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Bay Area thrash metal, or "Bay Area Thrash", referred to a steady following of heavy metal bands in the 1980s who formed and gained international status in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Many have attributed the scene as the starting point of thrash metal, speed metal, and even early-stage death metal.


A To Z Of Thrash Metal
Garry Sharpe-Young



Thrash Metal. At first mocked by the Rock traditionalists Thrash would swamp the hard heavy world propelling one of its own- Metallica, to the very pinnacle of Rocks elite.

In the early 80s Thrash breathed new life into the Rock scene providing older acts with a much needed kick. This new force opened the floodgates to armies of teens armed with flying Vs, bullet belts and a sense of purpose that would fuel genres such as Thrashcore, Crossover and technical Speed Metal. Without Thrash there would be no Death Metal, no Black Metal. That explosion of aggression has seen subsequent afterblasts, most recently Europe and South America has seen a genuine renaissance of Thrash Metal.

Without doubt Thrash Metal continues to make its mark in the biggest possible way. The big four- Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer are all documented here in the greatest possible detail with full, up to the minute histories, exclusive photographs and global discographies. No stone is left unturned in pursuit of knowledge of ex members, rare recordings and career milestones. The author has interviewed all these major acts. Indeed, he was the last journalist to interview Metallicas late Cliff Burton. The early days of Megadeth are straight from the mouth of Dave Mustaine.

Also covered are the legion of groundbreaking Bay Area acts such as Metal Church, Testament, Exodus, Death Angel and Hirax. The European Thrash explosion of Kreator, Rage, Destruction, Sodom, Grave Digger and Helloween is also covered in frightening detail. The Pagan Thrash of Sabbat, the avant garde eccentricity of Celtic Frost and the Funk Thrash of Morded- it’s all here. The second wave of Thrash with major artists such as Sepultura, Pantera and Machine Head takes the genre right up to the new breed of Thrashers, now a truly world-wide phenomomen. All examined in depth.

Thrash Metal is not only alive, it is thriving. If you thought this rawest form of Heavy Metal was consigned to the past this book will deliver a rude awakening! Read the book, buy the records and bang that head!!

Although Metallica had initially formed in Los Angeles, it wasn't until their relocation to the East Bay area that Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett joined as bassist and lead guitarist, sealing the band's first, formulative line-up.

Burton's friendship with other local acts, notably Oakland's Exodus and Testament, and Concord's Death Angel - among others - strongly vitalized the scene, leading to intensive touring and tape-trading that would cross borders and seas, and eventually graduate to record signings. El Sobrante's Possessed would bring a turning point to the genre with 1985's Seven Churches, regarded as the first album to cross over from thrash metal to death metal for the largely "growling vocals" and subject matter dealing with horror and the occult. In addition to the inspiration of black metal, it would predate other albums, such as Slayer's Reign in Blood and Death's Scream Bloody Gore, which had also been regarded as influential to the two genres.

Conclusion:
By the early 1990s, the scene had mostly died down, with many groups disbanding, going on hiatus, or venturing to musical styles deemed more commercial or accessible at the time. In August of 2001, a small "reunion" of Bay Area thrash metal bands organized Thrash of the Titans, promoted to help Testament vocalist Chuck Billy, who had been diagnosed with cancer. The original Vio-lence line-up (minus Machine Head's Robb Flynn), a reunited Death Angel (minus original guitarist Gus Pepa), Heathen, Anthrax, Sadus, Stormtroopers of Death and Exodus were among the performers. In an unfortunate twist of fate, Exodus' singer Paul Baloff died from a stroke the following year.

On July 9th, 2005, a "prequel" concert, Thrash Against Cancer took place, which featured Testament, Lääz Rockit (a very early Thrash band from the area) as well as Hirax, with ex-Death Angel guitarist Ted Aguilar.


Speed Metal/Thrash

Metal aged and so did the generation that produced the hippies, drifting into commercialdom and then self-hatred for losing sight of basic goals. Having lost both of their fundamental systems of iconography (traditional + hippie "revolution" and New Left) within a decade while most of the population remained ignorant to both, the youth of the 1960s and 1970s were more cynical and materialist as they aged than any previous group. This awakened a scavenger coming to carcass in the 1980s which rolled into glorious rehash of the commercial ambition of the 1950s, leading to a wave of denial and an ever-present conformity in face of new fears: drugs, technological warfare, disease.

