You don't need to post links to the songs, I'm quite familiar with Dio's 80s discography. Guitar cover videos would be better so I can see the pinching for myself.


As for the Heaven & Hell reunion, I'm still kinda surprised that was as well received as it was. I'm skeptical they could have pulled that off in 02 or 03 after the original Sabbath lineup said goodbye for the first time.

Most of the people who I spoke to about Dio had no idea who he was either, the jeering came after I showed them some of his material. There was so much ingrained hostility for anything from the 80s at that time that everything from Motley Crue to Anthrax was merged into the Glam Metal paradigm, even old Slayer wasn't immune from being mocked because of their music videos and hair. Grunge was an absolute cancer that ate its way through the majority of popular culture, and the new wave of pop punk that followed was even more hostile to 80s metal. Pantera and Metallica fans were not much better, largely because if there wasn't gruff vocals involved, it was essentially Glam.

Maybe it was just my locale in the suburbs just outside of Baltimore and then later north of Philadelphia, but both old school heavy metal and thrash metal were looked down upon pretty heavily from 1994 through 1998 when I was doing my public school prison sentence from grade 9-12.

Glad to announce mailman's Megadeth_Countdown to Extinction is a huge improvement over his other two Megadeth reviews as there's a lot more emphasis on the musicianship, plus it's devoid of overly sardonic jibes.

Hell's Unicorn line up above: "when I was doing my public school prison sentence from grade 9-12" made me think of the name of a high school I didn't attend in the suburbs of Montreal but my friend did, P.C.H.S (Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School), commonly referred to by its inmates, "Prison Camp Hitler Style". (My sister went to Beaconsfield High School: Big Hunk (of) Shit. Haha...myself, I was jammed in a massive public institution (don't even remember the name!) split in half, between English and French (I was on the latter side). I'd get derided by piers at school for being primarily anglophone whilst the dicks in my neighbourhood tormented me for going to French school (for which I was too cool). Good times!

My experience was pretty much anything from before Nirvana was to be mocked (Metallica being an exception, as a lot of people who found out about them through Load or TBA, such as me, would dig through their back catalog; and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers being another exception, because none of them even knew how old they were and they still got played on radio and MTV). I showed some of my friends ignorant to older metal Ozzy Sabbath and Dio Sabbath, and generally neither garnered much of a reaction one way or the other. But when I talked about liking a lot of 70s music (Sabbath, Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Aerosmith, Hendrix (60s)) etc I would get weird looks. That stuff really wasn't considered any better than say, Motley Crue to most of my peers.

But here is an amusing story... Back when I was in high school, it became fashionable to kids (mostly girls, if I remember correctly) to wear black studded collars, belts, wrist bands, and the like. And one of my teachers asked a classmate wearing that stuff, "That style's not new. Do you know where it came from?" She said no, and I piped up, "80s metal!" She whipped her head around like "WHAAT!" and I was like, yeah, watch old Iron Maiden and Judas Priest videos. And she was like, "I don't want to!" Then my teacher was like, "there was that, but it originally came from gay fashion from decades ago," and she really freaked out. And that's when I put 2 and 2 together and was like, "Oh so that's why Rob Halford started wearing that stuff." As at the time he had already come out to the public as gay, but I didn't know that the leather and studs look came from gay culture.

Err, I meant mailman's Youthenasia review was a big step up over his Countdown to Extinction one!

I've a feeling it was Halford's coming out of the closet which made being gay fashionable, hip and cool...

Damn, even old Slayer? I thought the 90s was when Slayer fans raped you for not yelling "SLAYER" loud enough. Things were worse than I thought. The pop-punk wave was in my neck of the woods as well but they at least had respect for Iron Maiden and Ozzy. You know, I did want to make an effort to dial back my power metal rhetoric but all these high school horror stories make me wonder if I should double down (I probably won't out of a) laziness, b) respect for the fact that even mjollnir has had enough).



I don't think that's entirely accurate. There's no denying gay culture adopted them, I think leather and studs primarily started with Hells Angels and biker gangs (which was why that look diffused so quickly in the metal scene).

