State of Thrash 2008

It’s late 2008 and Metallica has released Death Magnetic, their attempt to remain relevant in today’s world of thrash metal. What does it look like now?


Basics. Heavy metal, as a musical genre, has been around for awhile. Depending on your definitions, it could have begun as early as the late 60s with Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer, but certainly the big three of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin, with their peaks in the early 70s, can claim to be the musical bedrock upon which later bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest made their careers in the 80s. In the early 80s, thrash metal emerged at what could be considered the extreme edge of metal, the fastest, loudest, most obnoxious and least aural-friendly bands, the ones that Beavis & Butt-head would claim “scare chicks”.
Approaching the “hairy edge”, the challenge in this genre is to remain “music” of some sort recognizable as such to human ears and not drop off the precipice of mere white noise. As singers’ voices drifted from Rob Halford’s near opera quality skill, to James Hetfield’s growl, then to Tom Araya’s “singing”, the standard got lower and lower, until it reached the point where guttural growls, aka “Cookie Monster” vocals, became acceptable among many bands, despite the fact that we can no longer understand what’s being sung (lyric sheets, please!), and the “singing” sounds more like the grotesque garble of a person – man? woman? – whose lower jaw has been brutally smashed away or tongue ripped out. The same holds true for the music: as the tempo increased faster, the guitars got so fast that the band sounds less like “music” in any meaningful sense and more like a recording of a German WWII MG-42 being fired. Each of these descriptions tend to fit an extreme form of thrash, “death metal”, “grind core” or whatever, which I never liked and will not even address herein. When even the band’s logo is as indecipherable as its lyrics, surely you’ve reached a point of being noise for the sake of being noise. Leaving aside that branch of the thrash family, here is the more mainstream portion of the genre.


Top 4
Metallica. Formerly the top band, until the Napster bullshit and an atrocious sellout. They blended Black Sabbath and Diamond Head and managed to almost single-handedly establish and dominate the genre, progressively improving their sound over several albums: Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, the Garage Days EP, …And Justice For All, and Metallica (aka the Black Album). They succeeded on their own terms, and eclipsed even Ozzy, Sabbath, AC/DC, and most other metal bands during the late 80s and early 90s, with the exception of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. If anyone could take on grunge, it was Metallica. Even replacing Cliff Burton (RIP) with Jason Newsted had no impact, as …And Justice For All managed to achieve the impossible: attracting a vast group of new fans to the band without alienating the hardcore faithful. I got Ride The Lightning in January 1985 for my 16^th birthday, and we saw them that summer at the Donington Monsters of Rock festival.
Then suddenly we were hit with Load. WTF? Metal fans, including Metallica fans such as ourselves, are notoriously sensitive to a band’s inclination – even perceived – to “sell out”, and many argued that after …And Justice For All, the much shorter songs on Metallica (particularly “Nothing Else Matters” and “The Unforgiven”) were Exhibits A-L in the “Metallica sold out” case. To me, …And Justice For All was simply too self-indulgent, and Metallica was nothing more than a distillation of the true essence into a more concentrated format, not a dramatic or fundamental change in perspective. With Load we had, without a doubt, such a change, and not for the better. The songs have a clipped, staccato feel more in tune with grunge than with their previous work. It’s as if Metallica decided to co-opt grunge by joining it, forsaking pioneering their own type of music and simply trying to re-align themselves to what they perceived was a more commercially acceptable format. Re-Load was at least an honest title, as it gave us more of the same shit. St Anger was a definite improvement, but not a return to the earlier sound. This album sounds like the anger was directed at the fans. But hey: you cut your hair, you added guyliner & piercings (what were you thinking, Kirk??), dressed up as cowboys, etc. If the music didn’t scream sellout, the haircuts certainly did. “Queer Eye For Metallica”. And “Some Kind of Monster” didn’t help either. Mustaine accurately called it “Some Kind of Bullshit.”
So what do you we have with Death Magnetic? Too early to tell for me. Kirk grew his hair back, we have Trujillo on bass instead of Jason Newsted (who really looked like a major league asshole in “Some Kind of Monster” – where is Echobrain now, huh?), and we’ve even got the old logo back. None of the songs suck outright, and a few of them are pretty good: “The Day That Never Comes”, “Cyanide”, and the extended instrumental “Suicide & Redemption”. The weakest track, I find, is the last one: “My Apocalypse”, the last track and probably overly aggressive solely to prove a point and close out the album on such a note (like “Damage Inc” on Master of Puppets). I can’t say this album picks up where Metallica left off, but even after hearing it twice I still come away from it liking it more than St Anger. Maybe I’m tired of hating them and finally willing to give the material a fair listen.
The problem is, James, Kirk and Lars are all 25 years older than they were in 1983. They have wives (or girlfriends) and kids. Even if they wanted to replicate the first few albums, they’re no longer the angry, arrogant young guys we saw in “Cliff ‘Em All”, as “Some Kind of Monster” so graphically showed us. Can thrash metal only be effectively written and performed by drunk, horny, guys in their early 20s? Is there an age limit? I don’t hear anyone claiming that Ozzy or Lemmy are “too old”, and Tony and Geezer seem to get more distinguished, but no less credible musicians, as they age. The younger bands still bow, “we’re not worthy”, before them, so Metallica can redeem themselves from the shame of Load, Re-Load, and “Some Kind of Monster” and give us some decent thrash we can appreciate in perspective. Hell, those of us old enough to have seen Cliff Burton play with Metallica, aren’t exactly kids ourselves anymore.
Actually, after years of having to endure “cookie monster” vocals from various thrash bands (“Who’s gonna sing?” “I dunno, pick the guy who sings the worst”), I now appreciate James Hetfield’s voice. He clearly enunciates the lyrics but gives it just enough rasp and venom to give it the nasty edge it needs to work.


