Except that they were never nearly as popular as the other three were. The big four (or three) isn't YOUR favorite thrash bands, but the ones that were big. The same with sticking Testament or Exodus or Overkill in there instead of Anthrax. They might have been more consistent, especially over the 90s or 00s, but again, it's not YOUR big four, but the general big four and let's face it, Anthrax were hugely popular in the 80s, about as big as Slayer and Megadeth, as opposed to the aforementioned three bands who certainly had fans, but obviously weren't as big as Anthrax or the other three of the big four.

besides, having only three big thrash bands, makes the count up to number 7... making it the way it should stay...

I would add Cirith Ungol to this list.

Yeah, Deathevokation is pretty great.

Going back to Martin Sabbath. People missed my point entirely. I just think that Martin deserves as much praise as any Sabbath vocalist if not more. He had very big shoes to fill and did it perfectly. The albums he sang on and the treatment that Iommi gave him deserve the utmost respect. And yet - he is forgotten.

This thread is getting derailed a bit. The fact that some band suddenly "sells out" or starts to suck is not an injustice at all. They probably just were posers in the first place. End of story.

I think one clear injustice is that Randy Palmer never got paid for his work in Bedemon. At first he was ripped off like hell with the crappy bootleg releases, and when the Bedemon stuff was FINALLY about to be officially released, the guy died in a car accident. Maybe we (or I) should just be thankful that the stuff eventually got even released and Randy was at least given the credit he deserved.

My friend was born in the early 70s. He saw the rise (and in some cases, the fall) of some of my absolute favorite bands.... Emperor, Necrovore, Burzum and Darkthrone, Morbid Angel, King Diamond, Slaughter, Athiest, Death, Possessed, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, etc... I'll never know the feeling of being introduced to such great metal AS it was coming out.....

Necrovore is an especially big one for me, since they're from our hometown. He has an original demo and shirt that he bought at a show in 1987, and he saw nearly all of their shows, just because they were from our town. You know the live footage on youtube? He attended that concert. He has met all the members as well. He's lucky.

Damn my only being 22 Even when I was 16/17, people used to tell me "you have the musicial tastes of a 40 year old. You're in the wrong body"

I get that all the time. I'm 20 and I listen to a lot of rock from the sixties and seventies that many people who lived during that time don't even know.

Damn, 3 pages and no Running Wild? Not even once!?

Fantastic band that, although decently known on this board, never really amounted to anything in the eyes of the world except as the first "pirate themed" band. While image is one thing, the music backs it up. It's a damn shame and a crime that none of their albums are widely available (the last full-length is slightly easier to obtain), forcing us to choke each other for the little copies that scavenge the net.

Oh yeah? I must be quite lucky. I went to a local CD store that has specialized mostly in metal (wild guess here... 90% metal of all the stock) and when I asked for some Running Wild I easily got 'Black Hand Inn' and enjoyed it a lot. I don't know why I haven't looked up for more of them, but didn't look as difficult to find as you describe.

Of course, I might have been just lucky enough.

It's quite difficult for me to find a copy of their classic albums, but when I do, it will have been incredibly worth it.

Death and Glory is really the only one that is difficult to get a hold of.

Bah,you live in USA.Now imagine how is it to us from backwater countries like Croatia...I have seen only one RW album here...Some other bands releases,like those of Stormwitch,Accept or Gravedigger I haven't seen at all.

The biggest music store in my city (and it is one of the country's biggest cities) has the following when it comes to metal -
4 Iron Maiden albums
2 Black Sabbath digipacks (both cost in excess of 25 dollars)
4 Metallica albums
3 Megadeth albums (one of them is a greatest hits compilation)
3 DT albums
1 Skid Row album (which I bought a week back, so none left now)
And a few shitty newer Scorpions. That is all.

Be happy you have at least seen a Running Wild album. I have no hopes of even finding one by Blind Guardian or Queensryche.

Show No Mercy got 2 stars on Allmusic.com, the lowest of any Slayer album.

Let me guess, they call it immature?

FUCK YOU AMG.

My friend and I were listening to this on vinyl last night and it occurred to me, just how much crazier and harder to play the stuff on "Show No Mercy" is compared with anything else in their catalogue, except of course for the mighty "Hell Awaits". I mean, compare "The Final Command" to anything that band would have written in the last twenty years..it just makes you dizzy and want to burst out with the evillest glee. Is that immaturity? I'm really not sure..the whole concept only makes me laugh with derision.

Dude, it's called the internet.

this is real injustice,

- people here in the Philippines, oh I can't see any love here for the metal
- the audience hates it, as if it's all about noise, screaming
- i even have a classmate who tells it's like screamo
- the metal bands here, like Intolerant, Bloodshedd, and Sin get only little support
- the catholic church condemns it (yes, them hating it is a big understatement)
- music channels like MTV and MYX gives it minimal support, if not none at all
- most people here prefer to listen to (c)rap, rnb, pop, and shitty ballads,
- and lastly, they think all metallers are satanists in every way possible

SHEESH.

Indeed, but Running Wild albums tend to fetch more money than they really ought to (as in, reissue that shit!).

Well, I think part of their limited success or, rather, being simply known as a cult band is due to Rolf's decision making. He never toured outside of Germany after the Blazon Stone tour (barring a few festival gigs in Italy and such). You'd think he'd have been offered the chance, perhaps, I mean you see smaller and less successful bands like Grave Digger playing South America - so he could have perhaps expanded his audience if he'd taken a few more risks. But it seems, especially in their last years, that they were a very cost effective band: drum machines, all the guitars handled by Rolf, produced in his home studio etc; so it was clear he was just milking it.

