Right then! I noticed there was a serious lack of discussion of a lot of the old thrash bands.

As a teenager in the 80s, I had a mis-spent youth, jumping around to a host of badly dressed, acne ridden bands with questionable vocalists. The lyrics were about nuclear war, beer and social unrest. It was a most enjoyable guilty pleasure because the music was uncommonly crunchy, fast, energetic and occasionally silly (in a good way).

Soon afterwards, I inevitably discovered death metal and moved onto more extreme things, but I've always had a thing for the crisp, crunchy sound of thrash.

I'll hold my hand up in an 'alcoholics anonymous' stylee and admit to owning records by Annihilator, Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, Acid Reign, Exodus, Testament, Onslaught, Sabbat, Xentrix, Lawnmower Deth, Overkill, Kreator, OLD Megadeth, OLD Metallica, Slayer etc, etc...

Does anyone else have a fondness for this sort of thing?

I loved Lawnmower Deth! "Kids in America", "Billy"...Of course, a big fan of Metallica. I never really got into Slayer, or really listened to a lot of the other bands you listed. However, I can honestly say the one band on your list that I absolutely hated when I was in high school was Nuclear Assault. The name sounded so bad-ass, but the music, not so much...By then I was already into death metal, so maybe that clouded my judgement. I should go back and give it another listen. Of course, I only had them on cassette tape (shows my age, too, right?).

One band from that era that doesn't get a lot of mention, but I think is on par with Slayer and the rest is Sadus. I've just gotten into them, and fully appreciate what they were doing at that time.

I should also add that I love when non-thrash genres, like death or black metal, throw a little of it in the mix. I'm thinking of Weakling most recently (well, recent to me - their album is from '98 I believe). There are plenty of other examples, to be sure. Great topic, Duncan!

I STILL have all those albums on cassette tape. And some of them are recordings. How cheap is that?

The thing with Nuclear Assault is, once you get past John Connelly's practically impenetrable screeching, they have recorded some of the most fun songs of all time.

For example - 'Hang the Pope'. In 38 seconds the band manage to perform a bass solo, 3 verses and 2 chorus sections. Apart from that, it sounds like the vocalist is selling sheep in high speed vocal gibberish (I think it may have been Dan Liker on vocal duties).

Additionally, their cover version of the Happy Days theme tune gave me endless fun, annoying my mother with it's seemingly endless tirade of dreadful screaming. I love the way you can hear the other band members shouting 'JOHN! STOP THE MUSIC! I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT ANYMORE!'. Really bad in a really good way.

As for the mighty Lawnmower Deth, what can I say? They were genius. I went to see them live at Wrexham War Memorial Hall round about 1990. They played all the classics - 'Weebles Wobble but they don't fall down', '7th Church of the Apocalyptic Lawnmower' and even golden oldies like 'Watch out Grandma here comes a lawnmower'. There wasn't a single person in the room who hadn't had a good time...

...except my friend Anthony who broke his arm stage-diving.

Additional - I still have an Argos Lawnmower catalogue signed by Lawnmower Deth. There's even pictures on the internet. How sad is that?

quote:

Originally posted by Duncan Black:
Additional - I still have an Argos Lawnmower catalogue signed by Lawnmower Deth. There's even pictures on the internet. How sad is that?

I always wondered why they never got more popular. I guess they were sort of like Gwar - don't get me started.

I never thought they were as slick as Gwar.

Gwar started out as a business project between a bunch of college students. They tried an experiment to see how much money they could make out of music. It worked well and they took their interesting little project out on the road.

By contrast, Lawnmower Deth were a bunch of happy go lucky idiots from Nottingham UK (I think). They just did it for fun and never had any designs on a 'successful career'.

