Genre story · Metal
Thrash Metal
Heavy metal accelerating under hardcore punk's influence, with the riffs becoming sharper at every turn.
Thrash metal developed in the early 1980s as young heavy Metal musicians absorbed the speed and DIY energy of Hardcore punk. The San Francisco Bay Area was important, but bands in Los Angeles, New York, Germany, Brazil and elsewhere helped establish different forms. Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and Exodus were central to the American development. The music moved from tape trading and underground clubs to major commercial success without entirely losing its abrasive roots.
Precise at high speed
Tight palm-muted guitar riffs, rapid rhythmic picking, aggressive vocals and hard-driving drums define much of the style. The fastest sections can be almost punk-like, but the guitar vocabulary and instrumental control remain rooted in metal. Long songs, solos and tempo changes are as characteristic of some classic Thrash as relentless speed. That combination helped give later death and black metal their starting point.
Not thrashcore
The similar name hides a different history. Thrashcore often refers to especially fast hardcore punk and overlaps with fastcore. Thrash metal is a metal style shaped in part by hardcore influence; Crossover Thrash brings the two traditions together more explicitly. Neither is a descendant of the other merely because the word thrash appears in both.
Essential recordings
- 1983MetallicaKill 'Em AllFast, riff-driven metal at a decisive early moment.
- 1985ExodusBonded by BloodA ferocious Bay Area contribution.
- 1986SlayerReign in BloodA concise and exceptionally influential extreme-thrash recording.