Of all the heavy metal subgenres out there, no one has seen more bands crawl from DIY underbellies to mainstream success than thrash. It may be synonymous with 80s Cold War politics, battle jackets and kegger parties, but it’s also given us a number of generation-transcending heroes, many of whom have filled arenas and taken home Grammy Awards.
Thrash metal got its name from legendary music journalist Malcolm Dome, who used it in reference to New York dissidents Anthrax and a song from their 1984 debut album, Fistful Of Metal. Before long, the term was applied to a scene on the other side of the United States, where Metallica, Slayer and others were staging a revolution against the more showy and hedonistic glam metal musicians dominating the area. The uprising soon claimed San Francisco, which is still considered to be the heartland of the genre more than 40 years on.
