80's Thrash Metal Guitar

Hey, Everyone.

Recently I've been going back and discovering all the 80s thrash metal bands I use to be into back in the day. So many killer bands with so much talent and such good taste for guitar tones. I was big on the Bay area scene which had so many great bands that came out of it. I loved MOST of it. It was a great era of music..something always new coming out to listen to. A nice generation that I feel doesn't even come close today. Am I alone on this board or are there still some of you kats out here still? We can have an ultra cool discussion on bands of the era and the guitar tones that absolutely killed.

All the Best,
~Nep~

Sounds like a good idea... :wink:
only problem is, with me, "back in the day" meant Beatles, Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stones, etc. :lol:

The '80s seems like just the other day (yikes! :shock: )

Hell yeah! Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, etc. Fun stuff to play!

No use getting stuck in a time machine. There is some good in just about every new flavor of music in the rock/metal arena, .... just about. That 80's-now era of hard rock metal seems to me, has really expanded greatly in riffing complexity and using the guitar as a percussion instrument. I have been on the train with all that except for the death metal stuff. Can't get into that low screaming unintellegible screaming and ultra fast kick drum. I saw Gogiera live, they could not get off the stage fast enough for Metallica to come on.

So for guitar sound evolution I am giving great riffing the nod. Now we have great complex riffs, beefier amps like Boogies that can run hard in the low end, better new speaker enclosures, and long tapping leads have been scaled back to where they fit in the song, not seem to 'take over'. Great heavy riffing is fun to play. As great as Vai is, I think he did not reach his peak potential because he did not know how to scale it back and let the song be great instead of trying to always show how great he is. Some great bands out today. They seem to have learned from the previous generations well.

Heritage Softail said:

So for guitar sound evolution I am giving great riffing the nod. Now we have great complex riffs, beefier amps like Boogies that can run hard in the low end, better new speaker enclosures, and long tapping leads have been scaled back to where they fit in the song, not seem to 'take over'. Great heavy riffing is fun to play. As great as Vai is, I think he did not reach his peak potential because he did not know how to scale it back and let the song be great instead of trying to always show how great he is. Some great bands out today. They seem to have learned from the previous generations well.

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I hear ya on that! :wink:
I am a fan of Steve Vai (what guitar player isn't?) , but I have always been more impressed with, as an example, Joe Satriani's arrangements because he always plays to fit the mood of the song (I also think he has superior composing skills) rather than "machine-gunning" notes to the heavens.

A lot of what I have heard from some of these new(ish) gunslinger guitarists does seem aimed at displaying technique (not that a lot of it does not sound cool; I wish I could do it!) more than melody.

Just my $0.02.....

Best tone of the 80's I would have to say Jake E Lee ultimate sin album,any Stryper tone and Living Color cult of personality.They may not have been the best players but their sound was great Almost forgot, anything from Van Halen.

BIG thrash fan here!

Too young to have experienced the 80's thrash scene (unfortunately!), but quite a bit my favorite stuff came from back then. Jon Schafer (Iced Earth) would probably be one of my biggest influences. Kerry and Jeff next. And of course the obligatory Metallica and Megadeth. But man what I would give to be able to see some of my favorite bands in their prime, you lucky sob's :lol: .

Not that y'all can't tell by the avatar, but long live SLAYER!!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Lets not forget the Bay Area's own Gary Holt with sickenly disturbing riffs w/ Exodus

I can remember buying USA BC Rich Gunslingers and outfitting each one differently because I saw Chuck Schuldiner using them back then.

maybe more late 80's to 90's for me... Death from Human on, Cynic, Believer, and Carcass. Mark Series is the best for those tones fo sho !

BENNY said:

maybe more late 80's to 90's for me... Death from Human on, Cynic, Believer, and Carcass. Mark Series is the best for those tones fo sho !

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++++++1!

RectoStudioGuy said:

I can remember buying USA BC Rich Gunslingers and outfitting each one differently because I saw Chuck Schuldiner using them back then.

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oh, how i miss chuck. i have the guitar world issue with the tribute. if you don't have it i can scan it and send it to you.

I still remember the early 80's when nobody but the hardcore headbangers knew who Metallica was. Kill 'em All was released when I was in the 7th grade. It was too heavy for me at the time. Ride the Lightening was released the next year - it was too heavy for me. And yes, two years later, Master was released and was...you guessed it...too heavy for me.

