Secular Thrash Metal with acceptable lyrics

I'm looking for secular thrash albums (especially from the 80's and early 90s) that don't have any blasphemous, anti-Christian, or gratuitously immoral lyrics. I have a lot of Megadeth, early Metallica, Metal Church, Exodus - Fabulous Disaster, Annihilator - Never, Neverland, and Viking - Man of Straw. What else is out there?

Early Helloween was pretty thrashy (pre-Kiske).

Maybe Agent Steel? They mainly write about aliens/conspiracy stuff.

Constantine will probably be able to help you out a lot more. 

Flotsam and Jetsam - No Place for Disgrace 

It has some occasional bad language, but nothing blasphemous.

Later Testament is good. Game Over is a thrash band out of england and everything ive heard ia just like zombie etc kind of stuff.

I've found that often a secular thrash album might have some decent lyrics until you get to those 1, 2, or more songs that are...AAAGGHH!     

If you are willing to isolate individual songs, you will have more success with finding thrash with relatively clean lyrics.

Even at it's best though, the secular thrash will typically present a worldview that is not Biblical, but if that is not an issue (that describes most movies anyway), then let's see what we can find here...

There would be numerous other choices if we were not talking about thrash.  
That said, here are a few in the thrash vein that you could try:

Forbidden - Omega Wave
Paradox - Tales Of The World
Meliah Rage - Masquerade
Antithesis - Dying For Life
Obliveon - From This Day Forward
Obliveon - Nemesis
Voi Vod - Killing Technology
Dorsal Atlantica - Searching For The Light
Watchtower - Concepts of Math:  Book One
Against Evil - All Hail The King
Absurd2 - E.P. 
Mekong Delta - Wanderer At The Edge Of Time
Believer - Gabriel
Angel of Sodom - Divine Retribution
Vendetta - Brain Damage  (one song has the f word)
Toxik - Think This  (one song is against T.V. preachers....)
Anacrusis - Screams & Whispers
Anacrusis - Manic Impressions
Anacrusis - Reason
Freakings - Rise Of Violence
Exarsis - Sentenced To Death
Martyr - Speed of Samurai  (more speed metal, but still a good choice)
Attomica - Limits of Insanity
Wolf Spider - Kingdom Of Paranoia


Note that 2, maybe 3 of the above are often referred to as Christian bands / albums, but looking at the lyrics and/or reading interviews, I would call that an over-statement - but that's the way I would evaluate them.

I would add the Realm albums, especially Endless War.

Elm Street are pretty good, most of what they sing about is either metal anthems or horror movie themes (with the exception of The Devil's Servants and King of Kings, which actually have pro-Christian themes).

Xentrix

Constantine wrote:I've found that often a secular thrash album might have some decent lyrics until you get to those 1, 2, or more songs that are...AAAGGHH!     

If you are willing to isolate individual songs, you will have more success with finding thrash with relatively clean lyrics.

Even at it's best though, the secular thrash will typically present a worldview that is not Biblical, but if that is not an issue (that describes most movies anyway), then let's see what we can find here...

There would be numerous other choices if we were not talking about thrash.  
That said, here are a few in the thrash vein that you could try:

Forbidden - Omega Wave
Paradox - Tales Of The World
Meliah Rage - Masquerade
Antithesis - Dying For Life
Obliveon - From This Day Forward
Obliveon - Nemesis
Voi Vod - Killing Technology
Dorsal Atlantica - Searching For The Light
Watchtower - Concepts of Math:  Book One
Against Evil - All Hail The King
Absurd2 - E.P. 
Mekong Delta - Wanderer At The Edge Of Time
Believer - Gabriel
Angel of Sodom - Divine Retribution
Vendetta - Brain Damage  (one song has the f word)
Toxik - Think This  (one song is against T.V. preachers....)
Anacrusis - Screams & Whispers
Anacrusis - Manic Impressions
Anacrusis - Reason
Freakings - Rise Of Violence
Exarsis - Sentenced To Death
Martyr - Speed of Samurai  (more speed metal, but still a good choice)
Attomica - Limits of Insanity
Wolf Spider - Kingdom Of Paranoia


Note that 2, maybe 3 of the above are often referred to as Christian bands / albums, but looking at the lyrics and/or reading interviews, I would call that an over-statement - but that's the way I would evaluate them.

