Before the 1980s, the idea of blending heavy metal and hardcore punk was nearly unthinkable. However, this dynamic fusion began to take shape in the early part of the decade, paving the way for a seismic shift in heavy music.
By the mid-’80s, this marriage of styles birthed a new subgenre: thrash metal. It quickly spread across the globe, offering a raw, aggressive alternative to the glam metal and mainstream rock that dominated MTV.
Thrash was championed by several bands, many of them still playing nowadays, and while the term has been frequently associated with the “Big Four” — Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax — anyone who remembers the years of cassette tapes and walkmans, can certainly attest to the relevance of many other acts in the genre, like Exodus, Testament, Kreator, Flotsam And Jetsam and Destruction, among others.
In a recent interview with Brutal Planet Magazine, Anthrax’s original bassist Dan Lilker reflected on the birth and rise of thrash metal and what set it apart from other metal subgenres of the time.
“Thrash was just what they called ‘faster hardcore,’ because you literally thrashed around when you were either playing it or reacting to it,” Lilker explained (via Ultimate Guitar). “And thrash metal was born because it was influenced by thrash hardcore, and they just thought it was more metal, so they said, ‘Okay, this is thrash metal.’”
Lilker, who has also played in bands like SOD, Nuclear Assault, and Brutal Truth, reminisced about a time when the lines between metal subgenres were more distinct.
“You used to be able to define a lot of hardcore. You’d have, like, the ’81 type stuff,’ which was more mid-speed. I don’t want to say… Ramones was certainly not like that, but I’m talking tempo-wise. It was very driving, but it wasn’t fast on the drums. So they would, in order to differentiate, there was thrash hardcore. You knew that it was that fast stuff, and that’s where the word thrash came from,” he recalled.
Lilker’s insights highlight the organic way thrash metal developed — a perfect storm of musical innovation and cultural energy that continues to inspire hundreds of musicians and millions of fans.
