Secular Thrash Metal with acceptable lyrics

Son of Nun wrote:

TZ75 wrote:Testament is not anti-Christian at all. Even the “Demonic” album is misleading… the title track is actually called Demonic Refusal. I think Eric Peterson and Chuck Billy were raised Catholic. Without getting into the doctrinal objections, I think they had a respect for God. Maybe in recent times, Chuck has embraced his Native American roots and Eric is fascinated by vampires and stuff… but nothing is in your face against God or Christians.

I have The New Order and I think I remember looking at the lyrics to Practice What You Preach and thinking they were OK. The first album seemed to have some occult stuff. Haven't really looked further ahead.

The first album is probably the worst offender. But I think it was very gimmick oriented to fit in with the devil image of bands like Slayer and early Exodus. They already changed direction with the second album. Aside from the horror novel references like Disciples of the Watch.

Son of Nun wrote:

Pethead wrote:I find a lot of early Anthrax to be fine if you don’t mind some swearing:
Spreading the Disease 
Among the Living
Persistence of Time

I’ll try to add more later.

I think most of Anthrax's early lyrics are fine but I really dislike Scott Ian's personality/politics and I'm not sure I want to support him.

What‘s the issue? Genuine question I have no idea about his personality or politics.

Pethead wrote:I find a lot of early Anthrax to be fine if you don’t mind some swearing:
Spreading the Disease 
Among the Living
Persistence of Time

I’ll try to add more later.

Even Attack of the Killer B's (collection of B-Sides) isnt that bad, though the profanity in Startin Up a Posse and I'm The Man 91 may offend some.

A couple more:

Devastation: Idolatry (some consider this Christian, but I’d say it’s more “Christian-friendly”)

Annihilator: Alice in Hell (I see you listed Never Neverland, so I thought I’d recommend this. As long as you skip the sexual “Burns Like a Buzzsaw Blade,” the rest of the album shreds).

Pethead wrote:A couple more:

Devastation: Idolatry (some consider this Christian, but I’d say it’s more “Christian-friendly”)

Annihilator: Alice in Hell (I see you listed Never Neverland, so I thought I’d recommend this. As long as you skip the sexual “Burns Like a Buzzsaw Blade,” the rest of the album shreds).

I love the first two Annihilator albums! The lyrics are mostly lighthearted and silly (aside from “Burns Like a Buzzsaw Blade”). It’s obviously a song about lust and sex. The second album has a song actually about Kraft macaroni and cheese!

I didn't really care for the lyrics on that Devastation album.

I do intend to check out more Annihilator.

I have purchased some other stuff since I started this thread, but not a lot because I've been working on my secular Black/Folk and Death Metal collections more. I picked up some Razor, Coroner, Hirax demo (already had some of their albums), and that Testament.

Bump

A couple of albums you might enjoy from the thrash revival several years back:

Bonded by Blood: Exiled to Earth. It’s a sci-fi story about humans vs aliens. I don’t remember any content issues and the music is solid.

Gama Bomb: Tales from the Grave in Space. Mostly humorous horror-movie type lyrics (not graphic). I can’t remember anything objectionable.

Coroner is a must!
Flotsam & Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver
Artillery - By Inheritance
Forbidden - Twisted into Form

I personally like the Toxik album mentioned earlier. I don't see that one track as being specifically anti-Christian as much as anti-televangelist. It's no surprise that Josh Christian is anti-Christian, though. The dude is notoriously liberal, so much that he fires members for not being as liberal as himself.  I honestly feel sorry for the dude. I believe he has had like 5 heart attacks in the last decade or something, yet he apparently holds animosity towards people who mean him no harm.

How could I forget Coroner??? Mental Vortex is great.

Atrophy's Socialized Hate and Violent by Nature-The song Preacher Preacher is an anti-televangelist song (or at least against hypocritical preachers) and Right To Die seems to promote assisted suicide, but aside from those, the lyrics are fine, mostly about social issues, and musically they're catchy thrash anthems.

I don’t think there’s anything too bad on Death Angel’s Act III. Seemingly Endless Time seems to be saying that we don’t know the purpose for our lives, but you’re not gonna find a fully Biblical worldview in secular metal, anyway. (And sometimes not in Christian metal, either, sadly).

Stop could be seen as attacking religious authority, but it’s not very explicit.

I used to own that Death Angel album. I liked it, but never loved it. It is a strange album, though. It existed in a world between thrash and grunge rock. I should probably give it another go, it's been at least 10 years since I've heard it.

Son of Nun wrote:I didn't really care for the lyrics on that Devastation album.

I do intend to check out more Annihilator.

I have purchased some other stuff since I started this thread, but not a lot because I've been working on my secular Black/Folk and Death Metal collections more. I picked up some Razor, Coroner, Hirax demo (already had some of their albums), and that Testament.

Really about devastation? I thought Idolatry was written from an anti-satin perspective, no?

What do you guys think the meanings of "Idolatry,"Legacy of Faith," and "Never Believe" are off of Devastation - Idolatry? The perspective shift in these paragraphs of "Never Believe is unclear to me:

"
honesty means nothing you've proven that to me
i can see right through you scarred for life you'll always be
hypocrite until the end yours was by far the superior sin
epitome of corruption let the cycle of life begin
i can see you fighting, fighting for what's right
through trials and tribulations you're better off to die

living for yourself observing no one else
faith and comfort bring pain and misery
as my life does end look to begin again
try not to pretend taking sin after sin
now i see the way life's paved with bitter hate
looking to the sky my soul begins to cry
accept life's final plea of which to set me free
though it's not meant to be denying honesty"

Is some or all of this Jesus talking to Judas?