Bikers certainly wore/wear lots of leather, but studs?

Some of the Metallica and Pantera crowd was okay with the stuff that came out after Reign In Blood, but I remember the other crowds deriding them as hair metal. I think the only older metal band that was tolerated in the pop punk scene was Motorhead. For some reason there was something about the 90s crowd that involved everybody calling any band with hair past their necks Glam Rock, it was truly bizarre. You'd get some occasional exceptions here and there, but I remember mostly listening to music alone while I was in school, it wasn't until college at around 1999/2000 when I started to get different reactions, in part thanks to In Flames getting popular and people having a less hostile attitude towards playing fast and melodic.

I don't really mind the power metal rhetoric myself, I have been chided for doing the same in a number of my older reviews, though part of my rationale for it was defending the genre against the ANUS crowd.

ANUS actually posted a great article about "Metal losing the culture war" that touches upon a lot of points that I've brought up on here regarding popularity being important to metal. I really don't understand their hatred of the sub-genre though, and even more baffling is their refusal to include Iron Maiden and Judas Priest amongst their bands for review and discussion.

I do concur with them to a fair extent on the enmity that exists between pop culture and metal culture, and I also butted heads with guys on here like OlympicSharpshooter from time to time over the notion that metal was simply an offshoot of pop music (his opinion, which I naturally don't share). I think for ANUS people there is a certain ideological hostility to consonant melodic material and symmetrical songwriting, which they associate with flirtation towards pop music sensibilities. I think this hostility misses a broader point, namely that pop music requires a certain laziness of thought that is not so much tied to auditory consonance, but rather to slavishly catering to the lowest common denominator and dumbing music down to the point of it becoming hypnotic, and also conveying lyrical messages that either inhibit or outright retard deep and critical thought.

Be all this as it may, I have zero time for people who conflate power metal and old school heavy metal with today's synth pop craze, it's little different to me than meathead Metallica fans who make fun of people for liking 80s Black Sabbath.

Back to the whole Dio discussion, I first got wind of him when gleaning Holy Diver (what a title!) and then realizing it wasn't Ozzy singing on H&H and Mob Rules...looking back, people at school were so indentured by Metallica's Master of Puppets and the Black Album. they likely wouldn't have recognized him had he appeared on their doorstep...Apparently, he was a real passionate, fiery character not to be messed with (he attacked a member of his band - can't quite remember who - for calling him an elf!) But wait, wasn't his first venture called just that?! Haha! In any case, a true, classic metal icon who's certainly missed...

I don't recall Dio ever attacking another member of his band for calling him an elf, but I do remember Ozzy hanging Dio in effigy during live performances in the 80s. Likewise, Dio and Vivian Campbell had a severe falling out and never reconciled, I caught Dio on the 2006 tour where he was playing the entire Holy Diver album where he later said that he hoped Vivian dies and that Def Leppard was a great band to have diarrhea with. lol

Sorry to interrupt, but that sounds like St. Thomas High School in Pointe Claire, where I went through high school (on the English side). Anyways, carry on.

I've noticed that a lot of the So Far So Good So What reviews mention how it's unfortunate that it's stuck between Peace Sells and Rust In Peace, therefor it can't compete, but I honestly like it better than Peace Sells. Anyone else with me, or is that another opinion of mine that nobody shares?

I remember that too. Dio fans loved to laud Ronnie as the classiest person in metal, but that rant was anything but classy.




I used to think it was a little bit better than Peace Sells but Peace Sells just has way too many great songs.

Well, Anarchy in the UK is a less awkward cover than I Ain't Superstitious and there is more emotion in SFSGSW, but the songwriting on Peace Sells is far more organized and the musicianship is much stronger. They're both fun grade A albums for me though.

My preference is for Peace Sells 'cause I think that pound for pound, the songs are stronger; I still have my original press, re-press, and remastered copies of So Far, So Good–so, I like it, just a bit.

