10 Awesome Thrash Metal Bands With One Terrible Album

Despite setting the world of heavy metal on fire like never before in the '80s, thrash metal was often dismissed as just plain noise. The relentless guitar riffs, shredding, hyperactive drums and general fast tempo rage made it a smash hit with headbangers looking to have a rough time in the mosh pit.

Blending old school heavy metal, particularly the British wave, with hardcore punk, the sub-genre blossomed out of California's Bay Area. Spreading like wildfire, it eventually established scenes in Germany and Brazil as well. In amongst all the bloodthirsty, ultra-aggressive mayhem, certain groups managed to establish a commendable outpouring of audio art.

Many will point to the United States' Big Four as supreme examples of carrying thrash to a higher level. The Teutonic Big Four would also fall under this umbrella and there's a nice set of cult favourites to further pad out this category of elite thrash ferocity.

As the '90s rolled in and thrash suffered from a seemingly terminal case of declining interest, groups often experimented in blending thrash with other styles.

Needless to say, many of these cracks at jazzing things up didn't quite go according to plan...

After immensely heavy efforts like 'Alice in Hell' and 'Never, Neverland' early on, the Canadian thrash favourites wound down a tad as the '90s rolled on.

By 1997's 'Remains', not only was Annihilator struggling to remain true to thrash stylings, it was struggling to exist at all. Endless line-up changes were frequently chopping up the sounds and consistency of the group.

Founder and frontman John Waters, an icon of the scene, wound up doing almost everything himself for this troublesome sixth album. With other band members out of the picture due to a litany of personal and professional issues, Waters was stretched far too thin over an ambitious LP that falls short of prior efforts.

The biggest issue here is the use of a drum machine. Stripping the music of any organic beats, the sterile, dreary drums weigh down each track in monotony. Tracks like 'Sexecution' and 'Murder' find clunky attempts at living up to the edgier side of the group's more acclaimed earlier efforts. Ultimately, they don't work and instead come across as trying much too hard whilst contradicting themselves with industrial-inspired sounds that go against the group's thrashing strengths.

Waters wound up avoiding leading vocalist duties for almost 20 years after this one. His crack at being an (almost) one man show ultimately proved to be too much to handle.