The Winner Slays All

I do rather like a metal compilation LP, I own a surprising amount of them too. Here’s one pitched at the heavier end of the market, Stars On Thrash, a Roadrunner Records collection from way back in medieval times, 1988.

When I first saw it I was immediately pulled in by the slightly pants cover art, the Stars On 45 referencing title and the fact that there were bands on there I knew and liked, plus some newies to me.

I had always lazily assumed that Roadrunner were an American label, but they were Dutch initially, as the awkward second-language wording of some of the bios for the bands here bear witness too*.

Just like most random compilations Stars On Thrash is a mix of the good, the bad and the fugly; all the usual jetsam and flotsam of our genre. So without further ado, please take to the dancefloor and prepare to thrash.

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We are all about the positives here at 1537, so lets start with a track I will positively never listen to again!**

I remember The Great Kat from my Kerrang! devouring days, I think its rather telling that this ‘great’ was a self-bestowed epithet. She was photographed a lot in very little, proclaimed herself the world’s fastest guitar shredder and gave interviews that made Dave Mustaine sound like only the second biggest arse in metal. Her offering here ‘Satan Says’ could be fun in a Twisted Sister way, if it wasn’t devoid of melody or humour and was devoided of that drum solo.

Also on the less goods train out of here are Hades ‘Opinionate!’ for crimes against arbitrary punctuation and vocal pitch; Znowhite ‘Baptised By Fire’ for crimes against band naming^ and vocal pitch; S.O.D ‘Kill Yourself’ for being musically fucking amazing but total assholes otherwise^*.

That’s it, 4 out of 15, not bad at all.

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Want some goodies from the Stars On Thrash pantry? Flotsam & Jetsam ‘Dreams Of Death’ is a well-structured treat complete with different sections and a good scream. DRI ‘Manifest Destiny’ isn’t their sharpest but still very good, has a good dry sound. Mucky Pup ‘Lie 4 Def’ have points deducted for the punning song title but I like their punky crossover sound.

In the Dutch/German corner we have Pestilence ‘Commandments’ which is within touching distance I would venture of being death metal, very powerful stuff, well produced too.

Elsewhere Toxik ‘Heart Attack’ have points deducted for their name but have the deduction suspended as their LP had cool evil circus art and they invent Judas Priest’s thrash sound a few years early. It is very very fast indeed. Sacred Reich ‘Death Squad’ is yet more satisfyingly crunchy punk thrash, sounding almost slow in this company.

This time around the most striking track for me on Stars On Thrash was Slayer ‘with ‘Evil Has No Boundaries (Live)’. This surprised me because I usually prefer them a year or two later, less screechy, but this cut from Live Undead*^ is just pulverizing, utterly pulverizing, raw yet completely focused energy; frighteningly good.

I may have just bought a copy of Live Undead, so Stars On Thrash is still doing a job 37 years after it was released – not a bad half-life for a promotional record label tool.

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If I haven’t mentioned a track its because I had even less of worth to say than I did about the ones I have mentioned.

Stars on Thrash remains a good cheap snapshot of a time and a genre, a genre that was already starting to display lots of interesting nuances and offshoots. More importantly you can bang your head to it. Hard.

1291 Down.

*as someone with only a fitful command of English and Welsh, I am not criticising anyone who can write in another language, however clunkily.

**unless forced to by US special forces as the victim/target of an admittedly unlikely General Manuel Noriega style musical Psy Ops action.

^although I like that the name, originally Snowhite, was chosen ironically as everyone but the vocalist were African Americans.

^*the Anthrax guys never played better than on this LP and I have a real soft spot for Dan Lilker in particular but the racism of ‘Speak English Or Die’ is fucking unforgivable; no it isn’t just an obnoxious joke.

But I was very happy to see them reconvene to subvert it with Mike Patton.

*^the liveness of it, or otherwise is pretty dubious.