Wrath of the Masters

I know I'm not the only one growing a bit tired of the recent old-school death metal and thrash revivals. In large part, that's because most young bands are not so much "reviving" the sounds as they are just flat-out ripping them off. As a result of this trend, it seems like lately the true masters of these sub-genres have stepped up to show all these young punks who the real bosses are. Sure Metallica and Morbid Angel let us all down, but they are not the only greats out there. For example, in death metal we got Vader's bone-crushing Welcome to the Morbid Reich  last year, while this year Unleashed cut the insane Odalheim.

Thrash, too, has seen several recent releases from these kinds of long-standing kings. Today, I take my hat off to three of them who have stepped up yet again this year and proven that they are still the baddest of the bad.

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Overkill released The Electric Age  in March.

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Kreator released Phantom Antichrist  in June.

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Testament released Dark Roots of Earth  in July.

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