THE NEXT FOUR SONG CHALLENGE SERIES - Matchup 001
Since dusting off The Big Four Song Challenge Series I got to thinking. What about the other thrash metal giants out there? There's always been a debate as to who the next four bands would be on the list. The two constants are always Testament and Exodus, but nobody can agree who's 5 and who's 6. Then nobody can agree on who the next two bands would be. Overkill gets thrown around a lot, but they're not really as big as the two bands I've chosen to fill those slots.
Oh yeah. Probably should have mentioned. Though you've probably guessed by the blog post title, I am doing a completely new series of blogs called "The Next Four Song Challenge Series". Same rules, same set up as before and same INSANE amount of blog posts. The four bands we're going to be covering are as follows:
Exodus
Testament
Sepultura
Suicidal Tendencies
Why not Overkill? For one, I could never stand the guy's voice, but all told, Sepultura and Suicidal are bigger household names when you get right down to it. Some may say Suicidal shouldn't count because they started as a punk band, but I say they were always pretty crossover to begin with, and you can't argue that they weren't influential to thrash. By the end of the 80's they had crossed over to metal. Sepultura was a thrash band and still hangs onto that heritage, so in spite of accusations of "nu metal", they deserve their place as well for being as influential and popular as they are.
So, with that out of the way, let's dive in to this insanity!
Exodus "Bonded By Blood" (1985) VS Sepultura "The Curse" (1985) VS Suicidal Tendencies "Suicide's An Alternative / You'll Be Sorry" (1983) VS Testament "Over The Wall" (1987)
"Bonded By Blood" is an influential album, cannot be denied, but I have a confession to make: I've never liked Paul Baloff's vocals. And they are especially bad here. If anybody else did this style of vocals, they'd be laughed out of whatever room they were in. It's Shred video level bad. The song without vocals is a pretty good thrash song; it has teeth, it smashes face, the solos are decent and the double kick part after them demands you bang your head. But those vocals are BAD. I dunno.
"The Curse" has the distinction of being a) the first track on the first Sepultura EP, b) a track on which no member of the band actually appears, and c) a 40 second monologue of a guy burping some words about satan. Guess we know which "song" loses here.
I've never heard Suicidal's first album before, so this should be interesting. "Suicide's An Alternative" is some real hard core punk from an era when the genuine article was still in full swing. And speaking of swing, "You'll Be Sorry" morphs into a sinister, bruising swing deal kinda like "Send Me Your Money" by way of the verses of "Institutionalized". Kinda all over the place, but that's how Suicidal likes it.
"Over The Wall" is one of the most stereotypical 80's thrash songs you've ever heard, but it's really good at what it does because it IS an 80's thrash song, so it's part of what helped create the stereotype in the first place.
So here's the score, main:
"Over The Wall": 4
"Suicide's An Alternative / You'll Be Sorry": 3
"Bonded By Blood": 2
"The Curse": 1
TOTALS:
Testament: 4
Suicidal Tendencies: 3
Exodus: 2
Sepultura: 1
Aaaand that's where this little experiment stops because APRIL FOOLS! You didn't think I was seriously going to engage in such life-destroying behavior as writing a fuckton about old music again, did you? Pssht. Perish the thought.
Oh yeah. Probably should have mentioned. Though you've probably guessed by the blog post title, I am doing a completely new series of blogs called "The Next Four Song Challenge Series". Same rules, same set up as before and same INSANE amount of blog posts. The four bands we're going to be covering are as follows:
Exodus
Testament
Sepultura
Suicidal Tendencies
Why not Overkill? For one, I could never stand the guy's voice, but all told, Sepultura and Suicidal are bigger household names when you get right down to it. Some may say Suicidal shouldn't count because they started as a punk band, but I say they were always pretty crossover to begin with, and you can't argue that they weren't influential to thrash. By the end of the 80's they had crossed over to metal. Sepultura was a thrash band and still hangs onto that heritage, so in spite of accusations of "nu metal", they deserve their place as well for being as influential and popular as they are.
So, with that out of the way, let's dive in to this insanity!
Exodus "Bonded By Blood" (1985) VS Sepultura "The Curse" (1985) VS Suicidal Tendencies "Suicide's An Alternative / You'll Be Sorry" (1983) VS Testament "Over The Wall" (1987)
"Bonded By Blood" is an influential album, cannot be denied, but I have a confession to make: I've never liked Paul Baloff's vocals. And they are especially bad here. If anybody else did this style of vocals, they'd be laughed out of whatever room they were in. It's Shred video level bad. The song without vocals is a pretty good thrash song; it has teeth, it smashes face, the solos are decent and the double kick part after them demands you bang your head. But those vocals are BAD. I dunno.
"The Curse" has the distinction of being a) the first track on the first Sepultura EP, b) a track on which no member of the band actually appears, and c) a 40 second monologue of a guy burping some words about satan. Guess we know which "song" loses here.
I've never heard Suicidal's first album before, so this should be interesting. "Suicide's An Alternative" is some real hard core punk from an era when the genuine article was still in full swing. And speaking of swing, "You'll Be Sorry" morphs into a sinister, bruising swing deal kinda like "Send Me Your Money" by way of the verses of "Institutionalized". Kinda all over the place, but that's how Suicidal likes it.
"Over The Wall" is one of the most stereotypical 80's thrash songs you've ever heard, but it's really good at what it does because it IS an 80's thrash song, so it's part of what helped create the stereotype in the first place.
So here's the score, main:
"Over The Wall": 4
"Suicide's An Alternative / You'll Be Sorry": 3
"Bonded By Blood": 2
"The Curse": 1
TOTALS:
Testament: 4
Suicidal Tendencies: 3
Exodus: 2
Sepultura: 1
Aaaand that's where this little experiment stops because APRIL FOOLS! You didn't think I was seriously going to engage in such life-destroying behavior as writing a fuckton about old music again, did you? Pssht. Perish the thought.
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