Home Page. Get Thrashed (2006. The History of Thrash Metal. Guitar World takes you back to when roving gangs of headbangers ruled the earth.
Part 3 Skip to Part 2Skip to Part 3 On June 28, 1991, three of the biggest bands in thrash metal - Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth - headlined a sold-out show at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The gig was one stop on a tour that, fittingly, was billed as the Clash of the Titans. Just as appropriate was the venue for that night's show, the self-proclaimed "World's Most Famous Arena. " "We were sitting in a dressing room in Cincinnati after a gig earlier that year;' recalls Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, "and our tour manager carne in and told us we had gotten an offer to go out on the road with Slayer and Megadeth.
It was, in fact, a very awesome thing. "We were playing brutal, real metal music, and the Clash tour showed that we could be successful on our own terms by doing our own thing," says Ian. In 1991, the fans agreed with Ian wholeheartedly. Thrash metal. Thrash metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal that is characterized most typically by its fast tempo and aggression.
Thrash metal songs typically use fast percussive beats and fast, low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work.[1] Lyrically, thrash metal songs often deal with social issues and reproach for The Establishment, often using direct and denunciatory language, an approach which partially overlaps with the hardcore genre. The origins of thrash metal are generally traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of predominantly American bands began fusing elements of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal[3] with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk.
Thrash metal is more aggressive compared to its relative, speed metal, and is thought to have emerged at least in part as a reaction to the more conventional and widely acceptable sounds and themes of glam metal, a less aggressive, pop music-infused heavy metal sub-genre which emerged simultaneously. A history of thrash metal.
Metallica circa 1985 with a Big Four-letter word © Ross Marino/Retna Ltd.
/Corbis Pioneered by Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth, thrash was the fastest and nastiest music of the '80s. In honour of Metal Week on MusicRadar we hit the throttle and track thrash from its defiant conception to its present day carnage, courtesy of Total Guitar magazine. "Authority pisses me off. I think everyone should be able to drink and get loud whenever they want. " Nearly three decades after the movement emerged in 1981, the Big Four of thrash - LA's Slayer and Megadeth, San Francisco adoptees Metallica and New York's Anthrax - are still levelling crowds the world over.
As Tony Foresta of Municipal Waste said recently, his band's aim is "to thrash people's faces off and have fun doing it! " In the beginning… The story of thrash metal has been told many times before, more often than not with a degree of uncertainty over which band came first and who played what. Next page: thrash metal's year zero.
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