Best ten Thrash Metal records of each era (besides the "big 4")

[karljant]

Just wondering about what thrash albums you prefer regarding each era other than the classics by Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. Let's split it in 5 year interval and well... Stuff like crossover (Suicidal Tendencies, DRI, SOD) and Death Thrash (Sepultura, Morbid Saint, Protector) are welcome to join the party. Here's my list:

1983 to 1987:

• Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
• Destruction - Sentence Of Death
• Exodus - Bonded By Blood
• Kreator - Pleasure To Kill
• Overkill - Feel The Fire
• Ratos De Porão - Cada Dia Mais Sujo E Agressivo
• S.O.D. - Speak English Or Die
• Sepultura - Schizophrenia
• Testament - The Legacy
• Voivod - Killing Technology

1988 to 1992:

• Kreator - Coma Of Souls
• Overkill - The Years Of Decay
• Sabbat - History Of A Time To Come
• Sabbat - Dreamweaver
• Sepultura - Arise
• Sepultura - Beneath The Remains
• Sodom - Agent Orange
• Testament - The New Order
• Voivod - Dimension Hatross
• Xentrix - Shattered Existence

1993 to 1997:

• Forbidden - Green
• Kreator - Cause For Conflict
• Kreator - Outcast
• Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve
• Ratos De Porão - Just Another Crime In Massacreland
• Sepultura - Chaos AD
• Shrine - Perspective
• Testament - Low
• Voivod - Negatron
• Voivod - Phobos

1998 to 2002:

• Annihilator - Carnival Diablos
• Kreator - Violent Revolution
• Meshuggah - Chaosphere
• Meshuggah - Nothing
• S.O.D. - Bigger Than The Devil
• Sadus - Elements Of Anger
• Testament - The Gathering
• Testament - First Strike Still Deadly
• The Haunted - The Haunted
• Zimmer's Hole - Legion Of Flames

2003 to 2007:

• Exodus - Shovel Headed Killing Machine
• Gojira - From Mars To Sirius
• Kreator - Enemy Of God
• Meshuggah - I
• Overkill - Immortalis
• Ratos De Porão - Homem Inimigo Do Homem
• Sadus - Out For Blood
• Sepultura - Dante XXI
• The Haunted - rEVOLVEr
• Zombie Apocalypse - Tales Told By Dead Men

2008 to 2012:

• Exodus - Let There Be Blood
• Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage
• Kreator - Hordes Of Chaos
• Lamb Of God - Wrath
• Meshuggah - Obzen
• Onslaught - Sounds Of Violence
• Overkill - Electric Age
• Ratos De Porão - Split with Looking For An Answer
• Sepultura - Kairos
• Web - Everything Ends

2013 to today:

• Cavalera Conspiracy - Pandemonium
• Overkill - White Devil Armory
• Sanctuary - The Year The Sun Died
• Sepultura - The Mediator...
• Sepultura - Quadra
• Testament - Brotherhood Of The Snake
• Testament - Titans Of Creation
• Voivod - Target Earth
• Voivod - Post Society
• Voivod - The Wake

What are your favorites by era? (you don't need to pick so many)

 

[Forostar]

I assume the 2nd and/or 3rd Iced Earth albums can be considered as Thrash (even if it they also contain other genre elements in bigger or smaller form)?

 

[srfc]

Only going by what's on my itunes, I don't have a huge amount of thrash, only 85 albums in total, which if you take out the big 4 doesn't leave many, also I think as a genre it's completely redundant after the early 90s, bar the odd comeback album from some of the originals.

Albums ordered by release date, quality not considered it's just every non Big 4 Thrash Album I have. I threw in a couple of E.P.s to pad out the list, but Surf Nicaragua should be in any list anyway, also Still Cyco included as that was the first version of that album I heard.

It's kind of interesting that if you look at the albums towards the end of the second era they are starting to move away from Thrash, and this is mirrored by what the Big 4 released at that time, which backs up my point that it was kind of finished as a genre by that stage.

First era:
Suicidal Tendencies
Bonded by Blood
Pleasure to Kill
Flag of Hate
The Legacy
The Ultra-Violence
Join the Army
Ignorance

Second Era:
The New Order
Under the Influence
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow
Surf Nicaragua
Fabulous Disaster
Beneath the Remains
Extreme Aggression
Practice what You Preach
Just a Face in the Crowd
Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit...Deja-Vu
Act III
The American Way
Lights...Camera...Revolution!
Souls of Black
Coma of Souls
Arise
The Ritual
The Art of Rebellion
Renewal

Third Era:
Still Cyco After All These Years
Chaos A.D.