Megadeth. Dave Mustaine’s band. I’ll give him this: he never gave us anything close to Load or Re-Load. But no matter who the band members are, Megadeth always strikes me as second-rate Metallica. Mustaine takes Hetfield’s rasp and warps it into a perpetual, arrogant sneer. “Hey, I’m the asshole who sings.”


Anthrax. Not bad, just too clever. Even Scott Ian admits that this whole “NOT” thing obscured the band’s talent. I think they tried to take too much credit and attention for the “I’m The Man” and “Bring the Noize” deal of mixing rap and metal (no, I will NOT suck your dicks). Highlight? “I Am the Law”, the Judge Dredd song. Joey Belladonna was their best singer, clearly some good lungs. Anthrax’s image was, “we have no image”, but that, in itself, is an image if you try too hard to cram it down everyone’s throats. Enough.


Slayer. The official “serial killer concept album” band. I could never get into their earlier material, South of Heaven or Reign in Blood. Well, if you really hate Slayer, at least the longest you’ll have to endure any album is what, 20 minutes? To me, Seasons in the Abyss was their peak. I have to blame Tom Araya for starting this damn “cookie monster” vocal crap, although he is barely understandable. Now Kerry King has the “bald head, goatee, and arm covered in tattoos” deal. Whatever happened to “long hair, t-shirt” and just play a Strat or an Explorer? Everyone (except maybe Trouble) seems to have hired image consultants - not just Metallica.

We saw Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax together in June 1991 on the Clash of the Titans show, with Alice in Chains opening, but the nature of the format meant that each “headliner” could only play a 45 minute set. Value or not? On the Black Album tour, Metallica was playing, without an opening act, for 3 hours. Do the math and think about it.


Second Tier
Corrosion of Conformity/Down. CoC started out as a hardcore punk band and switched formats, putting Pepper Keenan on vocals. Damn good shit. With Down, Keenan teamed up with Phil Anselmo (Pantera) for what turns out to be New Orleans style thrash, some slow, smokey shit like a ratmeat barbecue dosed with brown acid. Awesome.


Trouble. From Chicago. They take Black Sabbath, add some Beatles and psychedelic stuff to the mix, and come out with a damn good result. The twin guitarists Rick Wartell (KK Downing double – even down to the Flying V) and Bruce Franklin (Uli Roth double, though playing an SG Junior instead of a Strat) trade off solos and harmonies to make Dave Murray and Adrian Smith jealous. Eric Wagner was cool as the singer from ’85 until this summer, but now he’s replaced by Kory Clarke – maybe not the same quality voice, but he has the energy and attitude.


