The Batlord

I generally wait till you've updated a certain amount of times due to my innate sense of laziness. You've been slacking though, so it's entirely possible I've let the thread slip more than I should.

Clearly Pentagram was left off.

*searches metal albums from 1985*

I've never listened to Saxon's Innocence Is No Excuse, but I've never heard good things, so I'm betting that isn't in the top three. If it is, I'll have to run and check it out. Probably should anyway. I think the only Saxon albums I have on my hard drive are the debut and Strong Arm of the Law. Just wrong.

Even if you included EPs, I'm going to assume that Sepultura's Bestial Devastation isn't much up your alley. I'm *hint hint* curious to see if you'll do an extra for them. I'm a big fan of their early early work, when they still qualified as a first wave black metal band (that album and Morbid Visions). If it weren't for Chaos A.D., that era would be my fav from the band.

Have you already done To Mega Therion? Too lazy to check, but I know you love that album. Pretty sure you already did Fates Warning, and I know you already did Anthrax.

So, I'm going with To Mega Therion FTW. In the top three that is. I have no idea how you would rank all three of those albums. I guess I'd go...

3. To Mega Therion (due to the relatively dated sound)
2. Hell Awaits (cause Slayer, but depending on your perspective, it's really just a stepping stone)
1. Killing Is My Business (cause it's the most polished out of the three)

Honestly, I'd have to go back through your list, but I might just have to put KIMB at #1. Not as polished as later albums, but it's easily their most intense and pissed off. I see it as the spiritual successor to the "Metal for Metal's Sake and **** Poseurs!" kind of album that Kill 'Em All was. Just so badass. (I believe I mentioned some years ago that it sounded like AC/DC got so ****ed up on meth that they couldn't play their guitars without their fingers skittering all over the strings like pissed off spiders.)

Certain Megadeth fans (and Dave himself most of all) claim that Dave invented thrash, and while that's clearly nonsense, as it was a worldwide thing, I think it's actually fair to give him a disproportionate amount of credit for how at least a certain contingent of the genre evolved.

When you compare how Metallica changed after Kill 'Em All (more progressive and experimental, as opposed to just technical) with the early direction Megadeth took, I think it's fair to say that Dave had a very heavy influence on the Metallica's sound while he was still in the band (it's said he taught James how to play guitar after all).

Considering how influential Metallica was to the Bay Area scene, and how influential that scene was to the rest of the thrash world, then it's not a stretch to say that Dave has perhaps a greater claim than anyone to developing thrash's early sound.

Obviously it branched out so far from there that his potential influence became watered down, but still, I think in the early days he could be possibly considered the Godfather of Thrash. Maybe.

God damn it, why does Dave have to be such a fruitcake these days? I can deal with him being an *******, but I have a hard time being a rabid fanboy when he's a Born Again, right wing nutcase.

/end rant

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William_the_Bloody

I have no idea who Mega Therion is so...

3. Kreator - Endless Pain
2. Slayer - Hell Awaits
1. Megadeth - Killing is my business

Probably right about Megadeth, I haven't listened to it in over 10 years but it has more going on.

The Batlord

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William_the_Bloody

Oh Celtic Frost, lovely imagery, should help me get a better sleep tonight lol.

Oh that's right he is a Celtic Frost fan. Well better Celtic Frost than "the Return" of that crappy black metal band from Sweden! I jest of course.

Unknown Soldier

This must be one of the longest response posts I've ever seen in this thread.

Ok, I'll let you off the hook this time but don't let the line get too slack.

No way, as much of a Saxon fan as I am that album isn't good enough for a top 20 slot and despite some good songs the best thing about the album is its 1970s hard rock album cover, just the kind of thing UFO would've gone in for.

I'll normally include EP's at the end or with an album of the band in some way.

Well you've got the top three there.

If you search on the internet 9 times out of 10 Dave Mustaine is considered the most important figure in the development of the whole thrash genre and any other names mentioned all have a Metallica link in some way.

I already mentioned in the two Metallica album reviews I've done, how the best songs on those albums were the ones co-written with Dave Mustaine, which further enforces his importance in the development of the thrash genre.

