Between 2001 and 2010 almost every band who had stopped in the nineties came back, and the striking thing is how many of them made good records rather than simply touring the old ones.
Why they came back
Because the audience turned out to be there. The nineties collapse had removed the circuit and the press rather than the listeners, and the first bands to test it found rooms full of people who had been waiting.
Exodus reformed with Paul Baloff and recorded a live album in San Francisco in 1997, which is the earliest sign. Then the festival circuit made a return financially possible: one guaranteed fee for one afternoon, rather than a tour of clubs that might not sell.
The ones that worked
Exodus came back properly in 2004 with Tempo of the Damned, which is genuinely strong, and have released steadily since. Death Angel returned in 2001 and are demonstrably better now than they were at seventeen. Testament reassembled the classic line up and made The Formation of Damnation in 2008.
Sacred Reich came back in 2019 with Awakening, which nobody expected to be good and is. Forbidden reformed twice and made a strong record in 2010. Heathen returned after fifteen years. Vio-lence came back in 2019.
The ones that were only tours
Several bands reformed to play the old material and never made a new record, which is a legitimate choice and worth distinguishing from the rest.
That is the harder path to defend and the easier one to execute, and audiences have mostly been fine with it. A band who reforms to play an album from 1987 in full is offering something specific and everybody involved knows the terms.
| Band | Came back | The record | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exodus | 1997 and 2001 | Tempo of the Damned, 2004 | Worked completely |
| Death Angel | 2001 | The Art of Dying, 2004 | Better than before |
| Kreator | 2001, without stopping | Violent Revolution | The best recovery in the genre |
| Testament | 2005 | The Formation of Damnation, 2008 | Worked |
| Forbidden | 2007 | Omega Wave, 2010 | Strong, then stopped again |
| Heathen | 2009 | The Evolution of Chaos | Better than expected |
| Sacred Reich | 2006 and 2019 | Awakening, 2019 | Genuinely good |
| Vio-lence | 2019 | Let the World Burn EP, 2022 | Short and convincing |
Why the records are better than expected
Three reasons, and the first is the least obvious.
These bands had unfinished business. Almost every one of them stopped in the middle of something rather than at a natural end, and a group who split in 1993 with material half written comes back with a different appetite from a band who had simply run out.
Second, the players are better. Thirty years of playing, even intermittently, produces a level of execution that a twenty two year old does not have, and the modern records are audibly tighter than the originals.
Third, nothing was expected of them. A reformed band in 2004 was under no commercial pressure at all, because nobody thought the record would sell, and that is precisely the condition under which the founding albums were made.
What has not come back
Some things cannot be. Paul Baloff died in 2002 and the Exodus records with him are the only ones with him. Jeff Hanneman died in 2013. Riley Gale died in 2020. Cliff Burton died in 1986.
And several bands have reformed with so few original members that the question of what has actually returned is a fair one. That is a matter for individual judgement and audiences have generally been more relaxed about it than critics.
What the reformed bands and the new ones are producing now is in Thrash in 2026, and the wider account is in The Fall and the Revival.
The singer problem
The hardest practical obstacle to a reunion, and the one that has stopped several.
The shout is physically survivable and the scream is not: singers who barked from the diaphragm still sound the same at sixty, and singers who pushed the throat have frequently lost the range. That is why some reformed bands sound unchanged and others audibly do not, and it is a matter of technique rather than of effort.
Then there is the harder version, which is that the original singer is unavailable, unwell or dead. Exodus have used three since Baloff. Several bands have reformed with a replacement and found that the audience treats it as a different proposition, fairly or otherwise.
What the reunions changed
They restored a catalogue. Before 2001 a listener discovering this music had a set of records from the 1980s and nothing current; afterwards, most of the founding bands were active, releasing, and playing to people.
That matters more than it sounds. A genre with a closed catalogue is a museum, and a genre where the founders are still making records that stand next to the classics is a living tradition. Kreator, Testament, Exodus and Overkill have all released albums in the last decade that a new listener could reasonably start with, which was not true of thrash at any point in the 1990s.
The ones that have not happened
A short list, because the absences say something too. Slayer have retired and have been clear about it. Power Trip will not continue. Possessed exist in a form with one original member. Dark Angel have reformed and unreformed repeatedly without producing a record.
And there are bands nobody expects back because the material was of its moment: the second and third tier of the 1980s contains dozens of groups who reformed for a festival, played their album, and sensibly stopped there.
How to judge one
Two questions, and they are worth asking before buying a ticket or a record. Is the writer still in the band, and is the record new material rather than a re-recording?
A reunion with the original songwriter making new music is a continuation. A reunion with a rotating cast playing an album from 1987 is a tribute act with legal permission, which is a perfectly legitimate product and a different one. Both exist in this genre and the distinction is usually visible in about thirty seconds of any new release.
Sources and notes
Years and labels refer to original releases. Reformation dates refer to the first announced return rather than to the first release.
