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Who is the best out of the big 4 ???


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On 7/1/2011 at 0:25 PM, The Metal Advisor said:

In the grand scheme of things, there is way better thrash outside of the "big four." "

And how!  Testament, Kreator, pre MTV Savatage, Nasty Savage, Armoured Saint, Grim Reaper, Mr.Slate, . The list could go on and on of better thrash outside the mainstream distribution four.

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Hmm.... this is a tough one..... ive been a big fan of 3 of these guys.  I honestly am having a hard time making a decision. i really love anthrax but they aint what they used to be...and megadeth is in last place of the 4 for me....so lets see mettalica or slayer. both have been around awhile...and have seen there ups and downs. Hmm. ill have to hand this one to...........SLAYER!

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  • 1 month later...

Hello... I love all four of them, but if I had to make a chart of their latest records, here is what it would look like:

1) Megadeth - "Dystopia"

2) Anthrax - "For All Kings"

3) Metallica - "Hardwired... to Selfdestruct"

4) Slayer - "Repentless"

 

If I had to pick a single song, though, it would be Metallica's "Spit Out the Bone"! That was downright AWESOME.

Testament's last record was extremely solid too, but I think it's not as organic as those from the big 4.

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This is a good example of how tastes differ (and this is not a negative post), but Anthrax through Slayer on that list are none of my business.  I haven't had time for any full length from Slayer since "Seasons..." and just about can get through the Black album by Metallica but anything afterwards is just nonsense to my ears.  "For All Kings" is receiving a lot of good words on a couple of forums I frequent but I just think it is very weak and tired sounding.

Props for finding the music/sounds you like though.

Megadeth's latest was great I thought, I really enjoyed it and although it wouldn't set the world on fire for me it most certainly is one of their stronger releases in a good number of years.

Are you a fan of any of the above's earlier outputs?

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I haven't the time to read through this whole thread right now, so I hope I haven't already posted, especially if I contradict myself.

The big 4: Metallica (Who, as far as I'm concerned, may as well have broken up after Justice), I love their song structures. Megadeth, as Mustain can write better riffs than any other guitarist in the 4. Slayer, great early work but they stagnated fairly quickly. Anthrax, I just never got into them that much, but they do have a great song here and there.

But, the big 4 is the big 4 of sales, commercial appeal and accessibility. As far as talent goes, any of the following three albums top anything by the big 4 for me: Dark Angel - Darkness Descends, Onslaught - Power from Hell, & Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death. Just my opinion. 

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I absolutely see your point.

To answer your question, I tell you which records of which band I own and which I prefere:

Anthrax: I have every record except two ("Stomp 442" and "Volume something the threat is something else"). My fave is "Among the Living". About "For All Kings": I think it has some great SONGS in it. Not some great riffs (same chromatic stuff we've heard a milion times), not some great solos (this Shadow Fall dude does not impress me at all and I've seen them play with this guy last summer in Rome... Belladonna pokes fun at him all the time and believe me, not in a respectful way! You can tell he doesn't belong to Anthrax). Having said that, the damn songs and melodies, to me, are great! I love "Monster" above the rest.

Slayer: I have every single record they ever put out, but my favourite are the first 5 (like you said). I deeply dislike "Diabolus" and "God Hates Us All", though I still won't sell my copies. "Repentless" to my ears obviously misses Jeff's contribution (save for "Piano Wire") and most of all Dave Lombardo's style! I love Paul Bostaph, but I'd rather have him play again in Forbidden, than in Slayer... I also love Gary and I look forward to hearing him compose some songs for Slayer on their next record. Kerry King is someone I have a lot of respect for, and I overall enjoyed "Repentless", but I still feel it's the weakest of the latest Big4 records, simply because the aggresion is there, but not so much the songs (at least to my ears).

Megadeth: I have their records from the first to "Countdown" and then not a single one up until "Dystopia". To be honest I don't like "Countdown"... I consider it to be watered down. So much so that I never bothered to listen to "Youthanasia" and the rest of their 90's records. But "Peace Sells" and "Rust" are among my favourite records ever. When I first heard "Fatal Illusion" my thought was: "Goddamn, this is like "Peace Sells... on Amazon"! It's like proper thrash doesn't stray from its roots, but still manages to feel contemporary! Here and now, in 2016!". And that Kiko dude just shreds like hell! I am so glad he joined Dave. Saw them play last june in Bologna: amazing show!

Metallica: from "No Life til Leather" (yes, I bought the record store day reissued tape... no, I wasn't around in 1982) up until the "Black Album" and then not a single one up until "Hardwired". I dislike the black album too, to be honest... I have it because there are some songs I sort of enjoy, but conceptually I hate it. And I am not too fond of "And Justice", save for a few tracks... but man their first three records were phenomenal! Genius! I was not impressed by "Death Magnetic", so I did not buy it, but this "Hardwired" thing, to me, has some amazing songs: the title track, "Moth" (though one riff is very much akin to Testament's "Alone in the Dark"), "Atlas Rise" and most of all "Spit out the bone!"

