Top 10 Underrated Thrash Metal Albums
 

Another day another thrash thread. Use any criteria you want. Unknown band with a great album, known band with a maligned or forgotten album, whatever. Just has to be 10 and has to be thrash (blackened or deathened thrash is perfectly acceptable, or any other -ened thrash you can think of). And feel free to say as little or as much or as nothing as you want about any or all albums on your list.

I'm still working on my list so I'll post it later.

Heathen - Breaking the Silence

Judas Priest - Jugulator

Sorry for breaking the ten rule but I'm just going to go at it one at a time in no particular order until I get to ten

Here's a little gem by Battle Creek off their album Wake the Plague

A tribute to the Japanese Tsunami called Slaughter in the Water

There's one album that jumps immediately to mind for me:

Xentrix - For Whose Advantage?

It's basically what would have happened if Metallica had followed up And Justice For All with another album in a similar vein, but better.



So that one is an easy number 1 for me. The rest of my list will have less than 10 since I don't listen to a lot of thrash:

2: Sacriliege - Within the Prophecy
This album has energy in spades and I just love the way it sounds.

3: Holy Moses - Redefined Mayhem
To me, most thrash revival is dull and with little to no merit. This album was something else. A dash of Voivod and some inspired songwriting. Probably the only modern thrash release I really care about at all from a smaller band.

4: Megadeth - The System has Failed
So I'm already breaking the rules somce this isn't exactly unknown or poorly rated. I just think it's been somewhat lost in the shuffle. Really one of the best Megadeth albums in my opinion.

5+
ummmm.... nope, that was the list. Put on anything with Stam1na if they count as thrash.

I'm going back to Xentrix to see if my initial disinterest is merited. Don't know yet, but I'm happy to see Holy Moses on the list. I was just listening to Terror and Submission this morning and digging them. But The System Has Failed is still kind of ****. The only song I really can get behind is "Die Dead Enough". Pop metal at its absolute finest. Honestly the only Megadeth song I truly like since Risk.

I haven't actually heard any other Xentrix albums, but I love that one. I could see how one could find their songwriting a bit bloated, but I think it works out wel for them. Like And Justice For All. That album is also kind of meandering, but I just get into the grooves and somehow don't mind it.

Holy Moses have both good and bad albums, but that newest one was a very nice surprise. I also have a lot of love for some of their oldest material. This song is amazing:



The System Has Failed was kind of interesting to me. It's very thrash, but with a different feel from what Megadeth had done so far, plus the band members were unknown session musicians aside from a briefly returning Chris Poland. There's just something about how the album sounds that I really like. It's hard to put my finger on but it has a certain feel to it.
'Of Mice and Men', 'Scorpion' and 'Tears in a Vial' are some of my favorite Megadeth tracks across their entire discography. I've got some nostalgic feelings for the album too, so that might cloud my judgment a bit. And yeah, 'Die Dead Enough' is pretty damn catchy. Possibly the shortest verse ever too.

Have you listened to Cryptic Writings and Risk? Not to mention Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia? Those albums basically make The System Has Failed redundant and boring.

Yes I have and I don't agree!

I've got pretty much all 15 Megadeth albums on CD and I like all of them. Megadeth is basically the only band I listened to as a teenager that I still like a lot, so I'm very familiar with every single album they've ever done.

I even find a lot to like on Thirteen and Super Collider - two unfairly maligned albums.
It's been a while since they've done a truly classic album perhaps. I'd probably put both The System Has Failed and The World Needs a Hero in that category, but they're both over 10 years old by now.

Cryptic Writings is still my favorite album of theirs, followed closely by Countdown to Extinction and So Far So Good So What.

I don't actually know why i haven't gotten bored after 15 albums. As much of a fool as Mustaine is, he's a great songwriter.

There's nothing quite like the nostalgia you get from going back to Megadeth albums you listened to growing up. Dave's cheesiness somehow never gets old. I definitely think SFSGSW is underrated.