When Thrash Metal broke

[Thenop]

-   The Spectrum, Philadelphia June 17, 1986

"Attack!", Ronnie James Dio shouts, holding up a sword three times his size, pretending to slay a 20 ft dragon in a spectacle of a show that cost the same a 2 family homes at the time.  Heavy Metal is hot and Dio is has the best ticket in town.  Not too long ago Dio was trying to set up his own brand combining the heaviness of Black Sabbath with the European melodies of Rainbow, and pleasing his ego by naming it after himself.
This is peak level and with all things at peak level, you don't know you are there unless you start sloping down. Halfway across the country and three months earlier the up-and-coming band has just released its breakthrough album Master of Puppets. The band: Metallica. The band that was at the birth of a new genre of metal: Thrash.

Thrash Metal, what is it? Is it still alive? Is Metallica a Thrash Metal band?
Three excellent questions and inquiring minds want to know, so here goes:

Thrash Metal is an evolved form of Heavy Metal, to be more specific a mix of New Wave of British Heavy Metal and American Hardcore Punk. Ask any of the Thrash pioneers what they listened to you will hear he same: British Heavy Metal and American Hardcore.
It is still very alive however, as with grunge, there is no Thrash boom going on, it is the mainstays that are here, with every now and then a great new band popping up.
Metallica, a household name, started as a Thrash band, that is quite clear. A bit different perhaps than other Thrash bands simply because there was no blueprint to follow, so they created their own. In essence they paved the way for a lot of other bands; when they gained some success record companies all wanted their own Metallica. And also: thy are at the beginning of at least 2 of the greatest thrash bands of all time, themselves & Megadeth.
But of course Metallica were not alone in the early days.

It started in the Bay Area, around San Francisco, and regardless how many other Thrash hubs there were, by far and away most bands of any fame are from here. The list is endless, but these names should ring more than one bell:
Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, Death Angel and the mother of them all: Exodus. Bonded by Blood is possibly the blueprint for all thrash albums that came after. Unfortunate timing though: Metallica's Kill 'em All beat them when it came to the release date. But if you want to understand anything about the scene at the time, this is essential listening.
The documentary Murder in the Front Row makes what happened in those days tangible, see the trailer here: (the music is Exodus Bonded by Blood)

Of course there were other scenes: the East Coast had Anthrax, Overkill and Nuclear Assault as most important exponents and was more hardcore influenced, Germany had the Teutonic Thrashers: Kreater & Destruction, but also Sodom remains quite popular.
UK had its' own Metallica/Slayer hybrid: Onslaught, and perhaps the most exotic one of the bunch came from Brazil: Sepultura (who just announced after 40 years they will quit after a last world tour).

What do all these bands have in common? Well in one word: Energy. Complex rhythms played at breakneck speed, demanding the audience attention, rebel against anything 'fake' (at the time the popular Hair Metal movement was a favourite target). Lyrics often quite engaged, to downright fatalistic (remember this is the time when the Cold War was in full force – a huge amount of songs deal with subjects as post nuclear attack, dystopian fallout worlds etc.). Not all bands however stuck to that, Slayer for instance was much more drawn to the occult and wanted to shock with subjects that involved torture, dismemberment and Holocaust horrors de facto laying the foundation for nearly all Death Metal (and related genres) lyrical content to come.

What does it sound like? The speed aspect is important, it creates a sense of urgency and the burst of energy demands attention even when listening at home. The musicians are usually well accomplished. Drummers rolling the double bassdrum patterns, guitarists playing flashy and fast solos. Most, if not all, bands have 2 guitarists, double soloing is omnipresent. The vocals in the beginning were very rudimentary, as a sort of controlled screaming (we all heard Hetfield sing on those first Metallica albums), gnawing and gnashing (Mustaine (Megadeth)-like), hitting high notes deliberately a-tonal (Araya – Slayer). But as time progressed, vocalists became better and better. Death Angels' Mark Osegueda is not just a thrash singer, he is a very accomplished vocalist for instance. 

I can imagine people not taking to it at all though, I was there at the birth of a genre, I even played in a thrash band for a couple of years and am quite fond of the genre. However, it's not always the most well known bands I fell for, yes I liked Metallica, Slayer etc. but many bands that have long gone and in some cases only released a few albums have a special place in my collection. Anyone can go and listen to Testaments Titans of Creation – one of the best albums in the genre recently - , Sepultura's Quadra, as it turns out now: their swansong, or better yet, find their breakthrough album Roots that mixes thrash with Latin American Tribal music, you can pick up Kreators' earlier classics, or Destructions's debut mini LP Sentence of Death, but the real beauty for me lies in finding the early output by bands such as Blessed Death, Hallow's Eve or even Whiplash (very much a thrash hardcore hybrid hailing from New York, aka "the 3 Tony" band). Listen to Nuclear Assault's Game Over, the band name is a dead giveaway of the subject matter.
One of my all time favourite's remains Voivod although I always struggled to see them as part of the same movement, they did tour with all the well known names. Canadian and very much in a world of their own.