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There's a huge amount of "lost" years for me with regards to all four of them.  Parker's point withstanding (those are some quality releases sir) you'll be hard pushed to find a band better than Metallica for a golden run akin to the evolving output from "Kill em All " through "And Justice For All...".  Few bands have shown so obvious maturity within a lifetime of releases let alone short of a decade.  Slayer, were a bit more hit and miss until "Reign.." and "South of Heaven" for me and despite my love for "Seasons.." a lot of it is for the nostalgia of where I was at the time of listening to that record as opposed to any inclination I may have the quality on display either in terms of structure or ability.

Anthrax are again guilty of the AWOL syndrome but "Among The Living" is probably also my favourite of theirs along with "Persistence of Time" in second place (although I picked it up recently and it hasn't aged as well as I had hoped).  I have never really bothered or been moved to buy anything else of theirs.

Megadeth are probably the most guilty of any of the above for "lost years".  Personally, I don't get the hype of "Rust..." it just seems blunted and dull to deserve anywhere near the amount of accolades it receives in my ears.  I actually enjoy "Countdown..." more however as far as I am concerned they split up then until last year.  Although "Endgame" did entertain me somewhat and gets the occasional play still nowadays.

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1 hour ago, Parker said:

But, the big 4 is the big 4 of sales, commercial appeal and accessibility. As far as talent goes, any of the following three albums top anything by the big 4 for me: Dark Angel - Darkness Descends, Onslaught - Power from Hell, & Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death. Just my opinion. 

I absolutely love those three records you mentioned... BUT...

1) Darkness Descends: incredible aggression! Brutal thrash, with some insane drumbeats by Gene Hoglan... yet it is let down by the production. What Rick Rubin understood then better than everyone else was... that if you're playing tremolo picked riffs and you have 200+ snare hits per minute, you HAVE TO GET RID OF REVERB! That's the main reason why a record like "Darnkess Descends" which was released mere months after "Reign In Blood" sounds so low-fi compared to "Reign in Blood". Also, Don Doty was no Tom Araya. He did sound wicked, he did not sound menacing (not that Tom actually is, but he sounded such).

 

2) Power from Hell: that's the perfect blend of GBH and Venom... it's almost thrash, but it's kinda like crust punk too! I l absolutely love that album, especially the title track, but I consider it extremely primitive.

 

3) Spectrum of Death: a flawless record that ranks up there with Darnkess Descends and Pleasure To Kill, but unfortunately it came out too late... And also with inferior production values... No doubt it should have deserved more, but this band was no pioneer in the genre. They were extremely fine at what they were doing, but didn't invent much... whereas each and every one of the big four brought something peculiar to the table, IMHO.

 

As for the eternal argument "why are Anthrax there instead of Exodus/Testament/Overkill"? That's an easy one: they put out their first record before any of them (though Exodus and Overkill had been around longer) and sold considerably more records!

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5 hours ago, Will said:

Dude, I can't believe you would even say that. Megadeth. Always Megadeth.

Megadeth would be a close second for me followed by Anthrax and then Metallica. If Metallica had not.. done whatever the hell St. Anger was.. then that list would be different but St. Anger was an unforgivable album. 

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yeah....Metallica dropped out of Big 4 status after ...And Justice....replaced by a flood of other awesome!!

at the time though, I would have done:

1. Anthrax

2. Slayer

3. Megadeth

4. Metallica

I am probably in the minority, but I always loved Anthrax's vibe..the whole thumbing their nose at "leather metal", and their punk/street/skate/NY thing. They were nerds of a sort...and so am/was I.  I got into them via listening to Suicidal, DRI, Agnostic Front and other hardcore stuff....

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14 minutes ago, xUpTheIronsx said:

yeah....Metallica dropped out of Big 4 status after ...And Justice....replaced by a flood of other awesome!!

at the time though, I would have done:

1. Anthrax

2. Slayer

3. Megadeth

4. Metallica

I am probably in the minority, but I always loved Anthrax's vibe..the whole thumbing their nose at "leather metal", and their punk/street/skate/NY thing. They were nerds of a sort...and so am/was I.  I got into them via listening to Suicidal, DRI, Agnostic Front and other hardcore stuff....

Punk was my first love. I always have favored slayer for their aggression in that respect. 

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2 hours ago, Ikard said:

Punk was my first love. I always have favored slayer for their aggression in that respect. 

yep. Slayer does not deny their punk influences...especially earlier on. 

21 minutes ago, deathstorm said:

I gotta say all of 4 of them I like them I gotta say death angel should on there 

agree with the Death Angel..and possibly Metal Church?

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Megadeth would be a close second for me followed by Anthrax and then Metallica. If Metallica had not.. done whatever the hell St. Anger was.. then that list would be different but St. Anger was an unforgivable album. 
If we judged all of the Big 4 based on their failures, none of them would be worthy.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

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I judge more on their peaks and quantity of good material rather than how bad the bad stuff is. There's not much point in comparing Risk and St. Anger to see which one I'm going to not play harder. Makes more sense to me to compare the stuff I'm actually going to listen to.

It's not really like a band wrongs me when they make a bad album. I just won't buy it.

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I judge more on their peaks and quantity of good material rather than how bad the bad stuff is. There's not much point in comparing Risk and St. Anger to see which one I'm going to not play harder. Makes more sense to me to compare the stuff I'm actually going to listen to.
It's not really like a band wrongs me when they make a bad album. I just won't buy it.
Exactly.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

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