the Top `10 Thrash Albums of the Decade

The decade began before this blog was started , I can not just rely on sorting through previous reviews. I am just embedding video clips to support the reasoning for these albums to be listed as such, since I already did a best of the year list for each sub-genre. Hard rock was created by splitting mainstream metal and rock off into more specialized categories. Thrash started at where the cross cross of the New Wave of British Heavy metal metal Hard core punk. Some of these bands lean more heavily on either side of that equation.  This might not be the most hipster of the lists that say Vice puts out, what matters is the fact; these are the albums I listened to the most Any ways here are the Top 10 Thrash metal   albums of the decade.



10- Huntress -"Spell Eater" -2012










9-Toxic Holocaust - "Conjure and Command" 2011




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8-Spirit Adrift-- "Divided By Darkness" 2019




 







7-Destroyer 666 -"Wildfire" 2016




 






6- Istapp - "Blekinge"- 2010 




 





5-Death Angel -- "Humanicide" 2019












4-Exhorder- Mourn the Southern Skies" 2019











3- Gwar-- "the Blood of Gods" 2017



 





2- Goatwhore -"Blood for the Master "  2012 










1- Anthrax- " For All Kings" 2016 



 

Metal Hammer's Judas Priest Tribute Album.

Judas Priest was one of my favorite bands growing up. I might not listen to them as much as I used to, but it always brings a smile to my face when I hear them, so I am not only very familiar with their body of work , but have a deep respect for it. Metal Hammer complied this album of previously recorded covers. Covering Judas Priest first and foremost in my mind requires a solid vocal performance. You don't have to hit all the notes Rob Halford does as there not not a ton of singers who can do that. But you need to convey where he was going with it and tell the same story. So I know this is going to be problematic.  This album  opens with Arch Enemy's cover of "Breaking the Law" . This gets a more "Painkiller" treatment. The verse riff is so iconic that trying to add extra chugs in it is self defeating. Here the problem with the vocals that I predicted wastes no time coming true. Just growling through not matter how nuanced the growl is only works on the chorus of this song. There are still enough trademark to recognize it. A power metal band like Sabaton, certainly seems more capable of handling "All Guns Blazing" . There higher register vocals, they are more of a choked AC/DC nature, but at least they are trying. Power Wolf's cover of "Night Crawler" even with the help of sung vocals comes across a little stiff .

 I love Katatonia, so was eager to hear how they did  "Night Comes Down".  This one is off of "Defenders of the Faith" not one of their strongest songs, it's more of a power ballad so it works for these guys. Granted his range doesn't reach beyond what Jonas normally does. Huntress does just fine with "Running Wild" which is a safer picker than "Beyond the Realms of Death" which Blind Guardian takes on. I guess I have never given these guys a fair shot as he does a great job with the more baritone croon. The higher notes at the chorus are more snarled like Ice Earth or even Blackie Lawless.  Kreator does a much better job with "Grinder" than I expected. They should the kind of restraint and served the song like Arch Enemy could have stood to have done a better job of.

Death's cover of "Painkiller" is taken from their 1998 album "the Sound of Perseverance" . I am pretty impressed with Chuck's vocals. Even though it's a scratchier tone he hits the notes. It also has him singing in clean voice on parts. Drummer Richard Christy who also played with Iced Earth nails his parts to the wall. Primal Fear covering "Metal Gods" is pretty much a no-brainer cus they are almost a Judas Priest cover band. I'll give this album a 8.5 . Granted these bands all benefited from having excellent source material to work off of.

Huntress : 'Static"

The third album by Huntress is an improvement of the sophomore slump that hit them on "Starbound Beast" . There is a darker power-ballad feel to "Mania", but most of the songs are mid-tempo power-thrash with a NWOBHM slant to them. Sure the band is still a vehicle for Jill Janus, who might have questionable metal roots if you google her, but to Janus' credit her voice has improved and she is not doing much of the harsh vocals focusing on singing, giving her a more piercing attack to the notes in her upper register. Up until "Mania" there might have been some variance in the chorus, but many of the songs had a similar feel. The fact there were some catchy hooks to compliment the way the songs moved along made this less offensive than if I really put this under a looking glass to find what make each song stand on it legs and apart from the previous one, but can you do the same with any post-"Fly on the Wall" AC/DC or "post- "Rock n Roll" Motorhead? Yet those bands are widely regarded as classics.

 There is more power to the chug of "Four Blood Moons" . It takes off at a more punk paced cross-over thrash speed more in line with what went down in the 80s than the first half of the album. However it might be harder and pack more of punch , but it's not as well written as the five songs that come before it. The title track also sticks to a harder rocking ethic , but is more like the rest of the album than the song that precedes it. Jill's vocals more are almost always layered.So perhaps a few production choices factor into this, before you hate consider how production choices have given solo Ozzy as signature sound to his voice as well. The song title "Harsh Times on Planet Stoked" is very Spinal Tap, but the music rocks a good bit harder than "Big Bottoms" or "Hell Hole".

