Music of the day: Bay Area Thrash

I had a post about my 1990 experience earlier this month and I'm writing another one again :P Those years were indeed special to me. I learned about my favourite bands then, e.g. Metallica, Testament, Slayer (yeah, there were some non-metal bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode and Pink Floyd) I could still remember my first metal concert, Slayer and Testament, at Austin City Coliseum 20 years ago. I headbangged all night and the neck was sore the next day :P I tried to catch Testament's concert whenever I can in the last 20 years and I've listened to every album they released (I haven't done that for any other band, not even Pink Floyd and the Beatles :P) I guess it's because of their consistency: they released a new album every few years (except 99-08 when the vocalist Chuck Billy was recovering from health issue) and they stick with their original root and never abandon their fan base by selling out like Metallica did (I mean, it's OK to experiment. OK to have a fun album like Garage Days but songs from Loaded are just lame. Even the most commercial album of Testament sounded heavy) I went to Testament's concert at Warfield last night and it was special (yeah, every concert is special :P) because it symbolized the revival of thrash metal, at its birthplace (SF Bay Area) no less! The opening bands included Death Angel, who also hailed from the Bay Area like Testament did. (BTW, they closed their set with a song, Relentless Revolution, which was indeed a reflection of our time)
Even though Testament's co-headliner Anthrax was not from the Bay Area, they talked about the heydays of thrash metal when they had concerts at Kabuki (now became a restaurant) in SF. Of course, the Warfield Theatre had its share of fame in thrash metal too: Slayer's classic concert video was shot there. If I remember correctly, this was the first time I saw Anthrax live. I actually had bought only one of their album, State of Euphoria from 1988, on a cassette (heavy metal on cassette was hard to find in HK. I didn't listen to any Testament and Slayer until my dad bought me a CD player. My classmate's older brother recorded his LP of Metallica's And Justice for All... for us.) I gotta admit I didn't enjoy Anthrax at first but a US$5 cassette was a lot of money to me and I'm willing to listen to it a few times before I put it aside forever (It's sad that in the US$0.99-per-MP3 era, music doesn't get 2nd chance) Even after a few times, I only liked the song Antisocial, which was a cover version ironically. (Yes, I learned the word from this song) I sang the loudest when Anthrax played Antisocial last night! It's also a reflection of our time: the lyric is all about greed of the riches. They are the ones that are antisocial! (BTW, the original lyric by Trust was in French and was even more critical of the dehumanizing pace of modern life and work in large cities.)
These guys are not afraid of speaking the truth and that's why I am a thrash metalhead for life!

[Update: I was wrong about the first time seeing Anthrax live. I forgot I saw the Anthrax with John Bush as vocalist live at the Roxy's in NY back in 2000]