In this blog post, we mention some of the best thrash metal bands of all time. The impact of these bands on the evolution of thrash metal cannot be overstated, some even enamored by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Their full-throttle velocity, wildly chaotic guitar solos, and powerful musical chops painted an effectively chilling sonic background for the genre’s fast and aggressive nature.
What is Thrash Metal?
Thrash metal (also known as speed metal) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo. It focuses on fast percussive beats and fast, low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work. Lyrically, thrash metal songs often deal with social issues and reproach for The Establishment, often using direct and denunciatory language, an approach which partially overlaps with the hardcore genre. The ‘big four’ metal bands involved with popularizing thrash metal include, Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth.
1. Pantera
Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas. It was formed in 1981 by the Abbott brothers – drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell – along with vocalist Terry Glaze. Bassist Rex Brown joined the band the following year. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera replaced Glaze with Phil Anselmo in 1987. The metal band’s mainstream breakthrough came next with Vulgar Display of Power (1992), their second major-label album, which thrust the band to the forefront of the metal scene, alongside such veteran bands as Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax, as well as fellow up-and-comers Sepultura and White Zombie.
- Band formation: 1981
- Genres: Groove metal, Thrash metal, Heavy metal, Glam metal
- Best album: Vulgar Display Of Power (1992)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 4 million
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Read more:
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2. Slayer
Slayer was an American metal band from Huntington Park, California. Formed by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo, and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, Slayer’s extremely fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the 1980s “Big Four” bands of the thrash metal style, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax.
- Band formation: 1981
- Genres: Thrash metal
- Best album: Seasons in the Abyss(1990)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 3 million
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3. Anthrax
Anthrax is an American, New York City-based thrash metal band, who released their first full-length album in 1984. Nearly as much as Metallica and Megadeth, Anthrax were responsible for the emergence of speed and thrash metal. Combining the speed and fury of hardcore punk with the prominent guitars and vocals of heavy metal, they helped create a new subgenre of heavy metal on their early albums. They were most notable for combining metal with rap and hardcore music early on.
- Band formation: 1981
- Genres: Heavy metal, Thrash metal, Speed metal, Groove metal, Alternative metal
- Best album: Sound of White Noise (1993)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 1 million
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4. Machine Head
Machine Head is an American metal band from Oakland, California. Formed on October 12, 1991, the group was founded by vocalist and guitarist Robb Flynn and bassist Adam Duce. A hugely influential West Coast heavy metal quartet, Machine Head’s neck-snapping riffs and earth-shaking grooves helped shape the New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement of the early mid-’90s.
- Band formation: 1991
- Genres: Groove metal, Thrash metal, Heavy metal, Nu metal
- Best album: Burn My Eyes (1994)
- Spotify monthly listeners: 1 million
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5. Sepultura
Sepultura (Portuguese word for “grave”) is a Brazilian metal band from Belo Horizonte. Formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, the band was a major force in the groove metal, thrash metal, and death metal genres during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their reputation was cemented in 1991 with the release of Arise. Sepultura’s musical palette began to expand with 1993’s Chaos A.D., where they experimented with old-school heavy metal and groove metal.
- Band formation: 1984
- Genres: Groove metal, Thrash metal, Death metal, Alternative metal, Black metal
- Best album: Roots (1996)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 1 million
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Read more:
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- Sepultura: The Remarkable Reason Max Cavalera Left The Band
- MAX CAVALERA On SEPULTURA Split: ‘IGOR And I Should Have Fired Those Two And Kept The Name’
6. Testament
Testament is an American heavy metal band from Berkeley, California. One of the most influential thrash acts to emerge from the Bay Area in Metallica’s wake, Testament, who initially operated under the moniker Legacy, helped to lead the genre’s second wave in the late 1980s. Part of the thrash metal “big eight,” which also includes Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill, and Death Angel, the band found mainstream success in 1988 with the release of their sophomore outing, The New Order.
