10 Best Thrash Metal Albums Of The 21st Century
6. Evile – Enter The Grave (2007)
A great many of the albums on this list make the cut because they attempt to take the thrash stylings of the mid-to-late 1980s and push them forward, either through added brutality, melody, eclecticism or experimentalism. Enter the Grave – the debut album from those loveable scallywags Evile – appears here for the total opposite reason.
On their first full-length venture, Evile go above and beyond to recapture the gritty sound of speed metal in its ‘80s heyday. For a start, Enter the Grave was recorded at the Sweet Silence studio in Denmark with producer Flemming Rasmussen: the same combo behind Metallica’s Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.
The similarities only continue once the album worms its way into your record player. From the second its title track begins proceedings, Enter the Grave quickly cements itself as a disc heavily inspired by the undying guitar-work and manic pace of early Slayer and Exodus. The primal yells of frontman Matt Drake channel Tom Araya, while he and brother Ol Drake lay out a massive selection of pummelling, rhythmic riffs, reliant upon open E-string chugging but awesome enough to stop you from caring.
Chuck in massive gang vocals, simplistic choruses and a healthy dose of soloing and you have a recipe for a big, meaty slab of pure, traditional thrash.