From: butterwo@cs.tulane.edu (Blake Butterworth)
Subject:  Metallica and the Roots of Thrash 
Reply-To: butterwo@cs.tulane.edu
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Tulane University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:46:28 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host-[nntpd-20324]: sinbad

    Here's an article from the Guitar Magazine presents Metallica special
issue 1992.

_____________________________________________________________________________

		    METALLICA AND THE ROOTS OF THRASH

    In the beginning rock'n'roll was about rebellion-rebellion from parents,
from school, and from strict social mores.  So when Elvis gyrated his hips
off-camera on the Ed Sullivan Show, and Litte Richard sang about scoring some
"Tutti-Frutti" in the mid-1950s, conservative middle-aged America reacted in
horror, while millions of teenagers across the country simultaneously
exploded with joy.  Choas erupted again in the late-'60s with Monterey,
psychedelia and Jimi Hendrix's flaming Strat, and then once more in 1976-1977
when the Sex Pistols, the Damned and the Clash finally toppled the British
Empire.  During the last decade, the world of heavy metal experienced its own
civil war, and its cause was, in a word, Metallica.  From the primitive rush
of Kill 'Em All, to the Master of Puppets breakthrough, to the cerebral thump
of ...And Justice For All and METALLICA, this so-called "thrash" quartet
defied public resistance, industry-naysayers, and a near total radio blackout
to become heavyweights in comtemporary metal, all on the strength of their
music and a complete and utter dedication to the belief that thrash was right
and everyone else in the pop world was wrong.  In the end, the world realized
its colossal mistake and accepted Metallica for what they are, which is one
of the mightiest metal bands of our day.
    At the beginning of the 1980s, heavy metal music was at a crossroads:
Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple were now gone, Black Sabbath had lost their
essential frontman, Ozzy Osbourne, and key bands like Grand Funk, Mountain
and Humble Pie were considered all but ancient history.  In their wake, heavy
rock acts began diversifying like mad, no longer confined to the single hard
rock/heavy metal tag that had existed since the genre's inception in the late
-60's.  On one end of the metal spectrum was the growing pop trend promoted
by Boston, Styx, Foreigner and Journey, while on the other were from the
"New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWOBHM) such as Iron Maiden, Motorhead,
Judas Priest, Diamond Head, Tygers of Pantang, Samson, and, to some degree,
Def Leppard; in the middle, one could find mainstream mega-acts like Van
Halen, Ozzy Osbourne and AC/DC.  While the diversity usually makes for a
healthy music climate, some non-musical factors began negatively influencing
the metal scene at the time-more specifically, commercialism.  The overtly
commercial tone of the '80s-the "yuppie" era-began pervading each of these
disparate metal zones at this time, and soon once-rebellious bands like Iron
Maiden and Judas Priest started dressing up their stage shows with flashy
leather-and-stud outfits and special effects extravaganzas a la Star Wars,
something clearly related to the new-found visualization of rock'n'roll vai
MTV and the coming of music video.  Even more disturbing were the bands who
reverted to a glam-rock approach and began using makeup and pouffy hairdos to
adorn themselves, thus diluting heavy metal's inherent sense of danger and
rebellion even more.  By 1983, many hard rockers were baffled and even
disgusted by these recent trends in metal, a feeling further amplified by the
appearance of Eddie Van Halen on the smash dance single, "Beat It," by pop
star Michael Jackson.
    Enter Metallica:  As a young band brought up on 70's hard rock-
particularly Sabbath, Zeppelin and Priest-and then refueled by the New Wave
of Brit-metalers, Metallica began crafting a savage, no-frills approach to
metal in the San Francisco area following thier 1981 formation.  Soon, rock
fans began talking about this new heavy rock sound, some calling it speed-
metal, hardcore, or even metal-on-metal.  Within a few years, rockers like
Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer also joined in the fray, and, by mid-decade,
papers and magazines began covering heavy-metal's new punk-influenced
offshoot-thrash-as well as its undisputed leader, Metallica, a band that
dared to play on stage in plain street clothes, such as T-shirts, blue jeans
and sneakers.  Yet it was this simple act of insurrection that set Metallica
apart from just about every other young metal band in the land, and set the
tone for the entire speed-core movement-"just be yourself."