A desperate paranoid climate emerged underneath the murmuring denial neurosis of commercial social doctrine. Ideology in popular music became an intense moral crusade of horror at the history of humanity to that point, hearkening back to WWI-era dissent. In this environment, metal updated itself with the aggression and simplicity of hardcore, and came back for the attack in at first two hybrid genres: speed metal and thrash.

Speed metal took the classically-influenced structures of neoclassical progressive heavy metal from the 1970s and merged them with the palm-muted, choppy strum of violent British hardcore, as well as the whipping speed-strum of the more fluid crustcore genre. An example of the first influence can be found in violently alienated bands like The Exploited and Black Flag, where the latter originated in Amebix and Discharge, who twisted three chords into a song where the guitar playing was fast but the drumming and vocal delivery slower, creating like ambient music a disorientation of pace and thus of activity. Thrash was crossover music based more in hardcore, so unlike speed metal, which added hardcore riff stylings to metal song forms, it added metal riff stylings to hardcore song forms.

Classic speed metal bands were Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, Slayer, Anthrax and Prong, but these were the largest and most commercial and many others existed concurrently. Thrash remained underground and lasted for less than a decade, thus it retained its primal trio of Cryptic Slaughter, the Dirty Rotten Imbeciles and Corrosion of Conformity, although it is academically interestin to mention offshoots like Suicidal Tendencies and Fearless Iranians From Hell, both of which were more punk rock and rock'n'roll than the core of the thrash genre. Although toward the end of the 1980s people began referring to bands like Destruction and Kreator as "thrash metal," it makes more sense to identify them as essentially speed metal bands which borrowed attributes from thrash and nascent death metal bands.

At one point praised by Robert Fripp for remaining apart from mainstream culture, these bands faced a growing divide in the music industry, namely the availability of cheaper recording technology (thanks to advances in digital and manufacturing ability) as well as, for the first time, the ability to press records and CDs in small runs, giving rise to a horde of smaller labels. While hardcore punk bands had maintained the DIY aspect for years, they were unwilling and unable to make any money doing so, but in the 1980s the ease of access to these technologies meant that small, independent ("indie") labels could both publish ecclectic rarities and not go bankrupt in the process.

For youth growing up during this time period, life was an uncertain and duty-bound prospect, threatened on one side by ICBMs which could arrive in a matter of minutes and vaporize cities, and on another by a tide of reactionary politics and social conformity which forced people into norms to avoid the risk of standing out and being tacitly avoided by employers and potential social contacts alike. Speed metal and thrash bands, who were in the crux of generational exchange, experienced both worlds: the public image and the private reality, including political dissidence.

Their hardcoresque anthems of social and political dissent are leftist but even more so, "rejectivist." The world is pushed back and its mechanisms declared incompetent. Many began the slow spiral into fatalism, where either through belief in religious mechanisms behind historical growth or a lack of ability to apply their passion, lapsing into a hedonism of self-destructive principle. The hedonistic attitudes and hail-satan paeans to deviant creativity evaporated as a politicized theory of what ought to be done, inherited both from hardcore punk and the surrounding public culture, seized metal. Songs were written about the evils of drugs, the mistreatment of American Indians, the oppression of minorities by a WASP majority, the desire for individualist independence from the conformist horde, and the abuse of our natural environment.

At its inception a genre of palm-muted, Morse-codish riffs and epic song structures the speed metal of the 1980s held out until the 1990s before being absorbed. Speed metal and "social consciousness" dimmed many fantasies; it had become as moralistic as both the conservative society and self-righteous countermovement against which 1969 metal had rebelled. This caused dissent among those who felt that both commercialism and this moralistic trend were absorbing the "free spirit" they had admired in the music previously, and that it was becoming predictable and self-destructive in its tendency to sound like everything else. In contrast, electronic music was exploring increasingly existential themes and broader questions of intent, eschewing the moralistic humanism which overran speed metal and thrash.

