Thrash Metal

Characterized by its aggression and fast tempo, thrash metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal. Thrash metal songs feature percussive and fast guitar riffs.

The lyrics of thrash metal often address social issues and use denunciatory, direct language, a feature it shares with the hardcore genre.

A number of bands started incorporating the New Wave sounds of British Heavy Metal in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, and the beginnings of thrash metal are usually traced to this period. These bands created a new genre and grew into a movement separate from hardcore and punk rock. The movement started in the United States with Bay Area thrash metal leading the scene. Compared to speed metal, its relative, this new genre was more aggressive, and partly, it emerged as a reaction to the more popular and lighter themes and sounds of glam metal.

The Big Four of Thrash – Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer popularized thrash metal in the early 1980’s. The style was brought to Europe by Destruction, Sodom and Kreator, three German bands who played a central role. Other thrash metal bands that made an impact were San Francisco Bay Area’s Exodus and Testament, Overkill from New Jersey and Brazil’s Sepultura.

Thrash metal started as an underground movement and largely continued to be so for close to a decade, when the leading bands began to reach out to a bigger audience. In 1986, Metallica brought thrash metal into the top 40 in the Billboard album chart with ‘Master of Puppets’, their ‘And Justice for All’ hit number 6 two years later, and Anthrax and Megadeth had records in the top 40.

Compared to the rest of the Big Four, Slayer was commercially less successful, but the genre’s definitive record ‘Reign in Blood’, released in 1986, has been described as “the heaviest album of all time.” This album has also been named the best album in twenty years by Metal Hammer. Slayer also acquired a fan following among the skinheads belonging to the far right, and the band has been accused of promoting Nazi themes and violence.

Thrash metal achieved mainstream success in the early 1990’s when it challenged and redefined the metal mainstream movement. Metallica’s 1991 (self titled) album came on top of the Billboard chart, Megadeth’s 1992 hit number ‘Countdown to Extinction’ reached number 2, Slayer and Anthrax reached the top 10 in the chart, and regional bands like the Sepultura and Testament entered the top 100 with their albums.