Both those Watchtower and Toxik albums have anti-God lyrics.

Overkill. They do have some songs with swearing (thankfully nothing over the top) and the early albums did have isolated songs with sexual lyrics (Fatal if Swallowed and Head First if you want to know which songs to avoid), but I havent come across any Anti-Christian lyrics on any of their stuff so far (Currently doing a deep dive into their discography, I'm up to ReliXIV).

Preface: The most recent Tourniquet album (Gazing at Medusa), Motivik, Hand of Fire, Freakings, and Grave Forsaken are all excellent Christian thrash albums. Most of those are heavy and fast (especially Freakings). And if you're OK with groove, tech and hardcore...the most recent Living Sacrifice albums from 2010 and 2013 go HARD, with the thickest production on any of their albums. In other words, the OCD/ADHD in me won't get to the secular without first mentioning the Christian.

I haven't heard anything sacrilegious in the newest Cryptosis and Warbringer albums. Simply blistering.

Terrifier has a lot of profanity, a few Raider songs are vaguely sacrilegious (they have a new one soon) but don't really reference the biblical God directly if I remember right, and I'll need to listen to more early Striker to know if they were Satanic/sacrilegious or not.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Constantine wrote:I've found that often a secular thrash album might have some decent lyrics until you get to those 1, 2, or more songs that are...AAAGGHH!     

If you are willing to isolate individual songs, you will have more success with finding thrash with relatively clean lyrics.

Even at it's best though, the secular thrash will typically present a worldview that is not Biblical, but if that is not an issue (that describes most movies anyway), then let's see what we can find here...

There would be numerous other choices if we were not talking about thrash.  
That said, here are a few in the thrash vein that you could try:

Forbidden - Omega Wave
Paradox - Tales Of The World
Meliah Rage - Masquerade
Antithesis - Dying For Life
Obliveon - From This Day Forward
Obliveon - Nemesis
Voi Vod - Killing Technology
Dorsal Atlantica - Searching For The Light
Watchtower - Concepts of Math:  Book One
Against Evil - All Hail The King
Absurd2 - E.P. 
Mekong Delta - Wanderer At The Edge Of Time
Believer - Gabriel
Angel of Sodom - Divine Retribution
Vendetta - Brain Damage  (one song has the f word)
Toxik - Think This  (one song is against T.V. preachers....)
Anacrusis - Screams & Whispers
Anacrusis - Manic Impressions
Anacrusis - Reason
Freakings - Rise Of Violence
Exarsis - Sentenced To Death
Martyr - Speed of Samurai  (more speed metal, but still a good choice)
Attomica - Limits of Insanity
Wolf Spider - Kingdom Of Paranoia


Note that 2, maybe 3 of the above are often referred to as Christian bands / albums, but looking at the lyrics and/or reading interviews, I would call that an over-statement - but that's the way I would evaluate them.

Both those Watchtower and Toxik albums have anti-God lyrics.

I didn't really get the sense from those Toxik lyrics that they were anti-God so much as critical of religious people.

WildWorld wrote:Overkill. They do have some songs with swearing (thankfully nothing over the top) and the early albums did have isolated songs with sexual lyrics (Fatal if Swallowed and Head First if you want to know which songs to avoid), but I havent come across any Anti-Christian lyrics on any of their stuff so far (Currently doing a deep dive into their discography, I'm up to ReliXIV).

