I don't know how in the fuck anyone could dislike Step by Step when One Foot in Hell's on the same album. That's another track that just doesn't agree with Russ' vocals and the way he's singing the chorus can get annoying in an "Off the Edge" kind of way.

AGREED. One Foot in Hell is the only song on that album I flat-out dislike.

Nailbomb's only album. It isn't underrated in the sense that people didn't like it but more in the sense that not a lot of people talk about it. It has some ball-fisted groove songs and some industrial elements but it also has some serious thrashing in it that is very reminiscent of Arise and Beneath the Remains. Really cool stuff.

Listening to it for the first time as of now, this is killer stuff. I knew those vocals sounded familiar.

It may as well be the Sepultura album that never was given its sound and lineup.

Is Nailbomb thrash though?

It's a hybrid of punk-industrial-thrash-groove...but undoubtedly killer.

I remember that being one of the first albums I picked up at the time solely because of the artwork. Such a stark difference because of the use of actual photography. Granted, such imagery wasn't unusual if you were well into grindcore by then but for me, it stood out by comparison to what I was into. Really pissed off and visceral stuff, Max tapped into something I don't think he quite has since save for the occasional song here and there.

Agreed.

The early to mid 90s was an era of truly uninspiring artwork. While simplistic, the artwork on Nailbomb's only studio album knocks it out of the park. One of the truly iconic images of 90s metal.

One day I will try and compile a list of awful '90s album artwork, replete with that ugly, cluttered "collage" style that was popular at the time.

SoM is an awesome album and it definitely fits the bill. I also think that the guys released one damn fine comeback album in The Ones I Condemn that is probably known less than it should be.

It was all Travis Smith and his computer's fault, right?

Swedish thrashers Rosicrucian never got the love they deserved, especially for their second album. Excellent and varied songwriting and great performances. The vocals gets a bit tiresome throughout the album, but overall an impressive album.

Sanctity - Road to Bloodshed.
Hardly a masterpiece but I really enjoyed this album when it came out and still give it a spin here and there. They were very good live, but split up pretty soon after

Death Magnetic (at least by this site's standards) and Repentless (same).

Infected Nations is a very underrated album for the modern era and Act III is underrated for the old era.

Yep Repentless is killer. Death Magnetic... I prefer it to the new one at least. Its not as bad as people make out

Onslaught (UK) have been consistently producing great thrash which I never see getting the acclaim it deserves.

Slammer's The Work of Idle Hands is a brilliant if somewhat mellow thrash album. Also, Xentrix's For Whose Advantage? is a classic American sounding thrasher with awesome guitar work.

I really like Death Magnetic (say what you will, but the fact is that it's their most consistent album since the 80s). I mean, it doesn't touch, nor even get close to, their albums from '84-'88 but I probably like it the most of all the post-2000 Big 4 material (save for Dystopia).

Repentless fucking sucks though.

Ironically, as I type to this I'm listening to My Dying Bride which is about as far from thrash as it gets

Acrophet are pretty awesome. They throw in some trad and hardcore influence, interesting stuff.

I know I'm guilty of contributing to it as well, but it seems this thread is trying to going in two different directions at once:
underrated = most who comment on the album seem to appreciate it less than I do
overlooked = album which rarely is mentioned.

I have a feeling alot of us listen to tons of obscure stuff and could easily give long lists (with comments) of albums which news sites and reviewers tend to not care about. But I also have a a feeling that's less giving to alot of the readers, especially since there's already the thrash thread in the recommendation section. Frankly, I see little purpose of this thread in the light of that one already having tons of pages if overlooked albums is the focus here. Since in that thread, people who don't want to find stuff themselves but are interested in specific types of thrash albums they don't know about can give a detailed request and get lots of recommendations based on that. Just mentioning obscure stuff and point out that it doesn't get mentioned as often as it should.

But if we focus on underrated, it may very well be more giving as a complement to the thrash thread in the recommendation section, since it's not unusual for people to not give albums much of a chance if those albums often get criticised whenever it's mentioned. Kreator - Cause for Conflict is an example of what I would call an underrated thrash album, since I tend to enjoy it more than the often more praised "comeback" era albums of theirs, and alot of people just lump it in with a bunch of other, very different, albums as their bad era or something. Not to mention it's average review score of 68% on this site. And of course the tendency to shit on albums based on how good other albums by the same band have been, or how they want albums by the particular band to sound, rather than just judging an album for it's own properties.

Wow, this is pretty cool! Listening now, really digging it.

Well I enjoy Low more than most of the comeback era of Testament with the exception of Dark Roots Of Earth!

Low is a good album. It has its own dark thrashy/groovy charm that I think they pull off quite well. I didn't realize how good it was until relatively recently too. It also has some of my favorite production on a Testament album. The production is my one problem with Testament's discography.

Also, I'll take this chance to be "that guy", as usual, and mention Souls of Black. It's easily one of my favorite metal albums of all time, and I think it's still my favorite from them.

I will also mention Grip Inc.'s thrashiest album called Power Of Inner Strength.

Evil Army - Evil Army (Self-titled)

You may have read some sketchy things about these guys (mainly rumors of stealing gear), but ignore it all and just listen to this record.

