Forbidden - Forbidden Evil

Forbidden Evil is the debut album from thrash metal band Forbidden. Although their music became increasingly progressive as their musical career went on, this album is pretty straight-80s thrash. There's definitely elements of progressive metal found here, but they're left relatively unexplored.

Forbidden are a relatively forgotten band -- which is too bad, because Forbidden Evil and Twisted into Form are both very strong albums. The musicianship is great, and there's a lot of passion behind the music here. Then again, I'm a bit biased, as this was one of the first thrash metal albums that me and my group of friends at the time ever got into. Decide for yourself with the download link below! Enjoy!

ARTIST: FORBBIDEN

ALBUM: FORBIDDEN EVIL

GENRE: THRASH METAL

MEDIAFIRE

Violent Force - Malevolent Assault of Tomorrow

Violent Force were a German thrash metal band. They released a handful of demos, with their work culminating in the 1987 full-length, Malevolent Assault of Tomorrow. If you've heard German thrash metal before, you have a good idea of what to expect: fast as hell, harsh vokills, total beer soaked madness! And if you don't...well, you're in for a treat! In terms of representing "the best of German thrash," I wouldn't put Violent Force at the top of the list, but they'd definitely be mentioned.

Similar to a lot of late 80s thrash metal (at least when you start listening to boatloads of it like me), it's the type of album that sounds generic if you're not really paying attention to what's going on, and requires a bit more "active listening." There's actually some really talented musicianship and songwriting going on here, it's just unfortunate that this type of music was INCREDIBLY popular/over done at this time period, so it was easy to get left in the dust (kind of like bestial metal nowadays, *cough* *cough*).

Anyways, metal-archives says they're active again, so maybe we'll hear from them again soon. The mediafire link for this album is below. Enjoy!

ARTIST: VIOLENT FORCE

ALBUM: MALEVOLENT ASSAULT OF TOMORROW

GENRE: THRASH METAL

MEDIAFIRE

Gospel of the Horns - Realm of the Damned

Gospel of the Horns are one of the best black/thrash bands, ever. Hailing from Australia, they've been putting out amazing metal since the release of their 1994 demo, The Satanist's Dream. They produced two full-length albums before disbanding around 2008-2009 (though they've recently gotten back together): A Call to Arms and Realm of the Damned. They're both magnificient albums, but I've always found RotD to be the stronger album.

Everything about it just works. The production, the riffs, the musicianship....it's just a great metal album, and probably one of the strongest albums to come out the Australian metal scene -- which is saying A LOT, when you factor how strong the black/thrash/death scene is down there. If you're a fan of any of the Australian metal bands -- Destroyer 666, Sadistik Exekution, Vomitor etc. and you haven't heard this album yet, GET ON THAT SHIT!!!

Gospel of the Horns were defunct for a while, but they've recently reunited to play gigs and release some new music -- their new EP, Ceremonial Conjuration, came out in June on Invictus Productions.

ARTIST: GOSPEL OF THE HORNS

ALBUM: REALM OF THE DAMNED

GENRE: BLACK/THRASH METAL

MEDIAFIRE

Toxic Holocaust - Critical Mass (Demo 2002)

Although Toxic Holocaust's sound has changed pretty dramatically since their signing to Relapse Records/Release of Conjuration, TH plays a mix of black/thrash metal. TH was originally a one-man project until An Overdose Of Death... in 2008, and Joel Grind would simply recruit musicians to allow him to go on tour/do live gigs. Inspired by the 'old masters' like Onslaught, Bathory and Slayer, Toxic Holocaust -- while nothing spectacular -- up until Hell On Earth is some awesome, catchy, black/thrash metal.

Critical Mass is the second Toxic Holocaust demo, and contains many of the songs that would go to be on Evil Never Dies. The songs that didn't make it to END tend to be extremely short and fast punk songs, and they work quite well. It's interesting to hear samples of the crust-punk direction that Toxic Holocaust could've taken -- not to mention they're decent tunes. The sound quality is actually quite decent here, and it's probably one of the best TH recordings out there.

