The Mosh Pit 07.16.10: Thrash Break

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 07.16.2010

We take a break from the 80’s to talk thrash! We review the end of NWOBHM, the beginning of thrash, and the evolution to extreme metal. We also look at tape trading and fanzines from the 80’s as well. Plus reviews of more thrash albums from Slayer, Anthrax, Artillery, Voivod, and Kreator!

Hey punters! Welcome back to the Mosh Pit. It's Friday, I'm now free of the job that kept me away from the things that are important, and we're past the week vacation that was basically a detox program on steroids (i.e. Las Vegas). Oh yea, we're feeling good and ready to talk metal, which I have been playing all freaking week! I don't make it a habit to talk my personal life here (hey, we're here for the music) but lets just say getting that monkey off my back along with my time back is not only life affirming but you will be seeing me more around the site. Whether that is a good thing or bad is up to you and Mitch. And Ben, but its Friday and he's likely plastered so it doesn't matter.

But first, fun with feedback!






Dan Haggerty: I'm just sorry that in 20 pages of killer classic music the only thing you found of interest was a song error

Actually, Dan, I've been listening to this stuff longer than you thus nothing you've posted so far beginning with the 70s has been anything I haven't already been aware of - I just happened to catch the error and pointed it out. - Posted By: W.A.S.P.

Didn't mean to imply anything WASP, I'm just use of people talking about the music. For instance your title implies that you're a WASP fan so some feedback on your favorite albums would be cool.



Ummm, Bob Denver was Gilligan on Gilligan's Island. Halfway through you switched to him from John Denver.

Might wanna make that switch! - Posted By: Krunchy

That is what happens when you edit at midnight. Thanks man and God did I need that vacation!


No "Spreading the Disease" or "Hell Awaits"? Or maybe you waiting until 1986 and 1987 to give Anthrax and Slayer their dues? Regardless, those were good, underrated albums - Posted By: billy

You are 100% right and I predict you'll be happy with this column...


Interesting read once again Dan! How the hell do you find the time to listen to so much stuff and recollect them anyway ?? - Posted By: Cyber

Years of collecting first. I have been doing this since around 1980, and still have the vinyl to prove it! Second, I drove truck in the 90's so I had a TON of time to listen to those albums. Finally, I set time aside now so I can listen to music. I just love music, and decided a long time ago to not let go of the smaller things I love – So I schedule it if need be. One of things I believe that kills people's "souls" is to get so caught up in daily life that we forget to do the things that bring joy to our lives. I know – I've been there and it isn't pretty. I could probably write a bunch of columns just on that and my observations of how people, like I, get so caught up in that trap. People need to break it.

I'm going to keep this brief (unless anyone really wants to hear more): One of the reasons I quit that job that has distracted me from this column was because of the impact it had on my time and most importantly the greater value in my life: my family. Don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE proponent of working hard and succeeding, which is why it came first, but I also believe that you need to do that on your terms in accordance with your own values. When you stop that, it slowly starts to kill who you real are. If you're not achieving your values, then what is the point? Succeed, but succeed on your terms.

So I take time to do it because it's a "hobby" I love. A also love to read about it and obviously write about it too. For the curious, I'm also an avid reader of classic books on history and philosophy as well (something else I did "on the road"). Thus the odd long range take I present on music here. Beware the guy in the slayer shirt reading Ludwig von Mises!

I will also add, sometimes due to time I am working off of memory and don't have time to double check (or just plain come back and proof) things like I should, which is why errors creep in. Like the silly WASP error two weeks ago. Which sucks because my computer and poor html skills already have it out for me. Up to now, my usual SOP was to have an outline and some notes then sit down and just go at it fresh around 11 PM a couple nights with one of the featured albums blaring in my headphones! Something I hope my new found time corrects. I do go through the albums for this column by playing them in the car, while I write or serf the net, and when I walk or jog. So I listen to as much as I can, although some albums I've listened to for 25 years so it's easy to do.

Thanks for asking man!


Carnivore is awesome. RIP Peter Steele. - Posted By: MBD

A-fucking-Men!!!



The History Of Metal: Thrash Break!


