Thrash is back on the menu with the Big Four
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\r\nOn thrash metal’s enduring appeal:
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\r\nKirk Hammett (METALLICA):\r\n"It speaks to the core essence of the human psyche, bro. It’s true. \r\nThere’s a beat and an energy that speaks to you no matter what cultural \r\nbackground, what age, what demographic. If you hear it and you make a \r\nconnection, you’re done man, you’re in for life."
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\r\nOn the large crowd attandances for the Sonisphere festival shows featuring the "Big Four":
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\r\nKerry King (SLAYER): "METALLICA draws people out of the caves; everyone comes to see them. The rest of us are just icing on an already killer cake."
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\r\nOn the early days of thrash:
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\r\nScott Ian (ANTHRAX):\r\n"We were the underdogs, and we looked at the bigger bands and thought, \r\n’We’re true metal. Not you.’ It’s so fucking stupid when I think about \r\nnow, but I totally get the mindset that we were in."
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\r\n"Kids might grow up listening to BON JOVI or whatever, but then they get to 15 and they just don’t want that any more — so they start listening to ANTHRAX and METALLICA. And that was our mission, to stop kids from going to the dark side!"
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\r\nOn thrash metal’s enduring popularity:
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\r\nDave Mustaine (MEGADETH):\r\n"There’s probably people still putting out glam metal and somewhere \r\nthere’s a bunch of girls with fake tits buying that shit, but for people\r\nwho really like heavy metal, thrash is thinking man’s music. They try \r\nand stigmatize metal people and make them look stupid. When I went to \r\nthe White House in the ’90s [as part of the Rock the Vote campaign], a lot of people thought, ’Well he’s not going to be very smart,’ and to the contrary, I was very articulate."
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\r\nOn how the arrival of grunge in the early’ 90s affected the thrash metal scene:
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\r\nScott Ian (ANTHRAX): "When ’alternative rock’ came out in the 90s, we were like, ’They’re all over MTV, how the hell are they alternative? We’re the alternative!’"
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\r\nOn why METALLICA’s much-maligned 2003 album, "St Anger", had to be made:
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\r\nKirk Hammett (METALLICA):\r\n"It kept us from falling apart — we had something to focus on, and it \r\nkept us together as a unit. We’ve always taken chances and a lot of the \r\ntime we’ve ended up on the wrong side of the tracks. But we never made a\r\nrap metal record, thank God."
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\r\nOn how METALLICA’s "Death Magnetic" and SLAYER’s "Christ Illusion" became the two bands’ most commercially and critically successful records in more than a decade:
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\r\nKerry King (SLAYER): "In 1985 to 90, everybody was just slamming great records out. And here we are doing it again."
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\r\nOn the "Big Four" sharing the stage for the first time:
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\r\nScott Ian (ANTHRAX):\r\n"If you look back over the last 40 years you couldn’t find another four\r\nbands that could do this. We’re all here and we can do it — it’s \r\nawesome."
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\r\nOn making peace with his past and finally burying the hatchet with METALLICA:
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\r\nDave Mustaine (MEGADETH): "Backstage, James [Hetfield, METALLICA’s\r\nfrontman] and I were talking, and hugging each other, and apologizing \r\nfor the things we’ve done to each other in the past. And Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA\r\ndrummer] and I were talking about going out for dinner. Who would have \r\nthought that would ever happen? But here we are, kicking ass and taking \r\ndown names in the name of heavy metal."
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\r\nRead more from Guardian.co.uk.
