Back in the Eighties and early Nineties, the Combat label was like a stamp of quality. From thrash, crossover and hardcore to heavy metal of all stripes, you could almost always count on Combat to deliver the goods. Even when licensing records from other labels like Neat, Roadrunner or Noise, the folks at Combat exhibited impeccable taste.
In that spirit, we’ve assembled a list of our Combat favorites. Presented here in no particular order is our Combat Top 10. Let the arguing begin!
Megadeth – Killing Is My Business … and Business Is Good!
Seeking revenge after getting chucked out of Metallica for being too drunk — which is still crazy to imagine — Dave Mustaine hooked up with a Minnesota farm boy named David Ellefson to form Megadeth and reclaim his rightful piece of thrash history.
Megadeth’s 1985 debut took the genre to dizzying new heights with high-speed rippers (“Rattlehead,” the title track), classical piano intros (“Last Rites / Loved to Deth”) and a middle finger directed at Metallica on “Mechanix,” a Mustaine-penned killer that appeared on Kill ’Em All as “The Four Horsemen.”
That questionable cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”? Still questionable.
Venom – Welcome to Hell
Originally released by England’s legendary Neat Records, Venom’s 1981 debut didn’t surface on Combat in the U.S. until ’85, along with the next three Venom albums. Which does nothing to dull the pseudo–devil-worshipping mastery of cavernous bangers like “Witching Hour,” “Angel Dust” and the brilliantly bloodthirsty title track.
As Sounds editor Geoff Barton pointed out back in the day, Welcome to Hell “has the hi-fi dynamics of a 50-year old pizza,” but that’s precisely the kind of undeniable charm that inspired a small group of teenage pyromaniacs in Norway before the decade was out …
Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break the Oath
Whereas Fate’s 1983 full-length debut, Melissa, was issued stateside on Megaforce, their 1984 follow-up was an early Combat release.
Diehards may debate which of these two albums is the Danish band’s finest hour, but it’s a moot point, really. Beyond the fact that corpse-painted, falsetto-shrieking vocalist King Diamond and his retinue (shout out to the massively underrated guitar team of Hank Shermann and Michael Denner) laid some of the diabolical blueprints for black metal, their first two albums also contain some of the most thrilling heavy metal of all time.
Blast brilliant Oath opener “A Dangerous Meeting” for a taste.
Possessed – Seven Churches
Easily one of extreme metal’s most influential records, Seven Churches announced the arrival of a new genre with closing track “Death Metal” in 1985. Within, high school juniors(!) Jeff Becerra (vocals) and Larry LaLonde (guitar) and their slightly older bandmates took the hyper-Satanic thrash of Slayer’s Show No Mercy to the next level of hell, directly inspiring the likes of Morbid Angel, Napalm Death and more.
In two bizarre twists of fate, LaLonde would go on to join Primus while Becerra was confined to a wheelchair after he was the victim of a shooting during a 1989 robbery. The vocalist re-emerged with a new Possessed lineup in ’07 and dropped the well-received Revelations of Oblivion in 2019.
Exodus – Bonded By Blood
Perhaps no band embodies the term “Bay Area thrash” more than Exodus. Metallica were transplants, after all, and though Testament went on to wider success, Exodus got there first.
Established in 1979 — long before any of the other major thrash bands — they’d already lost Kirk Hammett to Metallica by the time they recorded Bonded By Blood during the summer of ’84. Red tape delayed its release for nearly a year, but that didn’t stop it from becoming one of the most revered thrash albums of all time.
Legacy-wise? It’s no accident that Exodus guitarist Gary Holt was later invited to join Slayer.
Corrosion of Conformity – Blind
Previously known as one of the premier crossover bands, Corrosion of Conformity went through significant changes in the run-up to 1991’s Blind. It’s their first album with guitarist Pepper Keenan, who went on to become COC’s main songwriter and vocalist. It’s also their first — and only — album without bassist Mike Dean, and their only album with singer Karl Agell.
All the personnel changes resulted in the beginnings of a stylistic conversion to the Southern metal COC play today. Check Keenan’s lead vocals on killer single “Vote With a Bullet” to hear the next three decades of COC in the making.
(Technically first released on Relativity, their sister label under Important Record Distributors, we’re including this here because it’s being re-issued on Combat.)
Death – Scream Bloody Gore
Often regarded as the first true death-metal album, Scream Bloody Gore marked Death’s official debut after guitarist, vocalist and mastermind Chuck Schuldiner flooded the tape-trading circuit with two-dozen demos in the space of two years.
By the time Scream Bloody Gore dropped like a hammer to the brainpan in ’87, members of Repulsion, Massacre and D.R.I. had already passed through Death’s formidable ranks as Schuldiner honed his grisly vision. With Autopsy’s Chris Reifert on drums and Schuldiner on everything else, Scream Bloody Gore is the album that launched a thousand death metal bands while establishing Death as the genre’s leading light.
Nuclear Assault – Game Over
S.O.D. bassist Dan Lilker formed this key NYC thrash band after being “unceremoniously ejected” from Anthrax in the mid-80s. Nuclear Assault kicked off their official discography with the Brain Death EP in the summer of ’86 before dropping Game Over — complete with killer Ed Repka cover art — just two months later.
Running the gamut from under-a-minute screamers like “Hang the Pope” and “My America” to sprawling seven-minute closer “Brain Death,” Game Over sees Nuclear Assault incorporating their hardcore influences in decidedly East Coast fashion.
Big Apple bonus points for their rendition of the Mr. Softee ice cream truck theme.
Agnostic Front – Cause for Alarm
One of the essential releases on Combat’s hardcore/crossover sub-label Combat Core, Cause for Alarm saw NYHC pioneers Agnostic Front adding a distinct metallic edge to their streetwise hardcore. This was partly due to the addition of second guitarist Alex Kinon (alongside AF’s inimitable Vinnie Stigma) and new drummer Louie Beato, but also a testament to the pervasive influence of thrash in 1986, the year the album was released.
Taking its title from the name of Kinon and bassist Rob Kabula’s previous band, Cause for Alarm also featured the controversial track “Public Assistance,” penned by then-Carnivore frontman — and future Type O Negative ringleader — Peter Steele.
Carcass – Symphonies of Sickness
Originally released on Earache in ’89, Carcass’ second album appeared on Combat in 1990 in a CD edition that also included the band’s debut, Reek of Putrefaction. The pairing proved even more appropriate than intended when Symphonies ended up being the band’s last true grind album before easing more fully into death metal — and their last album as a trio for nearly a quarter century.
Like Reek, the Symphonies sleeve is plastered with gory images of medical atrocities. Unlike Reek, it features the U.K. grind progenitors’ first certified classic in “Exhume to Consume.”