Metal Reviews

Well, '86 was an excellent year for thrash. Many bands released what is considered among their best if not the best albums during this year. Megadeth, Kreator, Metallica, etc. My pick for the best thrash album would be Kreator's Pleasure To Kill. I could make this a poll, but realize there would be a good chance I would miss out some gems. So, what do you'all think is the best '86 thrash album?

Dark Angel-Darkness Descends
Kreator-Pleasure to Kill
Sadus-Death to posers

I know everybody is going to make fun of me, but my choice is Master of Puppets. That's the album that got me into metal and one that I never get tired to listen.

I second that. Not that Reign in Blood, Darkness Descends, Pleasure to Kill, Rust in Peace, Eternal Devastation, The Force, etc. aren't awesome albums. I just like MoP more than all of those.

Thirded. Sorry, but an album that I played until the tape broke when I was 13 is going to beat out anything else regardless of perceived artistic merit.

1. Metallica - Master of Puppets
2. Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver
3. Nuclear Assault - Game Over
4. Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
5. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill

I'm tempted to make fun of you . But on a more serious note, I think a lot of it has to do with timing. As you mentioned, that is the album that got you into metal. By the time I listened to MOP, I had already listened to other thrash albums that I consider better. Maybe if MOP was the first metal album I'd listened to, I would've felt the same. It's like how Iron Maiden's Fear Of The Dark got me into metal. I will always have a special place for that album and I love it as much as I did back then. A lot of people consider it to be among Maiden's worst or maybe even their worst. You will also find people who were listening to metal at the time MOP was released pick it as the best because few accessible metal albums were like it at that time.

MoP is not the first thash album I listened to (far from it actually) and I still consider it to be one of the best things to have come out of that particular scene. Actually, if you asked me about my 5 all-time favorite thrash albums, it'd probably be in it.
Maybe younger people, those who didn't live the days we're talking about, expect too much from MoP. Hence the (relative) disappointement some seem to display. Still, this was and still is an important album and a landmark in Metal music history.

There can be only one!


Pleasure To Kill of course.

I was One at the time, but you make a great point anyway. If I had heard it in 2004 I don't know...Then again, I didn't buy Justice until I was 19 and think it is better.

I was 15 at the time and had been in metal and hard rock for 7 years, this music wasn't new to me. Actually, I must have had about 500 vinyls at that time and numerous tapes I used to trade with various friends...
Contrary to what Thy Serpent thinks, we were pretty up-to-date with obscure releases via tape-trading and independant record stores. Of course, things are a lot more easier nowadays and I'm consistently amazed at the musical knowledge youngsters possess but - we who had to fight to get new music - know how rewarding it was when you finally managed to grab this or that album you were so eager to listen to.
Ha, those were the days...

Yes they were. I used to be a real purist with no reliable internet who visited a local record store and bought the majority of the obscure stuff while I could that I could find. f I couldn't get the real CD the owner would give me the promo. I went through all of them for a few years.

I too feel like the people that learned everything from the net cheated in some way. They never had to worry about physically finding the copies to listen to like the old way of getting into new stuff.

Again my attitude is...IDK, some people my age know very little about everything or know everything about a handful of very specific things. I used to be like the former, but Ive realized that for me being almost obsessive about something very specific and putting it under a microscope inspires something profound that you just don't get otherwise.

That is the catch 22. You can't be extremely specialized dealing locally with limited access to material, but all access to everything all the time... It just surprises me anyone puts up with anything "new" that doesn't absolutely knock them out all things considered. When it isn't an option and you take what you can get it's different.

I think a lot of people got into Metallica because it had a lot of crossover appeal within Metal and it was easy to find. I don't think anything is easy to find anymore in a brick and mortar anymore.

Darkness Descends. No one has mentioned Peace Sells? MoP is good but RtL always topped it for me.

Rrröööaaarrr!

I don't think it's necessarily an age thing. I think it depends on the brand of thrash you found/find yourself enjoying. I was only 1 years old when these albums were released, but even when talking to older metalheads in their 30s and 40s I've known quite a few who were disappointed with MoP when it came out or weren't Metallica fans at all and favoured the more aggressive thrash coming out at the time. Also, considering the number of young people who worship MoP today and the number of older metalheads who didn't like Metallica back in the day...I think the trade off is even enough.

That is my stance as well. I was never a big Metallica fan. Listening to it alongside Show No Mercy, it was obvious even back then when I was first getting into thrash that the tamer brand of thrash Metallica played was not for me when I compared it with Slayer.

Anyways, my picks are:

Pleasure to Kill

Eternal Devastation

Obsessed by Cruelty

Peace Sells is the worst of the pack of 86.

Master of puppets is incredibly overrated, and doesn't fair well against any of the Teutonic releases or even Peace sells for that matter. Why the Metallica camp felt so many acoustic breaks, shitty pseudo-thrash songs, and pretentious song lengths were novel ideas is beyond me. Its an ok album at best but is nowhere near as good as Ride the lightning.

The acoustic breaks is one of the things that I like more from MoP. I couldn't care less if metal elitists thinks it's overrated or shitty. The songwriting is better than all the german thrashers. MoP is more complex, more melodic, than the in-your-face, more primitive and agressive teutonic movement. I feel the same way in Black Metal, while I enjoy Darkthrone, Mayhem and all the norwegian sound in general, I would choose anytime Drudkh or Wolves in the Throne Room or Negura Bunget over them. Most people disregard Metallica because they've been releasing shit since ...And Justice of All and because they are famous. I wonder if they would've been receiving the same treatment nowadays if they'd disbanded after the demise of Cliff...
Both RtL and MoP have a very special site in my collection, and I will love those albums until the day I die.

What about Slayer - Reign in Blood?!

But I would choose also Master of Puppets, because it is the best album - not only in thrash, but in all metal.

Spot on Alexander! There's indeed a lot of elitism in the way some people diss Metallica.
I do believe the lads should have changed name after Cliff's death, What he brought to the band (all the 70's space and progressive rock) was what lead to the songwriting witnessed on Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets. The only problem with RtL is it has a really shitty song where MoP is flawless.