30 Essential thrash metal bands that aren't the big four | Metal Hammer "The origins of thrash metal are fiendishly hard to pin down to one seminal starting point, but one fact is undeniable: as the 80s began, heavy metal music started to get faster, heavier and more proudly in-your-face.
Inspired by a myriad disparate influences, including Motörhead, Venom, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, the first wave of punk rock and the nascent hardcore punk scene, the first thrash bands emerged at a time when mainstream metal was heading back to the stadium circuit after a few years in the commercial wilderness.
Grittier, grimier, spottier and fuelled by cheap speed and even cheaper booze, the likes of Metallica, Overkill, Metal Church, Exodus, Slayer and Anthrax became the new underground metal heroes, sending a wave of snotty exhilaration through the legions of adrenalin-sodden miscreants the planet over.
The key to the genre’s huge success and enduring significance lies in the fact that so many of thrash metal’s most important bands were populated by hugely talented and imaginative musicians. Just look a the genre’s ‘big four’; Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. These are all bands that underwent rapid creative evolutions and produced some of metal’s most revered and enduring classics as a result.
But it was not just thrash metal’s commercial triumphs that made it such a special phenomenon. Around the world, like-minded bands appeared from nowhere, resulting in a huge global scene that shared punk rock’s DIY ethos and unpretentious attitude while producing timeless albums by the truckload.
In Germany, a huge scene spearheaded by the unholy trinity of Sodom, Destruction and Kreator took thrash to new levels of darkness and brutality. In the UK, bands like Onslaught, Sabbat, Xentrix and Acid Reign tried gamely, albeit with scant commercial impact, to emulate their foreign peers.
In Brazil, a bunch of teenage oiks known as Sepultura defied the odds by tape-trading their way to infamy and acclaim with a uniquely brutal sound that astutely straddled thrash and its evil kid brother, death metal. The list of great bands, great records and great times is endless.
Thirty years on from thrash’s peak, it seems that the spirit of the genre is alive and well, as a new generation of bands emerges to carry the flag forward into the future."
Bands discussed:
Carnal Forge
Essential Release: Testify For My Victims (Candlelight, 2007)
Blood Tsunami
Essential Release: Thrash Metal (Candlelight, 2007)
Bolt Thrower
Essential release: Realms Of Chaos – Slaves To Darkness (Earache, 1989)
Death Angel
Essential release: The Ultra-Violence (Enigma, 1987)
Destruction
Essential release: Eternal Devastation (Steamhammer, 1986)
Annihilator
Essential release: Alice In Hell (Roadrunner, 1989)
Evile
Essential Release: Enter The Grave (Earache, 2007)
Mastery
Essential Release: Lethal Legacy (Sanctuary, 2007)
Municipal Waste
Essential Release: The Art Of Partying (Earache, 2007)
Exciter
Essential release: Heavy Metal Maniac (Music For Nations, 1983)
Exodus
Essential release: Bonded By Blood (Music For Nations, 1985)
Gama Bomb
Essential Release: Survival Of The Fastest (Witches Brew, 2006)
Hatesphere
Essential Release: Serpent Smiles And Killer Eyes (SPV), 2007
Hyades
Essential Release: And The Worst Is Yet To Come (Mausoleum), 2006
Kreator
Essential release: Pleasure To Kill (Noise, 1986)
Merciless Death
Essential Release: Evil In The Night (Heavy Artillery), 2007
Vio-lence
Essential Release: Eternal Nightmare (Megaforce)
Nebukadnezza
Essential Release: Failure = Destruction EP (self-released)
Possessed
Essential release: Seven Churches (Under One Flag, 1985)
Raven
Essential release: Rock Until You Drop (Neat, 1981)
S.S.S. (Short Sharp Shock)
Essential Release: S.S.S. (Earache, 2007)
Sabbat
Essential release: ‘Dreamweaver: Reflections Of Our Yesterdays’ (Noise, 1989)
Onslaught
Essential release: Killing Peace (Candlelight, 2007)
Power Trip
Essential release: Nightmare Logic (Southern Lord, 2017)
Testament
Essential release: The New Order (Megaforce, 1988)
Sacred Reich
Essential release: Ignorance (Metal Blade, 1987)
Sanctity
Essential Release: Road To Bloodshed (Roadrunner, 2007)
Skeletonwitch
Essential Release: Worship The Witch (Prosthetic, 2007)
Tankard
Essential release: Chemical Invasion (Noise, 1987)
Xentrix
Essential release: For Whose Advantage? (Roadrunner, 1990)