They take more of a Judas Priest style chug on " Noble Savage". At this point in the album I can appreciate the nods to classic metal, but want to hear the moments that don't sound like the could have come from "British Steel" because that is who this band really is. Unlike say Ghost, they stir up their influences enough to where it sounds more like an era than the band straight up jacking riffs or paying overt homage. The guitar solos are spot on for that time frame, but don't have much personality of their own and marginal shred factor. They fire off harder  on "Fire In My Heart" toward a pre- thrash era of metal, and Jill's voice takes on a coarser tone but is still sung. This is one of the album best moments as it marries their  melodic nature with a fair amount of heft. The riff coming out of the second chorus is particularly mean and finds Jill reaching up into the higher part of her register. Here the guitarist shows me who is really is and dishes out a more personalized solo. "Black Tongue" is a bonus track, but I am going to go ahead and count it as part of this album. She uses a harsher voice for the chorus, where the other melodies sit somewhere between Metallica and Judas Priest, which when it comes to 80s metal is good company to keep. Overall this might not be the most original collection of songs, but they have equal amounts of power and heart in them that I did not hear on the previous album so I hear this as a step forward for the band, filling a gap left by 3 Inches of Blood, so I will give this an 8.




 

Huntress: "StarBound Beast"

When the heavier bands from this style of post-new wave of British Heavy started trying to appease their record labels, the bands from L.A. who didn't try to follow Slayers lead, tried to take cues from bands like Queensryche and write subtly more commercial music. That is what is happening here on Huntress' sophomore album, calling it a sophomore s;ump might be taking to critical line of thinking.

The Lemmy co-written " I Want to F You to Death"  I find it hard to believe that Mr. Kilmister had much to to with this as there isn't really anything that sounds like Motorhead except the title. There are frequent James Hetfeild "yeah yeahs" smattered about . The chorus reminds me of Lizzy Borden, right down to Jill's vibrato.


"Destroy Your Life" takes off on a straight ahead gallop, with Janus' vocals taking on a gruffer lower tone. The title takes on a more mid paced arena rock chug along the lines of Accept until the doomy undertones of the chorus give it a little more Candlemass like shading. The slicker production and the more deliberate pacing of the songs takes the thrash edge off of most of these songs.The riffing is at times smarter and catchier though the bass is lower in the mix which gives them an overall cleaner but thinner sound. The vocals do benefit the most from the production and the firmly place themselves as more of a metal band than say In this Moment.

"Zenith" is one of the exceptions to the dialed back thrash rule. It sounds like it was left over from "Spell-Eater" and feature one of her more glorious head register yodels, though the claims of her having a four octave range I still hold suspect. "Oracle" starts off in an aggressive power-metal stance, the melodies just don't hook me in and give cause to wonder of this album was a bit rushed in the writing process. Songs like "Receiver" showcase the fact the albums strength in the more thoughtfully written guitar parts are in fact having to carry the weight for the bland vocal melodies.

The closer "Alpha Tauri"  offers more dynamics in this one song than perhaps the album as a whole. I think this would have been a great album if filled with these types of bells and whistles rather than the no frills arena metal occupying most of the album. I'll give this one a 5.5 as it has it moments but doesn't come close to Spell-eater leaving to look forward to their cleavage filled videos rather than give this one as half as many spins as it's predecessor.

the Best in Metal for 2012' so far ...

"I decree zee punishment for bad metal is death"

For this to be the year of  the Mayan apocalypse we are going out with a whimper  in terms of the creative out put in metal and horror movies both are having weak showings. Of the artists I have compiled for the mid year progress report card , more border on just having metal elements , yetthey sound heavier to me than the half-hearted Meshuggah. So here's who is delivering the goods for the soundtrack to the apocalypse this year .

1- Pinkish Black- Self titled-  recently reviewed, casts it's dark shadow over what most might consider metal but it's still heavier in tone than any of the mall-metal djent crap

2-Ihsahn- Eremita- Well crafted  leaning  towards progressive metal, a sliver cloud with only black metal in the shading around its edges. Will be hard pressed to find better guitar playing on an album this year.

3-Pallbearer-Sorrow & Extinction - I must admit I was a little disappointed with the vocal performance I have seen of their  more recent live footage but it doesn't stop it from being the most soaring doom so far.

4-Lunar Aurora- Hoagascht- Noticed deficit in good black metal, these guys understand ambiance doesn't have to put you to sleep

5-Royal Thunder -CVI- Another non-metal release but close enough to help fill the void, looming ,morose and swinging melodies which get lodged in the back of my mind.

6-Lord Mantis- Pervertor-Kellhammer turned me onto this, sure it's sludge drenched but like Dragged into Sunlight, still comes closer to being being black metal than half of what is slathered in corpse paint these days.

