oh come on! none of them are John Coltrane or Symphonies of Sickness I know but surely you must at least appreciate them a little???

I actually think this is quite close, with not much separating any of them, but it is probably 'Seasons in the Abyss' by a nose.

Or maybe.... 79%

Yes.

You are high on crack and clearly have been for a very long time.

He can't be serious, surely. 10/10 for Seasons is just daft, and the next two physically hurt me to read.

This one is incredibly easy. As much as I love Persistence of Time, with it being Anthrax's heaviest album, disappontingly the cover is the best song on the album.

Seasons In The Abyss however combined the slow/mid-paced evil of South Of Heaven and mixed it with the frenetic insanity of Reign In Blood. Not quite as good as SOH, but better than RIB.

The other two pieces of shit in this survey don't exist.

SITA for me. I do really like PoT, and RIP was quite a landmark album for me, back then, but SITA has stood the test of time better than all of the others.

This. I suppose if I were forced to choose one it would be Seasons, but I don't really like that album so, there it is.

Ι am dead serious and I find it reassuring that this board in particular finds those grades crazy.

Seasons in the Abyss is a monster of an album, their most serious as well, clearly better than South of Heaven, which only boasts one song that is better than anything on Seasons, ie, the s/t track. Which also points to that album's biggest flaw, it climaxes on the first song. I saw the comments about SOH in the other thread and laughed my ass off. In any case, War Ensemble, Blood Red, Expendable Youth, Dead Skin Mask, Skeletons of Society and Seasons in the Abyss are more than enough to justify the 10/10. Slayer's final awe-inspiring album, HUGE sound and aura and I would understand anyone who places it even above Reign in Blood, if said person is not a speed freak.

Countdown to Extinction is a fucking great album, nigh flawless. I cut one mark because some songs are not monumental like others and because it's my fifth overall Megadeth album (and that is saying much about Megadeth's awesome career you cunts).

In general, I don't grade albums based on my thrash tastes alone. Thrash/speed is my favorite genre but I can appreciate a lot more than that.

I find most comments in here very much biased by personal preferences and completely ignoring the real value of albums and music. Obviously personal preference is the ultimate arbitrator but I dislike damning/insulting comments to otherwise great albums just because they don't particularly float your boat.

You like Nasty Savage and Was likes Jazz so your opinions don't really count for much, although they are 75% correct.

Nothing wrong with Nasty Savage

Not if you remove Nasty Ronnie and replace him with someone else.

VIC: I like the sound of SITA as well. It has a slightly muddy tone that suits the music perfectly.

Countdown To Extinction, on the other hand, has a so-so production. It sounded really good at the time, but it's tinny and overly manicured at the same time.

Youthanasia has a much better sound, but Countdown has better songs.

Ask me ringo.

Tinny? Dude, have you ever cranked up Symphony of Destruction on a good stereo? I can understand the comment about being "manicured" or at least too clean or without any grit perhaps but "tinny"? That's a THICK, FAT production right there, with the bass drums locking with the bass wonderfully, I think it sounds fantastic personally. It's just that Youthanasia does not sound too clean either. They just did it perfectly.

I feel the complete opposite way about the songwriting. I never skip anything on Youthanasia, minus Elysian Fields, which the chorus gets on my nerves (kinda like Sweating Bullets' does - although the rest of SB is AWESOME), the songwriting is unbelievably addictive. I've spun that album ENDLESSLY.

Vic is amazing, he makes me want to listen to all these albums with fresh ears... if I ever invent anything I want you to take it on Dragon's Den for me.

He can try and make AJFA or anything by Megadeth sound good but i will never try any of 'em again. There was so much good Thrash about that you don't need to remember the shit there was as well.

Haha, I wonder about this obsession with thrash.

I love thrash more than anyone but after it ran its course in 1990-1991, with tons of mediocre bands flooding the market with mediocre albums and the only one sounding interesting being from Brazil (at least in the mainstream, we'll leave the tech-thrashers out of this), it was obvious that a change of direction was in order. NOBODY kept playing thrash like in the 80s, not Slayer, not Overkill, not Testament (I mention three band that kept it heavier than the rest of their contemporaries), not even Sodom, those loveable stubborn fucks. For a guy who started listening to heavier music with bands like AC/DC, Scorpions, Maiden etc, the direction followed by the 80s thrashers were heavy enough for me to fall within my tastes. I managed to overcome my frustration for the lack of thrash since the Black Album. That album HURT my young, fragile thrasher's heart but it also let me grow, I think.

At the end of the day, I have this principle: Judge an album for what it is, not what I would want it to be. I HATE reviews that bash albums for not containing the music the reviewer would want them to contain.

Okay Vic, give me your 9/10 review of Force of Habit.