Thrash bliss.

It has its thrashing moments but I'd call that a groove metal album imo. Regardless of genre though its one of the best groove metal albums I've ever heard, and more people need to listen to it.

A lot of these picks seem rather obscure to me, or maybe I just haven't done my duty of researching thrash metal enough!

Interestingly, quite a few of them are on Spotify so it's easy for me to check them out. Keep em coming!

As for me, I'll second Znowhite. I managed to get a copy of Act of God on cassette still factory sealed in a lot of tapes. Of course, opening it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. To add something new, and I know they're a little off topic, but if you like black thrash I don't hear a lot of people talk about Aura Noir's Black Thrash Attack anymore. I was spinning a few tracks often a few years ago, there's some great headbanging riffs throughout.

If you're looking for obscure here's a couple from the 90's I doubt anyone has heard of.

I thought the entire album was good even one foot in hell was not bad imo.

Concrete Sox's Your Turn Next is more unknown than underrated but it's a great crossover album from '85 and very crusty. There's some quite good riffs on there and on two songs there's an unusual synth in parts that works well. I'm serious too when I say it's a properly unknown thing, no reviews at all on here and 52 ratings with a 3.45 average for it on RYM (deserves much higher imo). The other Concrete Sox albums have less.

I think, for my money, the most underrated thrash album-of all time has to be Forbidden's Twisted Into Form. It's an absolutely fantastic thrash album with Paul Bostaph on drums before he joined Slayer. For me this album has everything; the speed, intensity, crispy riffage, impeccable drumming, and quality songwriting. The only thing I always found a little strange was how much the vocals sounded like Tom Araya; luckily I got a bit older and realized that many people in the bay area thrash scene had similar styles/vocal approaches. Forbidden for the win!

Depressive Age - First Depression maybe?

I think Coroner's entire catalog is a collection of most underrated thrash metal albums on the planet! The songwriting is on the level that only few other bands can match, no wonder Coroner's been nicknamed "The Rush of Thrash Metal".

A lot of great stuff mentioned already for the 80's except...

Heathen-Victims Of Deception. Bay area riffage with great vocals from White. Also the songs on the 2005 demo that made Evolution Of Chaos are monstrous.

Now throwing some more modern stuff:

The Haunted's debut has some great Slayer-esque moments, and is all out speed.

Creatures-I Lucifer is a solid Slayer influenced crossover album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7CpItsgQG4

Iron Age is Power Trip before Power Trip, and The Sleeping Eye is criminally underrated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsTLi9TjfMc

Their Saga Demos hinted at something even better too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z2v1IScHXc

And speaking of Power Trip; their first ep The Armageddon Blues is fun as fuck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRyN3s_SJ1s

And SoCal crossover act Take Offense EP; Under The Same Shadow is just one great circle pit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpmWG9_rj-U

A classic but is it really "underrated?"

Not 'underrated'–just overlooked at times. I recommend this and their debut at any opportunity.

So, Syzygial Miscreancy is a classic death-thrash record, right? No need to bring it up in an underrated thread?

I've always been a "Death Magnetic" apologist. Sure it isn't quite as good as the first 3 Metallica records, but it has some good tunes and some honest to God decent thrash riffs on there and it's easily my #4 favorate Metallica record (I actually like it better than "In Justice For All." Same with "Hard Wired" although the newest one isn't quite as even in quality (i.e. too many filler tracks that cause it to kinda drag.)

I bought that Nailbomb album when it first came out after hearing a couple tracks on it and thinking, yeah, this sounds like the album Sepultura should have made- kick ass thrash/death, fuck yeah. Until I heard the whole album all the way through, and it turned out it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be- too much industrial skronking and annoying samples for my taste, and other parts of it remind me of why I never got into Soulfly later on. So, in other words, it has a couple really great tracks, a couple okay tracks, and a few I just flat out don't like at all.

I've always liked the first two Forbidden albums- they are both frickin' great.
I don't know if I've mentioned the first album by the New Jersey Hades= if I have, then sorry to be redundant. That was actually my favorate speed/thrash album for a while.

I listened to (1987) Holy Terror - Terror and Submission (1993 Japan Reissue) and (1987) Sacrilege - Within the Prophecy + Behind The Realms Of Madness (2008 Reissue) this morning on my way to work:
https://www.metal-archives.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=2767484#p2767484

First one is too power metalesque for me but second one is good!
Thanks, guys!
P.S: I recently discovered, felt in love with and could watch Demolition Hammer live at Brutal Asssault. Anything similar, please?

Hmmm... from the more brutal thrash albums, try these if you haven't:

Sadus - first three - Illusions/Chemical Exposure one is the most aggressive, A Vision Of Misery the most technical, Swallowed in Black is sort of in between
Morbid Saint - Spectrum Of Death
Or maybe something like Incubus - Serpent Temptation (that's the only one I own, not sure if their other material is similar) for a more death metal feel. But Demolition Fucking Hammer are one of a kind, Epidemic of Violence is one of my favorite albums ever.

Anyone heard the new Chainsaw album? It sounds really good.

I'll add another vote for this. The song "Sign of Evil" is my favourite track from it, and one of my favourite 80's thrash songs.