Where did the term ‘thrash’ actually emanate in a metal context? While many have laid claim, there’s a strong case for looking to New York for the answer. Why? Because in 1982, when Metallica were still just a demo band, Slayer had barely started out and Megadeth didn’t even exist, ROIR Records (pronounced ‘roar’, Reach Out International Records) released a compilation titled New York Thrash – and that may well have been the first proper use of the word in a musical context. The odd thing is that the record gathered together punk and hardcore bands from the area. But there again, perhaps it isn’t too surprising to have ‘thrash’ first associated with such bands, at least on the East Coast.
“A lot of us young thrash bands playing in that area initially took influences from the thriving New York hardcore scene, so our stuff was more straight ahead and faster than was the case in the Bay Area,” says original Anthrax and Nuclear Assault bassist Danny Lilker. “Due to the more hardcore sound a lot of New York bands had, we mixed in with the actual NYHC scene a lot, which you didn’t see that much way back in 1985 anywhere else. Nuclear Assault were equally at home either at L’Amours – the notorious metal club in Brooklyn – playing with Exodus, or at CBGB’s in the Bowery, playing with Agnostic Front. Only a few years later you saw this kind of crossover everywhere else.”