NWOBHM – We Hardly Knew Ye…

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal arose of the 70's metal and hard rock ideal, carried by the massive imprint of Judas Priest along with the DYI attitude and aggression of punk. Outside of Sabbath ,and Priest, as well as the speed stomp at times of bands like Deep Purple and Scorpions, metal was an eclectic combination of what we know along with psychedelic rock, hard rock, progressive rock, and even the occasional folk stroke through the blues. NWOBHM took the idea of distilling it into a stainless steel machine from the immortal hands of Judas Priest, and then promptly set about running wild with the new form.

For several years the British Invasion v2.0 was state of the art metal, and more importantly it took a floundering metal scene and reinvented it for a new generation of punters. And when I use (a lot) the phrase "punters" and "jean-jackets" to describe us metalheads, this is the era I can vividly picture those terms getting rolling. It was the beginning of the 80's, a full decade after Zeppelin had upped the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll of the hippies while Black Sabbath scared the Summer of Love back to the 60's from wince it came. Ten years later, a new generation of kids, a new look, a new decade with new social and political issues, and the British Invasion beachhead launched what would become the golden age of metal in the 80's.

A lot of great music came out of this, but sadly it was only meant to be transitional in form as the "era" of NWOBHM would only last a couple of years. Part of this was how the bands would continue to evolve the music, either moving towards mainstream metal or embracing the underground. Band's like Raven would eventually become a parody of themselves when they would take their hand at the brass ring of success, quickly getting kicked to the curb when the mainstream didn't get on board while the old fans walked in disgust. Def Leppard would be the one NWOBHM band to go mainstream and actually succeed, and they did it big time. For a while.

Other bands would just run out of gas. Some of my favorite NWOBHM bands would release one killer album, maybe a second of quality, then by the third album become the proverbial car where the transmission got tossed into the wrong gear. While moving.

Diamond Head is the classic example of this. First we got the debut, which smoked with seven kinds of awesome. Borrowed Time was a quirky left step that a lot of people did not like it, but I though it had a lot of charm once you got over the fact that the band went into odd vistas. But by Canterbury the writing was on the wall. Another one was Angle Witch who pretty much blew their wad on their debut and never regrouped. Although the irony is that the later albums haven't been re-released so their incredibly collectible now.

Other bands would delve deeper into the underground. Venom was dark and nasty NWOBHM so they had pointed the way. It was only a matter of time when thrash would get rolled into it since new emerging thrash bands were big fans influenced by these British invaders. It was as if NWOBHM re-launched heavy metal, but the template was open for everyone to run with it and develop it. Its effects can be heard to this day. Just as European power metal via Gamma Ray and Blind Guardian finds Judas Priest hiding under those chords, go ahead and pull out some Dismember and you'll find some Iron Maiden love in those melodies.

And speaking of Iron Maiden. There were two NWOBHM band's that would survive the era, and the 80's to this very day doing nothing but playing the same music that brought them to the dance. The first is, of course, Iron Maiden. Maiden by the mid 80's were an institution and will continue to be to this day, outside of developing more progressive structures, or basically using their 80's epics as a template, they play the basic British Invasion ideology.

The second is our old warriors and friends Saxon, who never enjoyed Maidens level of success. Despite the good and bad critics, thirty years of road tare, virtually alone in the 90's to an enjoyed revival and royalty today, they stood tall with a motorcycle underneath, an axe in one hand with the other holding a flag planted in the metal kingdom proudly titled NWOBHM. Someone had to do it, and somehow it was fitting that Biff would (proudly) carry that flag.





Heavy Meal Fanzines

By the end of NWOBHM and the rise of thrash, heavy metal was splintering into the mainstream side and the underground side. If you liked mainstream metal, well you were in luck since everyone at school and MTV had you covered. If you liked thrash or foreign/underground bands, outside of MTV finally getting "Headbanger's Ball" out for 30 minutes a week you were pretty much shit out of luck. We didn't have the internet. Hell, the school computer had a 7' floppy disk drive and the first thing you learned was:

>10 PRINT: "UP THE IRONS!!!"
>20 GOTO 10

Sad. I know.