I was actually surprised by how bad some of Overkill's lyrics are because I thought they'd be cleaner. More vulgar, sexual lyrics than I expected. The first album also has some sketchy satan stuff on "Feel the Fire" and "Overkill." I think there's plenty of stuff that's OK but not sure about full albums. I'll have to take a closer look at "Taking Over," "Under the Influence," and "The Years of Decay."

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 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.

If you like Exodus’ Fabulous Disaster, check out Pleasures of the Flesh. Don’t let the title fool you, it’s not sexual.  I don’t remember any lyrical issues aside from swearing. (Although the title track might gross you out, although it’s not graphic).

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.

Some of Testament’s stuff has some thoughtful, socially conscious lyrics. Some of their stuff is a little dark lyrically for me, but on the whole their lyrics don’t really bother me.

Son of Nun wrote:

WildWorld wrote:Overkill. They do have some songs with swearing (thankfully nothing over the top) and the early albums did have isolated songs with sexual lyrics (Fatal if Swallowed and Head First if you want to know which songs to avoid), but I havent come across any Anti-Christian lyrics on any of their stuff so far (Currently doing a deep dive into their discography, I'm up to ReliXIV).

I was actually surprised by how bad some of Overkill's lyrics are because I thought they'd be cleaner. More vulgar, sexual lyrics than I expected. The first album also has some sketchy satan stuff on "Feel the Fire" and "Overkill." I think there's plenty of stuff that's OK but not sure about full albums. I'll have to take a closer look at "Taking Over," "Under the Influence," and "The Years of Decay."

I don’t recall too much on The Years of Decay or Horrorscope (other than a line on Blood Money). But there are certainly lyrics not in-line with a Christian worldview (I Hate, Evil Never Dies).

Taking Over and Under the Influence have some problematic lyrics.

Looking through the lyrics of Cacophony, I dont see anything objectionable, just sci-fi/fantasy/adventure lyrics.

I have talked to Josh Christian online and he is insanely anti-Christian.

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.

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.

Pethead wrote:If you like Exodus’ Fabulous Disaster, check out Pleasures of the Flesh. Don’t let the title fool you, it’s not sexual.  I don’t remember any lyrical issues aside from swearing. (Although the title track might gross you out, although it’s not graphic).

 
I did look in to that one awhile back and I do recall thinking it was fine.

Pethead wrote:

Son of Nun wrote:

WildWorld wrote:Overkill. They do have some songs with swearing (thankfully nothing over the top) and the early albums did have isolated songs with sexual lyrics (Fatal if Swallowed and Head First if you want to know which songs to avoid), but I havent come across any Anti-Christian lyrics on any of their stuff so far (Currently doing a deep dive into their discography, I'm up to ReliXIV).

I was actually surprised by how bad some of Overkill's lyrics are because I thought they'd be cleaner. More vulgar, sexual lyrics than I expected. The first album also has some sketchy satan stuff on "Feel the Fire" and "Overkill." I think there's plenty of stuff that's OK but not sure about full albums. I'll have to take a closer look at "Taking Over," "Under the Influence," and "The Years of Decay."

I don’t recall too much on The Years of Decay or Horrorscope (other than a line on Blood Money). But there are certainly lyrics not in-line with a Christian worldview (I Hate, Evil Never Dies).

Taking Over and Under the Influence have some problematic lyrics.

I realized that first song on Taking Over is a problem lol. Under the Influence didn't seem to have anything anti-Christian though it obviously has a song about sex.

Yeah, I’m not a fan of Scott himself, but I do love their stuff with Belladonna. 

The Legacy is a little dark for me lyrically, but most of Testament’s stuff is pretty tame. I definitely recommend Practice What You Preach. I’d also check out The Gathering (although the lyrics are pretty dark) and The Formation of Damnation. 

Sorry, I should’ve specified. Yeah, the song I object to on Under the Influence is a sexual song. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m very sensitive when it comes to sexual lyrics so I usually avoid them.