THE BIG 4 poll

1. Metallica - "Master of Puppets"
2. Slayer - "Postmortem"
3. Slayer - "Black Magic"
4. Metallica - "Fade to Black"
5. Megadeth - "The Conjuring"

This is a tough list to make, I can't squeeze Anthrax's "Metal Thrashin' Mad" or "Madhouse" on there...

As far as the quality of each band's last few albums go, Megadeth has been the best of the lot in my opinion.

1. "Master of Puppets"
2. "Raining Blood"
3. "Symphony of Destruction
4. "Bring the Noise"
5. "Madhouse"

came here to vote megadeth but HOLY SHIT that hanneman demo.

anyway, it takes a lot to be as embarrassing as metallica but megadeth sure did their best post-cryptic writings for a while there. (vaguely remember kinda maybe liking cryptic writings tho.) but man, I personally don't think any of these guys ever released anything in the same league as rust in peace. that part where the band drops into half time about a minute into "holy wars"... god, so freakin' good. so many moments like that on rust in peace. a band at the top of its game pumping out thrash of the highest caliber.

voting megadeth.

Re Megadeth, I have to recuse myself.

why do you have to recuse yourself on Megadeth??

In recent years I'm so gad Mustaine's reputation has gradually been put back in order. (Post-Some Kind of Monster, really, which itself wasn't that long after the 'I'll never play guitar again' pity party, though I think that's all just a coincidence). For years I'd always catch Megadeth as the opening act on shitty bills, like for the Crue or on Ozzfest, and they always killed it, but lately Mustaine's self-esteem seems restored.

"sweating bullets" is the joint

― me stalk shithead one day (some dude), Friday, September 16, 2011 10:50 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they could honestly be Scarface lyrics

hahahaha otm

always wanted to like anthrax more than I actually did but not man is just the greatest mascot:

http://www.metal-metropolis.com/Anthrax/anthrax_euphoria_cartoon.jpg

fave cover of the bunch too:

http://media.weirdworm.com/img/misc/the-12-least-intimidating-metal-album-covers/metal.jpg

http://blogs.sohh.com/dirty/img/scarface-2008-07-03-300x300.jpg

Hello me, meet the real me and my misfits way of life
A dark black past is my most valued possession
Hindsight is always 20-20, but looking back it's still a bit fuzzy
Speak of mutually assured destruction....

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/154019/Bushwick+Bill.jpg
Nice story, tell it to reader's digest

at the time would've voted: metallica
suspect the real answer is: slayer
voted: megadeth

actually at the time my stephen king and public enemy loving ass might've voted anthrax

I'm not as impressed by Slayer as I was a few days ago before I heard the album "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing" by Discharge...goddamn Slayer owes them $$$$$ ... especially Araya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMnW4UKPRr4

also whiney it get really tiresome when you play Thrash Metal High School Football Coach for kids that were born in like 1988

oh wherever could a kid born in 1988 ever hear "Enter Sandman"

...anyway i'm gonna vote metallica even though they don't deserve it

because of a certain moment in time, when i still lived on the farm, i would have been about 13 or so...and i had ordered some cassettes from the BMG Music Club and i had read about metallica in Circus Magazine and i ordered master of puppets because it was the "Metal Pick of the Month" and it came finally after 4-6 weeks

popped that thing into my boombox in my bedroom and put in the tape. i was surprised at hearing this really sad, kind of eerie spanish guitar instead of metal...then the drums kicked in and i swore i'd never heard any music that sounded so big as all that...felt like a transmission from another world

then DUN DUUUN DUN DUN DUN....and the fast shit kicked in and i was just shocked

Not nearly as many places as they could hear "Let the Bodies Hit The Floor" probably.

xp

oh wherever could a kid born in 1988 ever hear "Enter Sandman"

― James Ferraro Boyz (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, September 16, 2011 10:48 AM (40 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'm not saying they couldn't have heard enter sandman, i'm saying it's tiresome

I have more Metallica albums but ... Slayer

I was born in 1979 and SOMEHOW I heard "Cum on Feel the Noize"

i was surprised at hearing this really sad, kind of eerie spanish guitar instead of metal...

