New Wave of Thrash Metal

ze_mau wrote:

I didn´t like Toxic Holocaust because of the vocals.

I love the Insane riffs that Joel Grind has come up with. The best of the new wave of thrash metal.

Thelemech wrote:

ze_mau wrote:

I didn´t like Toxic Holocaust because of the vocals.

I love the Insane riffs that Joel Grind has come up with. The best of the new wave of thrash metal.

I have a disc of early Toxic Holocaust, it sounded a LOT like he was copying Venom.
Then another album, seemed to be high speed crossover like D.R.I.
It's alright music, enjoyable, but for some reason, does not make me a fan.

Evile, Havok, and Savage Messiah are probably the most consistent album to album. I like (to some degree) most of all the other bands but usually find myself listening to a particular cd of theirs rather than the whole catalog. But, imo, there are GREAT thrash cds scattered throughout all these new(er) bands.
cd suggestion: 4arm--submission for liberty (absolutely awesome).

There are many great bands on this "NWOTM" stuff ...

allthingsmetal wrote:

cd suggestion: 4arm--submission for liberty (absolutely awesome).

Ewwwww, groove-thrash   

DakotaRogers wrote:

allthingsmetal wrote:

cd suggestion: 4arm--submission for liberty (absolutely awesome).

Ewwwww, groove-thrash

Call it whatever you want, I just call them thrash metal and 4arm are great at it.

There's no way that I'm trawling through the hundreds of thrash thread to see if we have already discussed Delirium Tremens, but if not, why not cause they rule!

The bands all sounding the same has been going on for years. Thats partially why the thrash movement of the 80's and early 90's died out. Tons of bands sounded like Metallica or Slayer and just kept rehashing the rehashed. Now days a lot of bands sound like Exodus.

I know I am not the only one who thinks this way though!

I know someone is going to haul off on me about this even concerning AoB. Sure we had a slight Kreator sound about us, yes there are Slayer moments too... but NO ONE was doing what we were doing at the time either.

Lurideath wrote:

The bands all sounding the same has been going on for years. Thats partially why the thrash movement of the 80's and early 90's died out. Tons of bands sounded like Metallica or Slayer and just kept rehashing the rehashed. Now days a lot of bands sound like Exodus.

I know I am not the only one who thinks this way though!

I know someone is going to haul off on me about this even concerning AoB. Sure we had a slight Kreator sound about us, yes there are Slayer moments too... but NO ONE was doing what we were doing at the time either.

I think that has always been the thrash scene's problem, it's difficult to have a unique sound and not suck as I think most of the good innovations happened a long time ago. The Reek album was the only one that I've heard of the modern stuff that sounded a bit different.

Nowadays I just dip my toe into the thrash thing occasionally and if it sets my head nodding I'll give it a thumbs up but I probably won't buy it, I have a ton of thrash albums that are probably better. I could also do without the stupid 'retro thrash' covers that every one of these albums seem to have.

If you have the time, here's my top 20 thrash metal albums of 2014 video, featuring a handful of great new wave debuts.

Boris2008 wrote:

I think that has always been the thrash scene's problem, it's difficult to have a unique sound and not suck as I think most of the good innovations happened a long time ago.

I completely disagree with this. Thrash metal is no more limited than power metal, doom metal, death metal, etc.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

I think that has always been the thrash scene's problem, it's difficult to have a unique sound and not suck as I think most of the good innovations happened a long time ago.  

I completely disagree with this.  Thrash metal is no more limited than power metal, doom metal, death metal, etc.

I've yet to see any evidence to back this up. doom & death metal have expanded in dozens of different directions while thrash is still hopelessly in love with 1986.

It is no more limited, but bands really don't do anything to change it either.

Boris2008 wrote:

I've yet to see any evidence to back this up. doom & death metal have expanded in dozens of different directions while thrash is still hopelessly in love with 1986.

We're talking about two different things:

1.  The potential of thrash metal to evolve and show variety as much as any other genre (which I will defend)
2.  The current thrash scene (that I am not crazy about much, to be honest).  

But like it or not, Vektor do not sound like 1986. (1989 maybe - Destruction, Voivod, Obliveon, DBC ... but even then it's not exactly what they do).

In 1995 there were basically no thrash bands at all releasing anything.  That doesn't mean that it was impossible to create good new thrash music.  Don't conflate what the current scene  is with what the music COULD be.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

I've yet to see any evidence to back this up. doom & death metal have expanded in dozens of different directions while thrash is still hopelessly in love with 1986.

We're talking about two different things:

1.  The potential of thrash metal to evolve and show variety as much as any other genre (which I will defend)
2.  The current thrash scene (that I am not crazy about much, to be honest).  

But like it or not, Vektor do not sound like 1986.

In 1995 there were basically no thrash bands at all releasing anything.  That doesn't mean that it was impossible to create good new thrash music.  Don't conflate what the current scene  is with what the music COULD be.

Yeah I agree to some degree but i think that thrash fans have to take some of the blame for that, they simply do not want thrash to evolve beyond safe norms for the genre, when bands like Coroner tried, they saw sales go down the toilet. Vektor are an interesting band and to my ears head and shoulders above most of the bands although I do really like Reek and Shrapnel as well.

But yeah, I'm listening to that Vektor record now (I've heard it before) and it does give you an idea of the possibilities. What do you think is holding the genre back?

