What is your favorite thrash albums?

May 24, 2021
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Thrash is one of my favorite genres of metal overall...here are five really good ones off the top of my head, these are all older:











*What are your favorite thrash albums...
 
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Putting forward one of the more thrash influenced songs on an album with 22 tracks doesn't go very far at all towards explaining why you'd list it as a thrash album.

I wasn't originally asked for an explanation. Have you bothered to listen to the album?

i guess i only know it's a thrash album because i'm a guitarist. People typically say the band and album are grindcore. Grindcore is often just sped-up thrash. The vocals and drums on the pig destroyer album are grindy, but looking at it from the point of view of the guitar work, "prowler in the yard" has an intense butt rock element: that type of feeling that you hear in thrash, speed metal, and hard rock. Much of the aforementioned album sounds like motorhead to me. The drop A tuning of the guitar makes the album sound kinda like motorhead. Pig destroyer is overall an incredibly eclectic band.
 
It would take a while to write them all down, but if you go on youtube and search "best thrash metal of x" where x is the year you'll find my playlist for that year. 2021 could currently use some updating, but there's quite a lot to discover on there
 
My favorites:
Artillery - By Inheritance
Dark Angel - Leave Scars
Slayer - South of Heaven
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Testament - The Legacy

That artillery album is really good, i downloaded it shortly after you posted your list. However, I somehow am never compelled by Anthrax, I find this to be strange because they're so popular in the thrash/old-school genre.

There are so many hidden gems in metal...
 
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Agree Prowler in the Yard certainly contains some thrash elements (especially on 'Naked Trees') but I don't consider it a thrash metal record. It's definitely grindcore. Just my 2 cents!

Thrash is one of my first loves, so while I'm here off the top of my head here's a few of my very favourites... Disclaimer: chose to omit my favourites from the 'bigger' boys (Metallica, Slayer, etc.) as well as my favourites from 'new' bands... Jus' cause.

Razor - Shotgun Justice
Protector - A Shedding of Skin
Lethal - Annihilation Agenda
Anacrusis - Screams And Whispers
Sabbat - History Of A Time To Come
Indestroy - Senseless Theories
Stone - Emotional Playground
Gammacide - Victims of Science
Tankard - The Beauty And The Beer
Atrophy - Socialized Hate
Outrage - Raging Out

There's been so many great thrash records...

EDIT: My all time favourite album is Rust In Peace :lol:
 
That artillery album is really good, i downloaded it shortly after you posted your list. However, I somehow am never compelled by Anthrax, I find this to be strange because they're so popular in the thrash/old-school genre.

There are so many hidden gems in metal...

Anthrax is definitely overrated overall, but I stand by the Spreading the Disease album. Easily one of the best albums of 1985.
 
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My all-time favourites:

Metallica - ...And Justice for All
Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction
English Dogs - Where Legend Began
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Exordium Mors - The Apotheosis of Death
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Overkill - Horrorscope
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Tankard - The Tankard

English Dogs, Exordium Mors and Countdown... may fall in the only somewhat thrash category.
 
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Dunno about favourites but when I feel like thrash these days I typically reach for stuff like:

Voivod - Killing Technology
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Slayer - Hell Awaits
Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
Slaughter - Strappado
Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
Sepultura - Schizophrenia
Sadus - Illusions
Coroner - Mental Vortex
Sodom - Obsessed by Cruelty
Razor - Evil Invaders
Necronomicon - Necronomicon
 
Some of the usual suspects from me:

Hexenhaus - A Tribute to Insanity
Détente - Recognize No Authority
Sacrilege - Within the Prophecy
Anacrusis - Suffering Hour
Voivod - Killing Technology
Znowhite - Act of God
Testament - The Legacy

If I also included albums which are only partly thrash metal, Fear of God's "Within the Veil" would definitely belong in this list, too, though this an album which requires a category of its own.

And at least for nostalgic reasons, I should mention Metallica's "Ride the Lightning", since it was some kind of musical revelation way back in 1984, the album which really got me into metal (mostly thrash metal, at least in the eighties) and I still listen to it every once in a while nowadays.

Since Anthrax have been mentioned before: While I listened to their albums until "State of Euphoria" way back then, they were never among my overall favourites. I think I found them especially lacking in the guitar solo department (compared to bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Testament or Forbidden). When I saw them live on their "Among the Living"-tour in autumn 1987, I still enjoyed the concert, but supporting act Testament who had just released their debut a few months before (which also was my favourite album in 1987) were much more impressive. They sounded much rawer and had an Alex Skolnick on lead guitar. Also, while I still listen to Testament's "The Legacy", I don't think I'll ever revisit any of Anthrax' stuff.

Anacrusis - Screams And Whispers
I don't hear much thrash metal on that album. I like it, but I'd rather call it progressive metal.
 
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one per band:
slayer - hell awaits
metallica - master of puppets
voivod - killing technology
destruction - sentence of death
depressive age - first depression
holy terror - terror and submission
infernal majesty - none shall defy
sodom - in the sign of evil (if it counts)
exodus - bonded by blood
overkill - feel the fire
 
top 25

1. Slayer - Reign in Blood
2. Sarcófago - I.N.R.I
3. Razor - Evil Invaders
4. Vio-Lence - Eternal Nightmare
5. Destruction - Infernal Overkill
6. Infernäl Mäjesty - None Shall Defy
7. Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
8. Obliveon - From This Day Forward
9. Rigor Mortis - Rigor Mortis
10. Coroner - Punishment For Decadence
11. Slayer - Hell Awaits
12. Merciless - The Awakening
13. Sadus - Swallowed in Black
14. Overkill - Feel the Fire
15. Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of Violence
16. Depressive Age - First Depression
17. Cro-Mags - Best Wishes
18. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
19. Protector - A Shedding of Skin
20. Sepultura - Morbid Visions
21. Dream Death - Journey into Mystery
22. Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death
23. Slaughter - Strappado
24. Exodus - Bonded By Blood
25. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains