Thrash Metal Revival

During the 2000s, thrash metal experienced a revival of sorts. In the 1990s, the subgenre had died down a little to make way for newer, more extreme types of heavy metal. Many of the more mainstream thrash metal groups, such as Metallica and Megadeth, took on more of a hard rock approach in order to try to compete with grunge. Meanwhile, some thrash metal bands, such as Slayer, Testament and Exodus, stuck to their roots, but struggled to survive due to fans gaining more of an interest in new, heavier styles of metal.  Others groups like Destruction, Dark Angel, Vio-lence and Death Angel just couldn’t compete, so they disappeared entirely.

By the mid-2000s, thrash metal was cool again. Many fans had missed the passion of the music and longed to re-experience the mayhem that thrash metal brought to their youth, so new thrash metal bands started to emerge and old ones went back to their roots. Listed below are my ten favorite albums from the thrash metal revival movement. Take a look!

10. Death Angel - Killing Season

Death Angel was a really talented thrash metal band from the 1980s, but the band was always dragged down by the youth of its members. When Death Angel re-emerged in the 2000s after having broken up in the early 1990s, it sounded like a totally different band. The music was reminiscent of old Death Angel, but it was so much more mature. Weak link Mark Osgueda suddenly became one of the band’s biggest assets due the maturation in his voice. Killing Season has thus far been the highlight of Death Angel’s work since its reactivation, and is, in my opinion, the band's best album ever.

9. Megadeth - United Abominations

Megadeth has had three fantastic modern thrash metal albums: The System Has Failed, United Abominations and Endgame. My favorite is United Abominations. The album sounds really natural for Megadeth and is a great combination of the band’s work in the 1980s and the early 1990s. It’s a catchy thrash metal album that never tries too hard to impress its listeners. United Abominations is, in my opinion, the most underrated Megadeth.

8. Anthrax - Worship Music

Worship Music speaks for itself. Featuring the return of Joey Belladonna, the album sounds like Anthrax hasn’t missed a beat with its old singer. Worship Music is a great album by a band whose quality never suffered too much. Rob Caggiano did a great job producing the record too, and really motivated everyone to play their hearts out.

7. Warbringer - Worlds Torn Asunder

Warbringer is a newer thrash metal band that sounds like a combination of old-school Slayer and Exodus. This record is the band during its prime, and is heavy as hell. The band members all sound really pissed and it adds to the album’s intensity. That album opener, “Living Weapon,” is one of my favorite thrash metal songs ever. SO BRUTAL!

6. Cavalera Conspiracy - Inflikted

The Cavalera brothers didn’t play together for a long time after Max left Sepultura.  However, when the brothers finally reunited on Inflikted, all hell broke loose. This album features outstanding musicianship from everyone involved and is better than anything that modern day Sepultura has ever put out. If you’re a fan of Max Cavalera, even a little, this album is really worth listening to. It’s awesome!

5. Kreator - Phantom Antichrist 

Kreator has really done a good job at putting out memorable albums during the 2000s. The group’s most recent effort, Phantom Antichrist, is its best modern thrash metal album yet. The band still sounds great and will hopefully keep pummeling the ears of its fans for many years to come. Also, THAT ALBUM COVER IS FUCKING AWESOME! Look it up!

4. Battlecross - Pursuit of Honor

Battlecross is the newest band on this list. Pursuit of Honor combines thrash metal with melodic death metal in a way that has never been done before. Battlecross’ music is more passionate and exciting than the majority of heavy metal music that is coming out now. This album is worthy of all the praise it receives and should be checked out by thrash metal fans, as well as fans of groups such as At the Gates and Children of Bodom. Battlecross’ music does not disappoint.

3. Skeletonwitch - Beyond the Permafrost 

Hailing from Athens, Ohio, Skeletonwitch is one of the best modern thrash metal bands around. The group combines thrash metal and black metal in a way that no other group can emulate. The band's live performances are outstanding and the music is empowering. Beyond the Permafrost has become the group’s classic record, and it is one that many metalheads will surely be listening to for decades to come. 

2. Exodus - Exhibit B: The Human Condition

Exodus has done a brilliant job of refining its sound in the 2000s. Gary Holt’s songwriting abilities are incredible, and each song on this album is really memorable. Exodus is still creating classics, and it is evident with this record, which was released only three years ago. The band still sounds so youthful and alive even though the members have aged significantly. Singer Rob Dukes is doing a phenomenal job of filling massive shoes, and he has really helped to give this band new life. Exodus is one of the few old thrash metal bands that is currently putting out records that are better than some of its old work from the 1980s. Exhibit B: The Human Condition is incredible, and is a modern thrash metal masterpiece. 

1. Overkill - Ironbound

Overkill is unbelievable. This band is always so overlooked, despite the fact that it's one of the best thrash metal bands around. Overkill combines old school speed metal with thrash metal, and has been creating some of the most exciting, fast metal albums of the last decade. Ironbound is my favorite recent Overkill record, but the last three have all really been phenomenal, and are better than most of the rest of the albums on this list. Ironbound is a memorable record from top to bottom and is a must-hear album for every metalhead.

Metal Reunions That Should Be On Your Radar

There are some really cool heavy metal reunions going on right now, and I thought this week would be a great time to discuss some of them. These are the top five heavy metal reunions that you should be paying attention to:

1       Emperor 
Emperor is one of the most important black metal bands of all time. Formed in 1991, these guys defined symphonic black metal, and helped pioneer black metal in Norway. They were very much a part of the church burning movement in Norway in the 1990s, with a few of the band’s seminal members being a arrested and sent to jail for various crimes, including murder.

Emperor has recently reformed in order to commemorate the release of its classic debut album, In the Nightside Eclipse. The band will be performing the album in its entirety at several festival shows. Though the band leader, Ihsahn, seems to be more focused on his highly successful solo career, there is still a chance the band might continue to release new material. Even if they don’t, these shows will go down as a part of heavy metal history, and may possibly be the last chance for metalheads to witness Emperor’s glory.

2      The Haunted
Everyone is always raving about how important At the Gates was, but the other baby of the Bjorler brothers has always been a powerful force in heavy metal as well. The Haunted formed in 1996 after the demise of At the Gates, and the band put out several thrash metal albums that were very successful throughout Europe, though the band always maintained a small following in the US as well. The band's lineup has shifted constantly throughout the years, but Anders Bjorler, Jonas Bjorler and Patrik Jensen have appeared on all of the band’s records…until now.

In 2012, Anders left the group following the departures of the band’s vocalist and drummer. Jonas and Jensen remained committed to the band’s future even though fans couldn’t see one with the band having already lost so many members all within the same year. This year, after a period of inactivity, Jensen announced the band’s return with a new guitarist, alongside Adrian Erlandson, who founded the band and was the drummer on the band’s debut album, and Marco Aro, who was the band’s most acclaimed vocalist and played on their second and third records. With such a great new lineup, and with the departure of Anders, who may have been behind the disaster that was Unseen, the band’s future looks brighter than it has in a long, long time.

3        Sanctuary
No one expected Sanctuary to reform. Warrel Dane and Jim Sheppard were so preoccupied with Nevermore, and received such acclaim with the band, that no one ever demanded a Sanctuary reunion. But now that Nevermore is gone, Sanctuary’s reunion has grown ever more exciting.

Sanctuary formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1992, only to reunite 18 years later in 2010. Sanctuary put out two legendary heavy metal records during its career that combined thrash metal and power metal. The band is currently working on its third record that will serve as the comeback. With Nevermore gone, fans are dying to hear what Dane and his crew have up their sleeves. The new album should be out sometime in late 2013 or early 2014.

4       Dog Fashion Disco
Majorly influenced by Mike Patton’s Mr. Bungle, Dog Fashion Disco appeared on the scene in 1995 and quickly established a cult following (including yours truly). The band put out six albums during its initial run--the first three were released independently, and the last three were released on major labels. The group never quite got as popular as it should have, despite the band’s unique style of music, which was a form of avant-garde metal that involved combining heavy metal with psychedelic rock, jazz, lounge music and circus music. Dog Fashion Disco broke up in 2007, with band members going on to form obscure groups such as Polkadot Cadaver, Knives Out!, El Creepo and Celebrity Sex Scandal.

After reuniting in its hometown to do some reunion shows for a few consecutive years, the band officially announced that it were back together for good only a couple of weeks ago. The band plans to release irs comeback record, Sweet Nothings, in the spring of 2014. Back in the day, Dog Fashion Disco was known for one song, which featured Serj Tankian, and for touring with some of metal’s most successful contemporary acts. Now that the group is back together, hopefully it can gain even a bigger fanbase, for the band's unusual style of music certainly deserves to be heard. 