- Band formation: 1983
- Genres: Thrash Metal
- Best album: The New Order (1988)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 1 million
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7. Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies is an American hardcore band formed in 1980 in Venice, California, by vocalist Mike Muir, who is the only remaining original member of the band. They are often credited as one of the originators of crossover thrash. The outfit specialized in vicious hardcore early on — building a huge following among skateboarders and thus lending a major hand in the creation of skatepunk — before eventually turning their focus to thrash metal.
- Band formation: 1980
- Genres: Crossover thrash, Thrash metal, Hardcore punk, Funk metal, Skate punk
- Best album: Lights…Camera…Revolution! (1990)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 800,000
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Read more:
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8. Exodus
Exodus is one of the first thrash metal bands to come out of the bay area, formed in 1980 in San Francisco, California, by Kirk Hammett, Tom Hunting, Paul Baloff, Jeff Andrews, and Gary Holt. Pioneers of the thrash metal scene, the band found success with their influential 1985 debut Bonded by Blood, and their similarly acclaimed 1989 third effort Fabulous Disaster.
- Band formation: 1979
- Genres: Thrash metal
- Best album: Bonded By Blood (1985)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 600,000
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Read more:
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- Exodus’ Bonded By Blood: The story behind thrash metal’s ultimate lesson in violence
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9. Kreator
Kreator is a German thrash metal band from Essen (NRW), Germany. Originally started off under as Metal Militia, then as Tyrant and later as Tormentor before permanently deciding for Kreator in 1982. Arguably the most influential and successful European thrash metal band despite some competition from outfits such as Sodom, Destruction, and Tankard, Germany’s Kreator are by far the most enduring.
- Band formation: 1982
- Genres: Thrash metal, Speed metal, Industrial metal
- Best album: Pleasure To Kill (1986)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 600,000
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Read more:
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- KREATOR’s MILLE PETROZZA Talks Hate Über Alles, His Gateway Metal Bands & Four Decades Of Thrash Dominance
- The Story Behind The Song: Kreator’s Pleasure To Kill
10. Municipal Waste
Municipal Waste is a crossover thrash band from Richmond, USA, formed in 2000. Emerging in 2001 with an eponymous EP, the group’s 2003 debut long-player, Waste Em All, helped pave the way for a crossover resurgence in the early 2000s. They continued to carry the thrash-punk torch on subsequent outings like Massive Aggressive (2009) and Slime and Punishment (2017).
- Band formation: 2001
- Genres: Crossover thrash, Thrash metal
- Best album: Hazardous Mutation (2005)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 600,000
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11. Sodom
Sodom is a German thrash metal band from Gelsenkirchen (NRW), Germany. They formed in 1981. Considered one of German thrash metal’s “Big Four” along with Kreator, Tankard, and Destruction, Sodom is one of the genre’s longest-running and most influential bands. Sodom is one of the best-selling thrash metal acts of all time, having sold over two million records.
- Band formation: 1981
- Genres: Thrash metal, Speed metal, Death metal, Black metal
- Best album: Persecution Mania (1987)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 300,000
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12. Death Angel
Among the youngest bands ever to storm the metal genre, Death Angel has come to be known as one of the most influential bands to emerge from the thriving Bay Area Thrash Metal Scene in the early 1980s. Combining serious guitar crunch and speed with technical expertise, they create complex thrash filled with time changes and tricky arrangements, and are considered to be one of the “big eight” of the genre, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Testament, Exodus, and Overkill.
- Band formation: 1982
- Genres: Thrash metal
- Best album: Act III (1990)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 300,000
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Read more:
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13. Annihilator
Annihilator is a Canadian thrash metal band founded in 1984 by Jeff Waters and former vocalist John Bates. They are the highest-selling heavy metal group from Canada in Canadian history, having sold more than 3 million albums worldwide, although most of their sales have been generated outside of the band’s home country. They gained popularity in 1989 with the influential and uncompromising Alice in Hell. Part of the “big four” of Canadian thrash metal alongside Sacrifice, Voivod, and Razor, Annihilator has unleashed dozens of acclaimed studio efforts over the years, including Never, Neverland (1990), and Set the World on Fire (1993).
