I think it's a tough question, but I'd rank them in this order:

 

Metallica > Megadeth > Slayer > Anthrax

 

Metallica, in my opinion, had the most consistently good thrash albums. Their first four were all excellent, and Death Magnetic is a great return to their roots.

 

Megadeth had two great thrash albums: Peace Sells and Rust In Peace. In my opinion, the latter of those two is probably the greatest thrash album ever recorded.

 

Slayer are alright, but I never really understood the hype, to be honest. Their lyrics verge on self-parody at times, and in terms of guitar and bass they're distinctly average in comparison to the above two bands. The best thing about them was Dave Lombardo, one of the best drummers ever, in my opinion.

 

Anthrax I never really got into. A few decent tracks here and there, but nothing genre-defining like the above three.

 

What are your thoughts?

Metallica for me, because i am most familar with them and listen to them much more than anyone else (thrash-wise).

 

Then proberly Anthrax, because basically i just think they are awesome.

 

 

I'll add a poll to this.

Slayer!!! Metallica is awesome though.

Metallica then Slayer. Not a fan of Anthrax and I can't stand Megadeth.

I have a feeling most people are gonna say Metallica.

I love them all equally, they all have at least 1 album that is totally mind blowing (those who say they haven't got into Anthrax have you heard the album Among The Living?). However the question is irrelevant because the best thrash album of the 80's by a mile is Testament's debut The Legacy :)

in terms of guitar they're distinctly average

lyrically i've always thought Slayer talked bollocks. However the guitar solos are twisted genius and easily stand out because of how unique they are. The guitar solo for Angel Of Death is one of the best of all time.

All a bit too heavy for me. Metallica are pretty good in parts though ^_^ . Megadeth/death- NO.

See, I can never really understand all the major hatred towards Megadeth.

 

There's three main reasons:

- Dislike of Dave Mustaine. I've always thought this was a petty reason, as by not listening to someones music just because you don't like them personally, you're only cheating yourself out of some great stuff. I think both Axl Rose and Bono are mental, but it doesn't stop me from listening to Guns N' Roses and U2.

- Metallica fanboyism. Again, like the above, liking Metallica should be no reason for hating Megadeth. I know the two groups have a bitter history, but you should treat them separately anyway.

- Dislike of Megadeth's music. This is a fair enough reason, obviously.

I'm a veteran of the "Thrash Wars", and was around when ALL of these bands were at their peaks....

 

I have to say, in terms of consistency, and the fact that they NEVER sold out their music or got involved p"ss-poor Hollywood movie soundtracks, I go for Slayer any day.... Even an average Slayer album can still beat most of the rest of the "Extreme" Metal crowd... All the other bands in the poll have suffered serious dips in the quality of their music at one stage or another, Slayer have pretty much always put out good albums.... Metallica have put out VERY poor albums in the 90s and early 00s, only now really reclaiming the ground they lost with the incredible return to form that is "Death Magenetic", Anthrax also suffered some pretty major dips as well, and also inconsistent line-up changes caused a lack of coherence as well, it literally got to the stage where no one knew if Joey Belladonna was coming or going....LOL.... Megadeth, after their first three great albums, started going downhill as well, especially in the 90s... Mustaine IS a brilliant guitarist, but an utterly p!ss-poor vocalist, and an utterly egotistical tw@t to boot..... A little arrogance is a good thing, but not when it affects the music, which it most certainly did with Megadeth, if Mustaine had not been the arch egotist that he is, he would've realised that he couldn't sing and got in someone who actually could, or at the very least someone who could sing for an entire gig without his voice going.... :lol:

 

So, yeah, Slayer, absolutely no question.....

Hmmm, debatable as to whether Slayer ever sold out. Didn't they go all nu-metal with a couple of albums in the early 00's? I may be wrong as I'm not a Slayer fan myself, but I often hear their fans go on about Slayer's 'nu-metal' phase.

 

As for Dave Mustaine being a poor vocalist...come on mate, this is thrash. Vocals are not where it's at. Plus, you named Slayer as your favourite thrash-metal band, but the vocals are largely your standard screaming fare. I don't know why you said only the first three Megadeth albums were good, as that's leaving out Rust In Peace, arguably their greatest material, and pure thrash from start to finish! You're right about Mustaine's arrogance affecting his music though; he had that endless quest to get a No. 1 album through the 90s, from the passable Countdown To Extinction through to the absolute travesty of an album that was Risk (Megadeth's St. Anger). Thankfully he's not anywhere near as arrogant as he once was now; in-fact he's very honest and candid now about how his ego got the better of the band in the 90s. United Abominations was a good album; it was no Death Magnetic in terms of returning to form, but it was a very solid record. Looking forward to their new album, although still think it's unlikely that they'll top Rust In Peace without Marty Friedman.

Hmmm, debatable as to whether Slayer ever sold out. Didn't they go all nu-metal with a couple of albums in the early 00's? I may be wrong as I'm not a Slayer fan myself, but I often hear their fans go on about Slayer's 'nu-metal' phase.

 

As for Dave Mustaine being a poor vocalist...come on mate, this is thrash. Vocals are not where it's at. Plus, you named Slayer as your favourite thrash-metal band, but the vocals are largely your standard screaming fare. I don't know why you said only the first three Megadeth albums were good, as that's leaving out Rust In Peace, arguably their greatest material, and pure thrash from start to finish! You're right about Mustaine's arrogance affecting his music though; he had that endless quest to get a No. 1 album through the 90s, from the passable Countdown To Extinction through to the absolute travesty of an album that was Risk (Megadeth's St. Anger). Thankfully he's not anywhere near as arrogant as he once was now; in-fact he's very honest and candid now about how his ego got the better of the band in the 90s. United Abominations was a good album; it was no Death Magnetic in terms of returning to form, but it was a very solid record. Looking forward to their new album, although still think it's unlikely that they'll top Rust In Peace without Marty Friedman.

