The Metal Thread [ARCHIVED} Genre • Page 119

Metallica - Kill 'Em All/Master of Puppets/Ride the Lightning/...And Justice For All
Megadeth - Peace Sells, But Who's Buying?/So Far, So Good, So What!/Rust In Peace/Countdown to Extinction
Slayer - Hell Awaits/Show No Mercy/Reign In Blood/ South of Heaven

Highlighted albums are widely considered their best (debatable with Metallica but RtL is my fav). I was never as into Anthrax as the rest, but I'd check out Among the Living followed by Spreading the Disease.

For Metallica, those are their four 80's albums and as such are their pure thrash albums (with Kill 'Em All being the thrashiest). Consequently, those are the albums people talk about when they wax nostalgic about Metallica in the 'good old days.' I'm banking on the fact that you even like thrash in the first place, but if you want something lighter go for their self-titled (the Black Album). That's when they cut their hair, toned it down, and Hammett discovered the wah pedal. Still, that's where the majority of their hits and most recognizable songs come from. Everything else might as well be a different band. They'll always hold a special place in my heart because I learned how to play electric guitar by basically just learning most of the songs from their 80's albums.

Megadeth is a bit harder to get into because of Dave's vocals. They're pretty shrill and he does some interesting things with his voice. Despite that, I find that they are far more technically talented than Metallica and their album Rust In Peace is better than anything any of the other of the "Big Four" have ever put out (fight me). Dave is a bit of a drama queen if that is a thing you care about. I don't, because riffs.

I've only listened to the handful of Slayer albums I listed, but they're essential in my opinion. They're the 'dark side' of the Big Four, and embrace a more speed oriented approach with tinges of death metal. The only thing that bugs me about them are Kerry King's solos. They seem random and all over the place, but that's just my plebeian ear.

Like I mentioned, I was never as into Anthrax as the other 3 bands. They're the least technical of them all but probably the most "fun" if that makes sense, as in they'll probably incite more mosh/circle pits than the other three. I've actually been spinning Among the Living a lot these days in my car. It's super fun/catchy and the songs really get stuck in your head.

That's my brief spiel on the Big Four of American thrash (although I could say much more lol). That being said, I find that there were other thrash bands putting out just as good or if not better material that were around in the US at that time, and that's not even mentioning the Big Three of the European Teutonic thrash scene. Of course, there were a fair amount of bands that put out one stellar album then kind of faded into obscurity, but there is plenty there to find beyond just these four bands.

Ok I'm going to bed now

 

I think while you are at it checking out Anthrax, you should check out S.O.D.
Probably one of the first thrash core bands and had members of Anthrax in it.

 

If you listed anything other than the first 4 Metallica albums, what are you doing...

The only exception I could possibly see is switching Kill for the black album

 

I think the black album is a good album to start with to someone who had never heard of them before. It has the thrash of older albums mixed with the more commercial sound they went with with albums following that.
That album still continues to sell to this day and shows the impact it had on bringing thrash metal into popularity.

Also, @theagentcoma, Metallica didn't start cutting their hair until they started writing Load and went the hard rock route. Lol.

 

Tbh you can't really go wrong with Metallica until you get to St Anger imo (although Ride, Puppets and Justice are my favourites). Load and Re-Load are seriously underrated and have some great tracks across them. I guess it depends on if you're looking to listen to a thrash/metal band or a more hard rock/metal band.

Also this probably belongs in the Unpopular Opinions thread but I much prefer Bush era Anthrax to Bellodonna.

 

This is a safe place.

 

Also to add to the Slayer rec's I'd add God Hates Us All to the list to check out. It was a great return to form that album after the shockingly bad Diabolus in Musica. Personally though my favourite album by them is Season in The Abyss, closely followed by Reign in Blood.

 

Seasons, Reign and South of Heaven are all essential.

 

You're right. The black album is like one of the top 25 best selling albums of all time, and is on numerous publications lists of the greatest albums of all time. I just feel like anyone with any interest in the band has probably already heard half of that album already anyways... besides how can you leave out Justice?

 

I agree to a point. Scenario: A young kid goes to see Power Tripp. Goes up to the merch table after the set and says "OMG that was awesome! What bands influenced you?" Hardcore and thrash?! Older thrash like Metallica, Overkill, Exodus, etc.

That kid goes home, hops on Spotify and starts going through the discographies of these bands and says: "Wow! This is killer! How did I miss this?"

Metallica are an older band and to some newer kids to the metal scene they may feel like they out of touch with the underground but they really aren't and these newer bands wouldn't be here without records like the first handful of Metallica albums, including the Black album.

 

I think the Black Album is a definite yes.

Isn't the new album like two hours long or something? Interesting starting point, I have yet to hear it

 

I know what I'm doing today.

 

It's 77 goddamn minutes long. Way too bloated. And it seriously falls off on the back half. Listen to the singles and "Spit Out The Bone" (which is the best song they've written in a looong time) and you'll be good.

 

I remembered this at like 1am last night and immediately knew that someone was going to correct me in this thread lol

 

I think someone needs to check out the unpopular opinions thread. Lol!

 

Remind me not to read the most-downvoted comments on r/metal, on an unrelated note. Shit raises my blood pressure, lol.

As it turns out I also have yet to listen to most classics as I simply haven't felt too much need to just yet. That'll probably change within the year though. Just a matter of time.

 

Hardwired to Self-Destruct is a good album at its core, but jesus fuck is it way too long. Some songs definitely could've been relegated to a B-sides EP or something. It's the same problem Death Magnetic had, which is an album I also enjoy for the most part.

Thankfully it doesn't have Death Magnetic's volume problem ha.

 

haha what's this about? I'm on there daily

 

I feel like the last 3 Metallica records have suffered from the same issue. The songs just need to be cleaned up and trimmed down to like 4-5 minutes instead of 8-9 minutes. St. Anger had some issues with the production, but the riffs are there. Songs are just too long. Same with DM and HW.

 

St. Anger had more issues than just length and production lol

 

Love that opening riff on the title track and then the song just comes to a screeching halt once James starting singing.

 

I think St Anger could've been half decent if they had a producer who could stand up to the band and get them to sort their shit out. If the tracks had been shorter and they'd thrown a few solos in there, plus sorted out that fucking snare then it could've been a lot better. Still they didn't and it sucks.

 

St. Anger gets a lot more shit than it deserves. You guys aren't wrong in your criticism of it, but it has some good riffs and song ideas, however the sound quality is beyond terrible and most of the songs are pretty repetitive and go on for way too long.

 

Re: The Metallica discussion I missed because I was sick yesterday.

While all of this discussion is great, this is the same band that thought participating in the abominable experiment called Lulu with Lou Reed was a good idea. St. Anger is a terrible album. Death Magnetic had some good ideas with terrible production. Hardwired is their first tolerable album in 20 years, but it's still about 20 minutes too long and has some of the most laughable lyrics they've ever written. That's all I'm going to contribute on this topic.

Meanwhile, let's listen to some good songs that got released over the last few days.

Exhumed:

Haemorrhage:

Primitive Man:

 

Never forget in Some Kind of Monster when James is first reading the lyrics of "Frantic" to Lars, who immediately bursts out laughing