While pop metal ruled the airwaves, fans of bands like Motorhead and Venom panicked as they saw metal become a softer, more mainstream gender of music. They were relieved, however, by the rise of thrash/speed/power metal (the last label being separated sometimes because of its strong epic characteristic), spearheaded by Metallica. Metallica began combining multiple riffing, snarling vocals, and a wide use of double-pedals in drumming to produce music that was totally uncompromising and ferocious, therefore being shunned by MTV and commercial radio stations. Shortly after, bands like Mercyful Fate and the crunching Exodus (an important part of the blooming San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal scene) were increasing their presence to back up Metallica and bring the harder metal fans together again.

At this time, three other thrash metal bands took over along with Metallica: Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. Megadeth, founded by ex-Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine, created what would be later known as techno-thrash, characterized by numerous tempo changes and complex riffs, which backed Mustaine's sharp snarl. Meanwhile, Anthrax produced hard-hitting riffs and began experimenting with rap, while Slayer made the heaviest riffs of its time and its members developed their obsession with Satanic imagery. Later on, Suicidal Tendencies would reach similar heights with releases such as Lights... Camera...Revolution, which would incorporate punk, alternative, and rap influences into singer Mike Muir's extroverted ramblings, while Testament would enjoy commercial success through the mid-period of the 80's with albums such as Practice What You Preach and what many consider to be the disappointing Souls of Black. Also noteworthy is the fact that Testament was at one time considered part of the "Big Four" of the thrash metal scene, before Slayer took over its position with what is considered by many to be one of the crucial thrash metal albums of all time: 1986's Reign In Blood.

The scene would have died out if it hadn't been for an underground network in which band demos and records were quickly exchanged and distributed throughout the world. Exciter, Overkill, Nuclear Assault, Dark Angel, Razor, and a number of other bands became known by the thrash scene underground and developed strong cult followings. Additionally, Germany was feeding the general enthusiasm with what was one of the most important thrash metal scenes apart from the one in the San Francisco Bay Area, placing acts such as Destruction, Kreator, Tankard, and Sodom in the movement and injecting it with what at one time was labeled Teutonic thrash. Even then, however, thrash metal was still far from achieving the success it deserved and strived for.

Thrash is characterized by brief uncomplicated sonic assaults charged by the influences of hardcore punk and heavy metal. Formed of lightning fast guitar riffs and antisocial lyrics reminiscent of punk rocks early years Thrash and its direct descendant grindcore are very socially conscious however unlike many punk and heavy metal bands. Songs of a minute or less were not uncommon and screamed vocal styling and compositional techniques would create all the tools necessary for bands in the doom metal genre soon to come.

The first riff of Black Sabbath's Symptom of the Universe has been sited as possibly being the first thrash riff on record. Their groundbreaking album Into the Void 1971 was another early example of the beginnings of this style. Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield formed a group which would soon be known worldwide as Metallica. Their debut album entitled Kill em all was released in 1983 and was arguably the first truly thrash album. Soon after Megadeth combined the rhythms of thrash with the exceptional soloing of speed metal gaining popularity in both genres. Slayer's Show no mercy and Anthrax's Fistful of metal were released soon after solidifying the genre and creating a legion of fans.


Corrosion of Conformity was another of the first groups to influence the genre and they released several albums of brief and frenzied songs crossing the hardcore and heavy metal lines and earning themselves a place in music history. Alief Texas hardcore band Dirty Rotten Imbeciles were also one of the first bands in this genre combining punk hardcore on overload and extreme views with heavy droning semi abrasive guitar riffs and extremely brief songs of half a minute or less. Both metal and hardcore scenes embraced them drawing much needed energy to the two genres. The third album by Sepultura Beneath the Remains released on Roadrunner records in 1989 earned them credit as a legit thrash metal band. Thrash survived in the underground in the early 90's with bands like Iced Earth. Their Night of the Stormrider album in 92 fused heavy metal and thrash.

Other bands like Pantera fused slower grooves with the heavy riff ridden thrash inspired guitars. From Dallas Texas Pantera were originally a glam metal band. Inspired by the thrash movement they changed the direction of thrash. Heavy thudding guitar riffs and Phil Anselmo's now infamous screaming vocals fueled the movement sustaining it and creating the beginnings of the power metal genre. The movement would soon be absorbed into the alternative metal and grindcore movements but some thrash bands survive and still stay true to the ideals of thrash metal.

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