The 10 Greatest Thrash Albums Of 2016
2015 was a good year for thrash....2016 was arguably even better!
1. Megadeth – Dystopia
Source // infokuzrock.com
Three years on from the universally panned Super Collider and having once again gone through a change in guitarist and drummer – out went Chris Broderick and longtime member Shawn Drover and in came Kiko Loureiro and Chris Adler respectively – and the world was faced with a new Megadeth album in 2016.
Dystopia – perhaps the most hyped Megadeth album in over twenty years – had a lot to live up to but considering their turbulent history, the fact that Dave Mustaine and his cohorts were on to album number 15 was nothing short of astonishing!
“The Threat Is Real” kicked the album off at a brisk pace with its taught, muscular riffs and blasts of double bass and it became immediately apparent that Mustaine and Loureiro were a formidible partnership capable of shitting enough riffs and solos to put the majority of their modern contempories to shame.
Anyone looking for a straight up rehash of Rust In Peace were, of course, going to be disappointed – that time has surely passed – but everything that makes Megadeth such a legendary band was distilled into this one fantastic album. Blasts of old-school technical thrash remained but combined with the clinical, commercial riffola of Countdown To Extinction, the result was a defiantly modern sounding, viciously vibrant album.
Dystopia was undoubtedly the best Megadeth album in over twenty years and can sit comfortably alongside their early period classics. We tipped this as an album of the year contender back in January….turns out we were right!
You need to hear: The whole fuckin’ thing!
Honourable mentions: Sodom – Decision Day / Destruction – Under Attack / Ripper – Experiment Of Existence / Poltergeist – Back to Haunt / Anger As Art – Ad Mortem Festinamus
No Hobbs Angel of Death?
Afraid not….good but not great. Thanks for reading and commenting! \m/
No Vektor? Really?
Vektor are going to pop up in our prog metal best of 2016…haven’t forgotten them, honest! \m/
Ever listen to any band formed in the last 20 years?
How is it possible to overlook Vektor’s “Terminal Redux”?! Hands down one of the, if not *the*, best Thrash releases of 2016.
It seems to me some people like to pretend nothing new is being done.
Yes, just look at our reviews section….all new material from outstanding bands. See above re. Vektor. Not forgotten, just falls into a different sub-genre for us \m/
I have all these albums love em to! Not bad for a 40 yr old metal head! \m/
You have fine taste sir!
Nice list. I like new Metal Church, Exumer and Death Angel. Testament and Anthrax also put a solid albums. As for Metallica i am not a fan but few songs are pretty catchy. As for album that i miss in the list is Decision Day from Sodom. To me the best thrash album in 2016.
Sodom were included in the honourable mentions at the bottom…just couldn’t squeeze it in! Thanks for the kind words and for reading and commenting \m/
I think Suicidal Angels – Division Of Blood deserves a mention too… Solid trash!
Cracking suggestion! A great album…may crop up in a future feature \m/
Helstar deserves mention as power/thrash, shit if more power metal albums released gems as dark and vicious as this, I might be more of a fan!! Still, when you mention Megadeth’s new one is no “Rust In Peace,” you’re right, but I hear more ideas that were lifted directly from their best of all time “Peace Sells…” All you have to do is listen to some of those songs and if you know Peace Sells front to back, those similarities are hard to miss… Everything from the title track’s (“Peace Sells”‘ title track that is) crunchy lead riffs on ‘Post American World’ to the speedy, blazing wordplay lifted RIGHT from ‘Black Friday’ incorporated on the cut ‘Fatal Illusion.’ Yes, this record borrows HEAVILY from “Peace Sells,” complete with kick ass punk cover (‘Foreign Policy’ is a FEAR cover), like Megadeth always does… YET, this record still retains some individuality as well… Megadeth: always able to create REAL metal better than Metallica has in the last, oh, 25 or so years???
first off if you listen real close any band that has been around for 20 or more years,will from time to time have different music,megadeth imo have all of the music from all albums and like to see what they can do in different music.And,sometimes its not DAVE”S fault that some people dont like it,after all how would we like to eat dry toast and water for 35 years ,variety is it.Im sayin its all great .Its like painting would you paint with just one color or use all the color’s you can find.I cant wait to see how much better the next album with dirk will sound too,variety rock on.
Megadeth and Metal Church have not ever been thrash. Listen to Kreator, Razor, Sodom, etc, those are thrash bands.
Megadeth have never been thrash??? Dave Mustaine invented thrash! I do listen to Kreator, Razor, Sodom etc but 2 of those 3 didn’t release an album in 2016 so their inclusion would be weird, don’t you think?