But an underground culture did develop to connect us elusive metal kids. It was the dawn of (metal) tape trading and fanzines. You might be the only kid with the "Metal Up Your Ass" shirt, or maybe you and a bud, but now heavy metal developed a method for fans to connect.

It was the beginning of heavy metal as a scene.

And at this stage, there was no "poseur" or "elitist" or anything besides "That looks so fucking COOL!" "Power Ballads" were going into vogue (sigh) but us fans of the deep bands started communicating indirectly. Tape trading was nothing new, and in fact is a long practiced (and label accepted!) means for music to circulate. Two guys have a tape, they trade, and bam(!) metal just increased it's following. Kids would write to bands or their managers (only worked with small bands) while they would meet each other at concerts and hook up. Word of mouth became huge to a band and by tape trading (and encouraging it) band's got their music out faster than if they relied on the labels (which most couldn't). In fact, Metallica would be one of these bands, which is why they have so many demos. They gathered a strong local fan base through them and tape trading built them fast before their debut.

Which is why Napster really pissed the old school fans off – They knew what had helped bring Metallica to fame – people trading their songs.

Mailing became a means for people to send music to each other through the post office. Certainly not the mass ability or popularity of file sharing today, and in fact still rare if you compared numbers, but it was a method for heavy metal fans to connect with each other. You might not have been able to find that Kreator tape in town, but that cool dude you met at the Maiden show had one and could hook you up. This base underground method for widely dispersed fans to connect would continue into the rise of death metal also.

Death metal eventually also use the other direct way for us young punters to not only connect, but more important learn what was out there. Like I said, we had no internet, popular metal got most of the coverage on the music channel so you got tons of coverage on Van Halen or Motley Crue, but hell I didn't even know of German thrash for a few years! Along with tape trading, this gap was also filled in the rise of the Fanzine.

Fanzines were basically "Do It Yourself" primitive mags, more like a news letter, from metal fans covering bands and tapes. While Tipper Gore was bemoaning the vile content of Twisted Sister, we were checking out Destruction or Dark Angel. The Fanzine instantly became a way for the hardcore metal fan to get (limited) access to what was hot an ultra-new.

The Fanzine was a stripped down news letter with primitive art and assembly, remember that computers (with printers) were largely unavailable for this kind of thing (typewriters were still used in our high school class for learning how to type). So if you wanted to do this, you had to type it or write it out in fancy sudo-like-font by hand. Draw up the artwork yourself. Assemble it into a master copy. Then have it copied page by page. Truly this was a vast undertaking for only the biggest fans. Many didn't make money on it, and some did it for free or postage. Why? Well, part of it was love of the subject but also if you covered bands you ended up getting access to killer new demos and even access to bands at gigs later (if you were popular enough). It was sort of like a primitive method of how sites like 411 get to cover music and get promos, CDs, and interviews today.

Fanzines were not, however, invented by heavy metal or even music. They actually got their start earlier in the century by horror and sci-fi. From the pulp magazine days, like Strange Tales of Howard and Lovercraft, fans decided to do their own coverage of their favorite genres and writers. These would actually be the seed for such things as Fangora or other horror magazines you would see later, including world specific professional magazines today for things like Star Wars or Star Trek. Back then the pulp idea was taken by the fans who ran with it.

By the 60's rock and roll fans took a cue from horror fans and developed their own fanzines. Crawdaddy! was a California based rock fanzine that was the first notable one to rise in 1966. It was so huge it eventually went professional with paid advertisements! Punk would pick this idea up in the 70's, and by the 80's heavy metal did the same thing. The 70's found metal, hard rock, and rock all one big happy family but the 80's distilled the form, and with growing popularity begged for the underground DIY attitude to fill in the holes.

Wow, I just caught a fun link. Not only did rock borrow the idea of fanzines from horror, much like how Sabbath borrowed horror for rock, the metal underground also followed punk on the idea much like it did inject punk musically. The more you change the subject, the more links you still find. Wild.