While at a friend's party one night in high school, he played "Fade to Black" for me, and I loved it. Slowly but surely I got into the Metallica. By the time Justice was released, I was as big of Metallica fan as any of the hardcore loyalists who loved them since Kill 'em All.

So yeah, I got into Metallica and the eventually got into playing guitar. It was all about learning how to solo and be able to shred like it was nobody's business. About a year after I got into guitar, Nirvana released Nevermind. LoL Needless to say, I didn't let the grunge movement affect my view of the rock / metal solo as one of God's greatest creations. 8)

OK, lets bring it a little into the earlier 90s.. ( even though I started this on 80s thrash ..)

Anyone ever hear Cynic..or Atheist? You will be in for a ride, promise. 8)

All the Best,
~Nep~

yeah, i had mentioned them. i saw them on the focus tour back in the day. their new album is killer as well as Believers latest cd Gabriel.

BENNY said:

yeah, i had mentioned them. i saw them on the focus tour back in the day. their new album is killer as well as Believers latest cd Gabriel.

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Sorry, man..didn't notice you mentioned them already.

Yeah, Paul Masvidal is a great guitarist. He did some excellent work with Chuck ( Death ). Back when Death put out their 'Lack of Comprehension' video, I always thought Paul looked pretty cool in it with his Steinberger. I wish he did more work with Chuck, but from what I've read, Chuck said Paul really opened him up for what was to come on upcoming albums. In return, Chuck ended up writing some pretty experimental stuff as well.

Atheist was pretty nasty. Their 'Elements' album was sick, especially when they opened up and did this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyEqpZlZek8

Kelly Shaefer was the man, too. Speaking of Atheist, I was just watching an old video of them last night on YouTube and noticed Kelly was playing through a Mesa rackmounted head an cab. Appears to be a Mark III with the old half back cabs. Pretty cool. 8)

All the Best,
~Nep~

i had one athiest casset. cannot remember which one, but it was pretty dizzying trying to wrap my head around some of the things he did.

when i saw Cynic all the growling vocals were performed by a chick. she did them well. I love Paul, but a lot of the success goes to Sean Rienhart. if you don't have good drumming you don't have shat.

BENNY said:

a lot of the success goes to Sean Rienhart. if you don't have good drumming you don't have shat.

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I agree, man. He's nasty.

Even as a guitar player, I'll always put the bass and drums ahead of me..first and foremost they create the groove....

...allowing us to rip all over it! :lol:

All the Best,
~Nep~

No man lets go back to the eighties when Heavy Metal shows on independent radio stations would not play Kill 'Em All because it was considered Punk. 1982 to 1986 was an awesome era, the music had a real rawness (probably the low budgets). With you tube I am loving rediscovering all this stuff - In addition to the obvious bands some classic riffs and tones: Manowar - Metal Daze, Savage - Let it Loose, Nasty Savage - No Sympathy, Savatage - Sirens, Merciful Fate - Evil, Trouble - The Tempter (never new they were Cristian back when I was a teenager), Metal Church - Metal Church.

Some good bands in that period with not so good guitar sounds - Venom, Exciter and Megadeath (tone was very average back then and they were considered pretty whimpy by the underground scene after the amount of hype about how fast and heavy they were) but I think the songs on those first two albums are great.

Apart from Kill 'Em All, the best riffage and tone of that era for mine - Exodus Bonded by Blood and of course who could forget that speaker melting album by the Stormtroopers of Death.

Its great how kids rock up to the skatepark with this music on their ghetto blasters. Amazing that some of the music of this era is way bigger now than it was back then but sad that so many bands have been forgotten and so many great independent albums/CDs out of print.

good call LTM. SOD and Metal Church were pretty cool. 'kill 'em all was definitely way a head of its time. Trouble was one of my favorites. they had that doom thing going pretty well. Merciful fate as well. i would love to hear all this stuff re-recorded with some halfway decent tones. i think that would blow everyone away. a friend of mine had Kill 'em all on cd but it was missing tracks.....how do you do that ?

kids have to listen to the old stuff cause the new stuff is full of so much whine. makes me sick that these band say they grew up on (fill in the Blank) and then they just cry and whine like a bunch of P-kitty-s ! Take Shadows Fall. loved the war within. what a great album. pick up the latest.....WTF ?