Skip to main content
Heavy Metal Thunder Bay Area Thrash

Genres Heavy Metal Speed Metal Thrash Metal Bay Area Thrash

Bay Area Thrash

The California scene that turned thrash into a craft: tight, precise, riff-obsessed, and built for a room full of people crashing into each other.

Peak years
1983 – 1996
Origin
USA (California)
Family
Thrash Metal
Bands here
12

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Bonded by Blood Exodus, 1985 The landmark

    The scene's founding document and still its most enjoyable record. Kirk Hammett wrote some of these riffs before leaving for Metallica, and Paul Baloff sings like a man who has been told to leave a pub.

    Listen to Bonded by Blood

  2. The New Order Testament, 1988

    The most tuneful record the scene produced. Chuck Billy sings rather than shouts and Alex Skolnick solos like he has somewhere better to be, which is exactly why it works.

    Listen to The New Order

  3. The Ultra-Violence Death Angel, 1987

    Made by teenagers — the drummer was fourteen when they started — and it sounds like it in the best way. Recorded in 1986, released in 1987, and still faster than it needs to be.

    Listen to The Ultra-Violence

  4. Eternal Nightmare Vio-lence, 1988

    The nastiest of the Bay Area records, and Robb Flynn on rhythm guitar six years before Machine Head. Phil Demmel plays leads that go somewhere unexpected roughly every eight bars.

    Listen to Eternal Nightmare

What it sounds like

Precision. The Bay Area bands treated thrash as a craft: riffs are tightly written, the picking is clean at speed, and the arrangements have proper structure rather than just momentum. Melody survives — there are harmonised leads and actual guitar solos, played by people who could clearly play. Compared with the German and New York scenes it is brighter, less filthy and more musical, and compared with parent thrash it is a shade more athletic. The other thing it has is groove: these songs were written for a room of people crashing into each other, and you can feel the space left for it.

  • Heaviness 4 out of 5
  • Speed 5 out of 5
  • Aggression 4 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 2 out of 5
  • Melody 3 out of 5

Where the name came from

A straightforward geographic descriptor for the thrash metal scene centred in the San Francisco Bay Area — specifically the East Bay cities of Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond, where Metallica, Exodus, and Death Angel honed the style in the early 1980s.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Exodus USA
  • Testament USA
  • Death Angel USA
  • Vio-lence USA
  • Forbidden USA

And 7 more

  • Heathen USA
  • Sadus USA
  • Laaz Rockit USA
  • Hexx USA
  • Mordred USA
  • Anvil Chorus USA
  • Defiance USA

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.