Mailman was baffling on those Megadeth reviews, saying " and almost two years to write and record their third album "So Far, So Good... So What!" Most of that album was already devised by Mustaine in '84/5.

And, on Youthanasia he wrote "When the album starts, it is with a pummeling thrash metal riff that sounds like a better-produced Countdown to Extinction song." As far as I'm concerned the album has absolutely no thrash elements; even "Reckoning Day", live, doesn't get its "shit on!" to thrash levels.

Eh, I can kind of see where one could make that connection (Ultraboris did call Darkside of Aquarius thrash style riffing), but yea, that isn't a thrash song to me even on a Skin O My Teeth or High Speed Dirt level.

Ja, exactly! And, there's was a lot of hate for "Ashes in Your Mouth", which for my money, was and is the closest song to match against anything on Rust in Peace; just such strange reviewing.

And, much respect to everyone on the thread who regularly reviews.

I guess everyone's familiar with the new Priest album. That song, "Never The Heroes", would sound great as the theme music for the TV series STRIKE BACK. That would be a perfect song to compliment that show.

Liquid Brano nostalgically shocked me by posting:

"Sorry to interrupt, but that sounds like St. Thomas High School in Pointe Claire, where I went through high school (on the English side). Anyways, carry on."

Yes! Indeed! I now remember the French side's name being changed to the cheesily wistful "Felix-LeClerc",,,oh man! the gulf between now and then seems so vast...small World indeed! Good to see a fellow alumni on the site!

When you consider that Vivian said some truly horrid things about Ronnie unprovoked a few days before that video was taken, I kinda understand Dio responding that way. Vivian was a solid guitar player, but if he'd never been discovered by Dio, he would have probably languished away in Belfast and never made it as a guitarist. His old band Sweet Savage, though competent, did virtually nothing in the 80s apart from a couple of singles and a really obscure 1981 demo that most people haven't heard, and now he's tied to a massively successful AOR outfit (Def Leppard) and is still widely regarded as the best guitarist to have ever played in Dio (personally I'd argue that both Craig Goldie and Doug Aldrich are better). For him to simply call Dio the vilest human being in the recording industry unprovoked is probably the shittiest thing he could say.

If you look at Dio's attacks on other artists throughout his time in the industry (be it Ritchie Blackmore, Ozzy Osbourne or Vivian Campbell), he is never the instigator, though he doesn't pull his punches when it comes time for a response. You could maybe argue that Dio pulling Def Leppard into that rant was uncalled for, but given that Vivian has been yapping for the better part of 2 decades about how much happier he is with them and how much he claims to have hated working with Ronnie, I can't really get too upset over it, especially considering that Def Leppard's output has been, with only a couple exceptions, terrible for the past 30 years.

Fair points, but a classy in my opinion would be to not respond at all or get in any of that drama. There's no real reason to respond to any of that he said she said bullshit. Vivian never threatened Ronnie or his families life. One person I can think of that never got involved in that was King Diamond.

I had a blast at that high school, although I started smoking since I swear everyone at that school smoked during recess. At lunchtime a bunch of us would walk to this bakery at a little strip mall about 10 minutes away and buy big loaves of french bread for around a dollar each. That way we could use the rest of the money on our smoking habits.

As for the SFSGSW deal going on here, I have to admit that when I first heard it (back when I was in St. Thomas HS no less), my response was similar to mailman's. The only thrash I was into was stuff like Sodom and Sacrifice, along with a slew of crossover stuff. Anything slower to me was heavy metal, including Anthrax and Metallica. And "heavy metal" wasn't my scene back then. As SFSGSW was my first Megadeth experience outside of a couple videos, Dave's voice reminded me of an unhinged Stephen Pearcy from Ratt, and there just wasn't enough ripping tempos. Hell, I thought "Hook in Mouth" would've been enjoyable if it was sped up to typical Hell Awaits speed. Plus the dudes looked like they washed their hair in the band photo. But I was finding that I was digging some of the melodies, and that album really grew on me after more listens. I started to appreciate less speedy shit, started digging heavy metal again and ditched hardcore punk music, although I was still big on the faster forms of thrash and the burgeoning death metal scene. SFSGSW is not their best album, but it's my favorite (although the remaster totally sucks...I love the big drums and reverb!)