As luck would have it, their band name was brilliant and got them mentions in all sorts of UK publications. To this day they still get occasional mentions on mainstream radio stations such as Radio 2. They were also on several lists of 'stupidist band names ever'. All of a sudden everyone wanted to hear what a band with that name would sound like. They had to up the stakes a little and released two really stupid albums through Earache records called 'Ooh Crikey it's Lawnmower Deth' and 'Return of the Fabulous Metal Bozo Clowns'.

I corresponded with vocalist Qualcast Mutilator on the internet a year ago and he said that he was trading demo tapes with a certain Mike Patton at the time. You can hear a noticeable Mr Bungle influence on 'Return of the Fabulous Metal Bozo Clowns'. Qualcast said the band used to sit around listening to the first album in the studio.

They went on to support influential bands like Death at fairly big venues. Not bad going!

As far as I know the guitarist - Baron Kev Von Silo Stench Chisel Marbles III (OBE) - is now a roadie for Cradle of Filth and The Lostprophets.

Other members are rumoured to be working for a well known chain of music stores in the UK.

I also have their very first album 'Mower Liberation Front' on vinyl. Apparently only 400 copies were released so I keep it in good condition.

You know, I never heard of "Return of the Fabuluous Metal Bozo Clowns"! At the time, I had "Ooh Crikey...", and "Billy". I don't know how I missed that one.

Good stories, Duncan. I was a huge Mr. Bungle fan, so I'll probably really like that album, assuming I can find it.

Looks like there's not too much thrash interest around these parts, eh?

It's not easy to pick up these days. Earache have pretty much deleted everything by Lawnmower Deth. The album itself isn't the best LD release. I think you already have those two with Ooh Crikey and Billy.

However, it does show the band trying to be a little more serious and experimental, and is a great showcase for the eccentric talents of Kev, who was cruelly absent on Ooh Crikey.

Kev also played for little known UK thrash-meisters 'Acid Reign'. If you like LD, chances are you'll like Acid Reign too. They used to play a cover of Blondie's 'Hangin' on a telephone' and Bad News 'Warriors of Ghengis Kahn'. On a more serious note, they recorded a great song called 'Humanoia', although it does feature comedy use of glam rock cowbell techniques! It's all done with a thoroughly British sense of humour.

Additionally, the Lawnmower Deth track 'You've got no legs don't come crawling to me' was written in answer to Metallica's 'One'. LD decided they could get the point across much more quickly than Metallica. I think the song is under 30 seconds long, whereas 'One' is over 7 minutes in duration.

This is all very nostalgic.

Duncan, I'm making an effort to explore some of this "old school" thrash. Here are some albums I've got coming:

Exodus

• Bonded by Blood
  
• Fabulous Disaster
  
• Pleasures of the Flesh
  

Venom

• Welcome to Hell
  
• Black Metal
  

Possessed

• Seven Churches
  
• Beyond the Gates
  

Hellhammer Demon Entrails

Sarcofago I.N.R.I.

I'm told Possessed were proto-death metal, Hellhammer, Venom, and Sarcofago were proto-black metal, but they all seem very thrashy to me. (And all very good!) Are you fans of all these albums? Have I missed anything really, really crucial that is not covered here? I know there are a million thrash bands from the early- to mid-80's, but most of them seem derivative of Metallica to me.

I never really got into Venom - they always sounded a bit like Bad News (Adrian Edmonson's comedy metal band). Venom were never really a thrash band but along with the Misfits, MC5, Bad Brains and a host of other bands, they helped create the genre.

As for Possessed - they deserve credit for starting death metal along with Chuck Schuldiner. Interestingly, Schuldiner was very much influenced by Hellhammer. Possessed also feature the talents of one Larry Lalonde on early releases - he went on to play for Primus.

I agree that most old school thrash is highly derivative of Metallica. I think that was what made it appealing. A lot of bands saw a bunch of spotty kids from San Francisco playing totally un-commercial music and getting to perform at huge arena gigs. They decided to have a stab at the big time, even though most of them failed. It's that old 'voting for the underdog' scenario. If only Metallica were still like that!