That's what often happens When somebody becomes 'born again'.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
By the time of their second album Slayer were already one of the leaders of the ‘bay area’ thrash scene and a protected band for their record label Metal Blade, as their debut album Show No Mercy had become the label’s biggest seller to date. Slayer of course along with bands like Dark Angel absolutely epitomized the heavier end of the thrash spectrum, as raw aggression with such brute force had never been heard before to this level and this factor alone made these early Slayer albums perfect frameworks for like-minded bands to follow. In between Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits the band released a couple of EP’s of note of which the first the delightful sounding Haunting the Chapel should be of note to any thrash enthusiast out there and this was followed by the Live Undead set also recommended. Hell Awaits gives us another splattering of the Slayer recipe with its thunderous sound, aggressive image and those ever so perfect lyrics along with all the satanic paraphernalia connected to the band. This Slayer approach was not only furthering the boundaries of thrash metal, but also helping to further sow the seeds of extreme metal as well. The album cover is a stark improvement over the NWOBHM look of Show No Mercy and starts the trend of very Slayer album covers that would become another Slayer trademark over the ensuing years. On Hell Awaits the band decided to give us even more of their severe extremities, as now they were not only sounding angrier, but the lyrical conent of their music was getting even sicker as well. Hell Awaits also demonstrates a split trend amongst thrash bands at this time, as a number of them were still content with a standard aggressive sound, but a number of its better bands like Slayer and most notably Metallica, were constantly prepared to push the creative boundaries of the genre, with both progressive or technical elements and in the case of Slayer this progression can be noted on Hell Awaits over it’s predecessor Show No Mercy, in fact this progressive element had already shown its face on the Haunting the Chapel EP. At this time Slayer were pretty much into listening to Mercyful Fate (not a big fan of them btw) but based on this taste Slayer were going in for longer songs on Hell Awaits with the shorter tracks being almost 4 mins in length and the longer tracks over 6 mins, giving the album and average listening time of 5 minutes per song. The tracks on Hell Awaits display notable varying tempos, band nuances and a level of distortion ahead of the grunge boom later in the decade. The album starts with the title track “Hell Awaits” a dissonant 6 minute classic that typifies the progressive elements of the album with a dose of unbridled speed, with Tom Arayas’s vocals here flowing at supersonic speed and near the song’s beginning some Venom type sound effects are chucked in for good measure. The album contains essential classics almost song after song and songs like “At Dawn They Sleep” demands not just to be listened to, but also having a lyrics sheet to go with it as well, in fact much of the album’s songs fall into this category and need a lyric sheet to do them justice. Other cuts like “Praise of Death” pretty much sums up the dissonant approach of the band towards some of these songs and the ideally named “Crypts of Terror” evoke sensations of both horror and gore, despite displaying some Venom looking lyrics. Some of the real gems on Hell Awaits are in the form of its more straightforward thrashers like the almost catchy “Kill Again” with its unforgettable 'no apparent motive, just kill and kill again' line and the band then certainly reached their lyrical apex with the sicko “Necrophiliac” which contained great lines like 'I feel the urge, a growing need, to **** this sinful corpse' and this whole frenzied experience is finished off with my favourite song title here the “Hardening of the Arteries” a final blitzer for the listener. Hell Awaits is a unique combination of a album that strives to be both genuinely aggressive and pretty sick sounding at the same time, but it does this with a level of progression to really test the mettle of its four components, where the dual guitar team of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King are pretty top-notch throughout. Based on my experiences with Slayer, this album might well be their most progressive and in hindsight it’s now clearly seen as one of the band’s hidden treasures, especially for those like myself, that never gave it the chance it truly deserved when I was really getting into the Slayer discography for the first time.

Tom Araya- Bass/Vocals
Kerry King- Guitar
Jeff Hanneman- Guitar
Dave Lombardo- Drums