- Band formation: 1984
- Genres: Thrash metal, Speed metal, Heavy metal
- Best album: Alice in Hell (1989)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 200,000
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Read more:
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- Interview with ANNIHILATOR: I haven’t had a drink since December 31st 1999
14. Venom
Venom is an English black metal band formed in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band were at the vanguard of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Influenced by the raw intensity of Motörhead and the visual flash of Kiss, they developed a dark, blistering sound that paved the way for the subsequent rise of thrash music.
- Band formation: 1978
- Genres: Thrash metal, Speed metal, Black metal
- Best album: Black Metal (1982)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 200,000
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Read more:
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- How Venom Accidentally Bootlegged Their Own Black Metal History
- Venom’s Cronos: The Story Behind Coining ‘Black Metal,’ Touring With Metallica & More
15. Power Trip
Formed in early 2008, Power Trip is a thrash metal band from Dallas, Texas in the vein of late 80’s thrash metal. Their sound — an inseparable mix of hardcore punk, speed, and death metal — was informed by the sounds of the Cro-Mags, Vio-Lence, Nuclear Assault, and Leeway, and draws fans from across the extreme music spectrum.
- Band formation: 2008
- Genres: Thrash metal, Crossover thrash, Hardcore punk
- Best album: Nightmare Logic (2017)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 150,000
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Read more:
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- Remembering Power Trip’s Riley Gale, a Ferocious Frontman Who Made You Feel Like Family
16. Celtic Frost
Celtic Frost was an influential metal band from Zurich, Switzerland. They are known for their heavy influence on the extreme metal and gothic metal genres. Along with power metal kings Helloween (and to a lesser degree, Mercyful Fate), Frost’s enduring influence on Europe’s heavy metal landscape is arguably comparable to Metallica’s standing in America.
- Band formation: 1984
- Genres: Thrash metal, Black metal, Doom metal, Death metal
- Best album: To Mega Therion (1985)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 150,000
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Read more:
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- ‘An anarchist deed’: The story behind the Celtic Frost/Triptykon Requiem at Roadburn
17. Metal Church
Formed in San Francisco in 1980, Metal Church consisted of vocalist David Wayne, guitarists Kurdt Vanderhoof and Craig Wells, bassist Duke Erickson, and drummer Kirk Arrington. Their 1985 self-titled debut album, recorded when the thrash/speed metal genre was still evolving, made a huge splash on the scene, as did its follow-up, The Dark. However, the band really hit its stride when Wayne left and was replaced by Mike Howe on 1989’s Blessing in Disguise.
- Band formation: 1980
- Genres: Heavy metal, Thrash metal, Speed metal, Power metal
- Best album: The Dark (1986)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 150,000
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Read more:
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- Metal Church’s Mike Howe: Inside My 20 Years Away From Metal
18. Havok
Havok is an American thrash metal band from Denver, Colorado. Formed in 2004, their members currently consist of David Sanchez (Vocals/guitars), Mike Leon (Bass), Pete Webber (Drums), and Reece Scruggs (Lead guitar). Inspired by the burgeoning American thrash metal revival of the mid-2000s, Denver, Colorado’s Havok emerged in 2004 with an aggressive, neck-snapping style that evoked Bay Area thrash legends like Exodus, Metallica, and Testament. They broke into the Billboard 200 in 2013 with their acclaimed third full-length effort, Unnatural Selection, and continued to refine their uncompromising sound on future endeavors like Conformicide (2017) and V (2020).
- Band formation: 2004
- Genres: Thrash metal, Speed metal
- Best album: Time Is Up (2011)
- Spotify monthly listeners: over 150,000
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