			      A New Beginning

    Like any good rock revolutionaries, Metallica's early music was, in a
purely commercial sense, almost impossible to listen to.  Working with the
same guitar-driven "noise" approach of such great proto-punk bands as Velvet
Underground, MC5, and Iggy & the Stooges, as well as real punks like the
Pistols and the Ramones (and key proto-thrashers Motorhead), Metallica
launched the speed-metal movement with songs that employed incredibly fast
tempos, blithering guitar solos, and near-incomprehensible vocals-to the
uninitiated, the music was a ceaseless wave of sonic distortion with
unintelligible, gutteral snarling on top.  Nonetheless, it was just the
ticket for a generation of hard rockers disillusioned by commercial heavy
metal and its related trappings.  While some aspiring metalers envied Van
Halen and AC/DC for their popular appeal and enormous album sales, others
wanted to play a form of heavy rock that had no commercial potential, only
pure expression.  As such, speed-metal grew into a sort of high-voltage folk
music, one whose practitioners sang about their lives, hopes and fears in a
way that was meaningful to them.  And, considering that this was at the onset
of the Reagan-era, it's no wonder that early material by Metallica and other
thrash acts focused on thoughts of impending doom, nuclear war, and social
breakdown on a grand scale.  Indeed, it was a period in which many people
were scared and confused, and no other body of musicians expressed this
global anxiety better than the young thrashers.
    After rhythm guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield met drummer Lars Ulrich in
the spring of 1981 and decided to record some tracks, Metallica began gaining
a large word-of-mouth reputation, particularly in Europe, where tape traders
passed along their No Life 'til Leather demo (as well as an early version of
"Hit the Lights," from the 1982 compilation Metal Massacre, which featured a
guitarist named Lloyd Grant playing lead).  Soon after, Metallica scored a
deal with the fledgling Megaforce label and went to New York to cut a record.
By this time, the band had also settled into a firm lineup, dropping bassist
Ron McGovney for Cliff Burton and lead guitarist Dave Mustaine (now leading
Megadeth) for former Exodus picker Kirk Hammett.
    Though they had originally wanted to call their 1983 debut Metal Up Your
Ass, the more eloquently-titled Kill 'Em All was still enough to do the
trick, selling over 300,000 copies, no small thanks to the blazing songs
written largely by Hetfield and Ulrich.  Interestingly, the version of "Hit
the Lights" that kicks off the album is less like what we now call thrash
than an embellishment of the high-speed boogies and metal shuffles of
Motorhead and their NWOBHM counterparts;  even Kirk Hammett's speedy,
Schenker-insprired Pentatonic solos seem rather conventional in hindsight (in
one interview, Hetfield also admitted the popular "Seek and Destroy" was also
a bit of a retread, this time from a Diamond Head song).  However, by the
second track, "The Four Horsemen," (co-written by Dave Mustaine), the
essential sound of thrash comes into focus, mostly from Hetfield's furiously
galloping rhythm riff and grim lyrics, as well as the varying tempos,
Hammett's melodic solo, and the overall complexity of the arrangement.  Even
more quintessintially thrash are "Whiplash" and "Metal Militia," both of
which explode with the kind of frenzied rhythm strums that James Hetfield
made an essential skill for all speed-metal guitarists to learn and master.
Other interesting cuts on Kill 'Em All are "Blitzkrieg," a song whose central
chord progression is, perhaps unconciously, a reworking of Jan Akkerman's
main guitar riff from Focus' 1973 hit instrumental "Hocus Pocus," and also
"(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth," which revealed to many the four-string talents
of bassist Cliff Burton, who, although not a technical virtuoso, was able to
play an extremely expressive solo that relied as much on sheer confidence and
conviction as on the actual notes he produced from his instrument.

