Which of these longtime thrash bands perceived weakest efforts do you like best?

Witchfinder wrote:

If I could pick two, it would be Overkill and Testament, but I can't so I picked Overkill.

It was a close call between Overkill and Testament for me too. I voted for Testament. Could've flipped a coin on that one really.

It's quite cool to read about what people are saying on this topic.

There are some good releases there.

corplhicks wrote:

I'm surprised Metallica's up there over Kreator and Megadeth.

I could never vote for Metallica, just because St. Anger is in that list. My pelvis breaking three years ago sounded better than St. Anger. And it had more musical value.

I actually like most of the albums listed but I went with Slayer because I used to spin that disc constantly when it was first released, thou it has been ages since I have listened to that particular Slayer disc.

'Risk' followed by 'Load', no contest at all. Half-assed thrash is way worse than 3/4 of the way there blues/arena rock.

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

I'm surprised Metallica's up there over Kreator and Megadeth.

I could never vote for Metallica, just because St. Anger is in that list. My pelvis breaking three years ago sounded better than St. Anger. And it had more musical value.

I'm probably the only guy on earth, who likes St Anger specifically for the drum sound.

mc666 wrote:

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

I'm surprised Metallica's up there over Kreator and Megadeth.

I could never vote for Metallica, just because St. Anger is in that list. My pelvis breaking three years ago sounded better than St. Anger. And it had more musical value.

I'm probably the only guy on earth, who likes St Anger specifically for the drum sound.

I actually like St. Anger, after seeing the movie 'Some Kind of Whiner' it actually made me appreciate the album. I am not sure if even the lads in Metallica knew what they were going for, but its interesting listen, at least IMO

I'd rather listen to Risk and St. Anger than those horrible ANTHRAX albums. Regardless of style, the songwriting quality is just so low on those.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I'd rather listen to Risk and St. Anger than those horrible ANTHRAX albums. Regardless of style, the songwriting quality is just so low on those.

I've yet to hear Volume 8 but I didn't think Stomp 442 was that bad (certainly better than Risk in my book). I should add I still haven't heard St. Anger yet either.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I'd rather listen to Risk and St. Anger than those horrible ANTHRAX albums. Regardless of style, the songwriting quality is just so low on those.

I love those Bush era albums. I know I'm in the minority on that, but I don't care. It's just catchy hard rock. Charlie did some of his best drumming on those albums too.

Easily went with Testament, however, I really love I Hear Black and Force Of Habit. If it was on there, then Flotsam & Jetsam-Cuatro would be my second choice. Also, I thought Renewal was the most hated Kreator album, guess I was wrong.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I'd rather listen to Risk and St. Anger than those horrible ANTHRAX albums. Regardless of style, the songwriting quality is just so low on those.

You think St. Anger is better then those albums? At least Anthrax's albums didn't have ultra-long songs that went nowhere or garbage can drumming.

ToB has very strong opinions. When he dislikes something, he REALLY dislikes it.

No shock but weakest generally are Megadeth's Risk and Metallica's post-Black Album outputs.

The rest I think show varying degrees of stylistic diversification.

Of the bands and albums I am more familiar with on that list -

The least weakest top:

1. Overkill - I Hear Black
The only real weak aspect of this album is the production. It needed to be thicker and heavier to effectively bring out the Sabbath influence and doom-like songwriting they were going for. Otherwise the songs are awesome.

I don't think Overkill ever wrote a subpar album. What held some of those post-80s albums back was the production more than the songwriting aspect. WFO has the strangest production in Overkill's catalog with the bass being way too at the front but the songwriting is generally decent - strong and overall it is a well written but poorly produced album.

2. Testament - The Ritual
This is a more watered down version of Souls of Black / Practice What You Preach with a subtle Alice in Chains influence. Is it that bad, no way. It is a decent metal album albeit not a thrash metal album that one would normally expect from Testament. This was the album's undoing - it was released by Testament had it been any other band it would have stood a better chance.

The inclusion of Demonic on this list isn't that warranted. I don't think it was a weak album rather it was just an incomplete line-up. The direction was interesting, it was the opposite of most of the albums listed on here - Testament going in a heavier and darker direction is not a bad thing but Demonic was just a prelude of what was to come on The Gathering.

3. Anthrax - Stomp 442 / Volume 8
Nothing bad about these albums imo. By the time these albums came out the band had already re-established its sound with John Bush. Sound of White Noise was largely well accepted and it was a complete departure from the Belladonna era. I don't think John Bush was Anthrax's undoing, if anything I always saw his presence as a merger of 2 bands - Anthrax and Armored Saint. The 90s Anthrax albums could have easily been a continuation of Armored Saint's Symbol of Salvation. This has always been my view.

4. Kreator - post-Coma of Souls / 90s albums
As a whole I never really understood the hatred towards Kreator's 90s albums. On their own there is a lot of variety on these albums and again, had those albums been released as Mille Petrozza's solo project or something that did not have Kreator's name slapped on there they would have been better appreciated.

5. Slayer - post-Seasons / 90s albums

Well between the good songs on Divine and the good songs on Diabolus there is a solid Slayer album there. Divine's production was the album's undoing. It was something different and new for Slayer but the songwriting is quite decent at times killer.

Diabolus is an odd one for Slayer - it is probably their most 'unique' sounding album. When I first heard Diabolus in Musica back in 1998, after listening to Seasons and all the 80s classics, this sounded to me like a totally different band.

The production felt very industrial and I didn't really associate the songwriting at all with Slayer's traditional sound. Perhaps this is the style they were going for... I remember hearing their collaboration with Atari Teenage Riot on the song No Remorse I Want to Die for the Spawn Soundtrack and in a odd way I feel Diabolus was an extension of that style. Not bad but just very different and unexpected.

