Anthrax co-founder Scott Ian recently joined an interview with Metal Injection. While he talked about his upcoming projects, he mentioned how Metallica and the Big Four changed the metal world.
Metallica initially gained global success with a 1986 album called ‘Master of Puppets,’ described as one of the heaviest albums. The album received positive reviews from many critics. Moreover, this album solidified the building stones of the thrash metal scene at that period.
Thrash metal earned a reputation with the Big Four, including Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, in the late-1980s and the early 1990s. These big names made the thrash metal get out of the underground and introduced to the whole world. The Big Four sold millions of copies and filled the concerts with many people. Therefore, thrash metal started to have a lot of recognition globally.
The Big Four first performed together on June 16, 2010, in Poland. Their live concert in Bulgaria on June 22 was later released as a DVD with the title of ‘The Big Four: Live From Sofia, Bulgaria‘ and reached number one in the United States.
In a recent interview, Anthrax’s Scott Ian thanked Metallica, recalling how the Big Four gained a considerable reputation by reaching many people, especially after 2010. Ian praised Metallica because of its successful works. According to him, Metallica and the Big Four impacted the metal scene for its future.
Scott Ian explained in his words:
“I would say that’s truly the moment where it all changed because right before the Big Four, we went out on our first run back with Joey. It was Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. We did a run-through of North America, and a lot of it was in arenas. It wasn’t 15,000. We weren’t selling out.
We were doing half-house arenas, probably, which was great. But then the big-four shows come, and we get to go out and do that and play to the biggest crowds any of us have played to ever or in a long time.
Certainly, Poland, ever, because it was like 110,000 people. After that, I think it changed the whole picture again because everything’s been great since 2010, and I can only really put it on that moment of those Big Four gigs and thanking Metallica.”
As the guitarist continued, Metallica became a leader for the other bands in the Big Four, and they brought innovation to the direction of metal music. They all changed the future of the metal scene and their career. According to the rocker, the Big Four widened the world’s horizon with their music in the ’80s.
Scott Ian added:
“You know, I’ve said publicly for years that they’re really smart about how they do things. And it was the right time, the right place to do the shows that we did, and it completely changed, I think, the metal world again, certainly for our career. And I think for the other three bands that got their hitch their little wagons to Metallica’s freight train.
Yeah, it was a big, big, big, f*cking deal. And you know, I think it really opened up the world’s eyes to what the music we made in the ’80s and on and on, what it actually means to people and how people all around the planet connected with it. And I think it was a very big reminder.”
The Big Four brought innovation to the metal scene in the ’80s and ’90s by introducing thrash metal. Underground thrash metal was free to meet the whole world from now on. The destiny of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax has also changed after they gained the entire world’s attention.
