oooh, how'd I miss this thread?
Maiden, Saxon, and (OLD) Def Lep are pretty obvious choices. But aside from them, I'd pick the almighty fuckin' RAVEN!!! They were playing weird rhythms fast as fuck long before the "technical thrash" movement was even a glimmer in Chuck Schuldiner's eye. I've been trying to learn "Faster than the Speed of Light" on guitar...talk about a bitch and a half!
And even though those bastards are well into their 40s/50s, they still put on one of the best shows I've ever seen a few years back. What a great band!
Then there's fuckin' Angel Witch, Satan, Demon, Trespass, Witchfinder General, Savage, Holocaust, Jaguar ("Axe Crazy" kills!!! fuckin' brutal for '82!)...ah, so many good bands, I love that whole era! Even a lot of the more obscure bands, like Le Griffe, Warrior (the "Breakout EP" one), Hollow Ground, etc. Too bad the damn records are so expensive now!
Oh yeah, SOLDIER...the singer used to post here, then disappeared. I'd only ever heard one song before, but then he sent me a CD-R of the rest of their stuff...damn good!
on a side note, are any of the Demon albums after "Unexpected Guest" worth looking into? I avoided them just becasue of what people told me (I like my metal HEAVY...I have a low tolerance for prog noodling, lol!)
@Wolf: Hey, don't lose hope yet! The nation that invented heavy metal surely has some chance of redemption!
