It was my first REAL exposure to the animalistic side of thrash metal. Sure, I'd seen fights (John Lennon once said something to the effect of, "it's not a Rock 'n Roll show without at least one fight" and I truly believe that) and pits and the like, but I had never seen and have never seen since a spectacle of that magnitude. The music, though, was as intense and HEAVY as you're ever likely to find. Sure, they tend to be same-sounded from one album to another but as Henry Rollins says, Slayer is one of those bands where you know EXACTLY what you're going to get. They won't sell-out to orchestra-rock or commercial radio and they're going to put out an intense soundtrack to kill your mother to.

There were (and are) others that could be thrown into the same pot as these four. Exodus, Helloween, Suicidal Tendencies, Sacred Reich, Dark Angel, Death, Testament, Kreator and a few others come directly to mind but those are the proverbial "second-tier" thrash bands. Some of these bands are still touring and releasing very good music and while the argument could be made that they are as good if not better than the "big four," they never reached the same level of success or achieved the same recognition as Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer.

All four of them are still making albums to one degree or another and still putting on shows, although each has had a period or two of inactivity. Metallica is well-documented and winding down perhaps the most sucessful tour of the year after a couple of years of inactivity and the loss of their bassist. This, on the heels of the oft-criticised St. Anger. Slayer released God Hates Us All in '01, reunited with original drummer Dave Lombardo and have been touring ever since. They've released a couple of pretty good concert DVD's, War At The Warfield and Still Reigning, co-headlined the Ozzfest tour and are working on another album. Anthrax roared back big-time in '03 with We've Come For You All and a sucessful tour. They released the awesome live CD/DVD Music Of Mass Destruction, which I reviewed on BlogCritics and just Tuesday, released an album of re-recorded versions of their early songs, The Greater Of Two Evils, which is great for what it is. Megadeth also returned after a brief hiatus due to Dave Mustaine's much-publicized injury. He remixed/remastered the entire post-KIMBABIG catalogue, recorded an awesome new album, The System Has Failed and is on the road with a superb live show which I caught on 11/13/04 in Boston.... absolutely great stuff.