Monday 25 December 2017

Fave Thrash Metal For 2017

A really enjoyable year for thrash fans. First the albums without ranking:

Nuckin' Futs - Abyss
Decent thrash with average vocals. Production a bit murky for my taste. But loads of cool riffs.

FurYenS - Plug and Plague
Not much in thrash lately so this will have to do despite my distaste for the vocals. The guy is pretty average and useless at times but the riffs are taut and tight.

Paralysis - Life Sentence
Thrash. Works for me. Head moving. Air guitar crunch ready. Happy enough.

Gumomanioacs - By Endurance We Conquer: Demons & Damnation
Cool thrash but overly long. Plenty great riffs. Vox average. Some nice bass playing too.

Shrapnel - Raised On Decay
Super heavy and brutal UK thrash. As heavy as thrash gets. They rip your throat out and spit in the hole!

Chemicide - the Act Of Retaliation
Nice thrash metal. Not amazing but keeps me moving and banging.

Thrash Bombz - Master of the Dead
Workmanlike cool thrash. Great sound, great riffs, let's go!

Skulled - Eat Thrash
Thrash metal at it's simplest and purest form is what you get with this album. Bangers rejoice!

Severpull - Divided By Two [ep]
Blistering thrash 4 tracker. A bit one dimensional but pure mayhem.

Cultural Warfare - Future Kill Ep
Heavy melodic thrash by these unknowns. Especially like the heavy clear vocals. No growling which is good. He's not exactly melodic but he's very clear. The music is like a mid paced Testament mixed with Flots maybe with a good tech flair.

Freakings - Toxic End
Thrash metal in its pure and simplest form. Won't amaze but gets the blood pumping well enough.

Alkol - Beeried Alive
Fun little thrash ep about drinking jam packed with great riffs.

Destruction - Thrash Anthems II
Nice project from teutonic thrash overlords.

Agresiva - Decibel Ritual
Vocals a bit dodgy but music is great so it's in. It's melodic thrash in style I should say and pretty neck wrecking.

Ultyma - Liberation EP
Cool as hell tech thrash 3 tracker. Just make an album already!

Lich King - the Omniclasm
First time I have liked the crossovery thrash merchants. Still raw as fuck but very cool fast and catchy too. What an insane year for thrash!

Comaniac - Instruction For Destruction
Vocals? Really average. Riffs? Really great. Cares? None. Just bang away.

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic
I dismissed this earlier but I think it deserves another chance. Not amazing but catchy thrash, vocals a bit annoying but I'll get over it

Jenner - To Live Is To Suffer
Solid thrash with female vocals. No screaming thankfully. Riffs really active, clean and energetic!

Epicenter - Subversion
Interesting slightly dissonant prog thrash. Vox a bit annoying but not enough to spoil enjoyment. Some riffs are killer and get the energy levels rising through the roof.

Black Reaper - Blood Moon Rising
Thrash again. Good again. Happy again.

Laid To Waste - Mental Decay
Thrash helps me yet again. What a year for thrash it's been.

Black Soul Blade - The Masterpiece of Hate
Another one on Joker Records from Russia. These guys play heavy bruiser-boy thrash metal. Some modern leanings but good pounding riffs, aggression and groove make for a cool listen. Vocals in English which helps. I didn't hate this!

Tankard - One Foot in the Grave
Very good album and their most melodic and catchy probably.

Mass Execution - The Day Before The Execution
30 minutes of mayhem. Thrash with crossovery vocals. But the riffs spill blood from my ears!

Ice Age - Breaking the Ice
Interesting band of chicks and a male drummer aping Megadeth in the main. Good stuff if not totally amazing.

Top 15 in reverse order:


15. Prayers Of Sanity - Face Of The Unknown
Yes normal headbanging service is resumed. Cooool thrashhhh!

14. BULLET-PROOF - Forsaken One
Very crunchy and heavy, very cool melodic thrash. Thumbs up guys whoever you are!

13. Chronosphere - Red n' Roll
Great thrash mayhem from the Greeks. Massive, steaming riffs, rough vocals which are not great but I don't care too much as the riffs crush.

12. Ancient Dome - The Void Unending
Great riffy thrash with cleanly shouted vocals. Great semi tech riffs and some of them even sound like Death riffs from Chuck. Great stuff if you ask me.

11. Warbringer - Woe to the Vanquished
Very cool effort. Last song is a bit hard going at 10 minutes but it picks up. The rest is aggressive thrash with fun riffs and hard edged angry yells.

10. Enclave - New Age Disorder
Cool, ripping, riffed up thrash. Works the oracle for me. Quite like the way the vocals are handled too being very understandable.

09. Overkill - The Grinding Wheel
Someone said it's more like Ironbound. Since that's my fave Overkill album of all time I was looking forward to this. My first play went swimmingly well. The riffs on this are fucking inspired man! There's bounce, thrash and groove, the works! Vocals from Bobby Blitz are raspy and typical but fun like Udo fronting thrash. Music is made for the moshpitters and hair flingers the world over!

08. Distillator - Summoning The Malicious
One boring slowish track but the rest is awesome. Great understandable vocals. Great tech riffs! Thrash at its best!

07. Havok - Conformicide
A more refined Havok album. Not so fast and chaotic. A lot of great passages. A lot of cool grooves. May require a few plays but will win thrash fans over in the end.

06. War Device - Infinite Chaos
Been spoilt when it comes to thrash this year. This is a great feast of riffs to chew, spit and mosh to!

05. National Suicide - Massacre Elite
Basically an Overkill album. A great Overkill album at that! Also hear some Justice/Killem All Metallica. Singer is a dead ringer for Blitz. Ticks all my thrash boxes and provides my only source of neck wrecking this month. Special mention for the song Take Me To The Dive Bar. I lose my shit on that one! But then there's the song What D'Ya Mean By Metal and then I'm bouncing off the walls! \m/

04. StormThrash - Systemtaic Annihilation
Holy fuckin' crap! Where in hell did these guys come from?? This rules my world badly. What fuckin' amazing riffs. Bangers rejoice! Can't deny this much riff mastery.

03. Panikk - Discarded Existence
Goddamn this is thrash metal art! Riff upon riff upon riff hammering you into submission. Fucking insane!

02. Kreator - Gods of Violence
Hell yeah! Kreator brings it home in great style and sound mega inspired. They sound much more melodic than usual but still give you thrash mayhem at its best!

01. Harlott - Extinction
Holy shmoly thrashing momma! Totally insane! The rage is super strong with the Aussies. They are just the best at this game IMO. I love this more than any thrash released this year and the competition is strong. These guys are just a hell of a ride for thrash vets the world over. Press play and strap in 'cause this bullet train an't stopping for nothin'!

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