Thrash Metal

"Hirax became a fixture in the Los Angeles metal community before they achieved broader recognition, beginning with 1985’s aptly named ‘Raging Violence,’ released by Metal Blade, of course. The band was led by vocalist Katon W. de Pena, whose idiosyncratic vocal style alternated between vicious snarling and semi-operatic screams, thus mirroring his bandmates’ bi-polar blend of blazing thrash and classic metal."

"In high school, if you were playing any kind of music that wasn't dance, or just something that was really different—you know, rock, metal or hard rock, anything like that—then you needed to look like it. You needed to look like a bad dude, and we just looked like normal dudes....It wasn't about trying to impress everybody, because we looked at those types of people as weenies trying to do that stuff ... We just wore our normal stuff and we didn't really think about it. It just kind of happened that way and I think because we were searching for an extreme style, coupled with this no image, who-cares-what-we-look-like thing, then I think we fit in to that new movement that we discovered a little ways later, the whole Bay Area thrash scene."

"[Punk and heavy metal] were pretty segregated [before 1982]. I’m sure there were people from both those scenes that went to different shows but we didn’t book any shows with, like, Black Flag or TSOL. We never booked shows with those guys, which I regret, because I think it would have opened people’s eyes. That’s where the thrash thing came from, it crossed over from the punk element. Consider the circle mosh and stage diving and stuff like that – that came directly from the punk scene."

"Exodus, arguably the most musically violent band in the Bay Area thrash movement, were also the most vocal in their hatred of fishnet-wearing glam-rockers, often calling for their fans to “Kill the poseurs”, wherever they may be found."

"During the emergence of the Bay Area thrash scene in California, Exodus were unanimously regarded as the top band by both fans and their contemporaries. Gary Holt is arguably the best pure thrash guitarist in the biz, contributing fret-defying solos across the ever-changing swing of the right hand that kept Exodus busier than most bands. From the visceral debut of ‘Bonded by Blood’ to other standouts like ‘Fabulous Disaster’ and ‘Tempo of the Damned,’ Exodus are still thrash royalty over three decades later."

"Bay Area thrashers Death Angel only missed out being counted among the Big Four by a matter of months. [...] Death Angel still shred like it's 1982 and they're playing in a Daly City garage."

"Multiple journalists, as well as members of thrash bands both among and outside the Big Four, often maintain that Exodus should be named as one of the Big Five; Dave Mustaine even suggested back in 1990 that Exodus, not Anthrax, should be in that elite club."

"Very few metal bands can claim to be as influential as the power trio Venom. Taking the rumble and speed of Motorhead and warping into something more sinister altogether, the band’s Satanic themes and wild image were uninhibited savagery. ‘Welcome to Hell’ changed the metal landscape forever in 1981, followed by ‘Black Metal’ and ‘At War With Satan.’ Giving rise to what became the first wave of black metal, Venom’s impact helped usher in extreme metal, proving attitude could supersede technical abilities if done properly."

"We had no idea what we were doing was going to become such a big thing. So many bands were in the studio at the same time as us. How the hell could I have presumed that it would be my band who would be the lasting name? We weren’t trying to be the next Iron Maiden or the next this or that. We just wanted to do what we enjoyed. You had a band like [fellow Geordie NWOBHM outfit] Tygers Of Pan Tang always dropping Purple references; you know, ‘We want to be the next Deep Purple.’ Well, Venom never did that. We never said that. We said, ‘We are now, we are new, we are Venom."

"When Geordie trio Venom coined the term black metal for the title of their 1982 second album, it was a way of marking themselves out as one louder than the rest of the rising wave of metal bands going faster, harder and noisier. With more volume than Motörhead, more speed than Priest, and more diabolic imagery than Black Sabbath visiting a Hammer Horror set, they’d already set up business to the horned one with their 1981 debut Welcome To Hell."

"We moved from Miami to Tampa when we were young, and the first people we came in contact with in our neighborhood were the guys in Nasty Savage and Savatage. Those were the two bands that even got us interested in playing music."

"Ronnie Galetti used to have all these TV sets onstage that he'd smash, and I remember putting my fist through some of them. Talk about a show, the guy used to roll around in the glass from the TVs, and one night I saw his old lady pulling broken glass out of his back after the gig and I thought, Holy shit, this is the real deal."

"Down in Florida, people were listening to Nasty Savage and Savatage as well as shredders like Randy Rhoads before the really heavy stuff started with bands like Celtic Frost, Slayer, Hellhammer and Venom."

"You must be much braver boy, Than you ever dreamed, Or your world will be destroyed, By the small and mean, You must stand, and fight them hard, You must never run, You must be a shining star, Do what must be done, Don't you ask me why and how, You must lift the spell, Life could be much more than this, Unless we've Gone to Hell."

"We know all the rules! We know more than you would like- (cuz) we ain't in your school!"

"And so the path is made for us, And so we bring the plague with us, We are the ones you made of us, You'll never understand, We bear your names but not your guilt, We do not like the world you built, Poisoned, ruined to the hilt, In a bastard land."

