Favorite Death / Thrash guitar tone album? 1983-1993

Death metal Carcass Necrotism is my favorite.
Thrash Megadeth Rust In Peace or Overkill Years of Decay/Horrorscope. But there are way too many albums from that era to list a top 3,5,10.
 
thegame":3vcrhfag said:
Relatively unknown band but crushing. If the riff at 2:00 doesn't get you going, nothing will.

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old band mate was into them...along with Anacrusis and Watchtower. Not entirely my cup of tea...but that 2.00m riff was good yeah.
The really fast stuff around the minute mark shows to me that faster isn't always better...because they're not Vader/Gene Hoglan tight there...and without the utter tightness, it becomes mushy/chaotic.
 
Speeddemon":3sjq7lf5 said:
thegame":3sjq7lf5 said:
Relatively unknown band but crushing. If the riff at 2:00 doesn't get you going, nothing will.

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old band mate was into them...along with Anacrusis and Watchtower. Not entirely my cup of tea...but that 2.00m riff was good yeah.
The really fast stuff around the minute mark shows to me that faster isn't always better...because they're not Vader/Gene Hoglan tight there...and without the utter tightness, it becomes mushy/chaotic.
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I agree with that. That song is a bit off an oddball in their discography. All their other fast songs, especially on subsequent albums, is much tighter and technical than that particular example.
 
So yesterday I had the chance to chat with the Morbid Saint main guitarist -Jay Visser . I asked him about his old rig and he told me that he used his mark III red stripe, which he regretfully sold, + no boost to record both albums. He is now using a modded 5150, a Randall rd 45 and a Savage
 
Kinda later, but Jon Shaffer's tone on Something Wicked is one of the best recorded tones I've ever heard.

Most brutal: Malevolent Creation - Retribution
Coroner - Grin
Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care
Anthrax - Among The Living
Overkill - Horrorscope
Testament - Practice What you Preach
Savatage - Gutter Ballet & Streets, (Oliva was amazing)
 
napalmdeath":2wgl6i6h said:
Kinda later, but Jon Shaffer's tone on Something Wicked is one of the best recorded tones I've ever heard.

Most brutal: Malevolent Creation - Retribution
Coroner - Grin
Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care
Anthrax - Among The Living
Overkill - Horrorscope
Testament - Practice What you Preach
Savatage - Gutter Ballet & Streets, (Oliva was amazing)
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I loved that Savatage album. I have a friend that was working with Chris Caffery and Tim Owens. I saw all these bands tour on the albums you listed except for Coroner and Malevolent Creation. Also I saw anthrax a bit later on with Slayer, Megadeth, and AiC.

Overkill's Years Of Decay had a really good tone to it too.

I hate to sound like an old fogey but I miss the days you could tell a band after a couple seconds of guitar,bass, and drums.

I could hear Dan Lilker, Dave Ellefson, DD Verni, and Frank Bello's bass and instantly know who I was listening too.
 
ClintN667":1pf8f4v3 said:
napalmdeath":1pf8f4v3 said:
Kinda later, but Jon Shaffer's tone on Something Wicked is one of the best recorded tones I've ever heard.

Most brutal: Malevolent Creation - Retribution
Coroner - Grin
Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care
Anthrax - Among The Living
Overkill - Horrorscope
Testament - Practice What you Preach
Savatage - Gutter Ballet & Streets, (Oliva was amazing)
Click to expand...

I loved that Savatage album. I have a friend that was working with Chris Caffery and Tim Owens. I saw all these bands tour on the albums you listed except for Coroner and Malevolent Creation. Also I saw anthrax a bit later on with Slayer, Megadeth, and AiC.

Overkill's Years Of Decay had a really good tone to it too.

I hate to sound like an old fogey but I miss the days you could tell a band after a couple seconds of guitar,bass, and drums.

I could hear Dan Lilker, Dave Ellefson, DD Verni, and Frank Bello's bass and instantly know who I was listening too.
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Ur definitely right dude...
 
This thread makes me miss liquid metal from XM Radio. Shit was like an education. They fucked it up with the merger. I remember driving to the grocery store for some beers after I took a hit and this song came on and I got sucked into the riffs. Have no idea what that track was to this day but opened my eyes to the more technical side of some of those bands that would come out on that channel. I tried finding out what the song was but no dice.

Makes me appreciate RT for u guys and this shared platform of knowledge.
 
I also must add that Pantera's Vulgar is probably the most aggressive album to date. The whole thing is amazing from open to close.
 
Overkill: Years of Decay and Horrorscope

Coroner: No More Color and Grin

Carcass: the demo tracks from Wake Up and Smell the Carcass

Exodus: Force of Habit

Believer: Sanity Obscure and Extraction From Mortality

 
Rust in Peace.

My fav Megadeth album, by far... Also one of my top 10 all time album... possibly top 5 (would need to think this through).

What I like so much tone wise, is possibly all in Marty's fingers!
 
thegame":22ia7sfj said:
Relatively unknown band but crushing. If the riff at 2:00 doesn't get you going, nothing will.

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I saw these guys a million years ago at First Avenue's 7th Street Crossing (shitty little side-bar club to the main stage). Dudes come out with 800s on 4x12s boosted with two SD1s a piece and just destroyed the place. One of the best club tones I ever heard. I was too young to think to ask what they were doing to keep the volume in check in that tiny little dive, because had they been cranked to where they needed to be without some form of attenuation we'd have been blown through the back wall, but dang if it wasn't brutal and tight as hell.

Still remember the drummer doing the mid-song four count stick hit right at the cymbal mics during a breakdown and the place just losing it. That was a fun night.