Fourth Era:
Violent Revolution

Fifth Era:
Tempo of the Damned
Enemy of God

Last Era:
Nightmare Logic

 

[The_7th_one]

Overkill - Horrorscope?

 

[karljant]

Overkill - Horrorscope?

Really good album but caught a really strong 5 year stretch:

• Kreator - Coma Of Souls
• Overkill - The Years Of Decay
• Sabbat - History Of A Time To Come
• Sabbat - Dreamweaver
• Sepultura - Arise
• Sepultura - Beneath The Remains
• Sodom - Agent Orange
• Testament - The New Order
• Voivod - Dimension Hatross
• Xentrix - Shattered Existence

IMO all better records in a strong as hell era. And Horrorscope was far from being the only victim IMO. I also love I Hear Black (unlike many Overkill fans I know) and can easily point a crapload of other excellent records during that time that didn't made it to my list:

• Xentrix - For Whose Advantage
• Confessor - Condemned
• Kreator - Renewal/ Extreme Aggression
• DRI - Thrash Zone
• Testament - Souls Of Black
• Mekong Delta - The Music Of Erich Zahn
• Annihilator - Alice In Hell/ Never Neverland
• Forbidden - Twisted Into Forms/ Forbidden Evil
• Tankard - The Meaning Of life/ The Morning After
• Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care
• Suicidal Tendencies - Lights Camera Revolution/ How Will I Laugh Tomorrow
• Sacred Reich - The American Way/ Surf Nicaragua
• Demolition Hammer - Epidemic Of Violence
• Sodom - Tapping The Vein

 

[karljant]

I assume the 2nd and/or 3rd Iced Earth albums can be considered as Thrash (even if it they also contain other genre elements in bigger or smaller form)?

Yup... I think up to Burnt Offerings it's something along the lines of Speed/Thrash so yeah!

 

[Forostar]

1983 to 1987:

• Anvil - Forged in Fire (1983)
• Metal Church - Metal Church (1984)
• Sepultura - Bestial Devastation (1985)
• Agent Steel - Skeptics Apocalypse (1985)
• Exodus - Bonded by Blood (1985)
• Metal Church - The Dark (1986)
• Agent Steel - Mad Locust Rising (1986)
• Agent Steel - Unstoppable Force (1987)

1988 to 1992:

• Metal Church - Blessing in Disguise (1989)
• Iced Earth - Iced Earth (1990)
• Iced Earth - Night of the Stormrider (1991)

1993 to 1997:

• Sepultura - Chaos A.D. (1993)
• Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings (1995)
• Grip Inc. - Power of Inner Strength (1995)
• Grip Inc. - Nemesis (1997)

1998 to 2002:

• Metal Church - Masterpeace (1999)
• Agent Steele - Omega Conspiracy (1999)
• The Haunted - Made Me Do It (2000)
• Eidolon - Hallowed Apparition (2001)

 

[Forostar]

Agent Steele had the best lead guitar work. And those riffs were amazing as well. Just a brilliant (live) band.

 

[Magnus]

Like @srfc, I don't really have favourite thrash albums from your later eras, maybe because I dived deep into black metal in the 90s. Must think about proper lists for the 83-87 and 88-92 periods but I'd certainly have Sodom's Persecution Mania, Annihilator's first two, and some Nuclear Assault.
Do we count Venom's Prime Evil as thrash btw? And the entire Demolition Man era for that matter?

 

[karljant]

Do we count Venom's Prime Evil as thrash btw? And the entire Demolition Man era for that matter?

IMO every single Venom album is more "thrashy" than many of the said first thrash metal records (like Kill'Em All, Fistful Of Metal, etc...) which resembled much more Speed Metal (in the vein of Exciter). And when Cronos left it became even more Thrash prone, so IMO sure!

I'd certainly have Sodom's Persecution Mania, Annihilator's first two, and some Nuclear Assault.

Yup... Lots of good albums but little space. 88-92 especially as I told @The_7th_one .. that era was crazy good (and I even forgot to mention Ratos De Porão's Brasil and Anarkophobia). 83 to 87 is not easy also.