With the genre booming many crossover projects arose as well, he one I listened to most is perhaps the best known: S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death). Half of Anthrax, Nuclear Assault bass player Dan Lilker (a pivotal figure in the NY scene) and Billy Milano blurt out the most politically incorrect lyrics on a less than 30 minute album containing 21 songs. Some of the first blast beats by Charlie Benante can be heard on this one (fun fact: Benante and not Scott Ian is the most important songwriter in Anthrax). A perfect blend of Metal and Hardcore makes up for an album that is impeccably produced for its' time. Fun stuff like Anti Procrastination Song (6 seconds), What's That Noise? A minute of noise and swearing and the Ballad of Jimi Hendrix (5 seconds of Purple Haze, lyrics: 'You're Dead') spoke to this 15 year old. Album title? Speak English Or Die!

In more recent years the dinosaurs that remained have turned out decent albums, not all of them are still thrash, I mentioned Metallica earlier, but Megadeth for instance are still quite thrashy and less fortunate bands have stayed true to their roots. Slayer has stopped and Anthrax through various incarnations is still playing its' tunes.

To this 15 year old the genre was a lifeline, something different from the 20 year olds that listened exclusively to Maiden, Saxon and Priest. This was something I could make my own and so I did. I played drums and tried molding myself after (mainly) Dave Lombardo of Slayer fame, landed a gig with local band Sorcerer (no, not the Sweish doom metallers) and started playing and recording. Fun times! My first ever gig was in May 1987, in Belgium no less!

But as years went by, the interest waned, new genres rose and drew interest. I never stopped listening to the old thrash, but the newer bands always appealed less to me. There are of course exceptions, I really like Machine Head (The Blackening is a beast of an album!) and more recently Australian melodic thrashers Meshiaak did some interesting work. But for the large part it remains a much cherished 'secret': I listened to Thrash, from the very early days on!



Essential albums

Metallica - Kill' Em All (1983)
The mother of them all, classified as Thrash, Metallica turned out to be heavy & fast as well as melodic. Lyrics dealt with all sorts of topis, but the essence is energy, and trying to evoke a feeling of 'we are in this together'. Metallica would go on to deal with much more personal topics lyrically, Hetfield working through his personal demons in his lyrics.

Slayer - Reign in Blood (1986)
A 30 minute masterclass in effectiveness. It runs you over and leaves you wondering what the hell just happened...? The double bassdrum break in Angel of Death is legendary. Slayer lyrically is the most brutal of the Big Four: Christianity is not spared, WWII horrors galore and serial killer fantasies roam the Slayer world. Not for the faint of heart.

Anthrax - Among the Living (1987)
Thick chugging guitars, supertight drumming, actual singing (courtesy of Joey Belladonna, found as a local coverband singer where he sang Journey songs) and the most energetic band on stage. Wearing shorts, colourful shirts, having fun all the time. Lyrically the songs are based on Stephen King books (Among the Living, A Skeleton in the Closet), The demise of comic John Belushi (Efilnikufesin, N.F.L. (aka Nice Fucking Life)). Comics (I Am the Law that RIFF is monstrous!) and the dire fate of the indigenous people of America (Indians).

Megadeth - Rust in Peace (1990)
Mustaine started the progressive thrash movement with his intricate guitar parts and complex song structures. Lyrically these were anti-establishment in concept, bordering on conspiracy stuff but always sharp. Has had so many line up changes it is difficult to keep up. This album though is fantastic a and true classic, even for me personally he better topped Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? (1986)

Sepultura – Roots (1996)
After honing their craft playing Slayer infused thrash on Chaos A.D and Beneath the Remains the band dug deep and found their influences to be more native than they could have ever imagined. Roots is a deeply spiritual album mixing elements of Thrash metal with Latin  and tribal rhythms and musical instruments.  Cited as a big influence on the Groove / NuMetal genre due to its percussiveness.

Machine Head – The Blackening (2007)
Eight tracks long Machine Head manages to captive thanks to very strong songwriting. A triumphant return to form after a few lackluster efforts, Rob Flynn pushes the boundaries of his bands abilities. Lovely acoustic intros that explode into Thrash monsters: this album has everything that makes the genre exciting.

Did I forget bands or albums? Sure I did, I could go on, the list is endless:
Flotsam and Jetsam's Doomsday for the Deceiver, Metal Church's self titled debut, East Coast  heroes Prong with their proto groove metal, Dark Angels' Darkness Descends, Canada's Annihilator and Exciter, Sacred Reich, Blind Illusion and perhaps the one most discussed in the genre at the time (did they or did Death invent the Death Metal genre?) Possessed's Seven Churches.
In the end it doesn't matter, it is all good.

But maybe I should leave the final word to one the genre's recent heroes, sadly fallen due to the untimely death of the bands' vocalist – Power Trip:
https://powertripsl.bandcamp.com/album/nightmare-logic