My Thrash Metal Nostalgia Thread
 

This thread will probably not be a lot of fun for some of our younger posters but Thrash Metal played a big part in my early musical direction and it completely changed the landscape of Metal. It also (unfortunately) helped create the much maligned Metal sub genre because Thrash stepped outside of the typical Metal aesthetic and incorporated themes as diverse as Punk, N.Y Hardcore and Classical. I will review key albums and give brief band bios and will take the tried and tested alphabetical formula along with only rating bands pre 1990.


This American band originally released this debut on a British label on a shoestring of $1,200. Considering the album took just over a week to complete it is astonishing to hear so many influences screaming to be heard on this release. I always knew that this album would be that little bit different when lead singer/guitarist's Kenn Nardi's band photo consisited of his head half shaved and him wearing a Pink Floyd Animals T-shirt!

Suffering Hour hold's up remarkably well today in terms of track composition, but it is let down by a fairly uninspiring production and Nardi's schizophrenic vocal style that could be grating. However Anacrusis stood out from their crowd due to the incorporation of many Progressive elements to their music. Already remarked upon Nardi's vocal style when in screaming mode was annoying at times and his sudden switch mid song to a low key melodious warble is disconcerting but definitely a lot different to what many bands were doing at the time.

A lot of Thrash was recognisable by it's sudden tempo changes yet Anacrusis added another dimension by having very melodious passages in their music juxtaposed with sharp speed blasts. A lot of Thrash fans did'nt like them because they could be very mellow at times (as far as Thrash bands could be mellow), yet they were still far too heavy to enter the metal mainstream.

Subsequent releases saw Anacrusis indulge in their progressive side but they split in 1993. They could be seen as a little ahead of their time and in todays Metal diversity, they may well have found a niche.



Encyclopaedia Metallum - Anacrusis

Metalica, Slayer and Pantera and that's essentially it for me.

Then this thread may educate you then ;)

Being younger and actually getting into thrash in the most ass backwards of ways I never really associated Anacrusis with thrash. They always seemed more avant-garde and jazz metal-ish. Sort of like a less death metal Atheist. It wasn't until later when I got into hardcore that their sound seemed thrashy to me. So in a way its actually interesting hearing about it from someone who grew up with it.

A band that predates even Metallica but their original sound was very different at the time. Blind Illusion have a couple of small claims to fame. The first is the fact they only ever released one full length album despite being a unit for ten years. The other is that this release has none other than Les Claypool and Larry Lalonde playing on it Pre-Primus! Larry had just left fellow Bay Area band Possessed and Claypool had just split up an incarnation of Primus (who regrouped as the band Sausage in the mid 90's for an album). However the band was wholly Marc Beidermann's who remained the only constant member.

The Sane Asylum has now achieved iconic status within the Thrash community and the original release is a much sought after collectors item. The music on the album is disjointed both compositionally and tonally. Claypools bass work is virtually hidden throughout but 'Smash The Crystal' contains a few little bass runs that became a Primus trademark.

The whole album is generally a mismash of Power Metal, Thrash Metal and awkward tempo shifts with no discernible themes running through the tracks. This is also one of the albums assets. Because of the huge gestation period, the album has so many little snippets of past members and styles that it stood head and shoulders above many other albums upon releases.

One of the most original Thrash albums released at the time and an interesting curio for Primus fans.

Kamakazi:

Thrash metal was my music of choice in the mid/late 80's. I look forward to reading some of your selections. I probably would have put Anthrax "Among the living" in there at 'A'.

Never really got to grips with Thrash metal to be honest.
I didn't mind some of the earlier punk influenced stuff , but thats about it.
And once i'd heard stuff like Napalm Death & Electro Hippies they just made Thrash sound boring & redundant to me.

Most metal fans know the bigger names, so I am commenting on the lesser known albums wherever possible.

Used to listen to a lot of thrash...stopped listening to it much though now a days(apart from the odd song every now and then).
Love Overkill, Testament, Sodom, Exodus, Sepultura, Kreator and 100 other thrash bands which went along.

I can understand exactly where you are coming from here.I think if I had heard more Punk or post punk before Thrash then I may have skipped the scene a little more I was caught in the midst of the whole explosion of punk influenced metal bands: Napalm Death, Cerebral Fix, Extreme Noise Terror, Genital Deformities, Unseen Terror, Boltthrower, Carcass, Godflesh. These bands definitely blew the scene wide open but at 16 I was too naive to appreciate the complexities of genre music and I thought that these bands were just a bit faster and heavier!