Classic Thrash Bands v Modern Thrash Bands

Constantine wrote:Also, who is DeadXheaD?   

They sound really good. 

Are they Christian?

Temple of Blood wrote:

Frozen Fire wrote:Thrash has suffered the same way many genres have. When it is growing up it innovates and shows great diversity. There is no concrete blueprint.

Pretty much every thrash band in the 80s was influenced by Metallica (and/or Exodus/Slayer) to some degree, so that is in itself a blueprint.

Temple of Blood

As time goes on the older bands repeat themselves, fall into mediocrity, go beyond the genre, lose their way or disappear before they come to those things. Some of these bands that never fell away just fell too early and are held in regard like they remained true. It's a rare band that sticks to their guns all the way through. A personal secular favorite was Overkill. They stretched out all along the way, especially in the 90s, but never really lost the hunger nor completely lost their sound. When they "came back" in the 2000's they kept the fire. That's exceedingly rare in the thrash world or really in any genre that falls out of favor.

Are you citing Overkill as an example of an exceedingly original-sounding band?  They were HEAVILY influenced by Metallica, which their former drummer Rat Skates got sick of and their original guitarist even tried to look like Hetfield!

Overkill to me hasn't written an outstanding song in decades.  They weren't very good after they lost the Gant/Cannavino guitar team IMHO.

On the new generation... the new generation comes up, often just learning their instruments but raised on the classics, the blueprint, and they try to put a spin on the classic mold or repeat it. It never works the same. They end up only emulating the most common genre tropes.

This is no different than thrash bands in the 80s.

On one hand we can see why, nobody is capable of recreating those albums

I think they could if they wanted to, like Gruesome did with Death.  But why?  Better to put your own spin on it.

and with certain albums like Rust In Peace it is because it's beyond human reach.

Nah.  Only Marty's solos would be the most difficult to emulate, or the production values.  TONS of folks have covered those songs, including my own band so a lot of people could play the material.  There are bands who write songs in the style of Rush so I don't see how this would be impossible to clone if someone really wanted to for some weird reason.

Check this out BTW:

In other cases nobody tries to recreate Testament "Practice What You Preach" because (though the playing their is stellar as well) it really isn't considered a genre-wide classic, though the band is highly regarded.

It's because a lot of aspects to that album haven't aged well, besides the guitar solos.  How many songs from that album do Testament even play live?  Mostly just the title track.  Even the band themselves moved on from it.  It sold a ton IMHO because of the hype carrying over from the previous two albums that were much better albums overall.

Even more so, nobody is going to emulate Anthrax "State of Euphoria" because it's noted as weak effort in Anthrax's career and Joey's vocals aren't consider "the right style" for thrash. Anthrax themselves don't really have clones.

Intruder get pretty close.

The fact is, bands just don't try something new.

Sure they do.  Ritual Servant don't really sound like Slayer, except for a bit here and there.  Extol - Synergy is unique.  

My own band has been accused in the past of being a "clone"/"rip-off" of the following bands:
Manilla Road
Slayer
Helloween / Gamma Ray

Notice how those bands don't actually sound alike?

Bottom line is that we have a TON of metal influences and have no desire to rip off any artist and certainly not close a single band.  There is no band that I look up to enough to do that.  I doubt we're alone in that regard.

I think if you're honest with yourself, you'll see that your favorite 80s thrash bands are just as much a "rip-off" of genre leaders of the day as current bands are.

It's easier to be like Slayer, Metallica, Kreator because in some sense it's easier and more acceptable for a new band. Every once in a while a band tries something different by sounding like Forbidden or Voivod or D.R.I. but they're just going down the path less trod.

You sound like you're contradicting yourself here.  You sound like you're lamenting that these bands/albums don't have clones, and then you say even when people do "clone" other lesser-known thrash bands they're "just going down the path less trod".  So are you looking for clones or not?  If not, why do you keep mentioning it?

Unfortunately, because of these things I've rarely found any good new thrash bands. Many of them are already mentioned in this thread but I'd rather go back and listen to Wargasm, Evildead, Tankard, Powermad, Helstar, Sacrifice, etc. because though they were B, C and D list bands

The first Wargasm album was really good, and original, but the vocalist was just way too boring and mediocre for them to become something much bigger than a local act or something only hardcore thrashers like myself could enjoy.

Evildead and Tankard I never thought were any good.  I thought that Rise album was far better and more interesting than Evildead.

I love Helstar a ton, but be honest, where would this band be without the music of Yngwie Malmsteen?

Powermad had one good album 30 years ago.  I feel they got lucky with that one though.

Sacrifice aren't all that hot IMHO.  In fact, I'd bet that Believer's biggest influence during their thrash-era was this band and they surpassed their mentors.  I say this also as someone who is not Believer's biggest fan.

they came from an era where bands just sounded different by nature.

They still do, just as much so.  

Sorry for the curmudgeonly post. I really do love thrash but coming from the secular scene it is the style I miss most in the Christian scene. Not much to offer. Even the classic aren't all that great in most cases.

Well, hopefully you'll check out our upcoming album and you can tell me who we're "cloning".  

Frozen Fire wrote:Really interesting comments. Too many things within my post were misunderstood. I'll, rather than just apologizing for being curmudgeonly, also apologize for being unclear.

average joe wrote: In fact, it’s the best produced Christian Thrash album ever made, and it’s not even close. It sounded like a legitimate big budget project produced  by Andy Sneap or something.. Super polished!

Additionally, it has the best art work of any Christian Thrash release. Again, it’s not even close. That drawing is a spectacular thrash cover.

The only thing that prevents that album from possibly surpassing the classics, not just competing with them, is the accent. Obviously, it’s outside of the vocalist’s control, but It just takes away from the overall a bit for me. 

That said, the same could be said for Mashiaj. Really good groove-laden head-banger that could compete with the classics if the vocalist could sing in English.

They have the follow-up to Master of Space and Time already written and it’s their M.O. to disappear for a while before suddenly returning with a new album. Hoping that’s the case for the follow-up.

Temple of Blood wrote:I reached out to the mixing/mastering team from that album to see if I could work with them on the new ToB release.  We'll see ...

Son of Nun wrote:I was going to ask why we hadn't mentioned Supresion. Great riffs on that album. I dig the Roger Martinez tribute vocals.

mothy wrote:Sheer looks alone this band looks promising, but I can find NOTHING on them. Mysopace wont play music, last fm has their stuff but I cant playit too.

Anyone remember hearing about them:

Fallen Walls

crucifyd wrote:

mothy wrote:Sheer looks alone this band looks promising, but I can find NOTHING on them. Mysopace wont play music, last fm has their stuff but I cant playit too.

Anyone remember hearing about them:

Fallen Walls

I bought the disc from Roxx on a whim just based on the description, had never heard them. it kind of fell through the cracks and I never gave it a really good listen but it seems like I remember thinking what I had listened to wasn't bad for a blind buy...