BAY AREA THRASH

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 9:07 pm

Testament surely weren't gods in any era, though their two first lps were cool, Legacy was far better.

Vio-Lence was pretty cool.

Down there... · Post by **Down there...** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:11 pm

Witchkiller wrote:There's no Death Angel after their 3 lps

I never liked anything after The Ultra Violence. That record is probably the thrashiest (eh?) record I ever heard. After that I don't know what they were thinking...

oldskoolcollector · Post by **oldskoolcollector** » Tue May 12, 2009 9:34 pm

In my opinion the best music came from the Bay Area. Bands like Heathen, Metallica, Forbidden, Laaz Rockit (Annihilation Principle/Know your enemy), Defiance, Exodus, Vio-lence are great bands!

The Erlking · Post by **The Erlking** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:50 am

As I've stated before, Bay Area Thrash ain't my thing. Exodus blew me away with Bonded By Blood and got me into thrash so they're the most important for me from the scene but I'm not soooo fancy about Metallica though I like the first two albums and Master Of Puppets is ok. Heathen and Ulysses Siren are also great. Forbidden I never could get into - they just sound boring to me and same goes for many Bay bands

IMO Kreator alone blows most of the Bay Area Thrash into oblivion.

humus · Post by **humus** » Thu May 14, 2009 2:45 pm

I'm not a big fan of the bay area either. There are a few albums which I consider classics (Bonded by blood/Kill 'em all/maybe Eternal nightmare) but in general I prefer other 'subgenres' of thrash.

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Thu May 14, 2009 3:56 pm

I generally have a much harder time listening to Bay Area thrash than for example to post '96 blakk metal.

MEXDefenderOfSteel · Post by **MEXDefenderOfSteel** » Thu May 14, 2009 9:35 pm

good albums came out from the scene for sure!

my fave teenage(15-18) albums:

1.Vio-Lence-Eternal Nightmare (IT IS ORIGINAL!,its actually pretty intense,maybe the most intense one for me)

2.Testament-The Legacy(the only album i enjoy from track 1 to the last one, the rest of their stuff is just whatever to me, cant stand a complete album)

3.Exodus-Bonded by Blood(almost perfect album, same thing with Testament,i can care less for their later releases)

all times underground faves Ulysses Syren by far,could have had a killer album out,dont know why this didnt happen....

Death Angel hmmm i wanna be respectful for the fans,i mean i have the first album,good one,but then they wentt straight to the "maturity" toilet...

i feel that the best albums from this scene were released when these guys were actually young,their debut albums all marked the intensity n originality of that time, but the problem is that all those things were gone after their debuts....not bad,just like whatever, they should have never grown up haha

Vinny Black · Post by **Vinny Black** » Sun May 17, 2009 8:53 pm

Many great debut albums come from that scene, but then...I dunnoh.

Lama · Post by **Lama** » Sun May 24, 2009 10:32 pm

I don't have any problems with Bay Area thrash. Some bands and/or albums I like more than others, but it's a fact that a lot of great music was released from bands out of that particular area.

I think most people have problems with he fact that a lot of those bands got soooo much attention from the worldwide mainstream metal press, only because they were from the Bay Area. Sometimes it seemed that there was no other thrash than Bay Area thrash. The word 'commercial' also comes to mind, and that's never a good thing in true metal realms. It's appealing to mock bands that get to much exposure... I think most people who hate Bay Area thrash would be the biggest fans of it if the bands would have remained underground...

Another thing : how many pure, raw, aggressive thrash albums were created by the Bay Area-bands? First Testament, first Death Angel, Vio-Lence, first Exodus... Later on they all began to show influences of US power metal (technicality, melody...), heavy metal, progressive rock etc. Which is not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion, but pure thrash it wasn't.

The whole movement was pretty trendy also. Sooooo many Bay Area bands (or musicians) began to write and/or release pure crap once the whole thrash-trend was over. Or started sporting the nu metal-look. See Forbidden, see Manmade God (with Locicero from Forbidden), Torque, Technocracy, Machine Head, Exodus nowadays... Most people would like to add Testament to this list, but apart from the totally boring "Demonic" and the pretty lacklustre "Souls Of Black" I like pretty much everything they've done... ("The Ritual" was the first thing I heard by them back in the days I started listening to metal, and I still totally love that album!)

Again, it's an album-by-album, or sometimes song-by-song thing. I like all stuff of Death Angel, but not all of "Frolic...", I like Exodus, but only "Bonded..." and some stuff of the two albums that followed, I like Lääz Rockit, but not "No Stranger To Danger" and the latest album, I like Vio-Lence, but not "Nothing To Gain", the first Defiance, pretty much everything of Heathen, Possessed, the first two Forbidden-LP's, first five Metallica-LP's (and the double cover-album), unsung heroes Ullyses Siren...

I think my absolute favourites are :

Forbidden - "Twisted Into Form"
Exodus - "Bonded By Blood"
Testament - "The New Order", "The Legacy" and "The Ritual"
Metallica - "Ride The Lightning"
Heathen - "Victims Of Deception"

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:14 am

I'm an old-school fan and the Bay Area scene was a big part of the picture when I first got into metal. Even if its not your cup of tea a metal fan should respect what has evolved from the Bay area in the mid-80's.
These are some of my fav's:

Slayer - Show No Mercy (they were still Bay Area in 1983)
Exodus - BBB
Metallica - KEA
Possessed - 7 Churches
Testament - Legacy

big mouth · Post by **big mouth** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:55 am

Slayer - Show No Mercy (they were still Bay Area in 1983)

Oh no....first Bay area attack were 3 dates, one in support of EXODUS so SLAYER had never anything to do with Bay Area Thrash...

rooster · Post by **rooster** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:44 pm

I've noticed that David White (on Evolution Of Chaos photo) has Laughing Dead T shirt. Also in Opressing The Masses booklet, Phil Demmel ( if i remember correctly) also has t shirt of that band. Such strong support (Yeah, i know that LD was David's group, but they split a long time ago so that photo in the booklet is strange) is quite interesting, especially when we realize that Laughing Dead put out only 2 demos. I wonder if LD was really so popular in the Bay Area underground? Anybody know why they split up? Any opinions about their demos? Anyone heard their second demo (from 1991)?

big mouth · Post by **big mouth** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 5:29 am

Any opinions about their demos? Anyone heard their second demo (from 1991)?

Boring..just like KAOS, MILITIA, EPIDEMIC, P. THREAT etc etc.... they helped killing the Bay Area scene in the end.

rooster · Post by **rooster** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:21 pm

hmm, i've always heard positive opinions about LD

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:58 am

big mouth wrote:Boring..just like KAOS, MILITIA, EPIDEMIC, P. THREAT etc etc.... they helped killing the Bay Area scene in the end.

Epidemic were very generic and boring, that is true, but to add Militia in the same lot is not fair. They were great, albeit not your typical Bay Area thrash, but more akin to power/speed progressively influenced outfits like Lethal, early Mystic-Force, first Mystik, Last Descendants, Realm, etc.

The scene died of the same "natural" causes which killed metal elsewhere (aka grunge invasion and industry lack of interest) and had nothing to do with Militia or Laughing Dead. Early LD demos with David Godfrey on vocals were great thrash worth a severe headbanging whiplash any day of the week.