Tag: thrash metal

642. Sepultura

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(April 2025) Episode 642 is SEPULTURA, vaulting to the top tier of my favorite metal bands. In a genre that demands a high level of orthodoxy to the metal formula, Sepultura separates themselves: they create music within the metal idiom. Beyond their skillful navigation within subgenres (speed/thrash, death, groove, prog), they bring in novel elements like drumming rhythms from their native Brazil, notably on the albums Chaos A.D. and Roots when they reached their creative peak. But it’s not a mere meld, it makes part of a whole. Each album has its own personality; they’ll try something new and then circle back to hit you in the face with power thrash.

Favorite album: Roots

Favorite song: Lookaway

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Highly recommend. Chaos A.D. and Roots are their most inventive, but there’s really not a bad album in the lot.

628. Testament

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(January 2025) Episode 628 is TESTAMENT. Superlative thrash metal. They’re not listed among the “Big Four” bands because they’re categorized in the second wave. But for sound and skill, I would put them up near the top. Lots in common with fellow Bay Area mates Metallica — vocalist Chuck Billy is close in style to James Hetfield, as well as technical prowess and powerful execution. Their first three albums were classic thrash. In the early 90s they adopted a more alt/groove metal sound, consistent with the time, but by 1999 (and since) they returned to pure thrash form.

Favorite album: The Gathering

Favorite song: Down for Life

Compared to expectations:  ↑

Recommendation: All the albums are good, even that middle period. Try 1988’s The New Order, 1999’s The Gathering and 2016’s Brotherhood of the Snake.

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619. Celtic Frost

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Episode 619 is CELTIC FROST, a Swiss group considered influential on European heavy metal and extreme metal. They emerged in the mid-1980s with a tasty thrash metal approach, and ambitiously shifted on their second full-length album to what we might call gothic and symphonic metal. The next album went glam which lost them a lot of their audience. Celtic Frost reunited and put out a doom metal album in 2006, which I like the best although it is different from the sound that made them influential. The sonic attack is good, but the vocalist’s style keeps me from loving them.

Favorite album: Monotheist

Best album: To Mega Therion

Favorite song:  A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: An interesting band for learning what was influenced, but not my first choice to dip into these subgenres.

465. Agnostic Front

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(January 2023) Episode 465 is AGNOSTIC FRONT.  Coming out of the New York City hardcore scene, they helped pioneer crossover thrash. While I’m not a punk connoisseur, their early punk stuff sounds pretty good to me (their opening EP is 10 songs in 6:22 – classic).  Unlike peer bands that crossed over once from punk to thrash, Agnostic Front went back and forth over the years. In later years Roger Miret’s vocals get annoying.

Favorite album: Victim in Pain

Favorite song: The Eliminator

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: should be in both your punk and thrash playlists

442. Suicidal Tendencies

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(October 2022) Episode 442 is SUICIDAL TENDENCIES.  I normally dislike fusion in music, but the punk-thrash crossover of Suicidal Tendencies works for me. And it works very well, combining the technical proficiency of thrash metal and the audience-oriented voice of punk. I favored their first album as iconic, although I generally prefer the later metal sound. Despite, or maybe because of, several lineup changes their sound adapts well through nü and funk metal phases.

Favorite album: Suicidal Tendencies (also check out its semi-remake Still Cyco After All These Years for a more metal treatment)

Favorite song: Disco’s Out, Murder’s In

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: should be in both your punk and thrash playlists

426. Megadeth

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(July 2022) Episode 426 of the “opus project” is MEGADETH, the last of the ‘big four’ thrash bands reviewed, and also the least. I’m turned off by Mustaine’s at-times cartoonish voice.  The first few albums have quality speed and grind. While the many albums that follow are peppered with occasional thrashtastic bits, but much of it is pedestrian metal and hard rock. Megadeth does feature in one of my favorite Onion articles.

Favorite album: Peace Sells .. But Who’s Buying?

Favorite song: Holy Wars … The Punishment Due

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: there are parts that kick, but I would fulfill your thrash needs elsewhere

403. Anthrax

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

Episode 403 is ANTHRAX.  One of the first and influential trash metal bands, although I would rank them a notch below Metallica and Slayer.  The trash and speed is fantastic, but the music can become burdened by sounding too much like hair metal (on the early albums) or banal hard rock (on the later ones), probably due to the rotation of lead vocalists.

Favorite album: Among the Living

Favorite song: Room for One More

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: it’s high caliber trash metal, but I would initiate yourself elsewhere

379. Slayer

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(January 2022) Episode 379 is SLAYER. 1980s music generally sucked, but it did bless us with thrash metal, in which Slayer reigned (in blood). I like my metal at the extremes and Slayer goes there with speed, speed, speed, with a full package of death and devil themes. And they seamlessly transitioned through groove metal too.  So good.

Favorite album: Reign in Blood

Favorite song: Angel of Death

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: essential in the metal genre