Thrash metal is another genre of the metal music community. Metal with fast drum beats, guitar riffs and aggressive vocals is known as thrash metal. Having loud singing and distortion with lots of bass have been know in thrash metal. This genre was created by 4 different bands know as "The Big Four", all these bands had some great reviews. Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth are the four bands that fit into this category. These four bands are the creators of thrash metal music which was created in the late 1970's to early 1980's.
Beginning in the late 1970's and early 1980's there was a huge wave of British heavy metal music. Expanding from punk rock and hardcore metal, thrash metal found its own style and technique. This introduced a more distortion guitar, complex riffs, long guitar solos, double kick bass drums and loud vocals.
Most thrash metal songs played long introductions, high speed complex solos and long endings. These bands used a technique called shredding when playing their solos. Shredding is a way to play notes quickly during your solos. Using techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs. This was a metal music movement for guitarist and the metal community.
After the release of Slayer's "Haunting the Chapel", Anthrax's "Fistful of Metal", Overkill's "Self Titled" and Metallica's "Ride the Lighting" albums were released in 1984, broke open thrash metal. Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Overkill all made something new for thrash metal, either making their music heavier, faster or louder. Thrash Metal was on the rise after this, the metal community had brought it in and it started to grow.
Through a couple of decades and into the 90's there was a small change in the music and in the bands. The same bands were still rocking the thrash metal and were releasing very successful albums, but the style had alternated. Band slowing down and changing their styles brought Metallica's release of "Load" and "Reload." These two albums were more of a hard rock than a thrash metal. Not only did Metallica take a different route with their music, so did Megadeth. Megadeth's album "Countdown to Extinction" was a different style than their earlier releases.
In the current years the popularity of thrash metal has become less and less. There are current bands that fit into this genre of metal music, Evile, Municipal Waste and Gama Bomb. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax still release new albums and still tour around the world, just a little different than what they were in the 70's and 80's. Thrash metal will still be around for metal music and will be know because of "The Big Four."
