Best Reformed/Still Together OG Thrash Bands (Take 3)
 

Most new-age thrash bands are ****, but some of the old school eighties bands are surprisingly great today. They generally don't feel the need to sound exactly like they did back in the day, or they at least update their production and brutality to keep themselves competitive with modern metal bands. Some of the best metal made in the last decade and a half has been made by such bands (and some not so great metal unfortunately).

So, I'm doing a poll to see who the best are. It's multiple choice, so you can vote for as many bands as you want. Only rule for voting is that only modern albums count. If you love Bonded By Blood, but can't stand any of Exodus' newer albums, then don't vote for them. This is about modern ****.

The cutoff for a band to be considered old school is they have to have formed roughly before 91-92, around the time that grunge "killed" thrash. The album date cutoff is 1999, since that is the earliest year I see for reformed bands releasing albums (Artillery's B.A.C.K., and Agent Steel's Omega Conspiracy). They also have to have released at least one legitimate thrash album since 1999 (so, Blind Illusion and Jag Panzer don't count). So, if they had not released Death Magnetic, Metallica would not count. Post-thrash counts, so long as it's "close enough".

Some other basic rules on a band's inclusion. Reformed bands, like Exodus and Death Angel, are acceptable, as are bands that never broke up and are still going strong, like Kreator and Overkill, and likewise bands who may have gone on temporary hiatus but never actively broke up, like Testament. And bands that had a reunion/stayed together but broke up again or have been inactive for long enough that it is assumed that they are done, are acceptable, so long as they released at least one studio album of new material (live albums, compilations, and splits don't count, nor do reunions strictly for touring, like Vio-Lence).

:clap: third time's the charm.

I'm voting for Testament. Their old stuff is stellar and I think that their newest stuff from Formation of Damnation on is just as great. I would go with Slayer since they're my all time favourite thrash group, but their latest release put them out of the picture. I thought that World Painted Blood was decent.

I only voted for Testament and Slayer because The Gathering and Christ Illusion were so awesome. Other than that they're hit or miss as all hell.

Looking at the polls it almost looks like 3 people voted for Metallica. We were about to have some problems.

No Napalm Death? I thought they were thrash.

Overkill, Testament, and Slayer.

I actually liked Ironbound a lot when it came out. Overkill have some overwhelmingly cheesy moments here and there but they can be easily forgiven. A lot of these old thrash band's modern albums are technically great and play out like decent thrash records but they're missing the raw energy that I think Overkill still taps into quite well, even if it's pretty goofy sometimes. I haven't heard anything off of Electric Age and only a bit off White Devil Armory so I might be missing some pretty harsh tunes but still, Ironbound has some mean tracks on it and I've heard Overkill still puts on wicked performances. Testament's Formation of Damnation was a ****ing blast but very formulaic, I also saw that tour and they put on a hype show (although the sound guy had a really bad night). I've seen Slayer twice since the mid 2000's and both times was fantastic, even their newer material hit pretty hard. Haven't heard their most recent tunes.

Early: crust punk/grindcore. Later: death metal. Never were they thrash.

*kicks dirt*

Stupid genres. I hate genres.

Pretty much what I was going to say.

No love for Exodus? I realize they've always been kind of inconsistent, but when they hit, oh man do they hit. I don't know if any modern thrash band can compete with them when they're at their best. Especially the first half of Tempo of the Damned.





And even though Rob Dukes is no Zetro, they still put out some mean **** with him.