The Big 4: top 4 albums....

[Bogmetaller]

They have always had a strong element of humour through what they did. Still do. It doesn't diminish the quality of the music or how seriously they approached making it. Among The Living is a great album. Bush-era were the only good albums coming out of any of the Big Four past the very early 90's.

Nah, God Hates Us All and World Painted Blood are decent to great.

Divine intervention came out in 94- Bush was in Anthrax with two years at that point. Savage album

[Carnage]

Indeed, and their last essential one IMO. God Hates Us All and Repentless are probaly the only decent ones since, but neither one's a classic.

Worship Metal is the best big 4 album of the last 20-25 years IMO.

[Papa Het]

Divine Intervention is where Araya checked out creatively and settled into that vocal rut he has been in ever since, shout three lines and scream the fourth, then repeat. It's average at best. There's none of the creativity or imagination of Reign in Blood or South of Heaven, just the sound of lads giving up.

[Carnage]

The production's a bit lacklustre and 'thin' compared to the preceding three, too. The songs are there, though they're hit & miss and noth8ng compared to their classics. Still a good album.

[Bogmetaller]

Divine Intervention is where Araya checked out creatively and settled into that vocal rut he has been in ever since, shout three lines and scream the fourth, then repeat. It's average at best. There's none of the creativity or imagination of Reign in Blood or South of Heaven, just the sound of lads giving up.

Have to disagree completely here - killing fields is one of the best slower paced song Slayer ever did and on the flip side Dittohead is one of the best fast songs they ever did. That song is insane.

[Cryptic Stench]

Disagree with Divine too, lyrically speaking some of the stuff is amongst  Arayas best, many of the lyrics moving away from satanic themes and dealing with real life horrors. 213, Sex Murder and Killing fields all exemplify the approach.

Vocally I'd concede and agree that there's some one dimensional approaches to a lot of the songs but the material is so ferocious I don't see scope for anything else, it'd be like saying there's too much growling on a death metal album. In Serenity and murder where there's a tad more space you find he's more creative.

[Papa Het]

There are still ways to deliver some character in extreme music but Araya was just belting out syllables. He might as well have been shouting out the phone book. Listen to how he added personality to the earlier stuff. Seriously, count how many songs he just trots out the 3 shout lines followed by the screamed line. Be warned, though, once you hear it you'll hear it all over every album the did since and it'll ruin them too 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

There were already shades of that vocal approach on Seasons, but yeah, the later stuff I can't stick the vocals at all because of it.

[welshchris]

If all of the big 4 stopped releasing albums a good 25 years ago would their legacy be any different? It crazy to think how much quality came out in such a short space of time and basically so little quality in the time since. 
I'd prob put the last Metallica album as the best of the bunch in all that time, if they'd cut it down to a 45 min album would have been a total cracker.

[Bogmetaller]

There were already shades of that vocal approach on Seasons, but yeah, the later stuff I can't stick the vocals at all because of it.

I don't think there was ever much scope for experimenting with Araya's singing in the first place - he wasn't a singer per se more a shouter for want of a better way of putting it.

[Trev]

Yeah Araya's vocals have always been fairly one dimensional, don't think they've really changed too much over the years

That thing about shouting a few lines then screaming the last pretty much sounds like the Angel of Death delivery

[Cryptic Stench]

Lads you can't critique Araya and not criticise the rest. Hetfield's vocals have been a joke since Load. I'll give you that he's rediscovered some sort of form but the -ah at the end of every fucking sentence wears thin.

Mustaine? I've heard cats that can do better. He's resorted to formula too, chat your way through a verse followed by a melodic chorus you've not a hope of ever replicating live.

If all of the big 4 stopped releasing albums a good 25 years ago would their legacy be any different

This is probably a more interesting topic as quite clearly these bands first 4-5 releases are probably and unarguably where it's at for most.

From Slayer I rate Divine and to be fair I listen to World Painted Blood a lot, that's really their last album for me.

Megadeth it's  Youthanasia a really mature record for them. Anything they've released post risk has been play 5 times then shelve.

Metallica - Load/Reload not so much because they're classics but it's the last time they made an effort. St Anger is one of the worst things ever recorded, only bettered by LULU and Death Magnetic/Hardwired are both chores to get through. Vaguely recalling classic, superior material

Anthrax - probably my least favourite of the four but they've weathered somewhat better. Sound Of White Noise is awesome, as is WHCFYA. The material since Joey's return ain't too bad either.

[Papa Het]

Lads you can't critique Araya and not criticise the rest.

That's fair 

Hetfield has been questionable since he blew his voice recording the Black album and started crooning. He's fine for the latter stuff but he hasn't been able to do justice to any of the early songs since. Even touring the Black ablum, he couldn't do the early stuff well at that stage. Mustaine... it's not just that he's all over the shop, but he lost the sneer, the attitude which allowed him to sound amazing despite being nowhere near the right note.

Again, Anthrax come up smelling of roses here, though. Bush is still fantastic. He was superb with Armored Saint in Voodoo last year. Belladonna's voice is weaker than in his prime, you can hear he sounds older, but he's still got the energy and can hit the notes, fair fucks to him. It took me a while to warm to Worship Music and For All Kings but they are good albums and they can still do it live too. Benante also deserves credit, he's a better drummer now than he was in his youth.

[Ducky]

Disagree with Divine too, lyrically speaking some of the stuff is amongst  Arayas best, many of the lyrics moving away from satanic themes and dealing with real life horrors. 213, Sex Murder and Killing fields all exemplify the approach.

Vocally I'd concede and agree that there's some one dimensional approaches to a lot of the songs but the material is so ferocious I don't see scope for anything else, it'd be like saying there's too much growling on a death metal album. In Serenity and murder where there's a tad more space you find he's more creative.

Yiz know Hanneman and King wrote almost all the lyrics?

[Bogmetaller]

Lads you can't critique Araya and not criticise the rest.

That's fair 

Benante also deserves credit, he's a better drummer now than he was in his youth.

Wanted to say this alright - when they supported slayer in the 3 arena last year it was an experience just to watch him drumming.