Exodus, easily. Bonded by Blood gets my vote for strongest debut thrash album. Great musicianship / technique from Gary and Tom – Hunting is often overlooked as a crucial drummer, IMO, but he’s a monster. But BbB is as good as Kill ’Em All and Killing Is My Business. Eons above Slayer and Anthrax’s early work. No doubt in my mind that gets them a seat at the table.

The only reason they lagged behind initially was insane amounts of bad luck w/ delays in releasing the record / line up flux / touring problems etc, and they never really seemed to get over that – always a day late, dollar short career-wise, never made a really great album again (though Fabulous Disaster comes close enough to be enjoyable).

Voivod always struck me a thrash-adjacent and went on to much more interesting things - I’ll take Angel Rat over the first two albums any day. Testament had some very strong moments but were building on the advancements made on Ride the Lightening / Hell Awaits etc – maybe the best second wave band for sheer chops alone, them or Sepultura.

I’m listening to “Pleasure To Kill” by Kreator, and I think I wanna change my vote.

Been revisiting my metal roots a lot lately. Not sure what’s up with that.