7- Burzum -Umskiptar-Not a big departure from the other post- pokey albums, this one feels more depressing  and has a slower drone it , making it a piece of frost I'm warming up to.

8-Sigh - In Somniphobia- Another step away from black metal and into exotic cartoonish lands where Mr. Bungle and Frank Zappa were only thought to tread.Think evil mario cart muzak.

9-Merrimack-the Acausal Mass- Not the kind blasty mcnastiness I expected, but it is still an all round well crafted slab of hell charred blackened...um death thrash..maybe

10 Huntress- Spelleater- it was a toss up between this and Rumplestiltskin Grinder , but Huntress has melodies I actually find myself singing after the fact, where the Grinders pretty much adhere to just Carcass worship.

Alcest and Christian Mistress are both good albums, just not metal,  the singer of Christian Mistress reminds me of the girl from Rainer Maria, but maybe not as much as the chick from Witch Mountain reminds me of Fiona Apple. Then there's  whole contingency of albums by bands like Horse Back and Nachtvorst which touch on greatness but are too caught up in creating soundscapes and noise.

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Most likely to unseat some of these by the end of the year ...Nachtmystium, A Forest of Stars, Katatonia, Converge

Huntress: Spell Eater

Female fronted metal bands have held a place in my heart, going back to Lita Ford whose writhing leather jumpsuits furthered my transition into puberty.  Over the past decade, the primal sexuality of the leather clad sirens was replaced by Andrew Loyd Webber acrobatics. This took away the dominatrix persona of the female metal singer and replaced her with melodramatic mezzo sopranos who croon to teenage girls reading Twilight books. Jill Janus’ band Huntress takes back the power.

I was skeptical at first glance of the video for “Eight of Swords” . I then learned Eric Harris the ex-bassist of Skeleton Witch is in the band, they still had a strike against them for being  from Los Angeles. In the over saturated Hollywood music scene,  retro-thrash thing could be an over zealous manager trying to steer a band away from being the next In This Moment.  

A little digging and  my suspicions were confirmed as Janus’ other name is Penelope Tuesdae. Under this name she has sung in “Under the Covers” Dave Navarro’s other cover band that’s not the popular Camp Freddy. Janus also spun as a d.j under this name as well.  

Despite the double nature of their frontwoman,  a few listens later  I was more  sold on the albums sincerity,despite the occult references being more for show than say the Devil’s Blood. This wouldn’t be the first band whose outside bull shit I forgot once they made it to my I-pod. Granted Janus’ look got their foot in the door for me but at the end of the day it’s music. I don’t care how nice your tits are if I need to clear some memory on my hard drive.

  Huntress  clearly soars in on the wings of the retro thrash band wagon with little new ground broken. At times "Spelleater" reminds me of  the first few Metal Church albums more than say the obvious comparison to Warlock. The riffs are not derivative enough for me to play name that tune with. Janus’ melodies assist the often atypical chugged riffage. The guitar is competent but not wowing.

Sure Angela Glassgow has a more of a snarl as does a half dozen other few growlers  from bands like Cerebral Bore,  Walls of Jericho etc.  Janus is actually singing. Not operatically but with the rough and powerful lungs metal asks for. She delves down into a growl or two for an effect but normally hovers over the proceedings with a healthy power metal yodel. \The band's Facebook bio claims she boasts a four octave range. This is either an exaggeration or their publicist does not know an octave consists of eight notes. She has a substantial range but is no Kate Bush. I hear traces of King Diamond, in her more theatrical moments. The choked  demons growls are very similar to what King did on “Them”. Given Huntress' more straightforward attack it comes across a little silly, but forgivable as she is at least trying to do something different.

 All of the great thrash bands, had a monster drummer on the throne behind them. Ex -Dark Black drummer, Karl Weirzbicky, gets the job done and on the  title track he even flirts with being blasty mcnasty. By and large this is no attempt at being blackened thrash. The double bass gallops are as needed, yet the drum mix didn’t really do him any favors as he is buried under the guitars. The bass is also not very present in the mix, I think if the rhythm section had gotten a little more love in post-production the album would sound tons heavier.

The guitarist’s were sitting at the left hand of their producer when this was mixed. They give the vocals plenty of room but take up everything else. They are mean enough. This album isn’t going for brutality but fist pumping.

When I back away from the magnifying glass to head band to this it’s fucking fun. Huntress succeeded at making nostalgic for the days when this sort of this was new and coming out on Combat and Megaforce. Maybe D.J. Tuesdae was snorting lines of cocaine off Tommy Lee’s dick as he spun dance music in a metal bra, here a Jill Janus she makes a helluva metal singer so I can’t begrudge her too much for it . “Spelleater” takes it time to grow on me  and  has a few moments which drag a little in the final few songs.