5       System of a Down
Everyone knows System of a Down. The band released very famous metal songs including “Chop Suey!,” “Toxicity,” “B.Y.O.B.” and “Lonely Day,” and was nominated for several Grammy awards (and they even won one) during their initial run. The band reunited in 2011 to the excitement of many fans. So why am I bringing them up now?

The band has not released an album since its reunion and fans are getting anxious. This year most of the band members have shown their excitement to put out new music as well, but they are being held up by vocalist Serj Tankian. Tankian has had a successful solo career, and after releasing two albums this year, one can only hope that System has big plans for 2014. The world needs System of a Down, and hopefully they will blow us all away with album number six!

Quit While You're Ahead

Recently on ACRN.com, we wrote a collaborative feature article about bands that should have quit while they were ahead. This week I’ve decided to write a metal version of that article.

To narrow it down to five choices, I eliminated all extraordinarily legendary bands and artists who should stay around even if it’s just for nostalgia’s sake. For example, even though Megadeth’s last few albums have been weak, they are such a renowned act that I couldn’t possibly put them on the list. Plus, they really only play a couple of their newer songs live, and are worth seeing just to hear the classics. 

I also eliminated any bands from the list that I really felt could bounce back. For example, Bullet for My Valentine seemed like an obvious choice for the list, since their last album was abysmal. However, all of their albums before it were relatively good, so I have to assume that the last record was a misstep. 

Additionally, the list below is fairly mainstream for a reason. I didn’t want my readers to have to look up every band on the list. That would be too much work. 

Now, without further ado, and in no particular order, here is my list:

1.       Avenged Sevenfold

When The Rev passed away, that should have been it for Avenged Sevenfold. The Rev was a good drummer, but his greatest contribution to the band was through his songwriting abilities. Sure, M. Shadows and Synyster Gates have proven themselves to be pretty good songwriters, but The Rev’s songs were always special treasures on each Avenged Sevenfold record. He wrote some of the band’s most creative and exciting songs, such as “Chapter Four,” “Almost Easy,” “Afterlife,” “A Little Piece of Heaven,” “Welcome to the Family” and “Fiction.” Even though M. Shadows’ songs were usually bigger hits (“Unholy Confessions” and “Beast and the Harlot”), The Rev’s songs were usually those that added depth to the band’s records. The Rev was never afraid to experiment and those experimentations almost always paid off in a big way for the band. The Rev’s songwriting, drumming, and backing vocals were essential to what made Avenged Sevenfold such a special metal group. The band’s newest album, Hail to the King, is evidence that the band faces a hard road ahead without The Rev. Personally, I think they should just give up now or at least change their name to preserve the legacy of those fantastic first five records.

 

2.      Korn

I haven’t seen a metal band struggle this much with identity confusion since Metallica popped (or should I say “pooped”) out St. Anger. I was one of the few people who actually dug Korn’s experimentation with dubstep, but then again I also enjoyed St. Anger to a degree. Still, Korn is a band that keeps needing to re-examine itself. The group did so successfully with Korn III: Remember Who You Are, after a spree of lackluster albums. Now the group needs to do so yet again because the band’s newest record, The Paradigm Shift, just sounds like a mess. Its combination of sounds and styles isn’t original. It’s just confusing and upsetting for longtime fans of the band. The band had some incredible early albums, but it might be time that the band members took a little break to explore their musical side interests without having them leak into Korn records. Then they could come back and play their older material again, and everyone would be happy.

3.      Killswitch Engage

Killswitch Engage basically invented melodic metalcore with its first four albums. The band was a monumental influence on so many bands that came after it. But now they are starting to lose their momentum. The band’s fifth album was a mess in so many ways, with melodies that made fans shudder and breakdowns that were much weaker than usual. Then Howard Jones left the band, and the group’s old singer, Jesse Leach, returned. Leach brought some energy and excitement back into the band, but the group’s newest album just sounds like a repeat of everything else it has done. Killswitch Engage had a good run, but they are running out of ideas, and it has become brutally obvious. Killswitch Engage isn’t going to be gaining many new fans nowadays, and no one is really talking about them anymore. Their style is becoming stale and dated, and it’s time for them to disappear for a little while, so they can preserve the integrity of a pretty memorable legacy of records.   