And this completely ignores the rise of popular metal magazines done professionally as well. Kerrang! was released as a one off supplement for Sounds to cover the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal as well as the rise of hard rock acts by implication. AC/DC graced the original cover, rather funny since AC/DC was already a world wide phenomena in their own right with their best albums already under their belt, but you can't blame the editors for putting a hit act on the cover to sell it. And sell it did, putting the idea of doing a metal mag fulltime in investors minds. Kerrang! would go on to cover all metal in the 80's, from Metallica to Crue. The magazine actually has taken some (natural) grief for always going with trends, but there is no doubt they did it first and remain popular to this day.

Metal Hammer was born in 1984 when one magazine entrepreneur suggest Kerrang! do an international version of their magazine and start with Germany. They refused, so German magazine MusikSzene ran with idea and developed Metal Hammer, which would go on to outsell Kerrang! by feeding a greater international market. From here the doors will blow open as others join the fray. And these mags were hot to metal fans as it was a new way to check out the bands we loved, but it didn't always feed the need for the hot new bands or the underground. Published mags by necessity covered popular acts as well. We loved Metallica, but we also wanted more!

Back to the underground, however, with fanzines underground metal fans now had their way to communicate and lean about the underground. And learn they did. Slowly, on tendrils of printed word and tapes, traded at concerts and mailed across the land, metal continued to grow. Kids connect through music. Eventually the underground would continue to grow, MTV taking notice to toss a show at the idea. Labels would support the growth and breakthroughs of band's like Metallica by giving these bands opportunities. Metal was exploding on the radio and videos, but the underground was also building a huge base as well, linked but separate. One day the mainstream metal scene would get pushed aside and those bands would enter a dark age from their high life style.

But the underground would emerge, based on its solid fan base and continued growth (and evolution), to rise into the 90's as the new face of metal. From a British Invasion injected with punk, through long haired kids trading tapes and reading fanzines, by word of mouth, the revolution was on.






Thrash As Seen From Fanzines…

And as NWOBHM started to fall to the wayside, its many splinters would see Thrash emerge as the dominant stream of metal taking to the next step. Although the story of thrash does not start with Metallica or the end of NWOBHM.

Warning: The following is thrash history through demos (i.e. only for hardcore fans and the insane). Why? Well, because I thought it would be fun to show it (albeit somewhat limited) from the point of the fan at the ground level of tape trading and fanzines…

You can actually go back to 1980 for the first steps towards thrash, at least in the world of demos. This was at the time a combination of thrash mixed with speed or NWOBHM, a sort of proto-thrash step on the evolutionary track. For example, future thrash act in Germany's Holy Moses were quite firmly in speed metal land on their 1980 demo Black Metal Masters. You got to give Holy Moses credit too for an early female singer who actually belted like one of the boys. It would take them five years to get off the ground and it would be their second album Finished With The Dogs in 1987 when they really found the full on thrash. Closer to the real thrash would be found in east coasters Overkill. Although still a punk tribute band at this point, they were already working towards the thrash sound on stage and also produced the demo Power In Black the same year (82) that Metallica started to do their demos. Much like Exodus, there has been much "What if…" if Overkill had gotten it together in 1983 like Metallica had versus waiting until 1985 to release their debut. The same rule applies to Metal Church and Exodus.

Speaking of Metallica, Lars Ulrich actually rehearsed with Metal Church in 1981, but was never invited to join the band. Metal Church would actually get their first demo Red Skies out 1981 (a year before Metallica) with two more in 1982. Unfortunately they couldn't nail a recording deal with a label until after the later demo, Four Hymns, so we had to wait until ‘84 for their self titled debut.

While Metal Church were whipping out their two demos in 1982, things started to pick up in general for the coming thrash storm. Anthrax put out their first demo which is untitled but simply known from tape trading circles as "First Demo"; they would go on to cut two more demos in 1983 as well as their first single ahead of 1984's debut Fistful Of Metal. That 7" single called Soldiers of Metal made some waves in New York and set the band up as the leader of thrash on the east coast as FoM hit.

Another good band I haven't been able to talk about yet also got their first demo out in 1982: Artillery. We Are Dead also made a splash in tape trading circles because of how unique it was. While Metallica and Metal Church were taking thrash out of NWOBHM with punk ideas, Artillery were welding punk to Sabbath for a darker more riff thrash mosh. Unfortunately Artillery couldn't get it together for two years, and after two more demos in 84 they finally got out the great debut Fear Of Tomorrow in 85. I'll be coming back to that one for sure.

