ЦИТАТА
LAST THRASH ALBUM: 1988
SELLING OUT PART I: 1991
SELLING OUT PART II: 1996
BASIC: The band revered for starting thrash's popularity, but also widely blamed by some as the main culprit for its early demise.
EXPLANATION: In 1991, their Spinal Tap album, also known as the Black Album, but also known as the Fairly Mediocre Album With Just One Truly Great Song, came out, produced by the same mercenary corporate wheel who polluted the entire music world with Bon Jovi's garbage, the aptly named Bob Pop-Rock. The ridiculously hyped and hotly anticipated album featured a sort of "thrash lite", a trimmed down, happy-face version of the band's initial heavy sound; made nice, sweet, cozy, easily digestible and ready for the mass market. And when I say mass, I mean MASS. 20 million sold? Something absurd like that.
Unfortunately, this album sold as well as it did, and every (major) thrash band started re-thinking their strategy, while their record companies got greedy and started exerting pressure for them to become nice and fluffy like Metallica. Fluffy thrash? If this album had failed, things might have been different. In fact, they would have been very different for this band, if nothing else (matters). Metallica might have gone back to their heavier sound straight away, because Lars (always) looked to where the money was.
By the time thrash was completely off the radar and ignored, the band had decided to go one step further. Although, the crap they released under the name of "Load" in 1996 & 1997 was more like 15 steps further. This was one of the biggest, most brazen sell-outs in the history of music. The old fans hated it (and still do), whereas the new fans held it right next to their ZZ Top and Aerosmith CD collections.
VERDICT: Guilty. Very guilty. The serial-killers of sell-out.
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