Thrash Metal “A genre of heavy metal characterized by its fast speed, intense guitar, double bass drum and aggressive vocals”

As Thrash Metal enters its 4^th decade of existence it seems as though it is seeing something of a rebirth. Thrash was invented by the Americans of course, famously spawned from a scene by fans of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the ‘Bay Area’ of San Francisco. Notable bands included Exodus, Megadeth, Testament and of course Metallica. The East Coast were quick to follow and they gave us Anthrax as their main contenders. A massive scene erupted in Germany when Destruction and Kreator  caught the Thrash bug and added some real venom to the sound, and countless other countries had bands of their own to fly the Thrash flag.

That’s all except the UK. Now, don’t get me wrong there have always been UK Thrash bands around, even in the leaner times of the nineties but nobody has ever made an impact. That has all but changed in the last few years, and it seems that UK Thrash is about to o global.

What started as a bit of hero worship by some bands has spawned a scene of music across the UK that not many people saw coming. A few years back bands like Gama Bomb and SSS started appearing on major labels. Earache records as ever were at the forefront and seem to make a large proportion of their business on the retro bands that crop up from time to time, Rival Sons anyone? Anyway, what started as a mini movement a few years ago seems to be standing the test of time. Huddersfield’s Evile seem the most likely of all the UK Thrash bands to break the ceiling of a scene they are leading and make it to the mainstream. Now boasting 3 albums under their belt and world tours booked in for the year, nobody would deny they are growing into Trash legends our eyes.

There are plenty of bands snapping at the heels of Evile if they were to faulter though. Last week saw the release of ‘Plague of Conscience’ from Savage Messiah. It’s already a contender for my album of the year and if you like Thrash or even Metal in general, it’s well worth checking out. As stale as a relatively narrow genre of music like Thrash can get, these boys have made it sound as fresh as it did in 1983. With their own twist of course!

There are plenty of other new bands doing the rounds too. Once you’ve invested in Savage Messiah and Evile, check out Hull’s Sworn Amongst. The festivals will be booked full of thrash bands from the UK this year so it won’t be hard to check out some of the fresh talent. Of course only the strongest will survive, but that’s down to us to decide.