Thrash crossover legends Suicidal Tendencies also cut two demos this year which easily landed them their debut in 83, while Germany's Sodom put out Witching Metal in 82 even though it would end up taking them until 86 to get their debut out. Ironically, out of the unholy trinity of German thrash Sodom got it together first but where the last to get their debut out.

As 1883 broke, Metallica released the first thrash full length Kill ‘Em All, thus winning the nuclear build up to thrash-ageddon. Armed with the most famous demos in metal history now (and the only hotly bootlegged ones as far as I can tell), you have the Hit The Lights demos in 82 quickly followed up the Ron McGovney's '82 Garage Demo, the "Power Metal Demo" (actually untitled but named after the attached business card Metallica used), the most recognized demo in metal history in No Life 'til Leather, the only demo I've heard of to get wide circulation as a T-Shirt Metal Up Your Ass, and finally the band's introduction of Cliff to their new label in 83 with the Megaforce Demo.

But as you can see, while they were the first to go prime-time with thrash Metallica didn't invent it (a popular error with casual metal fans). Many bands were already going there in the underground as well and it's interesting to see how many were also playing thrash. Of course, what Metallica started in 84 and finished in 86 is another story, as far as thrash and metal go. But that also doesn't change the growing trend of thrash in the deep underground and the impact that 83 had on bands as well. For some perspective, in 1982 you had about 30 albums (all demos) released by bands – and that includes punk/crossover bands also playing thrash. By 1984, two years later, there were over 120 demos, EPs, and full lengths released. So thrash was ramping up fast as of 83 (which has around 60 releases incidentally).

And even though there were over 60 demos and full lengths released from bands playing at least a significant portion of thrash, there were only two full lengths from pure thrash bands. Obviously the first is Metallica but the second was Slayer with Show No Mercy. These twin pillars would become half of the big four of thrash, and both would go on to genre changing albums that are hotly debated as the best albums in the whole metal canon.

So with 83, thrash was now set loose and officially gearing up for the big explosion. Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica and contemplating the band that what will become one of the big four of thrash. Dark Angel will released the demo Gonna Burn, followed by two demos in 84 along with their debut. Death Angel will release Heavy Metal Insanity a full four years before they can get a full length out in 87. Sweden will enter the thrash game as a preamble to the brutal to come, the band Destiny releasing the simply titled "83 demo" in preparation for a label and full length in two years.

And very soon, Sweden will explode with underground thrash band's with many that will be ramped up, angrier, and working towards a more extreme version of thrash. It will become one of the two primal grounds for the coming death metal explosion, a form so devastating that it will stretch two decades so far.

1984 will see Possessed release their demo Death Metal, one of the most popular places people point to for coining the name of that genre (along with the band Death itself). Another untitled (simply called "1985 Demo") in '85 that will lead into the massive crunch of their full length debut Seven Churches the same year. Possessed will take the proto-death rumblings, cross it with thrash by turning the dial up on the riffs and aggression, and become the next step on the road to the other primal ground for death metal: The Florida scene.

Possessed were not from Florida, however (San Francisco actually), but they set the ball up for the band that will become synonymous with death metal: Death. And just to show how forward thinking Death was, Chuck "Evil Chuck" Schuldiner would get his first demos out in 1983 under the band name (with alternate song names) Mantas before switching to Death in '84. But we'll get to the long road to 1987's Scream Bloody Gore in a few years. This is just to show the evolution of thrash from NWOBHM into the spot light and also show how it was continuing to evolve in the deep underground in the mid 80's. Florida is already taking its first steps while the Swedish scene is a few years (86) from demoing the first death bands from there.

In 1984 continued to really start to ramp up. Germany's second of the unholy trinity Destruction release their Sentenced To Death demo (and another simply called "Demo") in a prelude to 85's Infernal Overkill debut while the final (and seemingly most popular) piece of the three sides comes in Kreator who formed in 84, got their "Rehearsal" demo released in 85 and quickly turned that self produced tape into a contract and full length the same year, Endless Pain .

