Five bands you feel are underrated and why...

TT Quick: they are quite good, and have delivered some solid metal platters over the years

Riot: A band capable of releasing an amazing album like thundersteel should get much more credit than those awful commercial metalcore bands

Annihilator: they have been very consistent over the years. Their contribution to thrash metal is equal to Metallica's and Anthrax's IMO.

Metal Church: i don't agree with Metallic Blaze that they went downhill in the 90's. Their latest releases were splendid.

Accuser: a band that is as good as Kreator and Sodom.

SAHB Healer wrote:

Veni Domine- ditto, probably handcapped by being Christian.

I wanted to list them too, but I don't think their belief has as much to do with them being underrated as much as them being a progressive doom band which is hard to come by and so the appreciation wasn't there, imo.

SAHB Healer wrote:

Anacrusis- You guys know them of course. They were hit & miss for me, because they took risks. The Screams & Whispers album was pure genius in it's mix of Thrash and Progressive Power.


Veni Domine- ditto, probably handcapped by being Christian.

Great calls on Anacrusis and Veni Domnine

Gilbert wrote:

Riot: A band capable of releasing an amazing album like thundersteel should get much more credit than those awful commercial metalcore bands

Annihilator: they have been very consistent over the years. Their contribution to thrash metal is equal to Metallica's and Anthrax's IMO.

Yeah, Riot is another great call! Indeed "Thundersteel" is probably the most underrated power metal album of the 80s.



I always thought Annihilator was underrated too. Sure they morphed their sound over the years - that's what happens when you go through singers. However, Annihilator always pulled through successfully IMO. Even their newer stuff is good to my ears.

THOR(Canada). Before the internet madness not many people remembered THOR in the early 90s. I really think he made some strong records like ONLY THE STRONG or the TRITONZ lp. Today some of his cds are like a joke but back in the day he was cool imo.

BLACKLACE. This band from NYC made two very cool albums back in the mid 80s but never made it. I love the vocals of the female singer.

ACID. Band from Belgium that played speed/heavy metal, one of the pioners in the genre. They released 3 cool albums and not long ago a label released a cool live album from 1984 with cool sound. Again a female vocalist.

ANGEL REAPER from Hungary: Cool thrash/black that release a couple of cool demos, being the first back in the late 80s. They had bad sound but the songs were cool. They should have been bigger, at least like MOBY DICK or AKELA.

BOMBARDER, ROOT, TORR and TUDOR. All cool east european bands that should have made it bigger because they had all great songs, already on their demos.

I agree with SWORD, RAVEN (but in my opinion they are not underrated by any metal fan), MANOWAR (not underrated at all, at least not in Europe, same with VIRGIN STEELE or METAL CHURCH).
Scott (ultmetal), were did you read this treat?? It looks that the guy knows his metal.

krokus wrote:

Scott (ultmetal), were did you read this treat?? It looks that the guy knows his metal.

http://tshirtslayer.com

ultmetal wrote:

krokus wrote:

Scott (ultmetal), were did you read this treat?? It looks that the guy knows his metal.

http://tshirtslayer.com

Thanks, i will check it out.

krokus wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

krokus wrote:

Scott (ultmetal), were did you read this treat?? It looks that the guy knows his metal.

http://tshirtslayer.com

Thanks, i will check it out.

Be warned, lots of teen and even some pre-teens on that site. You can usually tell. Lots of "kids" that are into thrash and think they have to wear white high-top sneakers as part of a thrash uniform. Not a whole lot of people who appreciate 80's metal outside of Venom and Slayer. However, there are some cool cats there too.

Sounds more like a fashion website than a music one.

mc666 wrote:

Sounds more like a fashion website than a music one.

Haha! I also suggested that it's a "fashion" thing and has little to do with heavy metal and thrash. And when I suggest that thrash metal fans never cared about shoes and such in the 80's, they get all pissed at me and tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about. They actually post pictures of their old shoes like they are a badge of honor. I kid you not.

GOTHIC SLAM-East Cost Thrash with a groove vibe.Virtually Unknown,but could've been much bigger.

FORBIDDEN-Why these guys arent as big as Metallica and Megadeth,I'll never know.

SPREAD EAGLE-Great Sleaze band,great songwriting.Should've been as big as The Crue

DANGEROUS TOYS-Another Awesome hard rocking gritty band at the end of the hair metal explosion.

TORA TORA-Love these guys.Their bluesy southern rockin sound shouldve got em as much fame as Cinderella.

Thrasher73 wrote:

GOTHIC SLAM-East Cost Thrash with a groove vibe.Virtually Unknown,but could've been much bigger.

FORBIDDEN-Why these guys arent as big as Metallica and Megadeth,I'll never know.

SPREAD EAGLE-Great Sleaze band,great songwriting.Should've been as big as The Crue

DANGEROUS TOYS-Another Awesome hard rocking gritty band at the end of the hair metal explosion.

