It's Speed/Thrash Metal week
 

Some would group the two genres together as one, others would claim that one evolved into the other but are still essentially different.

Both genres of metal offer fast paced, aggressive, sometimes quite erratic instrumentation. Some claim that where Speed metal differs is in the presence of a little more melody.

There are some very good points of reference for this kind of music right here at MB. I'm sure Jackhammer will pop his head in at some point and can hopefully link you all to his thrash thread and compilation.

For now here are a few good starting points.











Speed metal RYM
Speed metal Wiki
Thrash metal RYM
Thrash metal Wiki

And here are a few favourites too.

Let's plump for a few not so well known here.

Meliah Rage. Bad vocalist and the first minute of this song is quite average but this track is a perfect example of the many aspects of thrash- speed, riffs, tempo changes and terrible album covers!


Agent Steel were predominantly classed as a Speed Metal band and their first two albums are held in high regard as long as you could handle John Cyriis's vocals which were unusual for the genre (not too dissimilar to Anthrax's Joey Belladonna). However this instrumental is one of the best in the genre and well worth a listen


Acid Reign were one of those rare breeds- a British Thrash band. We had a few Thrash bands but to be honest Hardcore and Grindcore was still the order of the day in the heyday of Thrash but Acid Reign had a real raw, almost Punk edge to their music and also had a sense of humour to go with it. Their debut E.P Moshkinstein is still very listenable and I love the raw production too.

Some lesser known thrash:
Living Death - Protected From Reality

Artillery - Fear of Tomorrow

Cerebral Fix - Tower of Spite

Torture - Storm Alert

Cerebral Fix began as a Hardcore/Grindcore hybrid and lost a lot of fans when they brought out Tower Of Spite and never really recovered.

Good to hear Living Death although I have never thought of them as more than just another band on the Thrash roller coaster and I find Protected From Reality quite average.

^I've actually never heard the first album Cerebral Fix released. I quite like Tower of Spite though. I dig that particular Living Death album. I kinda see and agree with what you're saying though no doubt.

Cyclone - Brutal Destruction

Realm - Endless War

This what Cerebral Fix sounded like and this is still not out on C.D unfortunately.

^That actually doesn't sound too bad. I can certainly enjoy both the releases based off that.

It took me a long time to just find a vinyl rip of that album. If you need it LMK as my copy does have better audio than the yt clip.

Kudos for posting Realm too. not heard them for a long time.

I've never really understood the difference between thrash and speed metal, speed metal I've always considered to be the precursor to power-metal bands such as Dragonforce and other ilk? Thrash metal I understand completely however, a truly influential and incredible genre.

Thrash metal is a more aggressive version of speed metal and uses much more hardcore punk influence. Also the subgenre is obviously highly influenced by NWOBHM as is speed metal.

good thread. I think the difference is minimal,if any.Its all based on speed for the most part.Of the "Big Four" ALL were faster than Metallica.Anthrax had more melodic vocalists.Slayer's vocalist was more,for lack of a better word,"punk" in his delivery.
Before that,any band considered "precursors to thrash/speed metal" pretty much all sang in a mid to high range and actually kinda sang,y'kno,with melody lines,even Lemmy.
that's what i get out of it anyway.
Oh,didnt the lead singer of Godsmack play drums in Meliah Rage?...I believe he did.I liked them more than Godsmack. I'm not hatin' I just think it's funny