Thrash Metal: A Journey

Combine blazing fast riffs, machine gun drumming, harsh vocals(usually), gut thumping rhythm, blistering solos...and what do you get? Thrash Metal! One of the most technically demanding as well as my favourite genre of metal...ummm...all of music in fact.

THE EIGHTIES

The seeds of Thrash were born with works of VENOM in the early eighties. At around the same time, in California, US, Thrash was being nurtured by several acts including but not limited to Metallica,Slayer, Testament, Anthrax, Exodus, Death Angel, etc. The first ever Thrash album to be released was Metallica's Kill 'Em All(1983) followed by Slayer's Show No Mercy in December that year. Both albums helped the bands garner a huge audience of underground listeners with these releases. It was however, with Metallica's sophomore release, Ride The Lightning(1984), that Thrash really came to the masses. With great production and radio friendly tunes like Fade To Black and The Call Of Ktulu, Metallica made it a point not to alienate the popular music listener. Ride The Lightning, to this day, remains one of the most well crafted thrash albums of all time. In 1985 Exodus released their debut, Bonded By Blood; mind numbingly fast riffs and agressive all the way, Bonded By Blood was perhaps the first album to define the extreme Thrash sound. To this day, Bonded By Blood holds a cult status amongst Thrash Metal fans. Megadeth also released their debut, Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good! which got a somewhat lukewarm response due to the abysmal production qualities. In the same year, Anthrax got their first musical appreciation in Spreading The Disease, Slayer once again came out with a stellar album in Hell Awaits, and Possessed released Seven Churches, which, objectively speaking, is the first ever Death Metal album(Death's Scream Bloody Gore came 2 years after it). At around the same time, a thrash movement was born in Germany; bands like Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Annihilator etc were making sure they gave the Americans something wo worry about. Another extreme thrash act was born in Brazil by the name of Sepultura. Then came 1986..oh!!! the mighty 86...the best year for Thrash or all of metal for that matter. Metallica released Master Of Puppets; consisting of brutally fast and heavy, as well as slow/mid paced thrashers, Master Of Puppets was years ahead of it's time. Metallica also added some progressive elements into the sound; use of synths as well as well crafted breakdowns made Master Of Puppets a delight to even the most casual metal listener. To this day, Master Of Puppets is widely regarded as the greatest Metal album of all time. The reason I didn't say it's the greatest "Thrash" album of all time is.....Slayer's Reign In Blood, which was also released in the same year. The definition of a perfect Metal album as it may be, Master Of Puppets is not the perfect "Thrash" album, songs like Orion and The Thing That Should Not Be are anything but thrashy. Reign In Blood however, is the quintessential Thrash album. From the opening notes of Angel Of Death to the closing ones on Raining Blood, the album is a bludgeoning monster of riffs which leaves you gasping for breath in just under 29 minutes!!! No album, metal or not, can compete with the cult status that Reign In Blood enjoys to this day; Radiohead's OK Computer comes close...but who gives a shit about Radiohead anyway. After the not so encouraging response to their debut, Megadeth came out with their sophomore effort in Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? Politically charged lyrics, a very accessible style of thrash and mind boggling guitar work made sure Megadeth attained their due status as one of the lords of Thrash. The mighty Germans, Kreator, released the savage Pleasure To Kill which also met with widespread critical acclaim. Dark Angel released Darkness Descends which is a classic in it's own right and it never let up on the heavyyyy!! factor, it's quite possibly the heaviest album released that year. 1987 witnessed the debut of Testament, The Legacy. The sound was inspired from Metallica but Testament infused some of their own qualities into what would be one of the greatest metal debuts of all time. Anthrax released the best album of their career, Among The Living; Caught In A Mosh and Indians are eternal classics. Overkill(another highly underrated thrash outfit) released Taking Over which was an excellent thrash album. Death Angel also released their debut in The Ultra-Violence which was well received. While not strictly thrash, I'll also mention Death's Scream Bloody Gore here; this is the first ever real Death Metal album. At the same time Sepultura released Schizophrenia which was a healthy slab of extreme in-your-face thrash, Troops Of Doom was the hit single from the album. 1988 saw the release of Metallica's first ever "commercial" album, ...And Justice For All with the video of One getting lot of airplay on the radio and MTV. Slayer released South Of Heaven which was a little more experimental but not a letdown by any means. Megadeth released So Far So Good...So What!! which was marred by poor production but was a solid thrash album nonetheless. The best album of the year, however was Testament's The New Order, IMHO. Instant classics like Eerie Inhabitants, Into The Pit and Disciples Of The Watch make this a thrasher's dream. The not very well known original Rob Flynn outfit, Vio-lence, released Eternal Nightmare which came very close to The New Order for being the best thrash album of 1988. The eighties ended on a high note with stellar albums from Sepultura, Testament, Kreator, Exodus, Annihilator and Overkill in 1989. Sepultura released the best album of their career, Beneath the Remains, which is sometimes also known as Reign In Blood II in metal circles. Testament released the excellent Practice What You Preach. Kreator released the 2nd best album of their career, Extreme Agression(their best album was released only 2 years ago!!). Exodus also released a stellar album in Fabulous Disaster and Overkill released the thrashstastic The Years Of Decay, the second best album of their career. Another great band emerged from Germany; Annihilator released their debut upon the metal scene, Alice In Hell. Playing a very technical and groovy form of thrash, Annihilator quickly became a famous name in Thrash circles.

