10 Obscure Old-School Thrash Albums You Need To Hear! (Part 2)

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The classics are all well and good but there’s a shit ton of obscure thrash out there that demands to be heard!

To that end, Worship Metal has selected ANOTHER 10 obscure old-school thrash albums you NEED to hear. And, this is just Part 2…..there’s plenty more to come!

Abomination – Tragedy Strikes (1991) [USA]

Paul Speckmann may be revered as one of the Godfather’s of death metal but the great man also turned his attention to thrash in the early 90’s and while Abomination‘s debut was solid, its follow up, Tragedy Strikes, was a different beast altogether. Raw, real and utterly remorseless, Tragedy Strikes cut deep with political diatribes, powerful compositions and a sincerity rarely head in thrash.

Abomination’s hate, bile and utter contempt for the world as they saw it bleeds profusely through album highlights “Pull The Plug”, “Will They Bleed” and the still apt “Blood For Oil” (the meaning of this one shouldn’t come as a surprise for those who remember the first Gulf War).

Thrash rarely comes loaded with this much gravitas and while Tragedy Strikes may not be friendly, it’ll sure as hell earn your respect.

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Devastation – Idolatry (1991) [USA]

Only with hindsight has Devastation‘s third, and their finest, opus been revered as a 90’s thrash milestone. But be under no illusion, Idolatry is one of the greatest thrash albums of the 90’s and should have been hailed as an instant classic upon release.

Carefully straddling the fine line between death metal and thrash, Devastation were abrasively aggressive, technically adept, lightning-fast and heavy as all hell and fans of Dark Angel, Sepultura, Demolition Hammer and early-Death need this album…..if they don’t own it already!

A suffocatingly dense album, this shadowy beast favoured lurking in the corners of thrash’s darkest spaces as opposed to gleaming like much of the early 90’s clean, technically-obsessed thrash albums and it’s all the more distinctive for it. Murky and malevolent, Idolatry benefitted from its dank atmosphere and remains a violent, visceral experience.

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Dyoxen – First Among Equals (1989) [Canada]

Taking the Voivod path to weird-town, Dyoxen were a surprisingly melodic yet highly skilled set of technical thrashers.

While the Voivod comparisons are semi-apt, Dyoxen actually had more in common with Peace Sells-era Megadeth; such was their penchant for unveiling skilful and sickle-sharp, complex and caustic blasts of sophisticated thrash, replete with umpteen tempo changes and a shed-load of killer riffs.

These guys sure had the chops, but they just didn’t have the clout to shit them into the big leagues. Which is a crying shame, as First Among Equals was the equal of anything Annihilator, Megadeth, Forbidden etc. were serving up in the late 80’s!