In the UK, the bands knew they would never reach such dizzy heights. Consequently, a lot of the UK thrash bands had a keen sense of self depreciating humour, usually illustrated by their bizarre choice of cover versions. For example, Xentrix chose to cover Ray Parker Jr's 'Ghostbusters'.

As for Exodus - they are probably one of the finest thrash metal bands out there. You can't go wrong with that stuff (although the vocals are not very good as usual). They orginally featured one Kirk Hammett on lead guitar. Exodus write truly great guitar riffs. Absolute 100% shred metal with loads of crispy crunchy bits and double bass kicks.

Additionally, the credit for the first authentic thrash album probably goes to a band called Anvil. They may have been a Canadian band - I'm not sure. They were instrumental in influencing the material Metallica would produce later on. There's an interview with lead singer on the extras on the DVD 'Metal: A headbangers journey'. He seems quite modest about inventing the whole thing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Duncan Black,

quote:

Originally posted by Duncan Black:
I never really got into Venom - they always sounded a bit like Bad News (Adrian Edmonson's comedy metal band). Venom were never really a thrash band but along with the Misfits, MC5, Bad Brains and a host of other bands, they helped create the genre.

I'm interested in Venom because I keep hearing they "invented" black metal (obviously, the album name is "Black Metal").

quote:

They orginally featured one Kirk Hammett on lead guitar.

Yeah, I know. Pretty cool. According to my dad, who did a short stint as an accountant for a "Gentleman's Club" in SF years ago, Hammet was apparently a regular at the place.

quote:

Additionally, the credit for the first authentic thrash album probably goes to a band called Anvil. They may have been a Canadian band - I'm not sure. They were instrumental in influencing the material Metallica would produce later on. There's an interview with lead singer on the extras on the DVD 'Metal: A headbangers journey'. He seems quite modest about inventing the whole thing.

I heard the name batted around a few times. I'll check 'em out.

Anvil can often sound like low budget Judas Priest! However, the evidence that they were hugely influential on Metallica's 'Kill 'em all' can be seen in this live video -

Anvil Live

(Ignore the glam metal intro!)

Along with Motorhead and Diamond Head that was pretty much the ingredients for Metallica. They have since stated the contrary, but they seem to be going back on their own words!

Duncan, what about Heathen? I found out you can download their albums for free on their website.

I think you've finally found an old metal band I know absolutely nothing about!

Will have to check them out.

My '80's were less Madonna, and more waiting for the latest issue of Kerrang!! and Metal Hammer and tring to decipher Mercyful Fate!!!

love this thread.

Another 80's thrash band I just came upon are Dark Angel. Awesome.

awesome thread, guys. very informative and enjoyed your stories. i've been checking out some of your suggested bands and i'm liking what i hear. if i come across anything you guys haven't mentioned, i'll surely post my finding here.

quote:

Originally posted by ezatldude:
Another 80's thrash band I just came upon are Dark Angel. Awesome.

Aaah Dark Angel! - featuring the amazing talents of Mr Gene Hoglan. That drummer is something else. It's hard to find a bad album he's played on. His stuff with Death and Strapping Young Lad is phenomenal.

I've really been loving this 80's thrash kick lately. Kreator, Sodom, Sadus, Exodus, Destruction. All highly recommended.

Kreator are pretty cool. They did quite well back in the day. I really like the song 'Betrayer'.

They were one of the first bands who used that hoarse rasping vocal technique, instead of the low gutteral growling. I think Carcass, Cradle of Filth and many other bands were greatly influenced by that.

I've got Sodom's 'Agent Orange' too, although I haven't listened to it in years. Maybe I'll go back and see how it stands up.

Another band I've just remembered - Tankard anyone? I dug out 'Zombie Attack' the other day. That band were complete nonsense, but their riffs were great. I love the opening to 'Empty Tankard' with all it's military pomp. Thoroughly great drinking music.