White Zombie/Rob Zombie. Aside from no J. Yuenger or Sean Yseult (I share Beavis’ reaction: “What’s the deal with all these chick bass players?), I can’t tell the difference between the two. The music is acceptable – even catchy sometimes (“Living Dead Girl”, “More Human Than Human”) - but the sound effects and imagery is really over the top. Zombie seems to want to channel Alice Cooper (Cooper’s take on Marilyn Manson: “He wears makeup and has a woman’s name. How original.”).


Pantera. I was never too impressed with them. They started out as a glam metal band from Texas, added Anselmo and turned to thrash, and melted down for reasons I never understood (or cared to learn). I have Far Beyond Driven but never felt compelled to collect any other albums. I hated Dimebag Darrell’s goatee and Anselmo’s voice, but at least in Down he’s learned how to sing.


Voivod. From Montreal. Well played and written thrash metal. They deserve the distinction of being one of the first thrash bands to tip their hats to Gilmour, Waters, Mason & Wright (RIP). They covered “Astronomy Domine” long before Atomic Bitchwax, and I have their terrific 3D album, The Outer Limits, with their cover of “The Nile Song”. They also have a credible claim at being one of the first artsy – if perhaps pretentious – thrash bands around, long before Opeth.


Tool. Are they thrash? Industrial? Progressive? The same with Mars Volta and Thrak-era King Crimson. These are bands who are so far out, they truly defy any meaningful labels aside from “metal” – just as King Crimson has always done. I suppose you truly qualify as “original” when no one can figure out what to call you, even if they don’t necessarily like you. By this point I’ve tuned out on Mars Volta; I wasn’t impressed with Bedlam in Goliath, their latest album, and live they stink. But I still love Tool, especially since 10,000 Days, their latest album, is their best, and unlike Mars Volta, they’re damn good in concert. In fact, I remember thinking as I started getting into Tool last year, that until they came around, Metallica were the heaviest band who could still be called “music” in some way. Tool have since stolen the mantle, and even comparing 10,000 Days with Death Magnetic, have yet to relinquish it back to its erstwhile owners. There’s something inherently metallic about the music, as if it were designed or engineered, and built, rather than written – some industrial science rather than art; Maynard Keenan’s side project, A Perfect Circle, seems to have an organic, fleshy feel to it compared to Tool. And live, the band disappears among the lights and magic, the screens behind them at the back of the stage, as if they were creating something far larger than themselves. A Tool live show is certainly an experience, in fact very similar to Pink Floyd – just 100 times heavier.


Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Flotsam & Jetsam, Suicidal Tendencies. I know of these bands but never paid attention to them. They’re more famous because of their former members than as bands themselves. Each of them has supplied a different member of Metallica: Kirk Hammett from Exodus, Jason Newsted from Flotsam & Jetsam, and most recently, Robert Trujillo from Suicidal Tendencies – replacing Newsted.


The Next Generation
Turisas. From Finland. I have their album The Varangian Way, a concept album about a band of Vikings who end up in Mikligard, aka Constantinople (Istanbul). Fairly well done (especially compared to Tyr)! Closest in sound to Opeth (see below). They covered Boney M’s single “Rasputin” and managed to make it work – both versions inspire a classic Cossack dance! However, they also play in full Viking regalia, which includes furs and war paint; and they have a violinist and an accordionist, so they have a huge novelty factor which may damage their credibility.
As with KISS, there is always a tendency to write off any band which overtly indulges in some obvious gimmick. AC/DC has Angus Young, Alice Cooper had his theatrics, and GWAR clearly have their elaborate stage show. More recently there’s Slipknot with their matching jumpsuits and different masks, Wayne Static’s bizarre hair & beard, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, etc. – clearly there is no shortage of bands who may or may not be trying to crutch substandard talent and music by a bizarre innovation. Being enthralled by the smoke & mirrors may trick you into buying into a genius that doesn’t exist – or blind detractors from talent hidden underneath all that. To call KISS talentless strikes me as both easy and unfair; they’re not geniuses or artists, but they do have real talent. I put Turisas in the same category, especially since I was impressed by their music before I even watched the bonus DVD revealing their stage presence. But the DVD shows them playing during broad daylight at various festivals, well below the top of the bill, to an audience which mostly paid to see the headliners and had these Viking weirdos inflicted upon them. Those people may be less inclined to give Turisas a fair hearing. We’ll see. They’re supporting Dragonforce AND headlining other clubs this fall, giving two groups of audiences exposure to this “battle metal”.