Boris2008 wrote:

Yeah I agree to some degree but i think that thrash fans have to take some of the blame for that, they simply do not want thrash to evolve beyond safe norms for the genre

Sure. For some people thrash is only nostalgia and not art. The population in general is very superficial and if a band looks "thrash" and has those throwback Repka covers then that is good enough for a lot of folks. At least for a while until even they get tired and bored with it.

Quote :

when bands like Coroner tried, they saw sales go down the toilet.

I think there is a good reason for that. Their music just became more boring.

I think Pantera took thrash into a new and interesting direction. I would say the same with Nevermore, although they came from the power metal school as well.

Do new thrash bands need to create new genres in and of themselves or is it enough to write good songs in a pre-exisiting style?

Quote :

What do you think is holding the genre back?

The same thing that holds every other genre back. Laziness, lack of money/time/ability to keep and hold band members, family commitments, lack of creativity, too much of a "scene" mentality, etc.

But if you're asking why thrash metal currently seems more stagnant than other genres ... I'm not sure that it is. I love this new band called Exocosm and I don't think they write generic 1986 thrash at all but hardly no one talks about them. They talk about the same 8 or so bands over and over and then complain that the scene is not what they wished it was. Eliminator wrote one of the best thrash albums of the last 20 years and it didn't receive a fraction of the attention of less talented bands. People just seem to like/pay attention to whoever gets the biggest label behind them, no matter how good they are. Then they wonder why the scene isn't that great.

Are there many really ground-breaking death metal acts around and have their been for the last 15 years or so?

I don't agree that Coroner became boring, far from it, I think they became more interesting.

S.D. wrote:

I don't agree that Coroner became boring, far from it, I think they became more interesting.

You think "Grin" was more interesting front-to-back than NMC or PFD? It has some great moments but it is a tough listen.

Do you listen to Mekong Delta?

I don't find Grin a tough listen at all. My only regret is they didn't do another full-length album after it to see where it might have led.

Not really familiar with Mekong Delta, I'll have to track down some samples on youtube.

S.D. wrote:

I don't find Grin a tough listen at all.  My only regret is they didn't do another full-length album after it to see where it might have led.  

To the new tracks on their s/t album. Which were pretty forgettable in my (nonexistent) recollection. Or to that Clockwork album that Tommy did that I really wanted to like but couldn't.

There are really only a couple of new tracks on the S/T album and I seem to remember reading it wasn't actually the whole band, I think the drummer was already gone at that point. It was a contractual obligation album with a couple new scraps added. I don't think it's indicative of what another album would have sounded like had the full band remained together.

Hell, I thought they broke up after Mental Vortex. I didn't discover that Grin or the s/t even existed until reading about them here on this forum in 2008 or so. Had never seen a copy of either album, which is even more surprising since I worked in a used CD store from 1995 to 1997.

Lurideath wrote:

The bands all sounding the same has been going on for years. Thats partially why the thrash movement of the 80's and early 90's died out. Tons of bands sounded like Metallica or Slayer and just kept rehashing the rehashed. Now days a lot of bands sound like Exodus.

I know I am not the only one who thinks this way though!

I know someone is going to haul off on me about this even concerning AoB. Sure we had a slight Kreator sound about us, yes there are Slayer moments too... but NO ONE was doing what we were doing at the time either.

Boris2008 wrote:

Lurideath wrote:

The bands all sounding the same has been going on for years. Thats partially why the thrash movement of the 80's and early 90's died out. Tons of bands sounded like Metallica or Slayer and just kept rehashing the rehashed. Now days a lot of bands sound like Exodus.

I know I am not the only one who thinks this way though!

I know someone is going to haul off on me about this even concerning AoB. Sure we had a slight Kreator sound about us, yes there are Slayer moments too... but NO ONE was doing what we were doing at the time either.

I think that has always been the thrash scene's problem, it's difficult to have a unique sound and not suck as I think most of the good innovations happened a long time ago. The Reek album was the only one that I've heard of the modern stuff that sounded a bit different.

Nowadays I just dip my toe into the thrash thing occasionally and if it sets my head nodding I'll give it a thumbs up  but I probably won't buy it, I have a ton of thrash albums that are probably better. I could also do without the stupid 'retro thrash' covers that every one of these albums seem to have.

Totally agree with these two comments.

Boris2008 wrote:

I think that has always been the thrash scene's problem, it's difficult to have a unique sound and not suck as I think most of the good innovations happened a long time ago. The Reek album was the only one that I've heard of the modern stuff that sounded a bit different.

I don't think there is any kind of a need to have a unique sound. I don't care if thousand bands sounds exactly like Metallica or Slayer or whatever else, as long as the songs are great. Have a memorable melody, have a memorable riff, have a memorable vocal line, have memorable drumwork, and I will listen.

The problem with many new wave bands is that the riffs and the melodies just don't have that extra quality that hooks me in. The bands don't have a sense of what should be in what parts of the song. A good band knows when to make that one extra bass line, that one extra power-up in vocals, that one extra china symbal, that one extra note in a riff.


Also, if these new bands would REALLY want to sound like Exodus, they would not try to make the sound crystal clear. Bands in the 80's sounded like there was air between the instruments and the listener's ears. Now all sounds like the instruments are plugged directly on the listener's brain. There is no sense of the music passing through the air.

Resurrecting this thing.

I've been soooo burnt on the revival thrash stuff, but I got the itch to revisit the first Fueled by Fire album, as it was one of my early jaunts into the new thrash stuff. It's a really fun album.

I would never call this retro-thrash but you people's need to check this out!