As a music genre,the boom time for early heay metalwas born in the ’60s and ’70s as bands began experimenting with increasingly distorted and intense sounds. Themetal subgenre of thrashdidn’t begin to emerge until the early 1980s, as the influence of the drum techniques innovated by New Wave of British Heavy Metalbands like Mötorheadmet the aggressive energy of the nascent hardcore punk scene.
1981 saw the formation of each member of thrash metal’s Big Four – Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer – as well as the first use of the term “trash metal” inKerrang!magazine. Yet in the decades since, thrash has expanded to encompass a huge number of bands and styles,many of which are just as fantastically hardcore as any of the Big Four.
10Shadows Fall
Active From 1996 – 2014, 2021 – Present
While this New England metal band’s first few albums were more in the realm of melodic death metal or metalcore, after their 2000 sophomore releaseOf One Blooddrew too many comparisons to Sweden’s melodic death scene (and a change of drummers),Shadows Fall shifted to a more thrash and power metal inspired sound. Their first album using this sound, 2002’sThe Art of Balance, was favorably received by critics, despite some legitimate confusion about the choice to close the album with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine.”
Sadly, 2012’sFire from the Skywas Shadows Fall’s final studio release; after that, the band fell apart. First, guitarist Jonathan Donais left to join Anthrax in 2013. Then, after a farewell tour from 2014 to 2015, Shadows Fall’s other members split to join various other projects. 2021 saw the band reunite to play a show at the Worcester Palladium, near their hometown of Boston, and December 2024 saw the band release their first studio material in over a decade, the single “In the Grey.”
9Death Angel
Active From 1982 – 1991, 2001 – Present
Bay Area thrashers Death Angel only missed out being counted among the Big Four by a matter of months, and spent much of the ’80s touring with and opening for their peers, particularly Metallica. An unfortunate tour bus crash in Arizona in 1990 left the band shaken and drummer Andy Galeon severely injured, forcing the band to cancel and turn down several major tour appearances, eventually splitting up in 1991. Thankfully,shortly after reuniting for a benefit show in 2001, Death Angel returned to the studio and began releasing albums again in 2004.
Even with their ninth studio album, 2019’sHumanicide, Death Angel still shred like it’s 1982 and they’re playing in a Daly City garage; vocalist Mark Osegueda’s vocals seem to only get better with age, defying all understanding of how vocal cords work, and the synchronized gallop of Rob Castevany and Ted Aguilar’s guitars is sure to get anyone’s head banging. Death Angel was able to resurrect itself, despite the odds, and that determination to rock still shines through in their music.
8Exodus
Active From 1979 – 1993, 1997 – 1998, 2001 – Present
One of the earliest of the original generation of Bay Area thrash bands, Exodus was actually the first band guitarist Kirk Hammett played in before Metallica poached him in 1983 to replace Dave Mustaine.Over the decades, numerous lineup changes and hiatuses have left the band with only one original member, drummer Tom Hunting(who left twice himself, but has remained a fixture since 2007).
Despite the turnover, Exodus remains as heavy as ever. In fact, multiple journalists, as well as members of thrash bands both among and outside the Big Four, often maintain that Exodus should be named as one of the Big Five; Dave Mustaine even suggested back in 1990 that Exodus, not Anthrax, should be in that elite club. Regardless of which label or generation of metal you apply to the band, though, Exodus still shred, with their latest studio album (2021’sPersona Non Grata) showing that time has not diluted their ability to thrash.
7Overkill
Active From 1980 – Present
While many of the earliest thrash bands formed in and around California’s San Francisco Bay Area at the start of the 1980s, Overkill hail from America’s other coast – specifically, New Jersey. Also unlike most of their peers, Overkill have never disbanded, although 45 years of lineup changes mean the band only has two original members left: bassist D. D. Verni and lead singer Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth. Overkill has also never gone more than four years between studio album releases, meaning their most recent – 2023’sScorched– was their twentieth full album.
Part of what may have held Overkill back from being considered one of the Big Four is their sound; not that it’s bad by any means, but they never had the stylistic variety of peers like Metallica. Yet that lack of experimentation comes from the simple fact that Overkill found a sound that worked for them and have simply refined it over the years. Sometimes considered the Mötorhead of thrash metal (apt, considering Mötorhead’s second albumOverkillwas the source of their name), Overkill remains fast, aggressive, and heavy.
6Sepultura
Active From 1984 – Present
Formed in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and with a name that means “grave” in Portugese, Sepultura is one of the most enduring and successful bands from thrash metal’s second wave in the mid-80s. The band’s last founding member, Igor Calavera, departed in 2006; he and his brother Max had been inspired to found the band after the back-to-back events of their father’s tragic death by heart attack and then hearing Black Sabbath’s albumVol. 4later that same day.