Hell, but often what it takes for a band to get more popular is for them to split up for a few years. Dave Chandler said Saint Vitus got way more popular in the few years they were split-up. Maybe the same will be true of Running Wild?

As for getting their albums; I've had no problem getting some (Blazon Stone, Pile of Skulls and Branded & Exiled). But I've got their best two albums (Death or Glory, Gates to Purgatory) coming soon.

Well, I certainly know of one, albeit rather obscure, injustice that has occurred to a once-amazing band, Pitchshifter.

Throughout the band's formation in 1989, and amongst their arguably two best full-length albums, Industrial (1991) and Desensitized (1993), Pitchshifter have composed apocalyptic and bleak heavy metal that is dominated by a mechanized, destructive, and corrosive atmosphere that rivaled the early efforts of Godflesh.

In fact, the monstrous and monolithic riffs that may be heard amongst the two aforementioned full-length albums seem to be a dime-a-dozen, yet Pitchshifter seem to execute them with ease and prowess. In addition, the growls that are implemented contribute even more to the gloomy vibe that the music provides.

Now the injustice that pertains to this band, is that from their 1998 full-length release www.pitchshifter.com and on, Pitchshifter began to compose talentless, horrendous, and quite despicable music that was reminiscent of mallcore and nu-metal (with pathetic attempts at introducing dark, industrial overtones). As time progressed in the 2000s, this disgusting trend continued, thus annihilating all the credibility and glory that Pitchshifter were known for having in their early days.

That is definitely an injustice, which can be applied to another band that was once amazing, but recently took a stroll down the gutter.

What band?

I don't mind some of the newer Pitchshifter albums, but they aren't as good as the Pitch Shifter albums.

Submit and Infotainment? are good also.

Are you talking about Fear Factory?

Actually, the band that I was referring to was Cryptopsy, but the issue(s) concerning them have already been discussed, hence I did not feel like repeating the issue, as I'm sure that everyone is aware of it already.

Amen.

I'll probably be flamed for this, but I'm at least not a metal elitist poser. Honesty is my only excuse.
I'm pissed off by every Death Metal purist asshole whining off about Job For A Cowboy.
They were not posers at any time, they just made up an EP full of surprisingly good DeathCore (wait, good Deathcore?!).
Doom EP doesn't really sound very pretentious, it's actually very convincing in my opinion, very honest.

Yes, the aftermath created possibly one of the most annoying genre out there. Waking The Cadaver actually consider themselves a Grindcore band!
Chugga chug, bro!

What I'm saying is; DeathCore is shit. Pure horse shit.

But JFAC is still considered a DeathCore band even when they've converted into full-on Death Metal,
and all their fans are considered posers just because they listen to JFAC. Seriously ffs!

That Goatlord was scrapped. Well... it's not really a problem in itself. The thing is, while I like both versions available, reading about how the guys were dead set on an organic production and the overall quality of the release makes me all as I'm a big fan of Soulside Journey. Thing is, had Goatlord seen the light of day, well first it would have probably been called A Blaze in the Northern Sky as the project wasn't already scrapped when Fenriz found the title as well as the fact that the titletrack was used as the closer. That means that the A Blaze in the Northern Sky we know wouldn't have existed. The very cool and unique black metal album with a death metal structure as well as riffs being played in a bm fashion wouldn't have existed as maybe their whole "Unholy trinity". So in a way it's a good thing it never saw the light of day as true album, but I can't stop thinking about how incredible such an album would've been, who knows, maybe it would've been my second - or first - favourite Darkthrone album. I really get a weird feeling thinking of this as I think it's a shame, but at the same time... I'm glad it happened this way.

Another similar situation is Emperor's Wrath of the Tyrant. Whatever people claim about this demo, to me, this is clearly a death metal release, maybe just one that sees the band trying to make a transition to black metal. This was recorded not so long after the last Thou Shalt Suffer demo and while a couple of black metal elements have been added like the vocals, except for some riffs here and there, this is pretty much old school death metal to me. The production sucks and it may be hard to dissect the instruments, but after a couple of listening sessions, you can find more death metal riffs and drumming beyond the couple of obvious ones. And all of this makes it a pretty unique dm demo, as their fellow country mates Darkthrone, it's some pretty different than the usual Swedish stuff that was out there at the time.

So I think it's a shame it never saw the light of day as little black metal oriented death metal album. Seriously, the more I think about it, the more I think it would've been a very killer release. Instead, every tracks except "Forgotten Centuries" gets re-recorded in a black metal fashion with relentless drumming, keys and grim production - not that it's a problem in itself. And, listening to that aforementioned track makes me all sad they never did justice to this killer dm song, seriously, if it's not my favourite track of the demo, it's close behind. But again, the more I think about it and listen to those tracks, I wonder why Emperor decided to re-record all the tracks beside one in different sessions. Why the hell didn't they re-record this as a full-length for As the Shadow Rise? Even with a black metal make-up the songs are great, hell just listen to "Ancient Queen". I prefer it to the demo version as the sound quality is much better (and while the atmosphere and particular sound is different, the one in the demo is almost all gone because of the crappy production) and there's some of the coolest Emperor keys in there. Since an Emperor death metal full-length would have been highly improbable considered the advanced time it was put out (1992), they were pretty much a black metal band as Darkthrone had already scrapped Goatlord, I think that even if some parts would have sounded more death metal than others - probably why "Forgotten Centuries" was left out - I think they should have re-recorded the whole thing during the As the Shadow Rise session. Had they done the thing, I wouldn't be surprised if the album would compete with In the Nightside Eclipse. It's a shame really, even if most songs were re-recorded in killer versions, the (killer) demo as pretty much being disassembled. A review with my thoughts on the demo is on its way.

We all know that Cirith Ungol's demise is the saddest metal story ever told.