Production- Brian Slagel

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
The Megadeth debut album Killing Is My Business ... and Business Is Good! was probably one of the most eagerly awaited debut albums of the decade, largely due to Dave Mustaine's much documented and unceremonious departure from Metallica a few years earlier. As I stated in the Kill 'Em All review I'm not going to go on at length about how Dave Mustaine was chucked out of Metallica, as both the internet and the music press are literally littered with thousands of articles about this controversial passing. Needless to say Dave Mustaine was burning with rage after his departure from Metallica and swore revenge and quickly decided to form the suitably named Megadeth (its name typo is its charm) and it was obvious that Megadeth were going to be good, because not only was Dave Mustaine a fantastic guitarist, he also just happened to be responsible for some of the best material on those early Metallica albums which had been co-written with Dave Mustaine. Frontman Dave Mustaine quickly decided on principal vocal duties for the new band, after failing to find a suitable vocalist (something that has often happened with many a rock band) and along with David Ellefson a young bassist who he bumped into and took under his wing, the two would forge the Megadeth project in a short period of time. The real dynamic of the band though would come with the hiring of Chris Poland-guitar and Gar Samuelson-drums, and with these two coming from a jazz-fusion background rather than a metal one it would give the band its own unique dynamic. In fact the Megadeth line-up at this time kind of reminds me of how Led Zeppelin were formed, because its members had also come from different musical backgrounds giving the Led Zeppelin its own special dynamic. A good point of note here is about how Gar Samaulson auditioned for the band, the story is that he arrived completely out of it and in a zombified state, but the moment he was put on the drum stool he shot to life and was all flying arms and hair, and was instantly hired by Dave Mustaine. From the word go Megadeth differed from the other thrash bands and went in for a technical metal sound that was essentially based around speed over heaviness, and it was a style that suited the playing ability of its talented components. The sound of the Megadeth debut is best described as being both raw and chaotic and topically it covers a number of interesting themes, which are mostly highlighted by Dave Mustaine's humour a la the Stormtroopers of Death and on the album Dave Mustaine puts a lot of the time into some of the songs with exaggerated comments and panting for example. Album opener "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" starts with a piano intro that quickly gives the impression that this could be a Yngwie Malmsteen effort especially with its quasi-classical tones, but that aspect is quickly shushed aside with the unorthodox guitar riffs of the band and Dave Mustaine`s strangled vocal style in a song supposedly about love. The title track "Killing Is My Business ... and Business Is Good!" is a song about the comic book character The Punisher (covering Anthrax territory here) and the track is highlighted by strong sriffs, great rhythm guitar and drumming. The previous song and "The Skull Beneath the Skin" which covers torture and black magic are highlighted by some amazing guitar work by Chris Poland the single star turn on the album, despte the fact that Dave Mustaine covers the majority of the guitar solos here. "Rattlehead" along with the previous song is also about the band's mascot Vic Rattlehead (most good metal bands had one) and turns out to be Megadeth at their most catchy and mosh sounding, and again with precise riffing that can put others into touch. "Chosen Ones" is surprisingly influenced by Monty Python, which when thinking about it shouldn't be a surprise given Dave Mustaine's wacky sense of humour and features a rare Dave Ellefson bass solo. The start of "Looking Down the Cross" features some quasi-Sabbath sounding doom and as the title suggests it's about Jesus Christ and probably the most accomplished track on the album and probably my favourite. The final track "Mechanix" is a revamp of the Metallica song "The Four Horseman" but much faster, which in turn is based on an original version of the song that was penned by Dave Mustaine when he was in Metallica. The contrast between the two songs often provokes debate between Megadeth and Metallica fans over the best version of the song, personally I easily prefer the Metallica version here and never much cared for "Mechanix" despite Dave Mustaine's guitar solo. Some versions of the album come with Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots" which as far as I'm concerned is just one of many dubious Megadeth cover choices that would happen over ensuing years. The Megadeth debut album's only real low point comes in the shape of its cringe worthy album cover, which is bad even by the NWOBHM standards and that genre certainly had more than its fair share of bad album covers, and even the band members pretty much hated it as well. Killing Is My Business ... and Business Is Good! would end up being one of the signature thrash metal albums all with its own unique primitive characteristics. The meat of the album reveals the raw and daring style of Dave Mustaine, who preferred agressive chaos over the agressive order and heaviness that some of the other leading thrash bands like Metallica and Slayer had gone in for. The former being progressive and the latter being heavier here of course, but none of these bands reached the more chaotic style of Megadeth who were instantly recognizable with Dave Mustaine's strangled vocal style. Around this time Dave Mustaine was something of a Nae'blis in metal circles and anybody that has managed to wade through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga will know what that phrase means. After this album Megadeth would soon step into the wider commerical metal market in just a few albums time and form the legendary Big Four`of thrash with the already mentioned Metallica, Slayer and the lighter-minded Anthrax making up this honoured quartet.

Dave Mustaine- Guitar/Vocals
Chris Poland- Guitar
David Ellefson- Bass
Gar Samuelson- Drums

Production- Dave Mustaine

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

Love that album. The rhythm guitar to the title track is one of my favorite things ever, and "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" is glorious for its nearly unrivaled rage (not to mention that the lyrics are clearly a thinly-veiled attack on his previous band).

An interesting bit of trivia about "These Boots" is that the song was dropped from some releases of the album, and some of the lyrics censored on the remastered version, due to the writer of the original being offended by Mustaine's lyrical changes...