 

[Night Prowler]

I don't think Iced Earth is anything other than heavy metal. Maybe we can classify Horror Show as borderline power metal, but that's it.

If you think that early Iced Earth is thrash metal, then so is stuff like Helloween - Walls Of Jericho.

 

[karljant]

I don't think Iced Earth is anything other than heavy metal. Maybe we can classify Horror Show as borderline power metal, but that's it.

If you think that early Iced Earth is thrash metal, then so is stuff like Helloween - Walls Of Jericho.

When Helloween's debut and Walls came out it was labelled Speed Metal (fairly so because the term Power Metal wasn't even invented and it was way heavier than the majority of later PM) so I think it's fair enough if people want to include it. I'll go as far as saying that the first two Blind Guardian bear those same traits and if they came out at the same time than Helloween's first records they would also be labelled Speed Metal for sure. As an example @Forostar picked Anvil's Forged In Fire and Metal Church's debut that I consider to be at best Speed Metal records. But it's not that far fetched and I see where he's coming from, so it's 100% fine IMO. On the other hand my own vision of what Thrash Metal is is even more strict: as I said @Magnus The first albums by Metallica, Anthrax and even the majorirty of Slayer's debut is much more closer to Speed Metal than Thrash. In my opinionthe first 100% Thrash Metal records only came out in 1984, namely: Metallica's Ride The Lightning, Voivod's War And Pain, Destruction's Sentence Of Death, Slayer's Haunting The Chapel and Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales. But that's JUST MY OPINION and by no means I want to impose it (especially when the majority of people do consider those 3 albums true Thrash records). So at the end of the day I think it all comes to one's Interpretation to where the boundaries of the genre can get to, with the premise it's not absurdly far fetched.

 

[Night Prowler]

Yeah, forgot about Blind Guardian and their early stuff. They definitely fall in the same category.

I just kinda feel thrash metal is, for lack of a better word, dirtier and/or grittier than any of those albums. I don't know how to explain it better.

 

[srfc]

if you look at the albums towards the end of the second era they are starting to move away from Thrash, and this is mirrored by what the Big 4 released at that time

the exception is Divine Intervention is not a move away from Thrash, although you could argue Diabolus brings in some new metal influences.

 

[karljant]

Yeah, forgot about Blind Guardian and their early stuff. They definitely fall in the same category.

I just kinda feel thrash metal is, for lack of a better word, dirtier and/or grittier than any of those albums. I don't know how to explain it better.

Yup... and as I said before I share your point of view when it comes to Thrash's dirty/violent sound and dare to say exceed it while labeling something "Thrash Metal". I would never nominate those Helloween, Iced Earth and BG albums for a "best of" Thrash Metal list (although I absolutely love some of them) because - like you - I tend to associate them more with Power/ Speed metal. But that's just my personal opinion and I feel like their inclusion is far from inappropriate.

 

[srfc]

dare to say exceed it while labeling something "Thrash Metal"

I find Sepultura like that, they are, particularly the earlier stuff, too heavy for Thrash but also I would find it harder to categorize them in other genres either.

Also, even Slayer, while they are one of the big 4, the satanic themes and somewhat lack of Exodus style chugging riffs makes Thrash a too simplistic label for what they play.

 

[karljant]

I have. I threw in a couple of E.P.s to pad out the list, but Surf Nicaragua should be in any list anyway

I also threw in EPs , two splits and even 2 re-recording albums (like Still Cyco is to a certain degree)... so it's perfectly fine . And yes... Surf Nicaragua is ridiculously good (SR's best record IMO).

if you look at the albums towards the end of the second era they are starting to move away from Thrash, and this is mirrored by what the Big 4 released at that time, which backs up my point that it was kind of finished as a genre by that stage.

