Thrash metal is an energetic, technical subgenre of metal that took shape in the early 1980s in the United States, notably around the San Francisco Bay Area. It was born from combining the speed and drive of hardcore punk with the heaviness and virtuosity of heavy metal.
Thrash metal is characterised by ultra-fast guitar riffs using the palm-mute technique, rapid drumming, complex song structures, and socially critical or dark lyrics. The face of the genre became the so-called “Big Four” — Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Thrash metal exerted an enormous influence on the later development of extreme music, becoming the foundation from which death metal and other heavier directions later grew. It is one of the most influential and most technical styles in rock music.
