In the 1980s a host of bands on the west coast created a sound that combined elements of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Punk that became known as Thrash Metal... As the 90s came and went thrash's popularity had faded, but honestly, there were no new bands playing thrash at a level. Even the legends of the genre had moved on to different sounds or found themselves re-hashing the songs they had previously written. A brief exception from an old-school band would bubble up to the surface occasionally, most noticeably Testament's "The Gathering" in 2000. But, in terms of solid thrash metal, it had felt as if the genre had evolved and moved on. The sound could be found in a host of other sub-genres, but the days of albums like Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' and Megadeth's 'Rust in Peace" were long gone. Then within the last few years a group of young bands heavily influenced by these classic albums surged forward, and their sound has been dubbed "re-thrash". Now, as that name implies, a lot of these bands are very derivative. Happy to simply imitate their heroes and sound like a cross between Metallica and Slayer or a better produced Exodus album many of the bands are struggling to push their own style into the music. But, as is usually the case, the cream is starting to rise to the top and there are a handful of bands with true promise coming out of the scene. While their sound isn't currently accessible enough to ever expect to see the success of Metallica or Slayer, for fans of the old thrash sound it's nice to hear some talented new bloods on the scene. Below I'm listing a few samples of one of the better young bands, Revocation from Boston, MA. They have some death metal leanings, but at the end of the day, they are still a solid thrash metal band featuring some of the best guitar work in the genre. If you like what you hear, they have a new album coming out on August 16.
And here's one from Testament's underrated classic, The Gathering.