Mmmm... far from it IMO. If the mid/ late 80's are arguably the zenith of the genre, the 90's (while being a low point for the genre) offered some rare gems of pure thrash I put on the same level of those records. The most blatant cases are Low and The Gathering by Testament, two of the band's top 3 albums IMO. Then there's Destruction, Tankard, Sodom, Sadus, Overkill and Whiplash that never ceased releasing Thrash records (and even Testament themselves). And with the turn of the century came the new wave (with bands such as Havok, Toxic Holocaust, Vektor, Municipal Waste, The Haunted, among many others) while some of the "bigger" names that were experimenting with other genres came back to with some absolutely stunning Thrash Metal records. Kreator is perhaps the most blatant example: Violent Revolution and Hordes Of Chaos IMO owe nothing to the band's best records. Megadeth also recovered a substantial part of their Thrash edge on this decade (especially on Endgame - again one of my favorites by the band - and The System Has Failed). And Anthrax would recover it too later with Worship Music (another beast of an album) and For All Kings. So while I concur that the 90's were overall kind of a low point for the genre I think it never died and is still alive and strong.

the exception is Divine Intervention is not a move away from Thrash, although you could argue Diabolus brings in some new metal influences.

Even Diabolus is predominantly composed by Thrash Metal tunes (Bitter Peace, Point, Scrum, In The Name Of God, Perversions Of Pain, Screaming From The Sky). What I think Slayer pepper some of the other songs with is not Nu Metal but instead Hardcore (with a tons of Biohazard, Madball or Sick Of It All vibe to it - mainly Biohazard). The only songs where I spot Nu Metal traits are Death's Head and Desire. God Hates Us All moves on the same lines. But Christ Illusion (hell of an album!) World Painted Blood and Repentless are IMO overtly Thrash Metal records.

 

[karljant]

I find Sepultura like that, they are, particularly the earlier stuff, too heavy for Thrash but also I would find it harder to categorize them in other genres either.

Yup... I see where you're coming from. up to Chaos AD they are a Death/Thrash band IMO with 50/50 when it comes to both genres (with some sparkles of Black metal on their first two releases). Chaos AD is a mix of a lot of influences (Groove, Industrial Metal, Thrash, Death, Hard Core, Batucada). Then they jumped in the Nu Metal bandwagon until Dante XXI came out and they kinda returned to where they left in Chaos AD.

Also, even Slayer, while they are one of the big 4, the satanic themes and somewhat lack of Exodus style chugging riffs makes Thrash a too simplistic label for what they play.

Slayer IMO is 100% Thrash. I'll go as far as saying their debut is too light for me to consider it "Thrash" (while it already had some of their future sound in some tracks like Die By The Sword, Fight Till Death and especially the superb Black Magic). But following records such as Haunting The Chapel, Hell Awaits and Reign In Blood are so heavy and dark some call it "proto Death Metal". The same works for early records by Celtic Frost/ Hellhammer, Sodom, Destruction and Kreator (with these 4 also contributing for what Black Metal would be in the future).

 

[JudasMyGuide]

I wanted to do it according to your suggestion, but it's ... uneven.

1983 to 1987:

• Slaughter - Strappado (1987)
• Voivod - Killing Technology (1987)
• Kreator - Terrible Certainty (1987)
• Destruction - Release from Agony (1987)
• Whiplash - Ticket to Mayhem

1988 to 1992:

• Voivod - Dimension Hatröss (1988)
• Sepultura - Beneath the Remains (1989)
• Toxik - Think This (1989)
• Kreator - Extreme Aggression (1989)
• Annihilator - Alice in Hell (1989)
• Coroner - No More Color (1989)
• Annihilator - Never, Neverland (1990)
• Kreator - Coma of Souls (1990)
• Forbidden - Twisted into Form (1990)
• Artillery - By Inheritance (1990)
• Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death (1990)
• Arakain - Thrash the Trash (1990)
• Sadus - Swallowed in Black (1990)
• Heathen - Victims of Deception (1991)
• Coroner - Mental Vortex (1991)
• Tankard - Chemical Invasion (1991)
• Tourniquet - Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance (1992)

1993 to 1997:


1998 to 2002:


2003 to 2007:

• Toxic Holocaust - Hell on Earth (2005)

2008 to 2012:

• Kreator - Phantom Antichrist (2012)

2013 to today:

• Voivod - Target Earth (2013)
• Voivod - The Wake (2018)

I'll edit this post later when I think of some other albums.

Also, some of these I remember from my thrash days and haven't properly listened to them for quite some time.

 

[Cornfed Hick]

2013 to today:

Anyone who has been following LooseCannon's big Greatest Metal Album tournament knows my love for Power Trip's "Nightmare Logic" (2017), which is a throwback thrash masterpiece.