I think the classy label is so popular because Ronnie was always extremely gracious to his fans at all times and made time to talk to them and sign autographs even when his career was at its all-time high, something you can't do with the likes of Bruce Dickinson or Rob Halford without them being accompanied by a security detail. I personally wouldn't call Ronnie classy, he was basically a New York-based brawler in a smaller body who functioned on a code of honor that included not hitting first, but always hitting back whenever someone is dissing either you or your friends.

It's fair to say that Dio may have crossed a line in this specific case, but it doesn't really make Vivian Campbell any less of an ungrateful douche bag and a certified piece of shit. Granted, part of my issue with the guy was throughout the 90s while he was in Def Leppard he fed into the anti-Dio sentiment in interviews with music media to the point he was almost spearheading it himself.

That is a fair assessment and yea, Vivian is a cunt. Him taking part in that Last In Line project still rubs me the wrong way.

Props to Superchard for that look at Ward One. With the possible exception of Blizzard of Ozz, it probably is the best thing that a Sabbath member has done outside the band. It frankly sickens me to see how much Bill has squandered his potential.

TrooperEd's style never disappoints. Solid write up of Kill Em All.

Yes, caustically mind-bending and overflowing with sardonic legerdemain while still sticking to brass tax, as usual (btw where can I get some of those twisted purple emojees. like the tomato splatting one from the other day?)...

Muchos gracias to both of you



and I wish I knew what any of these words meant without going to dictionary.com. Hell, maybe I could use some of those to fend off Bastardhead if he gets the misfortune of checking my Seventh Son review.

Eres muy bienvenido, and oops, my bad (again); "sardonic" is a personal favourite, meaning "grimly mocking" (picture an evil wizard bent on taking over the World while gleefully chuckling and rubbing his hands together or perhaps almost every line by Jason Bateman in Ozark) whilst "legerdemain" is a fancy, hoity toity gentleman's word for "magic" (as in sleight of hand, usually prestidigitation)...

Refreshing to see A.Hansen's redemptive Visigoth_Conqueror's Oath write-up...but am I the only one terribly smitten by "Warrior Queen"? In my (humble) opinion, it's the coolest and most hard-driving track yet hardly has any mentions amongst the handful of reviews!

Also, nice Sleep and Seven Sisters reviews by Twisted_Psychology...strangely, I was a little disappointed with the Cauldron and the Cross but it's still a sweet album which, unlike The Warden EP, requires several comprehensive spins in order to fully dig...(haven't heard the full-length debut yet surely feel the need to check Sleep's Sciences out as soon as possible!).

TrooperEd's Skeletonwitch review pretty much described me, regarding the "thrashers who don't like death/black", except I do like some death metal. I enjoy the death/thrash styles that are kinda on the border (Possessed, early Kreator, early Sepultura, etc.), but I also like death metal that has at least some form of pleasing vocals, and instrumentation that is incredible. Mostly classics, like Death, Deicide, Morbid Angel, but death metal in general is something I can enjoy with the right bands and the right doses. Black metal, I've got no interest in. But in response to the review, for my mindset, I don't like the album, but I do like "Serpents Unleashed" by Skeletonwitch, because I think the vocals are a lot more tolerable, and it leans more towards the thrashy side. Cool write up!

Regarding the new Reign in Blood review:

1) Written by a guy with the word "thrash" in his name? Check.

2) Calls it "overrated"? Check.

3) Barely talks about anything other than Angel of Death and Raining Blood? Check.

Like, man, do you have a single original thought to spare? No? Okay.

All month I've been forcing myself to keep my ratings within the more reasonable 70-90% range (a 70% and lesser one - or three - is due any time now), then all of a sudden, I snapped and lost control! So, please forgive me everyone (notably Dimhea) if I launch a vaulted string of gushing reviews for the next little while, although I'll make sure to reel it in, calm down and focus on something less stalwart soon in order to break it up a bit).