"You keep saying you got something for me
Something you call love but confess
You've been a'messin' where you shouldn't 've been a'messin'
And now someone else is getting all your best"

vs.

"You keep saying you got something for me
Some things you call love, but I call sex
You've been kissing when you ought-a-be-a
Screwing and now someone else can kiss your ass"

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Unknown Soldier

From what I've read Dave Mustaine would either change the lyrics on some of his cover choices or as with the case of the Sex Pistols he couldn't understand what Johnny Rotten was singing about, so he just interpreted the lyrics as he heard them, couldn't have been very hard for him though to get hold of a lyrics sheet.

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
When I was deciding which would be the top album for this year, it ended up being a showdown between the bands in the top four places and when this kind of deadheat occurs the only solution is to either check out more detailed reviews or the opinions of others, but in the end I usually just listen to the albums again and in the end To Mega Therion was the one that stood over the others in terms of what it was striving to do. Adjectives like grandiose, apocalyptic and brutal are adjectives that best describe the works of Celtic Frost and as I mentioned in my previous Morbid Tales review, the band probably rank as one of metal's greatest exponents in terms of album for album quality. They were also iconic with their trademark black leather and venom stance, and in turn they had a brutal touch of cold Germanic steel which influenced hordes of other bands out there. Even more importantly they introduced a central European concept to extreme metal, which was different to anything that could’ve come from either the UK and USA at this time and along with the likes of Mercyful Fate they were largely responsible for setting up an extreme European metal scene that is still relevant today. To Mega Therion takes off with the foreboding "Innocence and Wrath" which starts the album with apocalyptic Wagnerian tones combined with horns and the slow booming drums of Reed St. Mark, before the album then leaps into the malicious onslaught of "The Usurper" and this is quite simply a song that I could both talk about and listen to all day long. This track is simply brutal, thrashy and gloriously underpinned with some powerful riffs and blown up with Thomas Gabriel Fischer`s (aka Tom Warrior) primitive roar all pre-dating the similiar kind of vocal brutality that Max Cavalera would put down with Sepultura. "The Usurpur" almost then seamlessly flows into "Jewel Throne" which is a track with a similiar extreme make-up layout as the previous cut. Time for more brutal ****ing and abuse with the doomy "Dawn of Megiddo" which takes the Black Sabbath template into the realms of oblivion with its monolithic tones. The rampant "Eternal Summer" is a real title oddity for the band here, I could've understood eternal winter or eternal night etc as a song title but summer just seems way to tame for these guys. The band also seem pretty clued-up on where to place their songs on the album, as "Circle of Tyrants runs perfectly on for the previous song with some breakneck thrash intensity that is backdropped with some grinding doom, all this is quite simply bombastic Celtic Frost and is instantly recognizable as the Celtic Frost sound. Both "(Beyond the) North Winds" and "Fainted Eyes" are just pure energy tracks that surge the beast forward and "Necromantical Screams" is another one of the album's standout efforts and displays the pure majesty of Celtic Frost. The real prize on this album is surely the unexpected and dynamic riffs of Tom Warrior, now when I say unexpected I don't mean that there is any question in his playing ability, but more in the surprise factor of how and when they appear in the songs in a multitude of places, which for me is the mark of a very special band. If a negative has to be thrown towards the album then it has to possibly be in its lack of diversity, which is kind of strange given how diverse and all encompassing I often label this band. Most of the cuts here are rampant extremities, kind of like a serial killer going on a slashing and chopping spree with the bombastic doomy sections varying the pace of his actions. But of course if you like this type of flow as I do, it's not really much of an issue concerning the style of the album. With this mind I guess the moody instrumental "Tears in a Prophet's Dream" responds to this critique nicely and is situated in just the right slot later into the album. All Music describes this album as an exercise in body-slamming, as opposed to the expected headbanging that most metal bands would try and employ here. The band`s inspirational roots especially with Black Sabbath here continue to shine through on a number of songs, but Celtic Frost take that template to its brutal conclusion in how they execute these offerings. The first few albums by the band are pure extreme metal releases heavily thrash influenced that can easily lay waste to much of the competition, before they later decided to move on with equal venom into a more avant-garde metal style later in the decade. Without any shadow of a doubt, To Mega Therion is a vital cog for the development of black and death metal genres but is very much buried in the thrash genre, and would soon have the future exponents of these styles drooling at the mouth and other orifices with its demonic brutality.

Thomas Gabriel Fischer- Guitar/Vocals
Dominic Steiner- Bass
Reed St.Mark- Drums

Production- Horst Muller

__________________
Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History