The Best Thrash Metal Albums of the '80s

Rick Rubin produced it and Def Jam's distributor balked at the lyrics, so Geffen ended up getting it into shops. Angel of Death opens on Araya's scream and then Dave Lombardo plays the rest like a man trying to finish before anyone can stop him. Twenty-nine minutes originally, ten songs; Spotify's edition runs to twelve.

Cut at Sweet Silence in Copenhagen with Flemming Rasmussen at the desk, and the last Metallica record Cliff Burton played on. Orion is the argument for the whole thing: an eight-minute instrumental that stops dead in the middle so Burton's bass can carry the melody, clean and harmonised, before the riffing comes back. Eight songs, fifty-five minutes, nothing wasted.

Dave Mustaine still holds co-writing credits here, on the title track and on The Call of Ktulu, two years after being thrown out of the band. Fade to Black starts on an acoustic arpeggio and finishes on the most-copied outro solo in metal, which is why every thrash band afterwards felt licensed to write a ballad. Same Copenhagen studio as its follow-up.

Mustaine cut it for Combat with Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson, jazz-schooled players who swing where thrash normally stomps, and Capitol reissued it within months. David Ellefson's bass figure opening Peace Sells became the MTV News sting. Spotify carries no un-remastered edition, so the twelve-track Expanded Edition is the closest thing, and it prints the title with no space after the ellipsis.

Eddie Kramer produced this one, the engineer who worked on Hendrix records, and the sleeve carries a dedication to Cliff Burton. Indians spends four minutes as a decent gallop and then drops into the war-dance breakdown that made pit floors dangerous for half a decade. Scott Ian's downstroke rhythm playing is the engine; Joey Belladonna sings over it like he is fronting a different band.

Noise Records put it out with Mille Petrozza and drummer Ventor splitting the vocals, one rasping and one shrieking. Ripping Corpse is faster than anything the Bay Area was attempting that year, and an American death metal band later took its name from the song. Border case: this is where thrash starts turning into death metal. Spotify's edition runs twelve tracks against the original nine.

Recorded in 1984 and then stranded by label trouble until April 1985, by which point it sounded a year behind itself through no fault of its own. Kirk Hammett wrote riffs in this band before Metallica took him. A Lesson in Violence is Paul Baloff at his most unhinged, Tom Hunting's snare shoving the tempo, and it was nearly the album's title.

Megaforce, Jonny Zazula's label, funded it when no major would, and the band's preferred title of Metal Up Your Ass was refused by distributors. Whiplash explains the next ten years on its own: a downpicked verse riff at a tempo nobody else was playing, with Lars Ulrich audibly hanging on. Ten tracks, and Mustaine's writing is all over it.

Alex Perialas produced it at Pyramid Sound in Ithaca, New York, and the band had just swapped singers — Steve Souza left for Exodus and Chuck Billy took the microphone. Over the Wall opens with a neoclassical run from Alex Skolnick that no other Bay Area guitarist could have executed, then the band piles in behind him. They were called Legacy first, hence the title.

Deliberately slowing down was a peculiar move for the band that had just made the fastest record in metal, but Rubin backed the idea and they were right. South of Heaven opens on a clean tremolo figure and a half-time crawl, with Araya singing rather than barking. Ten tracks, and Jeff Hanneman's guitar tone is filthier here than on the album before.

Combat Records, seven songs, and Gene Hoglan behind the kit for the first time with this band, which is where the Atomic Clock nickname starts. Merciless Death is faster than Reign in Blood and considerably less controlled, riffs stacking up with no obvious regard for whether a drummer could land them. He lands them, every time, for thirty-four minutes.

Frank Blackfire joining on guitar is what turned Sodom from a racket into a band, and this is the first album with him, produced by Harris Johns. Nuclear Winter opens the record with a riff that actually resolves, which nothing on Obsessed by Cruelty managed. Border case: the German take on thrash keeps one boot in black metal. Spotify's edition runs thirteen tracks.

Quebec's contribution, and the strangest thing here: Piggy D'Amour voiced chords no other thrash guitarist was reaching for, tritones and suspensions where the fifth should sit. Mechanic and MCA released it with Glen Robinson producing. Astronomy Domine turns a Syd Barrett song inside out and became the band's calling card. Border case — by 1989 this is post-thrash, and better for it.

Three men and no second guitarist: Schmier on bass and vocals, Mike Sifringer on guitar, Tommy Sandmann on drums, cutting eight songs for Steamhammer. Bestial Invasion is the template the rest of the German scene copied, a riff that changes shape every eight bars under a vocal that sounds like it hurts. Rougher than Kreator, and it arrived first.

Terry Date produced this before he became the man labels called for Pantera and Soundgarden, and it is the best-sounding thrash record of the decade by some distance. Elimination is Bobby Blitz shrieking over D.D. Verni's bass, which sits high in the mix where a guitar would normally be. Nine tracks from New Jersey, and the title cut is closer to doom.