		       The Movement Grows (1984-85)

    One of the key events of 1984 was when Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth.  As
an original member of Metallica, Mustaine is, along with James Hetfield, one
of the players who should be credited with codifying the signature thrash
guitar sound, particularly for meaty speed-rhythm riffing and frenzied solo
spasms.  Yet because of personality conflicts between himself and the other
members of the band, he was ousted before the recording of Kill 'Em All,
leaving Kirk Hammett to reap the glory as thrash's first great guitar hero.
Desite this personal blow, Mustaine bounced back a year later with Megadeth.
Along with bassist Dave Ellefson and a revolving door of lead guitarists
including, in succession, Cris Poland and Jeff Young, Dave Mustaine lead
Megadeth into the forefront of speed-metal's movement with 1985's Killing Is
My Business...and Business Is Good, helping set the stage for the next wave
of incoming thrash contenders.
    While Megadeth decried the human condition in their music, Slayer drew
upon Satanic, and indeed, horror sources for their lyric material, just as
Black Sabbath did in 1970.  Musically, the band opted for a cruder, more
punk-oriented sound than more progressive bands like Megadeth and Metallica,
giving guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman ample room to practice their
barbaric chordal riffs and berserk solos (as on early set, Reign in Blood),
all with the ultimate goal of playing the heaviest and, indeed, scariest
brand of thrash around.  New York's Anthrax also began bringing to the
underground metal sound to the masses in the mid-80's though often leaning
more towards social consciousness in thier lyrics.  Still, thier talent for
turning such diverse human emotions as rage, humor and despair into an aural
wall of thundering guitar riffs and locomotive-paced drumbeats quickly made
Anthrax a speed-metal leader, much of it based on collective instrumental
strength of guitarists Scott Ian (rhythm) and Danny Spitz (lead) and bassist
Frank Bello.  And for fans of metal with meaning, albums like 1985's
Spreading the Disease, 1987's Among the Living, and the I'm the Man Ep, as
well as Speak English or Die by Ian's influential sideband, Stormtroopers of
Death (S.O.D.), are now considered essential recordings of thrash.
    Another major milestone in the widening thrash-scape was the appearance of
Metallica's second album, Ride the Lightning.  Where Kill 'Em All showed a band
just taking its first speed-metal baby steps, Ride the Lightning revealed those
same musicians up and running like a gang of healthy young thugs.  Lightning
also showed the band cutting away the remaining blues-based thouches of the
NWOBHM and playing pure thrash, though Metallica purposely threw in a ballad,
the gripping "Fade to Black" (with its Thin Lizzy-like guitar harmonies), to
keep pushing the envelop outward;  thus, even as they were inventing this new
style of metal, they were forcing it to move onward and keep from stagnating,
as lesser musicians might have done.  The album also revealed the maturation
of Metallica's song writing talents, with all members contributing ideas from
the group's "riff tapes," which are recordings of various band jam sessions.
Later, Hetfield and Ulrich had the task of going through these tapes in search
of the strongest riffs and then assembling them into full songs ( a not-
uncommon method of songwriting these days, with Van Halen and Rush also among
its notable practitioners).
    Moreover, Ride the Lightning gave a clearer illustration of Metallica's
unusual recording style than the first set.  Strong advocates of sound-on-
sound recording, the band recorded every instrument separately, which isn't
unheard of in metal circles.  But where many groups give their guitarists the
roles of "lead guitar" and "rhythm guitar" as rough delineators of who solos
and who doesn't Metallica sticks to these titles rigidly.  So, in reality,
what one hears on a Metallica album is not really a metal quartet playing
together but a power trio-Hetfield, Burton (later Newstead), and Ulrich-and
de-facto "solo specialist," Kirk Hammett, who only does leads.  All the other
rhythm guitar parts and harmonies (and the odd solo) are Hetfield, though
in concert both players share rhythm duties.
    Hammett's reputation as a thrash flash also took a significant leap
forward from his work on Ride the Lightning.  Coming from a background
immersed in Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, and particularly UFO's Michael Schenker,
the guitarist began taking greater chances with his leads at this time,
something likely related to the lessons he had started taking the year before
from a local Bay Area player named Joe Satriani, who is now world-famous for
his own adventurous soloing capabilities.  Satriani's input helped Hammett
break out of the Pentatonic box mentality and go beyond the speedy
Schenkerisms that he showed upon Kill 'Em All.  And while the influence of
the great UFO/MSG picker was still prevalent-witness "Fight Fire With Fire"-
the Metallica axeman also began adding classical elements to his speedcore
repertoire, as heard in his breaks to the title track and "Creeping Death,"
where he takes a neo-classical solo.  Considering that he recorded this lead
in the spring of 1984, it's also clear that Kirk Hammett was not only breaking
ground with thrash, but also with Bach'n'roll, since it was at this same time
that Yngwie Malmsteen was just gaining initial recognition for his Baroque-
metal style.