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\r\nJune 15, 2010 (dinner in Warsaw):
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\r\nJune 16, 2010 (pre-show photo call in Warsaw):
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\r\nPhotos below by Andrew Stuart/Future Grandpa
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\r\n’It speaks to the core essence of the human psyche, bro," says Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, explaining thrash metal’s\r\nenduring appeal. "It’s true. There’s a beat and an energy that speaks \r\nto you no matter what cultural background, what age, what demographic. \r\nIf you hear it and you make a connection, you’re done man, you’re in for\r\nlife."\r\n
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\r\nWho could argue? After all, when we meet, he is in the \r\nmidst of a run of playing to half a million metal fans across Europe \r\nover seven nights. They were there to witness the show they said could \r\nnever happen – thrash metal’s "Big Four" of Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax \r\nand Megadeth – playing the same stage for the first time in their \r\nnear-30-year careers, as part of the Sonisphere tour. It’s an occasion \r\nthat, despite bitter rivalries, has seen unexpected reconciliations and a\r\nsurprising amount of humility given the size of the egos involved. \r\n("Metallica draws people out of the caves; everyone comes to see them," \r\nconcedes Slayer’s Kerry King. "The rest of us are just icing on an \r\nalready killer cake.") And, most of all, it’s a testament to the \r\nsurvival of a genre that seemed dead and buried only a decade ago, and \r\nto the rehabilitation of four bands whose careers have seen innumerable \r\nobstacles thrown in their way, from personal tragedy to drug addiction \r\nto complete creative and communicative breakdowns.\r\n
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\r\nThrash was \r\nforged in the early 80s by a handful of predominantly California bands. \r\nThey took the headbanging gallop of New Wave of British Heavy Metal \r\ngroups such as Judas Priest, Angel Witch and Iron Maiden (for whom, \r\nfittingly, Metallica and Megadeth will make way when the Sonisphere \r\nroadshow hits Knebworth next week) and melded it with the aggression, \r\nnihilism and political discontent of the burgeoning hardcore punk scene.\r\nThe result was a riposte to the hairspray-heavy preening of glam metal.\r\nScott Ian, guitarist and founder member of Anthrax, who bucked the \r\ntrend by coming from New York, explains: "We were the underdogs, and we \r\nlooked at the bigger bands and thought, ’We’re true metal. Not you.’ \r\nIt’s so fucking stupid when I think about now, but I totally get the \r\nmindset that we were in." That mindset caught the spirit of the times, \r\nhowever. "Kids might grow up listening to Bon Jovi or whatever, but then\r\nthey get to 15 and they just don’t want that any more – so they start \r\nlistening to Anthrax and Metallica. And that was our mission, to stop \r\nkids from going to the dark side!"\r\n
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\r\nBy the late 80s, with no support from MTV or radio, the Big Four, \r\nwith a fast-expanding second tier of like-minded acts worldwide, became \r\nthe defining force in metal. Slayer released Reign in Blood, still \r\nregarded as one of the best metal albums of all time; Anthrax aligned \r\nthemselves with the New York hardcore scene, and their members spawned \r\nfurther thrash outfits in Nuclear Assault and Stormtroopers of Death; \r\nMegadeth, formed by acrimoniously exiled Metallica guitarist Dave \r\nMustaine, threw down the gauntlet to his former charges and sold \r\nmillions of albums in their own right; and Metallica, having put the \r\ndeath of bass player Cliff Burton behind them, were slowly but surely \r\npositioning themselves to become the biggest metal band in the world.\r\n
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\r\nFor\r\nMustaine, this was when heavy metal’s new order came into its own – \r\nuncompromising in its vision, musically and lyrically, and a million \r\nmiles away from the airheaded party bands the Big Four ousted from the \r\ntop table. "There’s probably people still putting out glam metal and \r\nsomewhere there’s a bunch of girls with fake tits buying that shit, but \r\nfor people who really like heavy metal, thrash is thinking man’s music,"\r\nhe says. "They try and stigmatise metal people and make them look \r\nstupid. When I went to the White House in the 90s [as part of the Rock \r\nthe Vote campaign], a lot of people thought, ’Well he’s not going to be \r\nvery smart,’ and to the contrary, I was very articulate."\r\n