TORA TORA-Love these guys.Their bluesy southern rockin sound shouldve got em as much fame as Cinderella.

Not familiar with Spread Eagle. Will have to check them out. Thanks.

The others are good choices. I brought a Tora Tora disc to work to rock today!

I think the bands on my list are due to: only releasing a couple/few albums and/or 'wrong time/era'. (or maybe my tastes just suck, haha)

1. Fifth Angel---I absolutely love both their albums. Their first is just great 'straight up' metal!

2. Forte--They have two great cds that came out in the 90's when everyone thought 'metal was dead' and left metal alone (although there were great power metal and death metal cds in this era too).

3. the Crucfied--I don't know....Pillars of Humanity is just awesome front and back. Absolutely rips!

4. Terrorizer---their first cd was the best blend of 'grind' and groovy riffs (before Napalm Death perfected it).

5. Step Cousin---Again, I don't know......two of their cds just strike that nerve in me that when I pop in that cd I end up listening to it over and over. It is just awesome.

ultmetal wrote:

krokus wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

krokus wrote:

Scott (ultmetal), were did you read this treat?? It looks that the guy knows his metal.

http://tshirtslayer.com

Thanks, i will check it out.

Be warned, lots of teen and even some pre-teens on that site. You can usually tell. Lots of "kids" that are into thrash and think they have to wear white high-top sneakers as part of a thrash uniform. Not a whole lot of people who appreciate 80's metal outside of Venom and Slayer. However, there are some cool cats there too.

Thanks for the warning , i will be careful

Quote :

Metal Church - Sure they are known... but really got passed up back in the 80's.

Metal Church were totally UNDERrated! They deserved much more recognition... they should at least be as big as Anthrax imo.

Xentrix: Never see them in anyone's favorite thrash lists but Shattered Existence and For Whose Advantage? are IMO some of the best thrash albums of all time.

Savatage: Less than half of people who listen to TSO even knows Savatage ever existed (unless the read about Jon Oliva in their concert programs). Almost no mainstream metal media have them in their top 100 lists.

Shadow Gallery: Yes, they never toured (until recently) and their albums were only released every three years or so, but the material was superior to almost any other prog metal bands' music.

Galactic Cowboys: Very memorable songs with great melody, great harmonies, and plenty of crunchy guitars. Everyone talks about King's X being underrated but too few of them ever mention the Cowboys.

Aska: Probably the longest running traditional metal band from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, but never went beyond indie band (several of their early albums are long out of print). Even in underground metal circles, very few people ever mention them.

DallasBlack wrote:

Xentrix: Never see them in anyone's favorite thrash lists but Shattered Existence and For Whose Advantage? are IMO some of the best thrash albums of all time.

Absolutely agree. When talking about thrash (esp. the 'Big 4') I always felt that those two from Xentrix, the first two Forbidden, the first two Heathen, and the two Atrophy cds stood up well along side any of the better known bands' cds---imo. (I almost put Xentrix and Atrophy on my list of 5).

Dallas,I agree on both Xentrix and Galactic Cowboys.

To me,Xentrix falls right in there with Artillery,Heathen,and Forbidden as underrated.

Great thread!


Timeless Miracle - Only one album, and it's one of my two favorite of all time. I just think they got lost in the Euro-power metal shuffle. My kid's each love them as well.

Once Dead - Again, only one album, which hurts them. I think I'm one of 3 people on Earth who loves this band, but it's one of my favorite Thrash albums of all time.

Sacred Steel - Love them to death. Love them! I think they get ripped so much because the vocalist's voice is weird, and they're beyond cheesy. That's probably why I love them. But, I do think they're very good.

Wizard - Great anthemic Teutonic powermetal sound.

Die Happy/Red Sea - Robin Basauri might be the answer to #5 instead of his two bands, but if these weren't "Christian" albums, and had they come out 2-3 years earlier or 10-15 years later - they might have been giants.

Quote :

Galactic Cowboys: Very memorable songs with great melody, great harmonies, and plenty of crunchy guitars. Everyone talks about King's X being underrated but too few of them ever mention the Cowboys.

Good call

Two bands spring to mind: Saxon and Running Wild.

Saxon has always lived in the shadow of Priest and Maiden but imo have at times released much better albums than either of those bands.

Running Wild is just underrated altogether - the band should be far better known than it is

Also,have to say Divine Fire is extremely under rated.

metalhead777 wrote:

Also,have to say Divine Fire is extremely under rated.

Unfortunatly, a LOT of Christian bands are. Yes they are more excepted in metal circles these days, but people still think of bands calling themselves Christians as being second and third rate.

Ult, that Accuser is pretty cool stuff!





Dallas, I agree about Shadow Gallery and Savatage!



Alex, you're right! Running Wild is extremely underrated IMO!