thrash metal

Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and fast tempo. The songs usually use fast percussive beats and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead guitar work.

The genesis of the genre dates back to the 1970s when early heavy metal, hard rock and punk rock bands released songs that featured traits of what would eventually become thrash metal, speed metal, or both. The thrash metal genre was established from the early-to-mid-1980s, during which musicians began to fuse the double bass drumming and complex guitar stylings of the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) with the speed and aggression of skate punk, hardcore punk, and speed metal, and the technicality of progressive rock. Philosophically, thrash metal developed as a backlash against both the conservatism of the Reagan era and the much more moderate, pop-influenced, and widely accessible heavy metal subgenre of glam metal which also developed concurrently in the 1980s. Derived genres include crossover thrash, a fusion of thrash metal and hardcore punk.