ARTIST: TOXIC HOLOCAUST

ALBUM: CRITICAL MASS (DEMO 2002)

GENRE: BLACK/THRASH METAL

MEDIAFIRE

Sodom - Persecution Mania

Persecution Mania is the second album by German black/thrash legends Sodom. For those who don't know them, Sodom have been cranking out awesome black/thrash music since the 1980s, and are considered one of the founders of the black/thrash genre. If you're on this blog, you probably know that Sodom certainly live up to their name (and likely already have this album on your computer). But, I only realized last night that this was one of the albums that I never bothered to put back on my laptop after it crashed a couple of years back, and man am I glad I did!

Although In The Sign of Evil is extremely raw and catchy, I really don't care for Obssessed By Cruelty. I've heard that the European press is better than the North American version, but despite multiple listens, I just can't stand it. It's not that they're bad musicians on that album, it's more so that they play together really poorly: it sounds more like a first jam session/first take for the album than a finished product. Persecution Mania does NOT have this problem whatsoever: the musicianship is awesome, the timing is awesome, the production is awesome, the lyrical themes are awesome...it's dark enough for black metal fans, fast enough for thrash metal fans...hell, even if you don't like black/thrash metal as a genre, you'll probably still enjoy this if you're into exclusively thrash or black metal. Definitely essential listening, and comes highly recommended. Enjoy!

ARTIST: SODOM

ALBUM: PERSECUTION MANIA

GENRE: BLACK/THRASH METAL

MEDIAFIRE

Фронт (aka FRONT) - Der Wasser der Köln

It's a shame that a lot of these Russian bands are still a bitch to track down online (or at least they are for someone who doesn't speak Russian/know how to read or navigate Russian websites), because there's some damn fine metal out there I would love to have on my computer. It took a few days of searching and downloading to find a copy of this, but it was well worth the time and effort.

FRONT are a thrash metal band, hailing from Saint Petersburg. They're actually still active according to metal-archives (with their latest release coming out in 2009) . There's this kind of "eastern european metal sound" that you find in bands like Torr and Drakar, that Front definitely have. Metal-archives user UCTYKAH does a much better job of reviewing both the music and the historical context in which it was created than I ever could (excerpt below, entirety here):

FRONT's 1986 demo "Metallizacija" is usually credited for being a pioneering piece of thrash metal in the former USSR, anticipating recordings by other thrash brethren like SHAH, BLACK OBELISK, CLINIC and others. The vast majority of Russian metal during the days of the iron curtain was quite watery, let's put it this way, so whatever brutality that FRONT were able to generate back in the mid-80's was a breath of fresh air, despite garage recording and the band's less-than-stellar performance. Said demo, however, along with the above mentioned bands' albums are but smaller bricks next to a cinder block that was 1990's "Der Wasser Der Koln". The iron curtain already went down but the USSR would still stand for another year, so placing this album in that previous era seems the right thing to do.

The most striking aspect here is what a big fat rabbit FRONT were able to pull out of a hat. It seems like the band were looking right through the water and, due to some lucky coincidence or favorable planet alignment, tapped all the right sources and absorbed all the right influences from such monoliths as CELTIC FROST, AMEBIX and SLAYER, to name a few. Given the limited information flow from the West, it is quite possible that the latter was the only band FRONT may have been directly familiar with at the time. And yet it did not prevent "Der Wasser Der Koln" from bulldozing its way through the turning point of the era.

ARTIST: FRONT

ALBUM: DER WASSER DEL KOLN

GENRE: THRASH METAL

MEDIAFIRE

Martire - Legions of the Brutal Apocalypse

Back when I was in high school, I was SUPER into Australian black/thrash/death metal. Destroyer 666, Trench Hell, Atomizer, Vomitor, Nocturnal Graves...you name it, and I probably loved it. And Martire were no exception. I listened to their 1991 EP on vinyl again and again when I was in high school. I couldn't wait for their full-length to come out (and considering that these guys have been around since 1988, it's been a LONG fucking time). Finally, it's here! And while it's not the /best/ thing to come out of Australia, it's certainly not a dissapointment. Similar to Vomitor, these guys play a perfect combination of black, death and thrash metal in the raw-as-fuck aussie tradition. If you haven't heard them yet, give this a listen!

ARTIST: MARTIRE

ALBUM: LEGIONS OF THE BRUTAL APOCALYPSE

GENRE: BLACK/DEATH/THRASH METAL

MEDIAFIRE