As far as best album tones, I'm old school, and my favorites probably aren't obscure enough to score many cool points or much in the way of ecred, but still, they're the ones that to this day I can listen to and get fully invested in every single time.

Metallica's Master of Puppets. This takes the cake. Fat, thick, articulate, scooped yet still huge sounding. Thrash perfection.

Overkill Years of Decay. As much as I love Horrorscope, changing to two different guitarists from Bobby Gustafson and changing up arrangements gave a fairly different sound. I really dig the sound, but it's not as guttural and deep as Years to me. Skullkrusher may be the heaviest low and slow tone of the eighties. Damn I love that tune.

Testament's New Order. It's not perfect, but it has that tone that just says, "fuck you and get out of the way" in the perfect way for a thrash band.

Exodus's Fabulous Disaster. Big and raw facial destruction personified.

Anthrax's Persistence of Time. Pretty much lines up with Master of Puppets on the tone scale for me. Big, thick, fat and articulate. I'd be happy to get my guitars matching either of those albums.

Death. No album stated because 8100 fer lyfe. Chuck is the reason I owned and recorded with an 8100 for over a decade. I'd still have it if the gain channel hadn't given out on me. I'll likely own one again some day. There's something about that 8100 tone that nothing else can replicate. And it's not like they're expensive to pick up.

There's a million more, but those are favorites that never fail to impress me.
 
nightflameauto":2ppuwm1z said:
thegame":2ppuwm1z said:
Relatively unknown band but crushing. If the riff at 2:00 doesn't get you going, nothing will.

Click to expand...
I saw these guys a million years ago at First Avenue's 7th Street Crossing (shitty little side-bar club to the main stage). Dudes come out with 800s on 4x12s boosted with two SD1s a piece and just destroyed the place. One of the best club tones I ever heard. I was too young to think to ask what they were doing to keep the volume in check in that tiny little dive, because had they been cranked to where they needed to be without some form of attenuation we'd have been blown through the back wall, but dang if it wasn't brutal and tight as hell.

Still remember the drummer doing the mid-song four count stick hit right at the cymbal mics during a breakdown and the place just losing it. That was a fun night.

As far as best album tones, I'm old school, and my favorites probably aren't obscure enough to score many cool points or much in the way of ecred, but still, they're the ones that to this day I can listen to and get fully invested in every single time.

Metallica's Master of Puppets. This takes the cake. Fat, thick, articulate, scooped yet still huge sounding. Thrash perfection.

Overkill Years of Decay. As much as I love Horrorscope, changing to two different guitarists from Bobby Gustafson and changing up arrangements gave a fairly different sound. I really dig the sound, but it's not as guttural and deep as Years to me. Skullkrusher may be the heaviest low and slow tone of the eighties. Damn I love that tune.

Testament's New Order. It's not perfect, but it has that tone that just says, "fuck you and get out of the way" in the perfect way for a thrash band.

Exodus's Fabulous Disaster. Big and raw facial destruction personified.

Anthrax's Persistence of Time. Pretty much lines up with Master of Puppets on the tone scale for me. Big, thick, fat and articulate. I'd be happy to get my guitars matching either of those albums.

Death. No album stated because 8100 fer lyfe. Chuck is the reason I owned and recorded with an 8100 for over a decade. I'd still have it if the gain channel hadn't given out on me. I'll likely own one again some day. There's something about that 8100 tone that nothing else can replicate. And it's not like they're expensive to pick up.

There's a million more, but those are favorites that never fail to impress me.
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Thx for this hidden gem! Nice aggressive thrashy tone! Marshalls + boost?
 
sotosprince":3e53ow2b said:
Thx for this hidden gem! Nice aggressive thrashy tone! Marshalls + boost?
Click to expand...
Don't know if that's what they recorded with, but live back in 91 it was 800s boosted with SD1s. I think one of the guys had a DS-1 on his board too. The "stage" I saw them on was only like a foot tall, so it was pretty easy to see all the equipment, but my memory seems to have focused on the SD-1s, amps and wah on the lead dudes board.
 
sotosprince":2w15b4go said:
Thx for this hidden gem! Nice aggressive thrashy tone! Marshalls + boost?
Click to expand...

Believer's singer/guitarist posted this on Myspace years ago :

Recording rig was Charvel guitar w/EMG81, DOD 31 band graphic EQ rack unit, BBE Sonic maximizer, 50w Marshall JMP w/6550 tubes.

Its essentially a boosted Marshall tone but doesn't sound like ANY other boosted Marshall type of tone. Maybe they used some uncommon speakers in their cabs. Back then hardly anyone gave much thought to what was inside a typical Marshall cabinet.
 
nightflameauto":2l1w87oz said:
sotosprince":2l1w87oz said:
Thx for this hidden gem! Nice aggressive thrashy tone! Marshalls + boost?
Click to expand...
Don't know if that's what they recorded with, but live back in 91 it was 800s boosted with SD1s. I think one of the guys had a DS-1 on his board too. The "stage" I saw them on was only like a foot tall, so it was pretty easy to see all the equipment, but my memory seems to have focused on the SD-1s, amps and wah on the lead dudes board.
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I almost saw them in 90/91. I went to a show featuring Bolt Thrower/Sacrifice/Believer. Sacrifice announced from the stage that Believer's van broke down so they didn't make it.
 


This is just outside your date criteria but for me Martyr Warp Zone has insane guitar tone and overall the whole album is my favourite all time record.

From beginning to end it just fucking rips. and I'd consider this Death/Thrash as it has both elements.
 
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