That said, an album has to be real exceptional to chart 95% and up, phenomenally poignant and resonant for the elusive 98 and 99%, while 100% comes along but once in a blue moon (or whenever Dream Troll releases anything!)...

I just want to say, I'm proud of this site, and especially its wicked "guild" of reviewers!

\m/ (couldn't locate a rocket sprung jubilant purple emoj...)

I do have an original thought to spare, and I'm gonna think out loud right now...

1) I have "Thrash" in my name because I wanted to, so what?

2) It's overrated because people overrate that album like hell. It's decent, but to be honest it never has any moments that make me gaze in amazement. You want to know why it's overrated? Well there's a fuck ton of BETTER albums out there, those of which you probably haven't heard of. Here are just some examples of thrash albums that are way better than "Reign In Blood"...

Toxik - World Circus
Toxik - Think This
Znowhite - Act of God
Trizna - Out Of Step
Cyclone Temple - I Hate Therefore I Am
Аспид - Кровоизлияние
Железный Поток - Знамение
Клиника - Лотерейный билет
Exumer - Possessed By Fire
Blind Illusion - The Sane Asylum
Heathen - Victims Of Deception
Deathrow - Deception Ignored
Atrophy - Socialized Hate
Target - Master Project Genesis
Defiance - Product Of Society
Defiance - Beyond Recognition
Acid Storm - Biotronic Genesis
Mandator - Perfect Progeny
Wargasm - Why Play Around?
Indestructible Noise Command - Razorback
Watchtower - Control And Resistance
Shah - Beware
Xentrix - Shattered Existence
Xentrix - For Whose Advantage?
Pyracanda - Two Sides Of A Coin
Paradox - Heresy
Laaz Rockit - Know Your Enemy
Visitor - Visitor
Grinder - Dawn For The Living
Intruder - A Higher Form of Killing
Viking - Man Of Straw
Apocalypse - Apocalypse
Mordred - Fool's Game
Meliah Rage - Kill To Survive
Gammacide - Victims of Science
Demolition Hammer - Epidemic Of Violence
Helstar - Nosferatu
Devastation - Idolatry
Hirax - Raging Violence
Mercenary - Demo 86' (I'll include a demo on this list, because I feel like it)
Evil Sinner - Evil Sinner
Aggression - The Full Treatment
Disciples Of Power - Powertrap
Coven 6669 - Blessed Is The Black
Acrophet - Corrupt Minds
Quick Change - Circus Of Death
Hexen - State Of Insurgency
Gama Bomb - Survival Of The Fastest (This one is a popular newer one, but I'll include it)
Morbid Saint - Spectrum Of Death
Mortal Sin - Mayhemic Destruction
Artillery - By Inheritance
Meanstreak - Roadkill (This a an ALL FEMALE THRASH band! A female thrash band does better than "Reign In Blood")
Coroner - R.I.P.
Voivod - Killing Technology (Popular, but good Prog Thrash)
Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare (Popular, but good)
Entropy - Ashen Existence
Rigor Mortis - Rigor Mortis
Powermad - Absolute Power
Vektor - Terminal Redux (Completely DESTROYS "Reign In Blood")
Attomica - Attomica
Hexenhaus - The Edge of Eternity
Sacrilege - Within The Prophecy
Onslaught - In Search Of Sanity (Screw "Power From Hell" and "The Force", THIS ALBUM IS WHERE IT'S AT!)
Sacrifice - Soldiers Of Misfortune
Assassin - The Upcoming Terror
Vendetta - Brain Damage
Exhorder - Slaughter In The Vatican
Crownear - Full Moon Fever
Violent Force - Malevolent Assault Of Tomorrow
Sieges Even - Lifecycle
Anvil Bitch - Rise To Offend
Obliveon - From This Day Forward
Dementia - Recuperate From Reality
Indestroy - Indestroy
Agony - The First Defiance
Donor - Triangle Of The Lost

I think I've made my point...