Alex Dee Rokket wrote:

The inclusion of Demonic on this list isn't that warranted. I don't think it was a weak album rather it was just an incomplete line-up. The direction was interesting, it was the opposite of most of the albums listed on here - Testament going in a heavier and darker direction is not a bad thing but Demonic was just a prelude of what was to come on The Gathering.

I'm actually a fan of Demonic, myself (I actually voted for Testament). I only mentioned the album in the poll, as it did get panned in quite a few user reviews. The albums I mentioned were only possible or indicative examples from each band. For instance, even though I only mentioned Kreator's Outcast and Endorama, other people do rate Renewal or even Cause of Conflict as being Kreator's weakest release. Some Megadeth fans have been known to rate Risk as a stronger effort than the follow up, The World Needs A Hero.

Though I only listed Overkill's I Hear Black, on a personal note, I actually prefer IHB over RelixIV.

Quote :

4. Kreator - post-Coma of Souls / 90s albums
As a whole I never really understood the hatred towards Kreator's 90s albums. On their own there is a lot of variety on these albums and again, had those albums been released as Mille Petrozza's solo project or something that did not have Kreator's name slapped on there they would have been better appreciated.

Kreator has yet to release a bad album. They are the best german thrash band of all time, hands down.

SpectreFate wrote:

Quote :

4. Kreator - post-Coma of Souls / 90s albums
As a whole I never really understood the hatred towards Kreator's 90s albums. On their own there is a lot of variety on these albums and again, had those albums been released as Mille Petrozza's solo project or something that did not have Kreator's name slapped on there they would have been better appreciated.

Kreator has yet to release a bad album. They are the best german thrash band of all time, hands down.

On the best German thrash band I'm split between Kreator and Sodom. I think Sodom are slightly more consistent than Kreator but also a bit more predictable... Kreator's sound has gradually evolved in time to become more melodic yet also aggressive enough.

Looking through that whole list I can say that I'm a fan of I Hear Black (though I remastered it myself because it sounded like ass). I like some of the stuff on Endorama. Force Of Habit is "okay" but unmemorable. Nothing wrong with The Ritual, I think it's a better overall album than Souls Of Black to be honest.

Never heard Stomp 442, Volume 8, Out Of Order, Risk, Outcast or Demonic.

I don't like any of those Metallica records, a few tracks off Load were "okay" at the time but I will never listen to it again.

Generally speaking, most metal bands that established themselves in the 80s metal scene shared the same issues in the mid 90s as the artists listed in this thread. In other words, many metal albums released by 80s metal acts during the mid-90s were perceived as being comparatively weak releases.

From thrash to glam bands, all shared the same problem by the time the mid-90s hit.

In some isolated cases bands continued to improve their sound, or changed their style in a manner that was widely accepted by audiences. Overkill already cited in this thread was such a band that survived the 90s anti-metal mainstream sentiments by flying virtually under the radar for the better part of the 90s. Then you have the likes of Pantera that emerged out of the 80s as a rather standard no-frills metal band and into an "overhyped", seemingly scene changing 90s metal band.

Of course the above and this thread applies primarily to the U.S. music / metal scene. The European metal scene was only just starting to surface and diversify the metal scene. At the time, the European metal scene about a decade behind what the U.S. scene had experienced in the 1980s. However, I don't think the European scene was what these bands were vying for at the time, also the scene at the time seemed to appeal more to native European bands with a handful of new styles emerging at the time like euro-power metal, black metal, Swedish death metal etc.

I am not sure on this point and I would be interested to know from those around at the time - if you lived in the U.S. did you know much about the happenings in the metal scene in Europe? Were there any means of learning about euro-power, black metal, gothenburg metal etc before the late-90s when the internet emerged?

I'm curious of the interaction if any between the early-mid 90s U.S. Metal scene and its European counterpart.

Testament

A Tie between ''I Hear Black'' and 'The Ritual'' - One word

AWESOME


The weakest ones would be a tie as well

''Stomp/Vol 8'' and ''Risk''



I mean, seriously....even the weakest Armored Saint album stomps ''Stomp''.....no shyt

Anthrax, hands down. I'm of the opinion that they have never released a bad album. I think Stomp and Volume are just as good, albeit different, as Among the Living or Persistance of Time.

I don't particularly care for any of those albums, to be honest. Megadeth's Risk and Overkill's I Hear Black each have a couple of semi-decent tracks on 'em but I don't reach for either of them very often.

I went with Slayer. I don't think they've ever truly strayed from their original sound. It's been modified a bit. And some of their 21st century albums are a little bland, but they are all Slayer.

The most disappointing ones for me from this list are the Bush-era Anthrax albums. I tried Sound of White Noise when it came out, and did not like it. As a more open minded adult, I re-visited and still do not like it. I've listened to songs from most of the Bush Anthrax albums, and can't get into any of them. With Anthrax, it feels just like an entirely different band after 1992. Not only the vocals, but the music.

At least most of the other bands listed still have elements of their former selves--maybe not Metallica--but most of them do.

I'm not a thrash guy so I'm probably just the sort of person that these albums were aimed at (eg. the mainstream metal fan). I like most of those albums. I Hear Black is an alltime fave of mine, top 50 so I voted for that.

corplhicks wrote:

That was a tough one. It was between Slayer, Overkill, and Exodus. Chose Overkill in the end because all Overkill is good Overkill (except WFO because of the bloody mix). I still enjoy I Hear Black and From the Underground & Below way more than most of the internet .

FTUAB is my fav Overkill album by a LONGGGG shot and I Hear Black is right behind it... I love groove and man both those album kill it....