Okay, this is an undertaking that I almost certainly won't finish, and you probably won't give a shit about the result, but here's the deal:
I am going to pit the first song from the first album of each of The Big Four Thrash Bands up against each other. Then I'm gonna do the second. Then the third. Until well over 100 matches have been completed. And I'll give four points to the winner, three to second, two to third and one to last for showing up. Sound insane? You bet it is. But what the hell, why not?
There is a bit of a problem though, as Slayer hasn't put out as many songs as the other three bands, so I'm including as many live and/or demo tracks it takes to even things out. (Also, for the opposite reason, I dropped Anthrax's "The Greater Of Two Evils", because that would've put them over the top of everyone else quantity wise.)
Oh, and if at any time you want to beg for mercy, leave a message on these posts and I'll probably stop doing it.
DISCLAIMER: The opinions herein (as with all my blogs) are mine and mine alone. Don't agree? Set me straight in the comment section.
Match 001:
Anthrax "Deathrider" VS. Megadeth "Last Rites/Loved To Death" VS. Metallica "Hit The Lights" VS. Slayer "Evil Has No Boundaries"
Good lord. Three out of four of these songs are in the same key. In fact, without the "Last Rites" part of "Last Rites/Loved To Death", they may as well be the same song. And oh, hey. By the solo of the fourth song ("Evil Has No Boundaries"), it's morphed into the same A-based key as well. (Though only for a bit.) They're all the standard early 80's opener, the thrash song that's not too brutal because they don't want to blow their wad, but heavy enough that it gets you headbanging. A good solid kick in the door. Then again, it's the standard style of album opening because these are the bands that set the standard.
Anyway, the win goes to "Hit The Lights" because Neil Turbin's voice on "Deathrider" sucks so damn hard, "Evil Has No Boundaries" isn't really great or anything, just competent, and though "Loved To Death" is pretty decent, it's still kinda sloppy, probably because Mustaine was trying to hard to be faster than Metallica.
So here's the score:
"Hit The Lights": 4
"Last Rites/Loved To Death": 3
"Evil Has No Boundaries": 2
"Deathrider": 1
Running Totals:
Metallica: 4
Megadeth: 3
Slayer: 2
Anthrax: 1
A cool idea but it will be much more interesting later on since Metallica's 1st album was so much better than the others.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the issue of not having the same number of songs. Will you move onto the next album of each band once you reach track 8 of Killing is my Business... or would you have track 1 of Peace Sells go up against track 9 of Kill em All? I think that would be unfair as all the groups had advanced so much by their 2nd album. Are you including re-issue bonus tracks?
I'm including as many live, B-side and whatever tracks to even out the number of songs by each band (which is why most of Slayer's "Decade Of Aggression" is present, and Anthrax's "The Greater Of Two Evils" is not.)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have track 1 from "Peace Sells" go up against "No Remorse", "Howling Furies" and whatever track 9 on "Show No Mercy" is, because it's a song-by-song thing. I tried this with the albums, and it was really no contest. Metallica beat everybody else's ass. So I'm trying it this way and seeing what happens.
(Also, you are one of the brave few that has ever commented on my blog. Congrats and thank you!)
No prob, it's a fun idea!
ReplyDeleteThe Night Howls rule!