Thrash really began in the late '80s. Soon to be Thrash titans began to put together Garage bands playing songs by their Rock idols like Led Zepellin, Ac/Dc, Thin Lizzy and Motorhead. Thrash is the coallesing of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal(NWOBHM) and the Punk scene. From NWOBHM these bands took the songwriting skills like song structure and tone and fused it with the rawness and speed of Punk. Almost as soon as these bands started giging a Hierachy came into effect, the best, most aggressive, fastest and most technical were dubbed The Big Four(Later to be called the Four Horsemen). The popularity of these bands shot through the roof while still maintaining Thrash's "Underground" status. These four bands were call Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer. Elsewhere Thrash was taking root too, most notably in Germany with the formation of the Teutonic Thrash Bands like Sodom, Destruction and most famous of the three Kreator. Trash it seemed had taken over the world of music by storm from nowhere!
The Trasher "Uniform" was a unique one at the time. Generally Black was the colour of choice for clothes.
It consisted of jeans, the more holes in the legs the better, a band t-shirt, to show who you were
affilated to, a denimn jacket, with band patches covering the back and front, or a black bikers
leather jacket and whit nike high top runners.Certain people wore the ripped up shirts of poseurs
on their arms. This was to show that they had beaten up one of these "fakes". These poseurs were
people who listened to Glam Rock, like Motley Crue or Aeorsmith. Thrashers and Glam rockers hated each
other, and it was a badge of honor to wear one of these armbands. The Band Exodus would actively hunt
down these poseurs and beat them up.
This is the typical Thrash Look.
The thrash bands of the eighties have had a profound influnence in cultivating metal an other areas. In Florida in the mid-Eighties as bands were starting they would primarily play Thrash, but as time went on these bands evolved, they became darker, faster and more extreme. Death Metal had been born. Bands like Possessed who began gigging with Thrash bands like Metallica and Megadeth became one of the biggest Death metal bands. Others bands like Death have said that without Metallica they wouldnt be around. This has created confusion among people thinking Thrash and Death are the same , but the style of music became completely different, firstly vocals from death metal are generally gutteral or screamed, while thrash generally have trained singers who have a range. The guitars in death metal are more complicated and the soloes are generally atonal(no keys).
Testament were formed in 1983 in the Bay Area of San Francisco. The released their first album in 85.
They are still going strong and one of the most respected bands in Thrash. They were the first band
to successfully blend Thrash, Death and Black metal Together.
Another band from the Bay Area, again very well respected band. Suffered a large loss when their Frontman,
Paul Baloff died at the age of thirty from a heart-attack. Their first album "Bonded By Blood" is a
must have in any metal collection. Again this band has blended death metal with thrash and made it work.
This basically unknown band formed in '85. Their first album "Eternal Nightmare" has been described as
a life changing experience.
A Canadian based band who at the early years showed alot of potential but decided to write a terrible album
called "Metal" which it was not.