NINETIES

Enter the nineties....and kicking them off is none other than Megadeth's Rust In Peace, one of the Top 5 eternal thrash classics. Hangar 18, Holy Wars, Tornado Of Souls, Polaris, Lucretia...man o man...what an album it was!!! As if this wasn't enough, Slayer released their classic and most mature album to date in Seasons In The Abyss, and Kreator released a stellar album in Coma Of Souls. Such a grand starting to the nineties should have meant bright future, but sadly, it wasn't meant to be, for Thrash actually went into a coma in the nineties(a lot of it was also due to the growing popularity of Grunge). There were a few notable releases here and there, but nothing to match the sheer intensity of the eighties. Overkill released the best album of their career in 1991, Horrorscope. Anthrax released Persistence Of Time, which was very heavy by their standards but not nearly great enough as Among The Living, in fact none of Anthax's albums were so great and they remain THE most overrated Thrash band in the history of metal, that's my opinion though. Sepultura released Arise in 1991 which is their second best album after Beneath The Remains. Testament also released a good album in The Gathering in 1992. [Note: I don't consider Metallica's Black Album and Megadeth's Countdown To Extinction thrash albums]

Since Thrash seemed to be dying, a couple of bands took the burden of innovating the Thrash sound and pack in more groove and punch. Pantera burst on to the scene with their mammoth debut, Cowboys From Hell. The music, though based on a Thrash sound, was more groovy and in touch with modern times. The sound came to be labelled as Post-Thrash or Modern Thrash. Another outfit fronted by ex-Violence man Rob Flynn, Machine Head released it's debut Burn My Eyes in 1995. Thunderous riffs and excuisite tremeolo picking made this album an instant hit and one of the greatest albums of Modern Thrash. Although Machine Head could not live upto the caliber shown in Burn My Eyes, Pantera kept the Modern Thrash torch burning with the ferocious Far Beyond Driven and the aggressive Vulgar Display Of Power. Megadeth put up a good show in Youthanasia but it was nowhere near what you expect from Megadeth and the essential Thrash sound. Cryptic Writings was just about OK and Risk was utter crap!!! Metallica's works post the Black Album aren't even worth mentioning.

THE NEW MILLENNIUM

The new millennium saw the emergence of a New Wave Of American Heavy Metal, wherein bands incoporated sounds from Thrash, Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal to create what we now know as Metalcore. Their are three bands from this wave which come closest to the Thrash sound...Lamb of God, Shadows Fall and Trivium. Lamb Of God took on Pantera's sound and started playing it with much more aggressiveness and finesse. Their 2003 release, Ashes Of The Wake is an excellent piece of ultra heavy modern Thrash, the only glitch in their music, for me, is the absence of solos. Shadows Fall, to their credit, have a very original sound and produce some crunching Thrashy riffs. Their 2004 release, The War Within, is another classic of modern Thrash. Trivium is one band you either love or hate; they have been looked down upon as Metallica copycats by a large portion of the "true metalhead" community. Well, I disagree...although their sound does remind you of Metallica sometimes, but that's largely due to the way their vocalist sings. Trivium are a very talented band and can produce some gut thumping music, try Ascendancy or The Crusade for proof. Megadeth released The System Has Failed, which was a good album but still left you longing for more classic thrash. Their new album, United Abominations is also a good release, although I've grown out of it already.There are a few old warhorses however, who are keeping the classic Thrash sound alive and kicking in this millennium too. Exodus' 2004 release Tempo Of The Damned is a great mix of excuisite classicist as well as modern thrash. Kreator also came back with a bang with two stellar releases; Violent Revolution, 2001 and Enemy Of God,2005. Enemy Of God, in particular, is arguably the greatest Thrash album of the new millennium. Slayer also returned to form with Christ Illusion, thanks to Dave Lombardo behind the skins again.

Well...that's about it I guess. When it comes to Thrash, the eighties rule. The nineties were ok but very erratic and inconsistent. This decade has shown great promise till now, but we only have 3 years to go and let's hope the newer bands and our old heroes come up with more excellent releases. The new Metallica CD is scheduled to hit the shelves this fall, I've been sincerely praying everyday that they don't disappoint me yet again. In the meanwhile, hail Kreator and Slayer for quenching our thirst for unadulterated, fast, brutal, heavy as hell Thrash!!!