this bill perfectly. not having heard any other qr albums bar empire (which i no longer have and haven;t replaced which may tell you something) i'm speaking of this album only.

cheers


julian

 

Hmm, well I'm a bit pissed now, but I think I'll try and prolong the agony by disagreeing with you Julian.

Well, I would say that Metallica are no longer the old skool thrash band that they once were so maybe you can compare the Metallica of the recent past with Queensryche, but that still doesn't make Queensryche thrash.

In fact I think Metallica have lost the plot a bit anyway. I think that everything after the Black Album (apart from Garage Inc) sucked. As for their intellect, well I think they get a lot more credit than they deserve on that front. Cliff Burton dying was a big loss to them I think.

And Justice For All was just a technical wank fest with a distinct lack of songs. They gained loads of praise for the One video, but it was the director's idea to insert clips from'Johnny Got His Gun' into the band video. They didn't actually like it when the director showed them that cut and wanted those inserts removed, so two versions of the video were released as a compromise.

As for the symphony orchestra thang, you made a good point that their early stuff had a seemingly classical structure, but I think the decision to team up with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra was purely a marketing one, designed to maximise their customer base. I'm sure I read somewhere that this was not instigated by the band.

As a final crushing blow, dismissing any notion of Metallica as intellectual, I submit some James Hetfield lyrics:

Enter Sandman: 'dreams of war, dreams of liars, dreams of dragon's fire, and of things that will bite'.

Until It Sleeps: 'So tear me open, pour me out, there's things inside that scream and shout'

Thrash is about speed I agree, but it also about anger and an unrelenting, consistent, in your face directness. That's not Queensryche.

Um, I can't type any more - need sleep. Hope this isn't drunken rambling gibberish! lol

D.

 

danzig,

to answer your intoxicated gibberings...

cliff burton WAS metallica. as i've said before imho, you could hear the point where he died on justice. the songs lost all of their cleverness, wit and inteligence. the appointment of glam producer bob rock (ace bassist though he may be) says where their sensibilities went after that.

i was using the orchestra thing as a case in point.

some qr lyrics...
25 bucks a f*ck and johns a happy man, she wipes away the filth and it's back on the streets again. spreading the disease....

direct, angry, in your face and some fast guitar riffs i'd call that thrash.

don;t get me wrong i'm not saying that qr are ONLY a thrash band in the way that pantera or slayer are or metalica were. but if you include the current incarnation of metalica in the heading 'thrash' than i don;t see how you can not include qr - especially mindcrime in the same heading.

cheers


julian

 

Woohoo! No hangover for me! Anyway:

Ah, but that was one of my points - I don't. See

Okay, maybe QR have a few songs that are that way, but would this describe the vast majority of their songs (i.e. what I meant by consistency)? No. Therefore they are not thrash. I win!

D.

 

danzig,
you lucky dog avoiding the penalty for a night of debauchery.

ok so you admit that some of their songs are thrash. this menas that they are within the thrash remit and COULD therefore be classified as thrash.

ha, ha, no one wins we each go away with our opinions and overinflated ego's intact. huzzar!

cheers


julian

 

Did I? Dammit, I didn't mean to - must have been a slip of the keyboard! (I still think I won ).

Anyhow, back to the music - check these out:

Testament - pure 80s old skool thrash
Corrosion Of Conformity - Deliverance. These guys were matey with Metallica but never really hit the big time. Widely regarded by other musos tho.

Moving closer to the present day...

Entombed - Wolverine Blues
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes. A superb debut which they haven't bettered.

:guitar: unk: Yeah!

D.

 

Don't forget the german 80's thrash

Kreator
Destruction
Sodom

I was on a German metal Festival last weekend called Wacken Open Air (www.wacken.com) and saw some other good old fashioned thrash.

Holy Moses - Don't be fooled by the fact they have a female singer.... She grunts more brutally than most men....charming...
Assassin - released two thrash albums in the mid 80's then split up. They recently got back together and as I've been informed will be releasing anew album in the forseeable future.
Slayer was a bit of a dissapointment on that fest. They seemed to be playing in too much of a routine way. Of course they've played many large gigs, but they did not seem to be very much impressed by 25000 people moshing about on the field. Although they played all of the Reign in Blood album I got bored only after a few songs. The sound might have played a role, being not loud enough...

Back to Thrash in general another good one is Agent Steel... The high pitched vocals might not be everyones cup of tea, but the riffs kill!