I've got a newer band that's pretty solid, they keep getting better too.
Warbringer. Most of their music is lyrically about dystopian society, mental issues, and lately they've been going sci-fi horror just a little. Not much swearing, but their first album is kind of your basic Thrash "Kill everybody" kind of lyrics, though they've trended away from that over time.
Musically think Slayer meets Kreator and that's pretty close to their sound. As they've matured as a band they've been supplementing in some more progressive sounds. Good stuff.

Debatale, but Scatterbrain, at least the first album. Goodbye Freedom Hello Mom has that one line about abortion, and Drunken Milkman is kind of a dark, Alice Cooper-esque story, but from the rest it's either humorous stuff (I'm With Stupid, Dont Call Me Dude) or pretty much lyrics about society (including some anti-drinking and anti-drug songs). Havent investigated the rest of their catalog, so I dont know if they got better or worse. Love the reccomendation for Warbringer, they were able to go beyond just being part of the retro-thrash revival into being their own thing.

Bump

Cyclone Temple's "I Hate Therefore I Am" from 1991 is great.

The lyrics are mostly about social issues. There is one song that deals with religion, but it's about showman preachers who take your money and make people worship more him instead of God.

The writer seems to believe at the very least in the afterlife, because one song is about her sister who had died and he seems to believe they will meet again - the song title even is "Sister (Until We Meet Again)"

It's one of my all time favorite thrash metal albums.

Haven't heard that in years. Need to see if it's on Spotify.

Airola wrote:Cyclone Temple's "I Hate Therefore I Am" from 1991 is great.

The lyrics are mostly about social issues. There is one song that deals with religion, but it's about showman preachers who take your money and make people worship more him instead of God.

The writer seems to believe at the very least in the afterlife, because one song is about her sister who had died and he seems to believe they will meet again - the song title even is "Sister (Until We Meet Again)"

It's one of my all time favorite thrash metal albums.

Nah, Drug of the Masses is straight anti-Christian.

average joe wrote:

Airola wrote:Cyclone Temple's "I Hate Therefore I Am" from 1991 is great.

The lyrics are mostly about social issues. There is one song that deals with religion, but it's about showman preachers who take your money and make people worship more him instead of God.

The writer seems to believe at the very least in the afterlife, because one song is about her sister who had died and he seems to believe they will meet again - the song title even is "Sister (Until We Meet Again)"

It's one of my all time favorite thrash metal albums.

Nah, Drug of the Masses is straight anti-Christian.

That's in the band's 1994 album My Friend Lonely, not in I Hate Therefore I Am.

I don't know what the starter of this thread considers being anti-Christian. The song isn't blasphemous and it doesn't mock God. I would say it's more anti-religion in general than anti-Christian. And even then it's about criticizing people who blindly believe written words and those who use those words to control masses to their gain. Lyrically it's more agnostic than atheistic. So it's not that type of an "anti-Christian" song with hate towards God and Jesus, or rooting for evil etc.

Anyone interested can check the lyrics by clicking the spoiler tag open.
This is one of the two songs by the band that can be considered against religion in some way.
This is from their album My Friend Lonely, from 1994.

Lyrics to Drug of the Masses:

That album in general has more of the "I follow no-one" type of philosophy behind the lyrics, so the attitude might be something the first poster wouldn't want to listen to.


But the album I'm recommending is I Hate Therefore I Am.

It has one song that deals with religious stuff, and it really is more against money hungry charismatic tv evangelists than against God, religion or Christianity.
The lyrics can be seen by clicking the spoiler tag here:

Lyrics to In God We Trust:

If those lyrics aren't too offensive, then I would say I Hate Therefore I Am fits this thread well.

Here's a quick list of the songs and the themes of the lyrics:
Why
Written from the point of view of a "school shooter" - it's written sort of like it's his last note. Heavy subject, but not gratuitous. Musically the song is perhaps my all-time favorite Metallica/Megadeth ripoff. Insanely good rhythm guitar playing.

Sister (Until We Meet Again)
A sad song about the writer missing his dead sister.

Words Are Just Words
About abusive friendship/relationship - not in a sexual or violent way but more like about someone not being there for you when needed.

Public Enemy
About the assassination of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and how people who speak for peace seem to get killed.

In God We Trust
About charismatic television evangelists who take advantage of people.

I Hate Therefore I Am
About how hate and inequality is ruining the world.

March For Me, Die for Me
Sort of an anti-war song. It's about a soldier who gets thrown in a war, and who becomes a merciless killer there, but ends up being captured by the merciless enemy, final words of the song being "oh God help me" (interpret that how you wish).

Born To Lose
About racism. The main song writer of the band is a black man, so that's probably the reason for this song and Public Enemy.

Silence So Loud
About an innocent man who has been sentenced to death. Another song with an "oh God help me" line thrown in.


So there's that. I'm spending this much time defending and explaining the album because it is a top-notch thrash record and in my opinion it's a good example of a secular thrash album that isn't juvenile and that isn't anti-religion or anti-God. The rhythm guitar playing is seriously James Hetfield level of good, and there are plenty of memorable riffs and melodies. Maybe the band's subsequent album crosses some lines, that's debatable, but this one is not like that. I have to admit though that the lyrics aren't that good, artistically/poetically speaking. They are sometimes naive and sometimes awkward and clumsy, but the ideas are good and there's honest effort in trying to write about socially important stuff and the singer helps a lot by using his raspy "john bush" type of voice to sing so seriously as if the lyrics were written by Shakespeare, lol.

Bumping this thread to see if anyone has any additional recommendations.