Onslaught: Power from Hell (1985)

Onslaught has had a lot of different styles over the years.  Starting out life as a hardcore punk band, they later morphed into Slayer-like thrash metal band, then going in a more progressive thrash direction when Grim Reaper legend Steve Grimmett briefly joined the band.  They then split up and re-formed a few years later with Sy Keeler back behind the mic. 

During this time period, Onslaught released a number of should-be classic metal albums, yet remained very much in the underground, rarely capturing much attention.  This is a shame because Onslaught is probably one of the best thrash metal bands from England, ever.  I would put them behind only Sabbat, and a little ahead of Xentrix.

This album is Onslaught's debut, and the band is firmly in the thrash metal portion of their career.  Blackened thrash is perhaps a decent description, fitting in well with the sounds of Bathory and Sodom at the time.  And the Show No Mercy Slayer-isms come through loud and clear as well.  The album is a fast-paced tour-de-force of rampaging riffs, pounding drums and gritty vocals.  And the album does a damn fine job of capturing an effectively evil atmosphere.  And again with that I must bring up the similarities to early Slayer. 

Onslaught is a criminally underrated band who has released a number of great albums over the years.  Their debut is one of those releases and should be held up as a classic of the fledgling thrash metal scene.  The fact that it is not is a damn shame.

Metal Mail: Rare Finds

I picked up both of these albums from a seller in Canada off of Discogs.  I'm not sure how I ended up with two underrated U.K. albums from the same seller in Canada, but whatever.

ONSLAUGHT: THE FORCE (1986)
This is actually my third Onslaught album, and thus far the best one I have heard.  I do not know nearly as much as I should about this amazing U.K.-based thrash metal band.  My first experience with the band was 2013's VI, which was a very good modern thrash metal album.  After that, I picked up the Steve Grimmett-led In Search of Sanity, which is apparently not terribly representative of the band's typical sound.  So I tried this one, and holy fuck I am glad I did.  You see, I am a big fan of Slayer, but my absolute favorite album by them is Show No Mercy which was their debut album and was more of a NWOBHM-influenced album than the brutal brand of thrash metal that most people know of their sound.  This album by Onslaught is very similar to Show No Mercy.  It is pure Venom-worshipping thrash metal with some absolutely incredible songs.  This is not only my favorite album by Onslaught, it might be up there with Sabbat's Dreamweaver as my favorite U.K. thrash metal album.

SKYCLAD: THE WAYWARD SONS OF MOTHER EARTH (1991)
Speaking of Sabbat, Skyclad is frontman Martin Walkyier's band after leaving the great, underrated thrash metal band.  Skyclad was one of the pioneering bands in folk metal, fusing Irish melodies and instrumentation into thrashy, Iron Maiden-esque riffs.  Of course the highlight of the album is Walkyier's staccato barking vocals.  Walkyier has one of the great vocal styles in thrash metal and it is on full display throughout this album.  As much as I love Walkyier's work, for some reason I have just not gone through much of his stuff.  I have just one Sabbat album, which I absolutely love, and now two Skyclad albums, both of which I really enjoy as well.  Well, that will likely become one of my goals.  There is really only one other Sabbat album, which will likely be the next one I check out, but there is quite a bit of Skyclad material.