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Heavily influenced by earlier thrash bands as well, particularly Slayer, Sepultura have constantly straddled the line between straightforward thrash and helping innovate the modern incarnation of death metal. TheirBrazilian origin is also apparent in their occasional use of Latin and samba beats, as well as the musical traditions of Brazil’s indigenous people such as the Xavante tribe from Brazil’s state of Mato Grosso, who actually participated in the recording of 1996’s albumRoots.AllMusic’s Eduardo Rivadavia called them “perhaps the most important heavy metal band of the 90s,” and he absolutely wasn’t wrong.
5Sodom
Active From 1981 – Present
While the Big Four are internationally undisputed, there’s also the Big Four of Teutonic thrash, a quartet of bands who all emerged from Germany in parallel with thrash metal’s evolution in America. Sodom, one of those German bands, isone of the best-selling thrash bands of all time, having sold over two million records since they got started. With a catalog of seventeen studio albums, three live albums, two compilations, and seven EPs, they’ve been almost as consistent in their release schedule as Overkill, although it’s just now over four years since their last studio release, 2020’sGenesis XIX.
Sodom’s earliest work is redolent with the Satanic and occult themes most generally associated with heavy metal, but 1987’sPersecution Maniasaw them shift their artistic focus to a heavy emphasis on anti-war messaging. Of particular note is 1989’sAgent Orange, an unrelenting album that drips with condemnation of fascist and imperialist violence; it was also one of the first thrash albums to chart in Germany.
4Kreator
Active From 1982 – Present
Another of the Teutonic Big Four, Kreator was both generally considered one of the best international thrash bands and also one of the most underground for some time; even though they signed with major label Epic Records in 1988, it wasn’t until 2012’sPhantom Antichrist, their first release on German metal/punk label Nuclear Blast, that they began to chart consistently. Follow-up albumGods of Violenceeven made it to number one on the German charts when it was released in 2017.
WhileKreator’s overall vibe is similar to their peers Destruction and Sodom, they have shifted to a slightly more melodic sound in recent years, as well as experimenting with some industrial and gothic metal along the way. Aside from the usual influences of other metal bands that tend to make up the DNA of a thrash band, they also notably have cited post-punk Goth legends Siouxsie and the Banshees as having had a major impact on their sound.
3Destruction
Originally named Knight of Demon, Destruction is another key member of the Teutonic Big Four. Lineup changes left them struggling, even after wildly successful international tours with other thrash bands in the late ’80s; the band has disowned much of their material from the mid-’90s, which was recorded with their third vocalist, Thomas Rosenmerkel, and released independently. Rosenmerkel’s departure after 1998’sThe Least Successful Human Cannonballsaw the band find their groove again, andfounding bassist Schmier’s return led to the band signing with Nuclear Blast and prodigiously churning albums out through the 2000s.
Destruction’s seventeenth studio album,Birth of Malice, is set for release on Aug 05, 2025, and has seen the release of three singles so far – “Destruction,” “Fast As A Shark,” and “No Kings – No Masters.” The newest material still shreds just as hard as any of the band’s thrash classics, many of which have been collected and even re-recorded for the compilation albumsThrash AnthemsandThrash Anthems II.
2Vektor
Active From 2002 – 2016, 2020 – Present
Formed in Tempe, Arizona in 2002 under the name Locrian, the band slowly became popular in their local metal scene and changed their name to Vektor in 2004. Several years of working the grind,playing local shows and acting as the opening act for bigger names like Testament and Iced Earth let the band refine their sound and sign with Heavy Artillery Records, resulting in their first studio albumBlack Futurein 2009. In 2012, when Heavy Artillery sold their stable to British indie label Earache, Vektor came along for the ride, playing their first European show in 2013.
2016 saw Vektor release the brilliantly technicalTerminal Redux, which was almost immediately followed by the band’s dissolution, which may have been influenced by frontman David DiSanto’s issues with alcohol; 2019 saw DiSanto taken to family court over allegations of domestic abuse. DiSanto and original guitarist Erik Nelson reformed the band with a new lineup in mid-2020, releasing a split EP with Dutch thrashers Cryptosis in 2021. However, the domestic abuse allegations reemerged, causing label Century Media to drop them, and the band has struggled to find support since.
1Testament
Active From 1983 – Present
Another of the early-’80s thrash legends from the East Bay, Testament were originally known as Legacy until they were forced to change their name while recording their first album, 1987’sThe Legacy, as there were so many other bands with that name on the scene at the time. Theirfirst album, released on Atlantic Records, was a smash hit within the metal scene, and their first music video for the single “Over the Wall” got a significant amount of rotation on MTV’s metal-focused video program blockHeadbanger’s Ball.
Testament have since enshrined themselves as one of the most enduring and influential thrash bands outside the Big Four. Frequently compared musically to Metallica (although without the strange ’90s dad-rock phase), Testament have influenced innumerable younger metal bands, and yet none can eclipse their ability to absolutely shred, even after four decades. Now signed to Nuclear Blast, Testament are currently working on their yet-untitled fourteenth album, which should release some time in 2025 (viaMetal Injection).
