‘We built a castle on stage complete with battlements’: how 80s German thrash bands pushed metal to new extremes

As Metallica et al broke through, Kreator, Sodom and Destruction were forging an even harder sound. They recall gigs in coalmines, sessions in steelworks – and boozing with SlayerThe noise might have been building since the early 80s, but 1986 was the year thrash metal broke – bursting like a zit on a teenage metalhead’s bumfluffed chin. Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica all released landmark albums, with the latter swapping fleapit rock clubs for a string of arena dates supporting Ozzy Osbourne. But while these California acts would alter the course of rock music for ever, a clutch of like-minded teenagers were carving their own path 5,500 miles away from the genre’s epicentre.What Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and Tankard – the “big four” of German thrash metal – might have lacked in finesse and professional outlook, they made up for in sheer unbridled aggression. Faster and meaner than most of their American peers, these bands helped to set a new benchmark for brutality while unwittingly influencing the next generation of death- and black-metal musicians. Continue reading...