"Why the world is wicked I know the reason why Why the world is wicked I know that it's allowed I can never leave it the way it was before I can never disobey - the law"

"I saw the millions, the naked and the dead I saw the city streets running bloody red I saw a thousand bombers circle in the sky I saw the firestorm fifty stories highI saw a hundred thousand scream and burn I saw the armored wheels grind and turn Universal soldier, doomed to live to tell Fight and die forever, burn in bloody hell"

"We are your children grown and strange We are your children unashamed You breed contempt we mock you now We bring the shake to rock you now"

"Don't chase after money, you are gonna lose your soul, Same for religion, out of control, Don't fall for money, or heroine again, Needles for your enemies, bullshit for your friends, The way we're going, same as we came, Bought the fucking picture and we're playing for the frame. Everybody asking you when they gonna die, I think that they should be askin' why."

"Forget you're blood & bone Stand like you're made of stone"

"Politicians kissing babies for good luck T.V. preachers sell salvation for a buck You don't need no golden cross to tell you wrong from right The world's worst murderers were those who saw the light"

"Shut up, I'm talkin' to you It's on television so it can't be true But I can't believe their lies no more Watch out, I'm coming through Boogey man gonna bite you too I know what the blind man sees On your feet or on your knees"

"I am not the only one to walk into the fire I would rather burn than let them make me a liar I cannot be beaten, I cannot be like you I cannot be otherwise, no matter what you do"

"Born to raise hell, Born to raise hell We know how to do it and we do it real well"

"And so Daddy lies by his daughter's side And he sleeps deep and well No nightmares come to him tonight Though his daughter lives in hellFor his seed is sown where it should not be But the beast in his mind don't care And the only sound are tears that fell Little girl turns her face to the wall"

"Why do they not believe I have not lied, even for this, Now no-one can conceive The lie becomes the loving kiss, But I would not, Fall in love, Like this."

"Don't look for maturity- don't you even dare! We are our own security, and we don't even care!"

"The answer to life's mystery is simple and direct: Sex and Death!"

"Ridin fast out of the sunset, Devils and horses advance, Thunder and lightning and honour, The army of saber and lance, Every man somber and focused, Each man looks to the fore, Death is the life we are living, Hungry for battle and war"

"Evangelistic Nazis, you cannot frighten me The name you take in vain shall judge you for eternity"

"So that's the story, what you see is what you get, No doubt there's better men than me But I ain't met one yet No doubt the dancer calls the tune, So you can call on me I'm all I've got, and what I am is what I'll be"

"Mother earth, mother earth enfold you in her cold embrace Sinking down, killing ground, worm crawling on your cold white face Win or lose, nought to choose, all men are equal when their memory fades No one knows, friends or foes, if Valhalla lies beyond the grave"

"Don't ask for why, don't ask for help, Don't ask for anything, that you can't do yourself The wolf is here, he's at your side You better fight him, or it's you that's gonna die, The wolf is at your door, The wolf"

"In all the years you spend between your birth and death You find there's lots of times you should have saved your breath It comes as quite a shock when that trip leads to fall"

"You know me, evil eye You know me, prepare to die You know me, the snakebite kiss Devil's grip, the Iron Fist"

"Another town another place, Another girl, another face, Another truce, another race, I'm eating junk, feeling bad, Another night, I'm going mad, My woman's leaving, I feel sad, But I just love the life I lead, Another beer is what I need, Another gig my ears bleed, We Are The Road Crew"

"I'm a loser I'm a loser, that's what they said That's what they said Now I got their women in my bed You buy me a drink and you wish that I was dead"

"Rock'n'roll music gonna stop the world Can't lose it It'll make your toenails curl Can't defuse it Let me hear it all the time It's the only way Gonna make ya feel alright You can't excuse it"

"Another battle's over, it's a million soldiers Never rise again, we lost a million friends Don't try to understand, if you weren't there You felt different then, marching off to war"

"Don't you listen to a single word Against rock'n'roll The new religion, the electric church The only way to go I don't give a good goddamn My life's been alright I'm gonna crazy out of my mind Every single night."

"I am the one, Orgasmatron, the outstretched grasping hand My image is of agony, my servants rape the land Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my name Hypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law My name is called religion, sadistic, sacred whore."

"Here we are in the years The blood, the sweat, the tears Have made us bondage slaves In a world that we never made, The politicians lick our bones, The tacticians, hearts of stone They turn us against our brothers Make us fight and kill each other Locked in lust we put our trust in dogs"

"I make love to mountain lions, Sleep on red-hot branding irons, When I walk the roadway shakes, Bed's a mess of rattlesnakes, Voodoo child, black cat bone, Scratch your back, hear you moan, Get me up, you go down, tall building, single bound"

"The prince of wounds, the lord of flies Evil within ourselves We need nobody else We tell ourselves the best of lies"

"I heard my friend cry and he sank to his knees Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother And I fell by his side and that's how we died Clinging like kids to each otherAnd I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood And I wept as his body grew colder And I called for my mother and she never came Though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't to blame"

"Hellraiser, In the thunder and heat Hellraiser, Rock you back in your seat Hellraiser, And I'll make it come true Hellraiser, I'll put a spell on you"

"I tell you we are doomed my friends Our time is come, our time is come We live within a charnel house Rotten to the core We glorify lust, greed & pain We drown our hope in poison rain We point the finger, shift the blame Ambition makes us whores"

"I will be the one you can't be I will see the things that you can't see Demons blind your eyes"

"If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man, You win some, lose some, all the same to me, The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say, I don't share your greed, the only card I need is The Ace Of Spades"