If you ever wondered why the Florida and Swedish scenes are distinct, just look to who influenced them in the thrash scene. In the U.S., you have Possessed and Dark Angel as the road map while in Sweden you have Germany's aggressive thrash triad. While these bands were forming at the same time, and not necessarily always influenced directly, those bands DO show the underground trends that was influencing them all, year after year…

Each step getting a little tougher…

Medadeth would finally self release one demo in 84, Last Rites, that was the only demo Dave put out (unless you include the collectible 1990 Rust In Piece promo "demo" that was released to retailers). Razor would get two demos out this year as well as an EP Armed And Dangerous before ‘85's Executioner's Song, This year would also see Nuclear Assault release an untitled demo and another called Live.Suffer.Die the next year, before finally getting their debut EP Brain Death out in '86 along with their first full length Game Over. Finally, I would be remise if I didn't mention the Canadian band Slaughter (not to be confused with the US glam band!!!) that played a thrash/death hybrid who also released two demos in '84, two more in '85, and the Nocturnal Hell EP in 86 before their only full length Strappado in 1987.

*Deep Breath*

There. More on the history of thrash bands and their underground journey than anyone wants to know.






More Thrash Albums from 1984 and 1985

Here are the thrash releases I did not get a chance to discuss when I covered those years, but now get their proper time to shine!



Anthrax - Fistful of Dollars




Anthrax's debut isn't all the way thrash, more of a thrash/speed-traditional hybrid, sort of like Slayer's debut but fast without the chaos (and without eviscerating Christianity). For 1984, this was a huge step and with the tight control the east coast rewrite of thrash works damn well, going so far as to help introduce thrash along with Metallica then improve it on the spot. Where this album does not match their compatriots in the Bay Area is that the riffs are not as good, catchy and fun, but more inclined to the New York punk scene that brought the band to the show. But that is just to chow why I don't rate it as high as Ride the Lightning, otherwise the speed with expert control and precision, the purposeful axes ridding a wave of sound with authority, and those double bass blasts hammering like the industrial revolution, this album rocks hard. I will also say that Niel Turbin's vocals are cool and it's sad he was soon history (no offence to the rest, I like them too – only Niel has a sort of operatic vox that cuts across the speed in a cool way. Not as good as what is to come next, but a hell of a lot better than it seems to get treated in greater metal history.

Fun Fact: "Hallowing Furies" was recorded a few months after "Hit The Lights", making it one of the oldest thrash songs on tape.



Iron Angel - Hellish Crossfire




A muddy turbulent release that was panned universally, but Iron Angel manages to slug out a fun little album here that manages to bridge Helloween speed to Destruction thrash. No small feat into itself, but the real magic is that it came out in '84 a full year before those two bands released their full length debuts! In fact, this is closer to speed metal, and by speed I mean in the non-dynamic pissed off variety that will turn some people off. But the thrash is there, in the riffs, in the breaks, some soaring leads, basically giving the acceleration some much needed purpose. Despite the production and fuck it attitude, the secret is that the riffs are simple so they can provide a counter melody with that speed. Not the greatest riff writers, they do write interesting ones but pull a Testament and make those riffs work for the format while pouring life into the performance. Toss in a few power metal moments ("Black Masses") and even a traditional number (done fast) and this has the variety to clear the clogged arteries.

Much like Testament and Overkill are the second tiered thrash bands here in the states, Iron Angel is comfortably slotted in the same position in German thrash, and truth be told they beat Destruction's debut out. Lost but recommended, Iron Angel might provide a wall o' sound that chokes to swallow the first listen but a few spins to unlock it and you'll be in metal mayhem land. Good times.




Voivod - War And Pain




More speed and wild chaotic anger than the thrash the band will become known for, there is still much to be said for the razor wire riffs that choke those trying to swallow this monster. Outside of Bathory, no band had really pushed the dark dense idea of thrash via Venom to such artery clogging ends of (wall of) noise. Somehow, Voivod has managed to pull a Motorhead here and devolve metal backwards to a more primitive state. This album being the club knocking you senseless.

