posted 11-15-2002 07:55 AM            

My favorite at the moment is NYC's Crumbsuckers, their Life of Dreams LP is the hammer!

Next up would be Broken Bones, ex Discharge guitarist can do no wrong, Bonecrusher is my pick for most raging!

DR. Know, here's a band whos metal stuff was almost as good as their punk stuff, This Island Earth is the best but Wreckage in Flesh is surprisingly good given the cheesy cover.

English Dogs, another band equally great playing punk and metal, To the Ends of the Earth is my favorite, but Forward into Battle is pretty boss as well.

Ludichrist-Immaculate Deception, great thrash with hilarious lyrics, I think some of these dudes went on to become famous musicians or something.

Leeway-I still think the Enforcer Demo is the best!

Sacrilege-Behind the Realms of Madness is soo brutal. My favorite female vocals ever.

Varukers-One struggle one fight, last Varukers LP is metal as fuck, totally overshadowed by their punk stuff but a sick rager. Three of these guys went on to be in Sacrilege.

DRI-despite having the signature Crossover LP "crossover" I don't think these guys were very good at metal. Dealing With it is great, but the Crossover LP has only a few good songs.

Excel-So cal surf dudes playing wicked metal core, so cheesy it's great.

Corrosion of Conformity-Animosity is like a landmark LP of the crossover movement. But the later stuff like Technocracy and such I thought was pretty flat. Animosity could stand though as the best of the Crossover movement.

posted 11-15-2002 09:25 AM            

Any crossover list is incomplete without The Accused. 'More Fun than an Open Casket Funeral' and 'Martha Splatterhead's Maddest Stories Ever Told' are classics.

'Force Fed' by Prong is another biggie. I can't believe what a weird, thin, intense sound they had on this album.

It's interesting how a lot of those bands seem to have followed a course like:

a) start out playing hardcore

b) develop "chops", write the fastest, most difficult and arguably most interesting songs of their career

c) buy better gear; run out of ideas; slow down; suck

I think this describes the path of COC, Prong, DRI, et. al.

posted 11-15-2002 10:35 AM            

They may not be punk in the least, but my favorite thrash metal band of all time is Exodus. Their live reunion album "Another Lesson In Violence" with Paul on vocals (R.I.P.) is the ultimate party album. "This next song is about a fish... It ain't about no gold fish, it ain't about no tunafish and it ain't about no trout... This song... is called... Par-ah-na-ah-ah-ah! Go! Go! Go! Go!" or something to that effect. Gold.

Oh yes, and then there's Nitro's "O.F.R." album. Ha. I was watching their videos in Extreme Noise. Punk as fuck.

And seriously, I'd consider Raw Power to be a crossover band. Definitely right up there in my books. But "Screams From The Gutter" predates the late 80's, so....

posted 11-15-2002 11:24 PM            

I'm not fond of Exploited, Cro Mags, GBH or Agnostic Front's metal material. It all seems flat and contrived, very little fire or energy. Those bands just seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon. Note that all are back to playing hardcore or punk now.

Accused, yes that was quite an omission on my part. They are awesome. We opened for them in the Entry, but I was unfortunately too drunk to remember a damn thing except that we only got paid 20$. The first LP (second mix) is awesome and More Fun than and Open Casket Funeral is a rager as well. I love that shit like "buried alive"

And lets not forget Cryptic Slaughter, a little more metal but still pretty sick and hardcore influenced. And if you go the other direction I think Final Conflict is mostly hardcore but has some crossover appeal and were titanically boss in their day.

Raw Power, I mean don't you think Screams from the Gutter and Burning the Factory are hardcore? Maybe the later stuff is crossover. I don't know, this is like ST a tough call on the early stuff, seems to be mostly hardcore to me. I'll have to do some more research.