Controversial Metal Opinions

[Ducky]

What's "classic" thrash though? I hear those words and I think Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Rust in Peace, etc. Take the vocals off those records and they're all easily distinguishable.

B-tier thrash, absolutely, but defo not the classics.

[kiehozero]

Carpathian Forest have no business being anywhere near as big as they are.

[Slaughterday]

Agreed re Carpathian Forest. One cool EP and then years of boring shite.

[O Drighes]

What's "classic" thrash though? I hear those words and I think Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Rust in Peace, etc. Take the vocals off those records and they're all easily distinguishable.

B-tier thrash, absolutely, but defo not the classics.

Classic as the old albuns/bands that still hold value today. Yes, Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Rust in Peace (despite the fact I dont like the lattest, it is still a thrash metal hallmark)... the 80's bay area thrash, the German scene, plus the scatered classics like Sepultura for instance.

My point is that these bands had very distinguishable works but they eventually converged into a very limited idea of thrash metal in their most recent releases. So I am totally with you about the older albuns, it's the new ones I was referring to.

[Cosmic_Equilibrium]

With regards to Megadeth, the best two albums are the debut and Youthanasia. Rust In Peace is seriously overrated, the middle of the record has no hooks or interesting riffs. Half a great album.

Also Endgame is possibly their worst record. Could not believe the critical adulation for that album, it was utterly boring.

[Anton Arcane]

Right, here's something I don't know how controvertial it is, but it's only my perception of it. 

Virtually all classic thrash metal bands reached a point where their riffs, tones and overall composition would be easily interchangeable if wasn't for their iconic singers. They sound like the exact same band if you could change the vocalist, and even the vocal placement is incredibly similar.

Those bands were instantly recognizable in their early albums, but you get Exodus, Kreator, Destruction, etc etc and they all have the same predicatable chord progression patterns. I'll give the devil's his due that tones were influenced by newer technology but the composition itself is far more stale than in any other metal subgenre. And by that I mean the classics in other genres and not newer bands...

Few exception here and there but it seems to me it's the stem of heavy metal who suffered the most with overclassification of metal subgenres.

While I don't entirely agree with you, in fact if anything, the classic thrash bands all had their own identities and sounds. Testament were very different from Exodus. Forbidden were very different from Vio-Lence. Nuclear Assault were very different from Sacred Reich. At least to my ears anyway. But somewhere along the line, bands stopped developing. The last real changes in thrash were in the early 90s with the "melodic" post Black Album gold rush and the mid 90s tuning down and introducing some bro dude grooves. Both were largely commercial and creative failures for everyone involved so since then everyone has been playing it safe. Find your niche and stick to it. I think that's why the vast majority of modern thrash bands don't even try to be remotely original. Right now as far as I can see there's two types of modern thrash bands. Bands that completely stick to the 80s blueprint or bands that stick completely to the 80s blueprint and add black or death metal vocals. Maybe it's a genre that just wasn't meant to develop?

[astfgyl]

The Industrial style Blut Aus Nord albums are much better than the organic BM style ones.

[Ducky]

With regards to Megadeth, the best two albums are the debut and Youthanasia. Rust In Peace is seriously overrated, the middle of the record has no hooks or interesting riffs. Half a great album.

Also Endgame is possibly their worst record. Could not believe the critical adulation for that album, it was utterly boring.

Taking the middle of RiP to be Five Magics, Poison was the Cure and Lucretia, that is for sure a controversial opinion.

There's more interesting riffs and licks in Five Magics than some bands manage in a whole record. Poison is a cool throwback to the sound of their first record, and Lucretia has some of their most tasteful, mid tempo playing.

[kiehozero]

The Industrial style Blut Aus Nord albums are much better than the organic BM style ones.

All over this, love those later records, same with Ulver.

[astfgyl]

I'm with you on Ulver there as well. I don't enjoy their old BM stuff at all. Actually anything before William Blake doesn't do anything for me.

Also Ducky, you got me curious enough to listen to Five Magics there and I have to admit it was actually good. This is from a lad who has never had the slightest interest in Megadeth and I'm not saying it will change me but that tune was ripping.

While we are on about Megadeth as well, the Children of the Grave rip off on Supercollider is absolutely shameless, I dunno how he tried to pass that one off

[Eoin McLove]

The old Ulver stuff is deadly. The demo in particular.  Unique stuff.

[ochoill]

I don't think I've heard any Ulver I didn't like, regardless of what genre they were at at the time.

[blessed1]

On the subject of Ulver, I think the vocalists best work is the stuff he's done outside Ulver.

[Ducky]

Wouldn't be fussed about Ulver's later stuff, first few are deadly.

[astfgyl]

Well to be honest I couldn't really get into The Assasination at all either despite it sounding like the sort of thing I would really like. I didn't get any buzz off Bergtatt or Nattens Madrigal either despite being into that type of thing at the time. Honestly haven't tried them in a decade though. Maybe I missed something.