This thread fails due to the lack of Overkill. After a dissapointing run of groovy albums, none of which are bad but lacking in comparison to their classics, they return with this thrashterpiece. With what is arguably Bobby Blit'z best vocal performance, a heavy as hell production emphazising bass legend D.D Verni's bass lines, and a neverending onslaught of riffs, this is a modern classic.

EDIT: Oh, this thread was started in 2007. That explains it.

Tempo Of the Damned for sure. Exodus are one of the few thrash bands that never changed for shit. Every album they release is awesome.

I don't like everything Exodus did, and that album had maybe 3 good tracks, Kreator for me.

Other: Shovel Headed Kill Machine by Exodus in my opinion, closely followed by The System Has Failed(out of that list). the 2 albums are hardly comparable though, as SHKM is a goddamned BEAST. fast, brutal and heavy as hell, while System has way more mainstream appeal.

Poison cloud floats in the air
Breathe it deep your only care
It's a nightmare not a dream
DEATH AM FETA MEEEEN

Kreator - Violent Revolution

Exodus - The Atrocity Exhibition
hard n heavy

Well, all of those albums kind of suck, even the clear best Tempo of the Damned isn't that great.
The lack of Machine head is just fail, too.

Tempo of the Damned without a doubt. Great album.

Out of these, either Christ Illusion or Violent Revolution.

I went with Christ Illusion but I have to admit I haven't heard some of the others.

Considering the dates the albums in the First Post are from...
I'd say its between Toxic Holocaust's Evil Never Dies, Absu's Tara and Paradox's Collision Course.

And if I could go a bit after that It would be between... Municipal Waste's The Art Of Partying, Skeletonwitch's Breathing The Fire and Mekong Delta's Lurking Fear.

I said other: Deathhammer - Onward to the Pits. I just got this on vinyl recently and it kicks some major ass. They are a Norwegian band who plays a blackened thrash that is very reminiscent of first wave BM, but still is more thrash than anything. They also have some really interesting vocals.

The Antichrist has kept the '80s feeling, in my opinion. Violent Revolution is pretty good, too.

Everything Kreator have released after 2001. Also Vektor's Terminal Redux, which is the best thrash album since Rust In Peace.

Testament - Brotherhood of the Snake

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic is the answer to this question (which predates said album by a decade...)