"Arizona Dry Hate" Thrash Compilation Released

The latter part of the 1980’s and the early 90’s were thrash metal’s heyday: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax were already cemented in as the leaders of the pack and following them were legions of lesser known bands at the time.

Certain geographic locations, such as The Bay Area and New York City/New Jersey, were hot spots for thrash metal due to the quality and quantity of bands located in or around major population centers. Bands like Flotsam and Jetsam, Sacred Reich and Atrophy put Arizona on the map, but that’s where the line was drawn.

If you have ever seen a Saguaro Cactus, you know that when it blooms, there isn’t just a few flowers but a ton of blossoms popping up all over the body; the thrash scene in Arizona is a perfect analogy of the Saguaro. The amount of talent that was flourishing behind Flotz, Sacred (As the locals would affectionately refer to them) and Atrophy rivaled both the Bay Area and NYC/NJ scenes, but by that time, death metal and specifically the Swedish and Florida scenes had taken the reigns of heavy music and that would close the books for Phoenix’s legacy on heavy music for decades to come.

"Arizona Dry Hate" is a compilation to pay tribute to all the Arizona talent that didn’t “make it” on a larger stage. The compilation was created by digitally converting privately owned demo tapes and consists of almost three hours of raw, angry, thrash/death/grind and everything heavy in between music. It was recently released via YouTube and can be heard below.

"Arizona Dry Hate" was spearheaded by Elvis Hogjaw of Hogjaw fame. Here’s what he had to say about the compilation:

“I grew up in Phoenix in the 80s. My older brother was the lead singer of two of the best Phoenix bands at the time, Soothsayer and Psychic Pawn. The whole idea of the comp/tribute came as a result of a conversation I had with Nikos of Twingiant. He had shared a YouTube video he found of famous death metal band’s old demo tapes. I knew Nikos had a ton of old cassette demos, and we hatched a plan to make our own YouTube cassette comp.

"Seven weeks later, the demon baby was born! It features remastered audio for modern ears, over 100 photos from back in the day, and interviews with key scene members. It's a fitting tribute to the best heavy metal scene of them all! I dare anyone from Seattle or LA to put together a collection at this point of over 24 bands playing 35 songs that are as good and heavy as what's on here. It can't be done.”