bulldozer - the day of wrath (1985)

RIYL: Venom, Possessed
The Day Of Wrath by Italian band Bulldozer is an album between genres, created at a time when thrash bands were pushing the limits of evil and heaviness, and the genres of death and black metal were only beginning to take shape.  "Whiskey Time", from this album, is featured on Fenriz Presents... The Best of Old School Black Metal, so it's certainly fair game to call this proto-black metal a la Venom.  But that might not really give you an accurate idea of what it sounds like: dark and filthy thrash, with some NWOBHM elements.  What really stands out about this album is the strange guitar playing- although the songs are structured in a fairly conventional way, the guitar frequently sounds weird.  Not so strange that it is the focus of the music, but strange enough that you'll sometimes be struck by how, for example, it sounds like alarm klaxons going off at three minutes into "Welcome Death".  But apart from the sometimes odd guitar sound and the fact that (for 1985) this is a pretty evil sounding record, much of the music isn't very striking.  The album is back-loaded, hitting its stride mid-way through.  There are a few standouts on this album though ("Mad Man", "Whiskey Time" and "Welcome Death" are my favorites), and its peculiarities (not to mention that excellent cover art) are enough to make this of interest to anyone who likes metal from the era that gave birth to black metal.