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It's a miracle she didn't trip and fall down the stairs on account of all the dolls. Seriously, someone needs to teach Alice how to clean up after herself. Not to mention she is a little old for the dolls at this point. Good album for the era, but the parenting here gets a 4/10.

Emma Ruth Rundle/Engine of Hell Gates of Slumber/Hymns of Blood and Thunder Motorhead/Bastards

Forbidden Evil was already a great first album, but I am literally in love with this one. Forbidden - Forbidden Evil (1988) Flotsam and Jetsam - No Place for Disgrace (1988)

Finding this album to be a good listen so far.

"Alice! Go to your room! And put those dolls away, we're going to break our backs if we want to climb upstairs!"

Entombed - Clandestine D.O.A. - Something Better Change

After the letdown of Inter Arma not showing up to Desertfest on Saturday, I went on Sunday instead. The first band I saw after picking up my wristband at The Roundhouse was some flute-fronted retro band called Blood Ceremony (you would have assumed brutal death metal, you'd have been very wrong). The crowd was pretty big, it was only 3pm, but didn't exactly ignite. Not for me, so left early to walk the full length of Camden to get to the Underworld for 4pm. I have been wanting to see Weedpecker for a few years. From my bandcamp history it looks like I found out about them when the 3rd album came out, but I bought and listened to them in order from the first album. Now on their 4th release, they were fantastic live. Tearing up an Underworld that was PACKED. I have never seen it so full and it took a full 15 minutes just to get out again afterwards. Can only describe Weedpecker as good old fashioned hard rock. It's not retro in my opinion, despite the organ and hippy looking bass/guitar players. Timeless/gimmickless rock not trying to be anything else. King Buffalo, my main draw for the day, were playing back at The Roundhouse, a much more stately venue. I stopped off at Camden market for a dirty vegan burger (£10.50). Since Underworld had been so full I was genuinely worried The Roundhouse may be at capacity and only letting one-in-one-out. I gave myself half an hour to wait in line just in case this were so....but it was practically empty when I got there so I swanned in and went straight to the front barrier to wait. Not before buying a drink. They had a non-alc beer I'd only just discovered the previous weekend. 330mL Free Dam can. £5.50! It's a shame one can't put numbers in CAPITALS to emphasis the point. 330mL is roughly half a pint, which would make it twice as expensive as ordinary tap beer. Ludicrous. Anyhow. Worth it to see King Buffalo from the front row. King Buffalo is kind of a one trick pony...but the trick they do, they do it so well. Practically every song starts with a simple guitar riff which gets built up with a looper pedal until bass/drums come in with the money shot. There are a few keys (some of which operated from foot controllers) but mostly its the three piece + layers from loops. Interestingly, they must have played most of The Burden of Restlessness, even though it is not the latest album they are touring to support. It's because it's just a better album. So, despite every song sounding practically the same, I love these guys. They're like the AC/DC of "psychedelic trio[s] in the classic format, whose expansive and thunderous music is a powerful concoction of heavy psych, blues, and stoner rock. Texturally rich and oozing with psychedelic goodness, yet honed and driving in the next blink of an eye. " After they'd finished I bought another single 330mL beer (£5.50, it hadn't gotten cheaper) and hung out with a kiwi buddy I used to work with. The night before he'd become best friends on a bender with some local guys. They were munted, but I really enjoyed talking to them. In fact it might be the first time I have gone to a gig stone cold sober and actually interacted with the assembled buffoonery, being the total snob that I am. All were keen to convey just how shit they felt but were soldiering on. So hilarious to me, but I hope to see them again. There is Enslaved and Marduk at Incineration fest next weekend. I'm not sure if I can drag myself to that, but I may check if there are any tickets left and leave it to fate. I bought a King Buffalo t-shirt (£25) just before heading inside to see Boris. It was LOUD, but with silicon stuffed in my ears quite manageable. You'll never get me Boris! In truth I only stuck around for a few songs. It was pretty rocky stuff and considerably more energetic than what I'd seen so far but, not for me. Crowd was packed though, so what do I know. I have no idea who headliners Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are, so I caught the train home. Oh, BTW, I did see the bejewelled hat put on Charles' head on Saturday. It was fascinating to see them roll out all these stolen artefacts that the anointed has to touch before being proclaimed King by a bunch of old men in dresses. You could not make it up. Yay for constitutional monarchy, boo for hereditary wealth.