 

Well, you see, you're right and you're wrong.... technical ability isn't where it's at, yes, but an actual ability to be able to go through an entire show without you're voice cracking up is kind of a plus, I've seen three Megadeth shows, and Mustaine always falters after about the 45 minutes.... Araya has a pretty astounding HOWL, whereas Mustaine just sounds rather limp and weedy.... Rust In Peace was, well, okay, but rather samey... I just felt that Megadeth were more expressive and daring on albums such as "Peace Sells..." and "So Far, So Good, So What" (leaving out the rather lame cover of "Anarchy in the UK" of course.. :lol: )... For a time, I did actually prefer Megadeth musically to the likes of Anthrax or Slayer, but I just felt as a band they somewhat lost the plot, and never really got it back... Sounds terrible to say, but Mustaine actually seemed to do his best work while addicted to smack...... :lol: :lol: And then Slayer released the gob-smacking "South of Heaven" album.....

 

Slayer doing "nu metal" was utter cr@p.... Dunno who the hell told you that..... There was certainly no "rapping" and no whiny songs about "oh, I'm so fukked up, my life is sh!t, I'm depressed, my girlfriend left me...." teen angst bollocks...... I would suggest anyone who describes albums such as "Diabolus in Musica", "Christ Illusion" and "God Hates Us All" as "nu metal" is frankly talking out of their fukkin' arseholes and knows nothing about Metal music at all beyond their own, incestuous, cliquey little sub-scene.... Would I be right in saying that it was probably some Norwegian Black Metal obsessive who told you this.....? For imbeciles like that, more than 200 people listening to a band is the band "selling out".... And they never really forgave the likes of In Flames, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquility and Dimmu Borgir for actually being a bit more ambitious with their music.....

...Oh hang on, I know what it was.... Certain, cretinous Slayer "fans" not forgiving the band for touring with Slipknot back in '05... Even though Slipknot had by this time grown out of the utter unlistenable, unmusical, tantrumy bollocks of the first album and were creating absolutely STUNNING contemporary Metal music rooted in the 80s Thrash/Extreme scenes, with the excellent "Subliminal Verses" album, certainly considerably MORE Mayhem/Morbid Angel/Testament than Limp Dick or Linkin Park.... Dont suppose it ever occurred to these utter cretins that when they toured with Slipknot, Slayer saw their younger fanbase get a huge boost when young 'Knot fans were coming up to me and my mates saying, "fukk, these guys are great.... Do you listen to them...? Do you know them...? What albums do I get of theirs.....?". Yeah, how DARE Slayer want to appeal to a younger audience..... Never mind the fact that when me and my friends started listening to them, WE were the same age as the Slipknot fans...... :rolleyes: DUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHH

I reckon this has to go to Metallica by a country mile. Those first four albums seal it for me. I only ever listened to Slayer during their Reign In Blood/South of Heaven period which was awesome but they sound too samey to me. Metallica did actually evolve (even though it was probably better that they didn't)

 

Anthrax were much better than either Slayer or Megadeth, and released great stuff on Among the Living, State of Euphoria and Persistence of Time. They also did my favourite Smiths cover, an awesome cover of London that was on the HyProGlo single. Megadeth did one good album and a smattering of other decent songs.

 

What really seals this though are my memories of Cliff windmilling on stage at Hammersmith in 1986 about 2 weeks before he died. And Anthrax supported as well.

 

So...

 

Metallica>Anthrax>Slayer>Megadeth

 

I preferred Exodus to Megadeth anyway.

To be honest I only have albums from Metallica and Slayer out of the options.. So I'll reserve my vote untill I listen decently enough to the two. As commercial as this may sound but Metallica are really THE legends of this genre and their fanbases, sales etc all prove this. Unless a bunch of other decent bands were unfairly overlooked because of all the Metallica hype over the years. .

I reckon this has to go to Metallica by a country mile. Those first four albums seal it for me. I only ever listened to Slayer during their Reign In Blood/South of Heaven period which was awesome but they sound too samey to me. Metallica did actually evolve (even though it was probably better that they didn't)

 

Metallica did too much chaff in the 90s and early 00s (Load, Reload and St Anger are sh!t albums, there's no getting away from it, and S&M was rather over-indulgent...) for me to say that they're the best overall of the "Big 4", consistency and coherence of artistic vision is important.... But if the question had been asked in '88 or '90, then it would be a different story.....

 

Anthrax did a few great albums, but again, the consistency is the problem, the stuff they did in the 90s is not that great, same for Megadeth; the likes of Fear Factory, Sepultura and Tool really almost did for them, coming up with far more edgy and heavy material....

 

It's really only Slayer who kept on producing the goods time after time, so that's why they got my vote.....

 

Exodus and Testament did great albums too, it's rather easy to forget them.....

 

Unless a bunch of other decent bands were unfairly overlooked because of all the Metallica hype over the years. .

 

There were certainly a few unfairly overlooked - John will back me up with Testament... Exodus has already been mentioned.... In the 90s you had the likes of Tool, Machine Head, Sepultura, Fear Factory and others... Not forgetting the Scandinavians of course - Emperor, Bathory, Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Dark Throne, Gorgoroth, In Flames, Arch Enemy, etc.....

 

There were certainly a few unfairly overlooked - John will back me up with Testament... Exodus has already been mentioned....

 

Not forgetting the Scandinavians of course - Morbid Angel,

Indeed Testament and Exodus are a few names to mention, along with Dark Angel, Vio-lence, Overkill, Forbidden, Nuclear Assault, S.O.D, Sodom, etc etc

 

Morbid Angel aren't Scandinavian... they're from Florida