				Rendezvous with Ozzy

    Metallica's landmark 1986 tour opening for Ozzy Osbourne is surely one of
the most important events in the history of thrash.  Not only did it mark the
commercial acceptance of Metallica and speed-metal, as it was in support of
the top 30 Master of Puppets album, but it also showed heavy metal coming full
circle, Ozzy-the godfather of dark metal-symbolically passed the heavy metal
baton onto Metallica, whose energy and professional hunger reminded fans of
Black Sabbath during their early -70's peak (generous chunks of the tour were
captured by fans with camcorder and later released in the superb Cliff 'Em All
home video).
    Of course, the historical significance of the Ozzy tour would be nil
without Master of Puppets, an album many consider the greatest thrash
recording ever made.  From it came such speed classics as "Battery," "The
Thing That Should Not Be," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," and "Damage, Inc.,"
each of which exhibits a wealth of diverse textures, tempos, time signatures
and half-step chord progressions, not to mention the pummeling guitar and bass
work of Hammett, Hetfield and Burton.  Hetfield's genius as a rhythm guitarist
comes to the fore on "Battery," where he constructs a lovely introduction of
overdubbed acoustics before issuing forth a tidal wave of power chords and
harmonies-all before the actual song song even begins!  He also proves himself
a tasty soloist in the first break of "Master of Puppets."  Cliff is typically
strong throughout, takes a bass lead on the instrumental, "Orion," and
contributes the dramatic chordal swells to the beginning of "Damage, Inc."  As
a lead guitarist, Hammett naturally got most of the attention from guitar fans,
who lapped up his manic, speed-picked solos to "Battery and "Damage, Inc.,"
among others.  His tone was vastly improved from previous Metallica efforts,
making his Strat and Flying V-powered speed runs easier to hear, and his
nervous, Tony Iommi-like vibrato all the more unnerving.  From his performance
on the record, Kirk Hammett was hereafter regarded as the premier guitarist of
thrash, as the abundance of articles about him in rock and guitar magazines
proved in the ensuing months.
    Aside from the press interest in Hammett and Metallica, the success of
Master of Puppets also awoke the rock press at large to thrash, and brought
some much-needed publicity to other significant bands in the movement, such as
Anthrax, Megadeth, and Metal Church (with guitarists Craig Wells and founder
Kurt Vanderhoof, later replaced by John Marshall), who in the next year issued
such vital thrash platters as Among the Living, Peace Sells...but Who's Buying,
and The Dark, respectively.  Megadeth, in fact, followed up their disc with a
successful tour opening for Alice Cooper, who, like Black Sabbath, had
similarly helped set the precedent for dark metal in the '70s.
    Despite the tremendous breakthrough Metallica made with Master of Puppets,
the Ozzy shows and the public acceptance of thrash, 1986 was still ended on a
grim note, as Cliff Burton was killed in a freak bus accident during the
Scandanavian leg of the tour.  Not surprisingly, given the musical, and one
assumes, personal strength within the band, Metallica realized that Burton
would have wanted them to carry on, and that they did, quickly picking up
Jason Newstead of Flotsam and Jetsam.  And, to prove their intentions to
carry on, the revitalized foursome jumped into the studio in 1987 to bang out
some guitar-drenched cover tunes by such band favorites as Diamond Head,
Killing Jokes and the Misfits.  Once done, these blitzkrieg sessions were
swiftly released as The $5.98 EP/Garage Days Revisted, a mini-album that was
well received by fans, and surprisingly, even by critics, who appreciated the
band's non-manstream tastes and studio spontaneity.  So, even with the
devastating loss of Burton, the tall end of 1987 saw the Metallica juggernaut
plowing ahead, seemingly unstoppable.