Opeth. From Sweden – finally a band the country can be proud to claim their own aside from ABBA. I have Watershed (newest album), The Roundhouse Tapes (live) and Damnation. Although they have their share of “cookie monster” vocals, the singer often makes a mistake and sings normally. They also slow down periodically and end up sounding like Pink Floyd on steroids (very reminiscent of Voivod). Probably one of the most talented of the new crew of thrash bands, and that appears to be the well-deserved reputation they’re developing. Even the heavy parts have almost a classical feel to them, similar to Metallica’s instrumentals “The Call of Ktulu” and “Orion”, even if Opeth don’t sound anything like Metallica.
Damnation is remarkable – and a judgment call. Technically it’s not really even a thrash album, more like remarkably executed progressive rock. But the fact that this band can pull it off at all is a major factor in their credit. Watershed is a thrash album, and a damn good one. The live album shows that not only can they play, Mikael Akerfeldt, the singer/lead guitarist is fairly witty and irreverent, almost a thrash version of Ian Anderson. His humor is a welcome foil to the music, which is all too often serious. What you’re left with is a refreshingly well-rounded band which covers the bases, slamming you in the head at one point, yet caressing you at others, similar to 70s era King Crimson. The truly great bands know how to build upon their influences yet still expanding and developing a new, unique sound of their own. This is what separates Opeth from Dragonforce, as noted below.


Dragonforce. Giving Opeth some stiff competition for role of top new band. I’ll have to go with Opeth, though. While Opeth are doing something unique and original, charting new territory, Dragonforce are basically ripping off Kill ‘Em All – from 1983!! – and pretending to give us something brand new. Do they really think that Metallica have so alienated every metal fan out there, that NO ONE has heard the first 3 Metallica albums? Give me a break. The one thing they change is having a singer who sounds like Steve Perry of Journey instead of James Hetfield or Dave Mustaine. I have their most recent album, Ultra Beatdown, which probably should be called Ultra Beatoff. I could barely endure it.
In addition to the almost note-for-note ripoff of the early Metallica sound, the lyrics are inane. Check them out for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. The best you could say for them is that they complement the music, but Metallica and Megadeth, and thrash bands in general, tend to at least attempt to write lyrics which are listenable and appreciable in and of themselves, not merely window dressing for the music just so it won’t be just an album of instrumentals. Thrash metal has established a fairly high standard for politically and socially relevant lyrics – even if 70% of them are about nuclear war, or if you can’t understand half of them because the singer can’t sing for shit – so Dragonforce fall well below the minimum threshold. Which is a shame, because their singer actually CAN sing for shit. But even if they fixed the lyrics, they’re still ripping off “Motorbreath”. Been there, done that.


Clutch. Not bad. I have one album, but I’ll have to hear more of them. They throttle it down a gear, but only one gear. In a way, this sounds like the sound Metallica is trying for on Load and Re-Load, except that for Clutch it’s 
their own sound, instead of an established band trying to latch on to an existing genre. Too bad.


High On Fire. The one song I heard sounded like this obscure band no one has ever heard of: METALLICA. Is the rest any different?


Mudvayne, Slipknot, Static X, Disturbed, Powerman 5000. ZZZZZZZZ. Please, spare me this Ozzfest garbage – I’ve had to endure each of these bands open for Black Sabbath over the years and have never been impressed by any of them. More bands with gimmicks galore and at best average talent. Can they play their instruments competently at 100 mph? Sure. Can they sing? Rarely. Are they doing anything that hasn’t been done over and over again? Not really. What was really laughable is that often the singer would bark out something about “down with all those boy bands or Britney who all sound exactly the same” and then give us second rate thrash metal which all sounds exactly the same. The music is hardly original or remarkable and they probably wouldn’t have as much of an audience if they dropped whatever gimmick they’re using (see Turisas above).

So who wins, circa 2008? I can’t decide between Tool or Opeth. Trouble deserve a solid silver metal simply by virtue of sheer persistence. I’d like to believe Metallica have redeemed themselves, but the jury is still out on Death Magnetic, and I still don’t like it as much as 10,000 Days or Watershed.