Interesting list of bands you've compiled there my friend. I think your claim that Alice in Hell is on a similar level of commerciality as all those bands you listed's albums from that '88 - '90 time period is completely disingenuous. A small handfull of those bands I'd agree had gone shamelessly and overtly commercial by that point but not most of them, at least they hadn't taken things nearly as far in that direction as Annihilator had. It is true I had stopped buying albums from the majority of those bands by 1990 (several of them I had given up on well before 1990) because I felt their [at the time] newer material just wasn't up to par with their earlier stuff. (except for Armored Saint, I've never owned anything of theirs) I can't help but shake my head when I hear people call out Seasons as their favorite Slayer album or Persistence as their favorite Anthrax disc or Justice (or TBA) as their top Metallica choice, because all of those abums are a long way from the best those bands have to offer. But still imo none of those bands (except possibly Helloween) had dropped anything by 1990 that was even remotely on a similarly egregious level of commerciality with Alice in Hell. To my ears, I do think AiH has a lot more in common with bands like Skid Row and Motley Crue than they ever did with Slayer Overkill or Exodus. I'll leave Aerosmith out of this comparison though since no one has ever tried to represent them as a metal band. And while we all know my tastes are generally skewed heavily toward the br00tal, I do also enjoy music that's 'softer' and much more commercial than even Annihilator, e.g. I love Alice in Chains and Monster Magnet. My issue here is simply that I want thrash to be thrash. I'm an old school purist. If you wanna talk about the state of thrash in 1989 then go listen to Alice in Hell and Years of Decay and Beneath the Remains back to back to back and then tell me they're all 3 the same sub-genre. One of these things is clearly not like the other two. If I'm in the mood for something catchy and commercial then I can go dig out my old White Zombie, STP and Puddle of Mudd records. Maybe one day I'll even throw on Appetite for Destruction for old time's sake and take a spin across the dance floor with Mr. Brownstone. But when I buy a thrash album I expect it to fucking thrash. To wreck my neck as they say. I understand the masses may feel quite differently, at least judging by all the generally positive responses I've seen here for Alice in Hell. But thrash and commerciality just don't mix well together imho. Just like black and death metal don't mix well with commerciality either. Extreme metal should be extreme while commercial metal can be whatever those dudes want it to be. I guess I want bands to stay in their lane. An unreasonable and narrow-minded expectation maybe, but that's how I feel. This is of course just my personal opinion, and I'm only trying to contribute to the group discussion. I get that many of you don't have any interest in talking about a lot of the stuff I might typically listen to because it's not anything you'd want to listen to. Fair enough. So that means I often find myself having to talk about whatever gets posted. I could be wrong, but sometimes I think the dissenting opinion can add value to a discussion. But believe me, I'm not trying to talk you or anyone else out of digging AiH if that's something you're into. I think it should go without saying that all y'all should always keep listening to whatever it may be that floats each of your boats.

I've seen Enslaved at my local bar a few years ago. It was fun. £66.60 is just a bit steep for the festival ticket (one day only) when you only want to see a couple of bands and none that I desperately want to ticket off bucket list. I may have seen Marduk, I really can't remember. I was big into World Funeral and likely seen them on that tour. If Akercocke were playing (since they're local and just need to roll out of bed for it) I'd go in a heart beat, but alas.

Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

Had to look it up. Now I have to deduct another parenting point, 3/10.

Need a pallet cleanser. Modern lycanthropic thrash metal will do the trick. (Yes, its a sub genre!) Blessed Curse - S/T

😑

I think so too. However, I listen to a lot of different albums trying to vary but for the last 2 days, if there is one album that I listen to at least once, it's Hammerhedd's. And now, while I'm writing, I just want to listen to it again.

Dark Angel - Leave Scars Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal

It's not that commercial, I mean this is the year big selling metal/hard rock artists were Skid Row, Motley Crue and Aerosmith. And it's also not that much more commercial than albums released in same period (1988-90) by Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, Overkill, Exodus, Testament, Suicidal Tendencies, Metal Church, Candlemass, Kreator, Armoured Saint, Candlemass, Flotsam and Jetsam, Helloween, Death Angel, Metallica, Forbidden, Artillery, etc etc let alone Iron Maiden and Judas Priest which were far more commercial. Fair enough it doesn't rock your boat and it's certainly not as extreme as Sodom or early Kreator, Exodus or Dark Angel.

A bit brutal guys but c'est la vie. For me this is an easy 4/5 or 8/10 album. One of my favourite thrash albums. I don't get the diversity comment - song writing's quite varied and memorable especially compared to most thrash metal albums.

I give it 6/10 just for the cover. It makes a great jigsaw too!

Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet (2014)

Aosoth - The Inside Scriptures (2017)

That is six pounds sterling. Which is at least 10 kangaroo pelts. The latest vegan burgers (like Beyond Meat) are indistinguishable in taste and texture from minced beef. No one here will believe me of course and it's a tiring conversation to have, but that is my observation as someone who was a big fan of burgers. Same with cheese. It's at least as edible as that horrific shit they eat in America or those Dairy Lea slices I remember from childhood. There is now a massive market in all these meat analogs, although most of it is shit processed food. As people continue to get fat and unhealthy, they'll say "you see, vegan food is making us all ill!" It's almost an impossible sell because in truth it takes quite a lot of effort to eat properly in the modern world. Most people are really lazy.

Boo for the monarchy too I say, stoner rock ain’t my jam, and six bucks for beer is kinda cheap, but a can? I dunno. Also had a vegan burger once, was left thinking I could make better without trying, and failing, to imitate the flavour of meat and cheese, glad you had fun though. NP: Immortal - At the Heart of Winter

Cave In - Heavy Pendulum -probably my favourite album of 2022 despite not being very representative of my usual taste in metal. Pantera - Far Beyond Driven

This is the Mars Volta's debut album in 2003. This is a pretty solid album all the way through. Inertactic Esp is insane, and Roulette Dares is one of my all time favourite songs. Drunkenship of Lanterns also vibes. But, it's so chaotic, it's sometimes a bit hard to listen to. Of course, that's their style, but it's a bit insane. Props for the cool packaging, though! Also, the deep theme of the concept album is pretty cool as well. It's about their friend and past band member who committed suicide. 7/10

Thrash is supposed to be extreme metal, no? This shit is extremely commercial. Appalingly so. In my mind if you water thrash down this much it ceases to be thrash anymore. To borrow some words from Twisted Sister, I'm gonna call this worthless and weak: 4/10. Which is about as high as I can go with anything this overtly commercial, and that's because I recognize they are at least skilled and competent musicians even if they're operating well outside of my sub-genre prefrences. Like the OP dude said, if I'm into more hardcore kinds of metal this shit ain't gonna be for me.