The Role of Thrash Metal in the Formation of Extreme Heavy Music (Based on the Interview of Musicians)

Abstract

The article is devoted to defining the role of thrash metal music in the foundation of extreme heavy music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Attention focused on the importance of a separate sub-genre of heavy metal music in forming a new style of heavy music, including new vocal techniques, building more complex compositions, and expanding the lyrics' themes. Analyzed the criteria by which extreme heavy music can attribute among other sub-genres of heavy metal and defined thrash metal as a transitional stage between heavy metal and extreme music. The work is interdisciplinary, which manifested in the use of methodological approaches to history and cultural studies. The article examined various areas of development of thrash metal music, particularly the United States, where the phenomenon has appeared; Germany and Switzerland, which differed qualitatively from the American scene; and Brazil, whose musicians have set recording standards for much of the extreme music. The article identified the reasons for the popularity decline of thrash metal in the early 1990s in the context of the general development of rock music and identified the features of the evolution into extreme metal. In addition to the musical component, the article outlined the social and behavioral elements of thrash metal fans during bands' performances, which also formed the image of the extremity of metal music. Special attention in the article is devoted to the Slayer and Megadeth bands, the foundation of controversy in the subject of lyrics, which, in turn, is characterized by extreme metal. Evolving from the New Wave of British heavy metal, American thrash metal develop new features in heavy music, including fast, aggressive riffs, and sharpened the lyrics' themes, primarily political and anti-religious. Rebelled against the dominance of glam metal, thrash metal fans developed their image, which consisted of aggression and appropriate behavior during concerts. Developed in the United States, thrash metal has gained popularity in other parts of the world, whose scenes have developed their characteristics, which, in the future, influenced the formation of extreme heavy music. In the late 1980s, the US radio format shifted the demand for grunge, which supplanted thrash metal from the radio. The sub-genre began to decline and was replaced by death and black metal in the heavy metal music underground.