3) I only made mention of "Angel Of Death", "Jesus Saves", "Postmortem" and "Raining Blood" because the reviewer moderators on this site are too damn strict on how many damn songs you can mention in a review, so I only mentioned those 4. If you don't like to fact that I only mentioned 4 songs, then go read some other review mentioning those precious little tunes you wanted to hear. I only focused on what stood out for that review in particular.

So next time, don't be a dick and talk behind my back like that. Go ahead and listen to those albums I listed. You have a lot of catching up to do if you think "Reign In Blood" is the "be all, end all" of thrash metal. Records like "Epidemic of Violence" and "Spectrum of Death" fucking make "Reign In Blood" sound like a preschool rhyme time sing-along!

Reign in Blood is the be all end of all thrash metal. You mentioned some good albums in that last but a lot of them are generic as hell. It’s veey common for young thrash fans to go ape shit for the obscure stuff (I certainly did, just look at my name) but a lot of it just isn’t that good. It took me years to finally admit to myself that a lot of the lesser known thrash albums are mediocre or just down right awful.

Next to Eternal Nightmare you wrote popular but good as if it’s popularity decreases its quality. That thing has riffs for days and they all slay. And why did you compare Terminal Redux to Reign in Blood? They’re exact opposites. In regards to your opinion on RiB, I hate to use the cliche of “You just don’t get it” but you clearly don’t.

Alright, I respect your opinion about RIB. I however kindly disagree about the list of albums being "not good" or "mediocre". Just listen to a band such as Toxik. Toxik are a million, if not billions of times better than all of Slayer's discography combined. Josh Christian is the most underrated shredder of all time and can run circles around Mustaine, Petrozza, Schmirer, Spitz, Holt etc. Hell, he can out sweep all of those guys. I bet Kerry King can't even sweep pick, he uses whammy bar abuse to hide his lack of soloing skills. World Circus and Think This are far from being "not good". Those records are both tech/prog thrash masterpieces of the 80's, and they easily destroy anything Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill, Kreator, Destruction, or any popular thrash band did in their whole careers. Maybe with the exception of Rust In Peace (Friedman is a monster!)

Also, I can't forget Watchtower, the first thrash band to successfully blend progressive rock and jazz fusion with thrash. Watchtower is like if Frank Zappa were to play in a thrash band. Ron Jarzombek is another underrated technical shredder who simply can not be beaten. He can sweep in a million different odd time signatures, knows his scales, uses unorthodox chords, uses excellent phrasing, can tap better than all of the aforementioned thrash guitarists (with the exception of Josh Christian and Marty Friedman), and he is all around a more fluent player. To me, Watchtower is far from mediocre. One more band I'd like to mention is Russian tech/prog thrash band Aspid. Aspid are the be all, end all of Russian thrash and possibly the greatest one album band in all of thrash metal and maybe even metal history. Extravasation destroys RIB, and the solos are melodic, creative, structured, thought-out, and all around better than the whammy bar wankery found on RIB. I always thought that Hanneman was more competent than King anyways.

Lastly, I love Vio-lence. Flynn and Demmel before Machine Head were insane. The riffs are god-like, especially that opening of "Phobaphobia", that riff is pure fucking dementia! Eternal Nightmare is indeed better than RIB, no contest there...

I gotta admit there are some underrated thrash groups that aren't perfect, but I feel like they all have at least one or two songs which easily rival anything Slayer did. I recommend some Indestructible Noise Command, Erik Barath is the most underrated lead guitarist in thrash metal history, and his solos DESTROY Kerry King. Maybe Kerry Queeny would be good on guitar if he practiced more. Oh, and if he stopped acting like Slayer is above all other thrash bands, he's a pretentious guy at times..,

Anyways, thanks for talking thrash! I respect your opinion of RIB. RIB is indeed a great record, I just feel that the underrated stuff is more deserving of being called "the greatest thrash record ever".

Cheers mate!

Ok, this was hard enough to read, but I can't take it seriously after bringing in how they "destroy Overkill".