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"Not only lyrically, but musically, Thrash lost its heaviness. The fear of external danger was being replaced by melancholy and internal fear."
"Not only lyrically, but musically, Thrash lost its heaviness. The fear of external danger was being replaced by melancholy and internal fear."
by Patric Cipriano
I thought a lot about this article before deciding to write it, so I want to make it clear that what I'm writing is an opinion, an impression, and not an absolute truth.
That being said, you can extinguish the torches, put away the scythes, and lower the hammers. Actually, the theme was hammering in my head like Charlie Benante from Anthrax playing Gung Ho, or more rhythmically in Only. How did the 90s influence Thrash Metal?
To understand where I'm going with this, let's understand what happened in the dark nineties. With the end of the Iron Curtain, the socio-political opening of Eastern Europe, the end of the Soviet Union, and the reunification of Germany, the world ceased to be bipolar.
Human issues, personal dramas, drugs, family conflicts, questions about human freedom, the conflict between man and machine, the internet, and personal computing began to influence the culture of the time. Thus, moving away from the risk of nuclear war, which was the eternal nightmare of the 80s, recurring themes such as nuclear winter, human devastation, and world wars ceased to be "in fashion.".
In other words, songs like Metallica's "Desposable Heroes" or Megadeth's "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" no longer made sense to play. After all, the artist presents their vision of the world around them.
What followed was a decade of depression (or introspection) where the expectation of Stanislav pressing the red button never materialized; in other words, a void remained in the world population because there was no longer external terror, but rather the internal terror of each individual. Belligerent fear occupied minds in the 1980s, leaving little room to discuss other topics.
It's as if nothing could replace the void left by the fear of a US-USSR clash, since in the 90s, we were all "brothers" overnight. With this new "status," questions of inner emptiness began to emerge, along with questions about the meaning of life, relationships, and so on.
If we think about it, Megadeth's "Rust in Peace" (1990) was, so to speak, the swan song for the 80s theme. They were drinking the last drop from that once inexhaustible source of nuclear fear, war, espionage, and conspiracy.
So much so that "Holy Wars" (conflicts in Ireland) coexisted alongside "Rust in Peace...Polaris" (nuclear conflict). However, inner fear began to emerge if we remember that the same album also contains "Poison Has No Cure."
The following album, "Countdown to Extinction," reheated the 80s theme, of course, masterfully, but in my opinion, well below the previous album.
"It was no different on the other side of the Atlantic. The Kreator was also affected by the 1990s."
"It was no different on the other side of the Atlantic. The Kreator was also affected by the 1990s."
As we can see, not only lyrically but musically, Thrash lost its heaviness. The anger/fear of external danger was replaced by melancholy and internal fear. We see this in "Youthanasia" where even a "ballad" (A Tout Le Monde) can be found.
What followed was a mediocre album (Cryptic Writings) and descended into the experimentalism of Risk, as an escape from these anxieties.
On the other side of the Atlantic, it was no different. The Kreator was also affected during the 1990s.
Okay, so they came from Endless Pain (1985), killed it with Pleasure to Kill (1986), kept the momentum going with Terrible Certainty (1987), and blew it away with Extreme Aggression (1989). However, with the arrival of the 90s, the following album, Coma of Souls (1990), began the experimental phases (not necessarily bad ones), showing that something had changed, and we see a mediocre sequence of albums, starting with Renewal (1992) and ending with the reviled Outcast (1997) and Endorama (1999). What followed, Violent Revolution (2001), was the "getting out of the rut" movement.
And don't think anyone got away unscathed. Look at the Anthrax case, I believe it's the most interesting:
From Fistful of Metal (1984) to Persistence of Time (1990), they maintained the same momentum. However, already in Persistence, we can perceive that the tempo was slowing down and that the themes (always varied in Anthrax) were beginning to converge more towards the human side.