4.       In Flames

I have a difficult time talking about In Flames. I worship their first five records, and consider them to be some of melodic death metal’s finest achievements. However, with the change in style that first appeared on Reroute to Remain, the quality of the band’s music began to decline. I understand the band’s actions, though. They wanted a more mainstream American audience so they ditched the melodic death metal style in favor of a more alternative metal-based one. That would have been fine by me as long as the band didn’t stick with it for too long. Unfortunately, the band put out four alternative metal records, only one of which (Come Clarity) is worth listening to all the way through. Finally, in 2011, the band decided to acknowledge its melodic death metal fans again with Sounds of a Playground Fading, but the album is far from perfect. Anders Friden’s clean vocals are still pretty awful, and they take up most of the album. Plus, the electronic moments are weird and unwelcome. Fans of In Flames have been begging for a good, traditional melodic death metal record from their heroes. The band’s alternative metal output isn’t going to get better than Come Clarity, and if the band can’t do what its fans are requesting, then maybe it should just disband altogether. Jesper Stromblad at least knew when enough was enough. If only it was more obvious to the rest of the band members. 

5.      Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie’s stage shows are still phenomenal, however his music just isn’t. His best musical years are far behind him, and even though his new record was decent, he’s probably never going to put out another classic metal song again. If Zombie played some old tunes from his White Zombie days alongside songs from his first two solo records, fans would be very happy. He doesn’t even have to tour that often. He could just keep making movies (which he is clearly very good at), and whenever he’s in the mood, he could embark on a short tour playing his old music. That plan sounds much better than releasing an okay album every three to four years and regularly touring behind songs that don’t have much spark behind them. Zombie should just stop making records. He has enough great songs and is just ruining their legacy by continuing to make more. 

The Djent Controversy

As some readers may remember, I mentioned the controversy associated with the subgenre of heavy metal called djent in the previous post characterizing it. In this post, I’d like to talk about that controversy in more detail because it seems to be an issue that is still heavy debated.

Many critics, musicians and fans think that bands associated with djent should just be called "progressive metal bands" due to the strong similarities between the subgenres. Djent bands for the most part get their classification because of the palm-muted guitar tone associated with their music. 

One of the members of the metal band Rosetta once said, “Maybe we should just call doom metal ‘DUNNN,’” and he has a point. Why should a subgenre be as musically specific as djent? Why can’t it all be called “progressive metal” since the music certainly falls into its musical family?

When Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor started the djent craze, he never meant for it to catch on. It was more of a joke between him and his bandmates. Mansoor doesn’t try and disassociate his band from the djent scene, and is happy to be categorized into that subgenre. However, he doesn’t think of Periphery as a djent band--he considers them to just be progressive metal.

Many bands have jumped into the djent niche head first, trying to get associated with the tight-knit scene. For example, Born of Osiris, who has now become a very popular band in the djent scene, was initially a deathcore band. Their desire to be more technical and the emergence of the scene influenced them to dabble in the music as well. Since then, they have become much more successful with the stylistic switch.

Some bands just got accidentally lumped into the scene. Animals as Leaders just wanted to be an instrumental progressive metal band. From the very beginning, their influence from Meshuggah was apparent, and their production was abnormally clean. Therefore, they got associated with the scene, and they never made an attempt to really break away. Frontman Tosin Abasi acknowledges that he does not strive to be a part of the djent scene, but doesn’t mind being a part of it anyway. Still, Animals as Leaders’ most recent album shows stylistically that the band is trying to appease fans of the subgenre.

The question now becomes: is djent a subgenre or a niche? The honest answer is: no one knows. Personally, I consider it to be a subgenre. It’s a style of music that is distinct, and the differences between progressive metal and djent just mount as time goes on. 

The scenes are also completely different. No one ever sees a fan of Periphery going to a Fates Warning concert. It just doesn’t happen, even though they both fall in the progressive family. Part of the reason why that happens is probably because the musical styles have recently become more separated. Djent is undeniably progressive, but its distinct production qualities, guitar tones, reliance on polyrhythm and usage of computerized sounds make djent a totally different subgenre of music than progressive metal.

The issue can be debated on and on, but djent has proven itself to be a distinct style of music over the past five years. It’s not a bad subgenre, either. There is definitely some musical merit to it, and the technical playing of these new musicians is incredible. Djent is a subgenre that I feel is more than welcome in the heavy genre, as long as people continue to enjoy it.