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Heavy Metal Thunder New York Thrash

Genres Heavy Metal Speed Metal Thrash Metal New York Thrash

New York Thrash

Thrash with the hardcore scene’s fingerprints all over it. Shorter, meaner, more street corner than stage.

Peak years
1984 – 1996
Origin
USA (New York City)
Family
Thrash Metal
Bands here
13

Before you press play

Explicit content

Graphic lyrics and artwork are a defining feature of this genre rather than an occasional accident — which of violence, gore or sex depends on the band. Worth knowing before you put it on in a room with other people in it.

Start here

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

  1. Among the Living Anthrax, 1987 The landmark

    The friendliest thrash record ever made. Anthrax wrote about Stephen King novels and comic books, put a chorus in everything, and are the reason the genre reached people who did not want to be frightened.

    Listen to Among the Living

  2. The Years of Decay Overkill, 1989

    The best-sung thrash record of the eighties. Bobby Blitz has a genuine voice rather than a shout, and the ten-minute title track is where New York thrash discovers doom.

    Listen to The Years of Decay

  3. Handle with Care Nuclear Assault, 1989

    Political, furious and very short — Dan Lilker left Anthrax to play faster and this is the result. Songs about landfill and famine, delivered at the speed of an argument.

    Listen to Handle with Care

  4. Speak English or Die S.O.D., 1985

    Placed last on purpose. Forty minutes of deliberate offence recorded in three days as a joke, and it accidentally invented crossover. Very funny and completely indefensible, which the band would agree with.

    Listen to Speak English or Die

What it sounds like

Shorter songs, blunter riffs, and the hardcore scene audible in everything. The tempos are a notch below the Bay Area but the attack is harder, with riffs built from fewer notes and more repetition, and vocals shouted in a way that owes more to a hardcore front man than to a metal singer. Gang vocals turn up constantly. There is little interest in solos or harmony. Compared with California it is denser and less pretty; compared with Germany it is more direct and much less concerned with sounding evil. This is thrash as street music rather than as a discipline.

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

Where the name came from

A geographic label for the thrash metal scene centred in New York City in the mid-1980s, characterised by a harder, street-level edge heavily influenced by the city's hardcore punk scene. Grittier and more aggressive than the Bay Area sound, it drew on the intensity of the NYHC (New York Hardcore) world. Overkill and Anthrax were the scene's standard-bearers.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Anthrax USA
  • Overkill USA
  • Nuclear Assault USA
  • S.O.D. USA
  • Prong USA

And 8 more

  • Whiplash USA
  • Carnivore USA
  • Ludichrist USA
  • Crumbsuckers USA
  • M.O.D. USA
  • Cro-Mags USA
  • Leeway USA
  • Merauder USA

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

If you liked this

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