Slayer didn't sell out. DIM and God Hates Us All were just really bad albums. Plus Divine Intervention is better then Seasons in the Abyss and South of Heaven combined. The term "sold out" is overused. Just because a band puts out a few shitty albums doesen't mean they sold out. I hated Heartwork and Swansong but I didn't think Carcass sold out. I hate Slaughtered at the Soul but I didn't think At the Gates sold out. The real sellouts are Metallica and Sepultura.
I think you misread what Sabin said.... he said out of the big name Thrash bands (Metallica,Megadeth,Anthrax and I suppose Sepultura) Slayer is a exception that didn't sell out... and you seem to have a different definition of "selling out" then us because to me selling out is coming out with commercial sounding albums and deviating away from your original "sound" for the sake of $$ and to bow down to your record label to what they want... Slayer really has never done this and has only become popular due to word of mouth then videos, radio play etc... btw God Hates Us All, DIM etc.. are shitty albums not because they are commercial sounding but just because they are shitty lol
But i disagree with Sabin because I would have to assume he did not grow up in the 80's in Thrash's heyday while i did so i can state this through experience and in my eyes... To me and my Thrash friends at the time, felt it was dying out or died out when Metallica made the transition to mainstream metal... that along with what happened in 1991 with the advent of bands like Nirvana,Pearl Jam etc.. people were straying away from the metal underground of which Thrash was... so alot of the Thrash bands at the time that weren't the big Four (megadeth, metallica,slayer and anthrax) were struggling to get support from their labels and to retain fans so one by one they all folded and broke up or survived but barely through the 90's... I myself stopped listening to metal or any music for that matter after 1991 for a long time because i became disillusioned by Metallica's obvious sell out and the thrash underground dying out at that time... I seen alot of these bands in the late 80's at Sundance in Bayshore, Long Island. Nuclear Assault, DRI, Testament, Gothic Slam, Sacred Reich etc.. etc..
Btw with the undergrounds recent resurgence alot of these groups have come back and made great albums: Exodus, Testament, Destruction, Death Angel etc...
Also I disagree with you in that Thrash was distinctly American... it started in America or became popular in America more then Europe but Europe was starting to come out with high quality bands before the die out such as Destruction, Kreator, Sodom etc.. Really there were two big Thrash centers... America/San Francisco and Germany in those days... much like Norway was considered the center of the Black Metal universe...