Voivod will do thrash along with a structure from of sci-fi punk real well, experimenting and pushing where metal can go sideways, but here it's a beating. Just a good old brutal beating. But those riffs do make this thrash, even if it's learning to walk upright. If anything, these Canadians have captured a Western Hemisphere take on German thrash – totally aggressive and muddy. Not for the casual fan, and actually this album turns many off. The guitars buzz as if predicting the Swedish scene to come. Snake gargles like he's beating someone down with the words. Piggy (RIP) slapping the bass like it's going out of style. A dark and dank album that is the missing link some evolutionary term paper, unfit for general consumption, a fun album because it does exactly that so well and with conviction!




Artillery - Fear Of Tomorrow




While the new emerging bands were wielding punk to NWOBHM to get thrash, Artillery – I love that name! – decided to bolt punk onto Black Sabbath for a heavy, fucking riff-tastic thrash that reminds us it is heavy metal and there is already a lot of history to build from. Put there is a loose barbed wire thump to these structures, more punk than 70's metal, the aggression is their with an old style groove that breaths if admittedly very fast. This is thrash after all! And don't let the Sabbath remark make you think this is HEAVY, no it smokes along like punk with purpose (and better riffs), just that those riffs have a backbone when flying at you. Riffs with melody - there is meat in their son, take a bite! No, this album does have speed, and songs like the title track will run your ass over.

The production is poor, and honestly the drums need to be better mixed (maybe later releases did that), but damn those guitars that dominate are fun. They carry the album (which is good) with chorus's and melodies that stick to the ribs, a wall of midrange that wins for their ability to deliver. First class song construction meets second class album construction, but that is part of the charm of the underground.



Overkill - Feel the Fire




And thus it is born, Anthrax gets some much needed help defending the east coast as D.D. and Blitz storm the scene with this calling card of a debut. So many thrash band's dance around the "ideal" thrash song with their own spin on it, so here comes Chaly (that would be the mascot) to finally deliver what is widely regarded as the preeminent statement on pure thrash. In fact, the band's EP Overkill from ‘84 finally got a label to notice them and stormed the clubs of New York, setting the band up to become huge on the east coast. The delays do show, as this is 85 but it has that raw British Invasion vibe that ignites the thrash frash of 83's Kill ‘Em All and Show No Mercy. What also keeps this album down a bit is that this raw thrash ideology just tears front to back with no dynamic or degree, just pure thrash set to break backs for forty minutes.

But that being said, this is still a gem of an album that rips. What the band lacks on this release in song writing they make up for in riff writing, a tight galloping blast through fret board crashes that lights the show up. This thing shreds, and when combined with the pounding double base and Blitz's shrieks the cacophony makes you stand up and salute. But the story is those guitar licks and those riffs. Just listen to "Hammerhead" and contemplate how fast mass must travel to become energy. Sink into that and you'll get this album. The wrecking crew has arrived!

Fun Fact: On the original tape and vinyl release, there is a hidden backwards message spoken by Blitz on "Overkill": "There's no message here, you're going to ruin your needle, asshole!"



Kreator - Endless Pain




Slap that name on an emo album and it would sound ghey. Here, coming from the band that manages to bridge Slayer to Bathory then proceeds to beat the shit out of you at 256 bpm, that title is killer. While this doesn't have the iconic status or complete full package of the coming Pleasure To Kill, EP does kill with it's own dignity, a sound that is so raw it's still bleeding, so intense that blood covers you, so primal somewhere deep in your psyche you must face the fact you enjoy this role as carnivore at large.

Thrash set loose only the way fine German engineering can harness the machinery, sterling but chopping away, this thing smokes along as thrash comes to its logical end by building bridges to death metal. I mean, damn, it's like the kids in Sweden were listening and already practicing Kreator covers so they can ramp it up in ‘87. Less Evil than PtK, certainly more thrash riffs galore. This album doesn't shred so much as it napalms the stage. Seriously, "Storm of the Beast" is so bad ass, so intense, your better off just getting out of its way! Some albums make you want to bang your head – this one demands you do it. I suggest you do it, you won't like what happens to those who disobey Endless Pain.