I bought ...And Justice For All and Master of Puppets on the same day. My initial thought upon hearing each of those albums was "what happened? did the wrong tape end up in the case at the factory?" With Puppets, I was halfway out of my bedroom to ask my mom to take me back to the mall when the heavy guitars finally kicked in.

metallica = beatles
anthrax = the who
megadeth = the kinks
slayer = the stones

i just made that up

metallica - ride/puppets/(and especially) justice were such huge formative albums (tapes!) for me, nothing by the other three comes close. i'm still happy to listen to AJFA anytime, anywhere.

megadeth - love rust in peace and countdown, even listened a lot to cryptic writings at the time, but i feel like my connection to them has always been more 'cool riff bro' than emtional.

slayer - never explored too much beyond reign in blood and seasons in the abyss, both of which still hold up. is lombardo back with them still?

anthrax - eh. i had persistence of time and sound of white noise, but aside from a track or two never really got into them.

Wiki P says Enter Sandman has been popular as entrance music in some sports.

1. "Am I Evil"
2. "Anti-Social"
3. "In-a-Gadda-Vida"
4. "Anarchy in the USA"

that is correct.

why do you have to recuse yourself on Megadeth??

Just a joke 'cause I work for their label. My serious take on Megadeth: love albums 2-4 (yes, I even kinda/mostly like their "Anarchy in the UK" cover), like Countdown to Extinction a lot (how come you never see the video for "Foreclosure of a Dream" anymore?), and really like The System Has Failed, Endgame and the next one. They're a tremendous force live, but they're not showmen - they're all about skillful execution and you're just supposed to sit there and be awestruck.

i don't like slayer as much as everyone else does

i've also harbored suspicions that people enjoy saying how much they love slayer more than they actually love slayer

^this is me

but they still kick ass

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h279/juicyfrt/222121_206370116063311_100000709728384_598013_5740520_n.jpg

I think Slayer are great, but more of a band to admire than love maybe?

Wiki P says Enter Sandman has been popular as entrance music in some sports.

― rustic italian flatbread, Friday, September 16, 2011 11:55 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I had to have this explained to me at Yankee Stadium. After Metallica did "Enter Sandman" some guys in the press room started chanting "FUCK YOU BOSTON (clap clap clapclapclap), FUCK YOU BOSTON (clap clap clapclapclap)." And I was like "What, did Aerosmith just walk in the room or something?"

slayer are definitely a 'small doses' band

Listening to Slayer for me is sorta like looking at a guy with big fucking muscles. Like "wow, you have muscles - fuckin' a!" but not aspiring to get quite that pumped up myself.

still voting Slayer. otm about them being almost their own genre. Megadeth comes in second.

and they're gonna walk this, I think.

saw megadeth open for heaven & hell (rip ronnie) a few years ago and i was duly impressed by their set - no bullshit, hardly any banter, just a whiplash set of new and old stuff played perfectly, it was like a thrash ramones set

Slayer is such a force of nature I rarely feel compelled to listen to them. It's like "listening" to thunder during a storm. I will say that I love festivals with Slayer on the bill, because they bring so much more to the stage. It's like, all day, between all the other bands, people are just sort of milling about changing "slay-er! slay-er!"

For those three albums Metallica was the perfect prog-thrash package. Megadeth was a lot more clever in figuring out a way to pair its metal instincts with pop smarts. Anthrax, I always though that band was a bit of a mess. That is, the only Anthrax tunes that pop to mind are the rap-metal goof and the Joe Jackson cover. Which is awesome.

Chanting, not changing.

listening to Seasons in the Abyss for the first time in at least a decade goddamn this is a great record

there are a lot of little atmospheric touches that are just perfect like that solitary sustained feedback note at the end of Dead Skin Mask. man.

yeah Slayer understood atmosphere better than people remember - their impact on the extreme side of things is just gigantic, their ear for vibe

ya when i was like 15 i used to listen to "raining blood" over and over and the rain was my favorite part

oh hoos

I think the fact that Slayer is the only band in the Big 4 listed in the Spin Alternative Record Guide says a little something about their appeal on ILX.

it's funny to look at this list - the reasons Metallica became the breakout/crossover act are readily apparent (Slayer = too extreme/Satanic/evil, Megadeth = too political, Anthrax = not decent enough songwriters/too goofy) I mean I think Metallica's better than Anthrax but that isn't saying a whole lot. Would rank them:

Slayer
Megadeth
Metallica
Anthrax

I was at the Big 4 and thought to myself that it really does make sense that the two biggest bands from this are the most extreme and the most unrepentantly wussy