The Rise of The "GUITAR GODS"

Where the new wave of British heavy metal left off, Thrash Metal certainly picked right up! Characterized usually by its grueling fast tempos and aggression, thrash metal is often fast and percussive, with a lead guitarist murdering his guitar with lighting fast “shreds” almost as some sort of sacrifice towards his audience. The "Big Four" bands of thrash metal and the true pioneers of the scene are without a doubt Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer, who simultaneously fashioned and popularized the genre in the early 1980s. By creating a new genre and developing a separate movement from punk rock and hardcore, this new metal movement was really brought together by one thing, the SHRED! This “shred” explained by Steve Waksman, author of “This Aint The Summer of Love” as, “The way the guitarist were prone to “tear up” with their extreme technique”(Pg. 262).

As if it wasn’t cool enough to play the damn guitar, “shred based, classically informed, guitar-oriented metal became a phenomenon unto itself” (Pg. 262). Thrash was all about the “rise of the rock guitar hero” (Pg. 263), adding masculinity and a whole lot of competition to be the best and the fastest thrash band. “It’s like musical athletics, athletics is all about speed and fast is the best”(Pg. 263).

Hands down my absolute favorite thrash metal guitarist has got to be Dave Mustaine of Megadeath and a founding member of Metallica. Ranked at number 19 on the top 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time in 2004 and named the No. 1 player in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, Mustaine was an innovator to say the very least.

Below is a great clip of Megadeath from 2007 playing their song entitled “Holy Wars”. His guitar could definitely be a little louder but his stage presence still exudes that notion of “all eyes on me” to even more cement the idea of “Guitar God”. Take a look for yourself…