Nasty Savage - Nasty Savage




Nasty Ronnie and company (that is his name) storm Metal Blade after Slagel took one look at the lads and promptly got them into the studio, seeing a band steeped in old metal tradition yet projected the gore of thrash and it's future. From Florida and pointing towards that state's death metal scene to come, Nasty Savage pull out school Judas Priest meets old school Scorpions, applies the power of Mercyful Fate to the thrash template and projects a lot of bloodshed to come Death. That's a lot of metal royalty right there, and while this band won't reach those lofty heights of being a cornerstone of metal that do pull off the comparison, especially on this debut. No way to say it, this is a black chocked thrasher that pounds its chest and opens beer bottles over the heads of critics.

The vocals are completely over the top, almost distracting in their over acting delivery, but somehow that just adds to the over the top music, thrash gone all over the map as this avoids song construction clichés left and right. The songs flow with their own purpose and follow little traditional formats without seeming progressive. That is a rather brilliant accomplishment on its own! But with those odd keys and switched time signatures, this album also predicts the progressive trend that will dominate thrash in a few years. But don't worry, this isn't stuffy or meandering, with head banging thrashers like "Gladiator" or "Metal Knights" to ignite the soul, this than rocks the fuck out with the best of them. Not a perfect album, but a great one none the less that can safely be filed under forgotten classic. Certainly they should have stood head and shoulders with Overkill and Testament at the top of the second tiered thrash acts, bloody hell!



Anthrax - Spreading The Disease




Enter new singer Joey Belladonna, better production, more purpose, shot gun shells of better riffs, and ironically a casual (I'd say veteran) performance that manages to be more aggressive and damaging while breathing with life. Speed metal is now submitted to it's thrash master, the band putting loading those shot gun shells and point blank firing them out of your speakers. Make no mistake, I sing the praises of the band's debut but this album KILLS. The east coast thrash scene now employing the band that will single handedly represent them against the three of the west coast.

Here Anthrax is up to the task. Punk with chops and purpose a mile wide. And if anything, the only of the big four to stick closest to its NWOBHM and (by default) punk roots. A sort of fans band that is powerful, champions of state of the art metal, but close to its roots. Joey looking like a super star but that voice was one of us, he kills the microphone into the red. Spitz's axe work matching Mustaine at times as he ranges from technical virtuosity to knowing when to let the song set the chord. Everything with a lose purpose of a band that knows they just leveled the playing field. With authority.

Just an amazing album that give us a new and great take on the thrash beast, and depending on my mood on of the best albums of 1985. Possessed inching it out over time with Slayer's Hell Awaits being a coin toss with this one.

THIS IS WHY ANTHRAX IS ONE OF THE BIG FOUR.



Slayer - Hell Awaits




If there was one album I regret not getting into the previous columns, this is it (the second would be Anthrax while the third is Savatage incidentally). But I knew I was going to have to do this column so I saved it (and Anthrax) for this one.

Here Slayer has begun their countdown to Armageddon, faster, angrier, carnal, so over the top speed one thinks they can't top it (they will). Here it's speed over thrash, but thrash loose and run amok. Punk gone horribly wrong and right, the primal years of Slayer forging their style succeeded and exceeded. Basically a horror film meets speed metal, blood oozing from the speakers and dripping in pools on the floor. A sort of Reign In Blood spoken in chaotic tongues if you will.

In the middle of the chaos, speed, and gore hides an incoherent progressive album, something unrecognized but it actually makes the album. Well, that and some of Slayer's best riffs are here as well! But it's the fast tempo changes, axe changes, the band flying fast and apart in a orgy of frenzied axes. When they get it together on the next album, the thrash structure will shine and make the band immortal, here the engine actually flies apart with all the good and bad that entails. But damn it, that what makes the album. The production isn't great, but makes it sound evil as hell (matches the cover art), the riffs fly so fast and seemingly chaotic it snaps the neck if you want to lesson hard enough to impose purpose on it, and somehow in the killing zone you can't help but stop and ponder just where metal is going. Slayer will answer that question next year, and a generation will get their heads ripped off.


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Next year – Heads WILL get snapped off. The poor bastards never stood a chance…