Sacred Reich was a thrash band from Phoenix, Arizona that was active from 1985-2000. The band was originally managed by Gloria Cavalera, who is most known for guiding the career of her husband, the legendary Max Cavalera of Sepultura, Soulfully, and Cavalera Conspiracy fame. Drummer Dave McClain would go on to attain wider fame as a member of Machine Head.

The band has reunited periodically since 2007 to perform select live shows, but there are no current plans for new recordings or any widespread touring. They did announced back on their Facebook page in December that they’d be playing for the first time in Brazil this June with their old friends, Sepultura, who are celebrating their 30th anniversary.

Here with the prophetic title track of their 1990 Metal Blade Records album, The American Way, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, is the highly underrated Sacred Reich.

Spanish thrash veterans Angelus Apatrida just released their fifth album
Hidden Evolution this past Tuesday via Century Media Records. The album has been garnering very positive reviews worldwide and the band is launching an extensive tour in support of the disc (see dates below).

For this Thrashback Thursday, we take a look back at the band’s superb 2010 album, Clockwork, via the official video for the track “Blast Off.” Crank it up and be sure to check out the new album and support this great band when they come to your town.

I know what you’re thinking: “Ides has lost it. The old boy’s gone senile and forgotten that he just featured Metallica in last week’s Thrashback Thursday!”

Well, fear not dear reader, there is a reason for my redundancy. I awoke this morning to see an article which pointed out that today is the 26th anniversary of the release of the video for “One.” This was such a watershed moment in the history of thrash that I felt it remiss to let it pass without acknowledging it.

“One” is the last track on the first side (anyone remember album sides?) of the record that many (myself included) consider to be Metallica’s last great work,
… And Justice For All. It marks the moment that Metallica ceased to be an underground phenomenon and broke through to the mainstream, on their way to becoming the biggest metal band in the world. It was the first time that the band had made a video and the heavy rotation from MTV and other video outlets would propel the song to #35 on the Billboard charts, making it the Metallica’s first top 40 hit.

I found myself the other day trying to explain to my kids the immense impact that Metallica had on the metal underground when they first burst onto the scene in 1982. That’s right kids; Metallica was an underground (and cutting edge) band once upon a time. Their debut album
Kill ‘Em All did exactly as it’s title promised. It was a manifesto… a declaration… Metallica were about to take over the world and indeed kill ’em all.

For the next eight years, through endless touring, tragedy and triumph, and four albums that would become the very pillars upon which modern metal is built, Metallica would rule at the forefront of the metal underground. There is no way to describe to someone who wasn’t there the amount of reverence that we metalheads held for this band during those years. And then came the black album and Metallica was no longer the metal world’s underground darlings. But that’s a story for another Thursday.

Here is the shot heard ’round the world, “Hit The Lights” the opening track of Metallica’s landmark debut album Kill ‘Em All.

Florida’s Iced Earth are a long running institution in the metal world who have straddled almost as many sub-genres as they have had members. Well, OK, that last part is an exaggeration… over 30 different musicians have passed through Iced Earth since the band’s inception in 1985. The only constant has been main songwriter and rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer. One former member of note is their long-time vocalist Matt Barlow who, after 9/11, decided that he wanted to make meaningful contributions to “the real world” and left Iced Earth to become a police officer.

Check out the track “Damien” from Iced Earth’s classic 2001 album
Horror Show. Barlow is the singer on this recording.