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\r\nNevertheless,\r\nwhen grunge arrived in the early 90s, thrash’s trailblazers suddenly \r\nfound themselves in the wilderness. Metallica may have propelled \r\nthemselves to superstardom – even as hardcore fans suggested they’d \r\nsoftened their sound to do so – but they left their peers in their wake.\r\nAnthrax, the most cartoonish of the four bands, found the shift to the \r\nmore sombre, introspective musical landscape hard to deal with. "When \r\n’alternative rock’ came out in the 90s, we were like, ’They’re all over \r\nMTV, how the hell are they alternative? We’re the alternative!’" bemoans\r\nIan. Slayer’s fearsome live reputation won them a fanatical following, \r\nbut their 90s output was patchy, both in terms of quality and quantity. \r\nAnd creative issues were the least of their worries when the band was \r\nimplicated in the murder of a 15-year-old girl in California by three of\r\nher classmates who, it was alleged, had been repeatedly listening to \r\nSlayer beforehand. The lawsuit against them was finally thrown out in \r\n2001. In the Megadeth camp, Mustaine, in between his endless feuds with \r\nbandmates and former colleagues alike, spent half of the decade addicted\r\nto heroin.\r\n
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\r\nBut Metallica’s fall from grace was as spectacular as \r\nthey come. Although there had been grumblings about their musical \r\nchoices through the 90s, it was the battle with file-sharing website \r\nNapster in 2000, following the online leak of an unreleased Metallica \r\ntrack, that was the last straw for many. For a group whose fanbase had \r\nbeen consolidated by underground tape-trading in the 80s, the Napster \r\nepisode seemed petulant and short-sighted, and turned drummer and band \r\nstrategist Lars Ulrich from a hero to a hate figure. It’s to Metallica’s\r\ncredit that, at the height of their artistic and personal troubles, \r\nthey let film-makers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky access to make an \r\nastonishingly candid documentary. The result, Some Kind of Monster, \r\ncaptured a group in crisis as they squabbled and sulked their way \r\nthrough the making of their creative nadir, St Anger. Hammett, however,\r\nbelieves that record had to be made. "It kept us from falling apart – \r\nwe had something to focus on, and it kept us together as a unit. We’ve \r\nalways taken chances and a lot of the time we’ve ended up on the wrong \r\nside of the tracks. But we never made a rap metal record, thank God."\r\n
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\r\nWhile\r\nthe Big Four trod water, drifting further and further out of vogue, \r\nsuperseded by nu-metal in the mainstream and the burgeoning death and \r\nblack metal scenes at the genre’s extremities, something exciting was \r\nhappening at metal’s grassroots. From the beginning of the new century, \r\ninterest in thrash was picking up, and a handful of new bands (see \r\npanel) were packing out basement shows and creating the kind of \r\nword-of-mouth buzz that Metallica had enjoyed a generation ago. The Big \r\nFour were being talked about in hallowed terms again, by people who \r\nweren’t even alive when their first albums were released.\r\n
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\r\nIt’s \r\nhard to believe this went unnoticed by thrash’s founding fathers. Before\r\ntoo long, Metallica and Slayer enlisted Rick Rubin, the producer of \r\nReign in Blood, to make Death Magnetic and Christ Illusion, \r\nrespectively. These became their most commercially and critically \r\nsuccessful records in more than a decade. "In 1985 to 90, everybody was \r\njust slamming great records out," acknowledges King. "And here we are \r\ndoing it again." Mustaine overcame a career-threatening arm injury and \r\nreformed Megadeth, while Anthrax re-enlisted singer Joey Belladonna, the\r\nvoice of their best-loved recordings. And, through the efforts of \r\nthrash’s most derided figurehead, Lars Ulrich, the four bands finally \r\ncame together to play to half a million devoted headbangers. "If you \r\nlook back over the last 40 years you couldn’t find another four bands \r\nthat could do this. We’re all here and we can do it – it’s awesome," Ian\r\nsays.\r\n
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\r\nIt’s a remarkable turn of events, but arguably most \r\nstaggering of all is that Mustaine, metal’s eternal curmudgeon, seems to\r\nhave made peace with his past and finally buried the hatchet with \r\nMetallica. "Backstage, James [Hetfield, Metallica’s frontman] and I were\r\ntalking, and hugging each other, and apologising for the things we’ve \r\ndone to each other in the past. And Lars and I were talking about going \r\nout for dinner. Who would have thought that would ever happen? But here \r\nwe are, kicking ass and taking down names in the name of heavy metal."\r\n
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\r\nSlayer and Anthrax play Sonisphere, Knebworth Park next weekend. Details: uk.sonispherefestivals.com\r\n
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