With Joey Belladonna's departure, John Bush joined, contributing (along with the 90s vibe) to the convergence of themes, heaviness, and rhythm. Interestingly, with the same John Bush, we have We've Come For You All (2003), attempting to recapture what was lost in the 90s.
Testament also had its turn, although, in my opinion, the fluctuation was less noticeable. After Practice What You Preach (1989), came The Ritual (1992), a bit slower, and then Low (1994), regaining momentum.
Similarly, Slayer felt the impact of the nineties, and we noticed it on the album South of Haven (1989)... Not even they escaped.
I could cite more similar cases, but I decided to leave the most emblematic one for last: Metallica.
In Master Of Puppets, Metallica transcends Thrash. Epic, grandiose, dense and avant-garde.”
In Master Of Puppets, Metallica transcends Thrash. Epic, grandiose, dense and avant-garde.”
Metallica was born in the whirlwind of 80s Thrash Metal, the Bay Area, the firing of Dave Mustaine – in short, everything to follow the Thrash Metal tracks without deviations. However, they had a bassist – Cliff Burton – whose culture and upbringing would temper the band.
His influence began much earlier, but it's visceral in "Anesthesia..." even on the most Thrash of Thrashes, Kill 'Em All (1983). Even with Hetfield's stature and the stubborn Ulrich, Cliff's sensitivity to the years to come was so great that it influenced Fade to Black from Ride the Lightning (1984).
Notice that the step from raw Thrash to something more elaborate was made in one go.
In Master Of Puppets (1986), Metallica transcends Thrash. Epic, grandiose, dense and avant-garde, Cliff once again surpassed himself in his influence.
But then came the accident. Newsted joined the band, which already had a significant portion of And Justice For All (1988) composed, certainly bearing Cliff Burton's mark. Look, it's still 1988 and the atmosphere was completely different. Did Metallica foresee this, or did Cliff's death bring the internal conflicts of human nature into the music?
It's chilling to think that, because Metallica reinvented themselves with each album, they were always ahead of their time, even more so than other Thrash bands, kind of paving the way. It's as if they were saying, "Let's play like this, let's talk about this, now," and then a year or two passes, and everyone is at that level.
In 1990, in the midst of grunge, Metallica wasn't afraid to be "pop" (here precisely in quotation marks) and put the Black Album (1991) on the charts, with songs "accessible" to the average person. I started out like that, I won't deny it!
Megadeth tried this two years later, Anthrax 3, and so on, the influence of Metallica on other bands. It was something like, "if it worked for Metallica, I can try it too," along with the culture of the nineties pushing to do it this way.
Fear of becoming a cliché or a cover of themselves? We don't know and can only fantasize about these theories. So much so that the so-called "cursed duo" of Load (1996) and Reload (1997) arrived in the second half of the 90s, bringing Hard Rock and even Country with hints of Heavy and Thrash. It was as if the 4 years playing and selling the Black Album had already become tiresome and they needed an urgent break, because that atmosphere was killing them.
Nobody knows who is to blame: the 90s, a greedy producer, a bored band, or all of the above, mixed together at the same time.
But, when it came to Metallica, nothing could stay as it was, and off they went to get up to their old tricks again: together with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, they recorded S&M (which some maliciously nicknamed Sado/Maso) and played their songs, except for Kill 'Em All.
In my opinion, the symphonic arrangement in most of the songs felt like an afterthought, an adaptation, without integration. However, some pieces like "-Human" turned out very well. Phew, it was the end of the 90s.
This analysis isn't about witch-hunting, finger-pointing, or finding fault. There was something good in that jumble of bitterness and low self-esteem; it was a matter of looking for it without being prejudiced. We see that the cultural influence of the 90s was so great that not even 80s Thrash Metal escaped unscathed. But luckily for us, the 90s are over, and all the cool bands we know reinvented themselves in the style that made them famous, gracing us with "Death Magnetic" (forget St. Anger, for God's sake …) or Endgame (get out of here, Risk), just to mention the most basic ones.
*This text was written by a Wikimate and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the site's authors.