			World Domination (1988-Present)

    Two years after Master of Puppets forever changed the rules of heavy rock'
n'roll, Metallica reappeared with ...And Justice For All, an album which
blasted into the Billboard Top Ten, earned them a write up in the prestigious
New York Times Magazine, and confirmed every rave write-up or word-of-mouth
recommendation ever given to the band.  Muscular rockers like "Blackened,"
"The Shortest Straw" and "Dyers Eve" showed the central Hetfield/Ulrich
writing combination to be as potent as ever, while "One," a multi-facited epic
that revealed the band's complete instrumental and lyrical strengths, was
nominated for a Grammy in 1989 (Metallica performed the song at the awards
show, but lost out to Jethro Tull).
    While Hetfield and newcomer Newstead played their parts with exacting
precision and fire, Kirk Hammett rose to the occasion on Justics and played
some of his most expressive solos to date.  For example, in "The Shortest
Straw," he creates an abrasive solo segment by using a G Pentatonic scale
over a progression in the key of E, and on "The Frayed Ends of Sanity," plays
the complete compendium of modern heavy guitar, including two handed taps,
bluesy metal runs, whammy bar dives, edge-of-pick harmonics, chordal riffs,
trills, modal lines, unison and single-string-bends, and a fast ascending
arpeggio reminiscent of Scorpions great Uli Roth.  With these performances
alone, Hammett taught aspiring metal players all over the globe to be as
versatile as possible, as well as to take chances whenever possible, even if
it means playing what some might consider "out-of-key" tones.
    With ...And Justice For All bolting up the charts, the thrashers next move
was to nail down a spot on Van Halen's "Monsters of Rock" tour of the U.S.,
along with Scorpions, Dokken and Kingdom Come.  Positioned in the second slot
at the daylong metalfest, Metallica drew huge responses from the crowd at
every gig, out gunning Scorpions, Dokken, and in some people's opinions, even
Van Halen.  To boot, many thrash fans came just to see their favorite band,
and left right after Metallica finished their set, despite the abundance of
chart-topping metal music that was to come.  For their hardcore followers, no
one could top a blistering, outdoor Metallica concert-not even Van Halen.
    Interestingly, Metallica's own global conquest of 1988-89 was really a
microcosm of the mass thrash-mania that was rampant all over the planet.  With
speed-metal now becoming part of the rock mainstream, major bands like Slayer,
Anthrax and Megadeth began commanding more attention, while "new metal" acts
like Testament (with guitar virtuoso Alex Skolnick), Primus, Annihilator,
Prong, Fate's Warning, Scatterbrain, and Suicidal Tendencies (with flash
Rocky George) began moving up the speed-metal hierarchy.  The thrash movement
got another big boost when Faith No More, the eclectic San Francisco quintet
with thrash picker Jim Martin, scored a 1990 hit with "Epic" and the album,
The Real Thing, merging hardcore with funk and progressive rock for a truly
unique rock brew.  Another Bay Area band, Mordrid, furthered the funk-thrash
cause by adding a DJ/rapper to complement the Gothic-metal sounds of
guitarists James Sanguinetti and Danny White, while "punk-funk" has enjoyed a
surge of popularity via the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction.  To
further diversify the speed-rock sound, England's Skyclad has been
experimenting with a Celtic folk/thrash hybrid, while ex-Megadeth picker Cris
Poland tried an instrumental thrash/fusion approach on his acclaimed  Return
to Megalopolis.  Of course, not to be overlooked is the monumental 1991 "Clash
of the Titans" tour, which linked Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth for an evening
of brain-crushing entertainment, all in support of their respective albums,
Persistence of Time, Seasons in the Abyss and Rust In Peace (which features
ex-Cacophony guitarslinger Marty Friedman now stepping into the lead guitar
spot).  Globally, too, thrash is a hit, especially in England, Germany and
Japan, countries that have long been havens for heavy metal.  Moreover, there
are now even "boutique" record labels who specialize in the new metal sound,
such as Noise and Combat.  So, where speed-metal was struggling for its own
basic survival just a half-decade ago, it's plain to see that, today, thrash
is alive and well as it races towards a new millenium-truly a new sound for a
new age.
    As for Metallica, they are still the guiding light of the thrash movement,
despite the emergence of these many colorful and talented new bands (as well
as the glut of drab Metalli-clones).  Now with the release of the streamlined,
yet fierce, METALLICA , the foursome seems poised to become the clear metal
beacons of our era.  Of course, that won't be known for years to come, but in
the interim, thrashers around the world will still gleefully bang their heads
to the speedcore roar of Metallica, as well as that of their high-voltage
progeny.  It may not be music for the masses, but to today's heavy rockers,
thrash has become the sound of real musicians playing real music for real
people.  And in rock'n'roll, that means alot. []