By the mid-1980s, the sound of heavy metal had come a long way from the demonic riffs of Sabbath and the groovy beats of Deep Purple. Its themes had evolved a lot, too. When Ozzy encounters Satan on the song “Black Sabbath,” he lets out a petrified cry of “Oh, no, no, please, God, help me!” But in the music of Slayer, Entombed, and the other bands in this playlist, we start to see man aligning with evil, pursuing it, making peace with it, even encouraging it. As thrash gave way to the rise of death metal, the mantra became “the more evil, the better”—we start getting dark, mythological, and even sadistic lyrics accompanying faster, heavier, and gnarlier music. As Mercyful Fate sang, “You know my only pleasure/ Is to hear you cry.” If that ain’t true evil, I don’t know what is.This feature is part of our Thrash 101 online course that was produced in partnership with the good rocking folks at GimmeRadio, a free 24/7 metal radio station hosted by heavy-music experts like Megadeths Dave Mustaine and Lamb of Gods Randy Blythe. Check them out here and sign up for the Thrash 101 course here.

Thrash songs can be about a lot of things, but sometimes theyre just about the act of thrashing. Call it meta-metal if you like, but sometimes the best mindset for thrashing is simply thinking, “I’ve gotta bang my head right now, for no other reason than because thrash exists.” It’s a perfectly sound rationale.Here are a few songs that are about thrashing, whether directly or indirectly. Of course, something like Metallica’s “Metal Militia” is extremely direct with lyrics like “Joining together to take on the world/ With our heavy metal/ Spreading the message to everyone here/ Come let yourself go.” Other tracks are a little more veiled, but are clearly about the band giving it to you hard, like Pantera’s “Cowboys from Hell” (about some outlaws who come to town intending to mess shit up) or Anthrax’s “Metal Thrashing Mad” (which uses the metaphor of an out-of-control car to conjure the sensation of thrashing). Either way, if you feel like you gotta thrash because you simply must thrash, this playlist will do the trick.This feature is part of our Thrash 101 online course that was produced in partnership with the good rocking folks at GimmeRadio, a free 24/7 metal radio station hosted by heavy-music experts like Megadeths Dave Mustaine and Lamb of Gods Randy Blythe. Check them out here and sign up for the Thrash 101 course here.

Welcome to the third chapter of our Thrash 101. This feature was produced in partnership with GimmeRadio, your free 24/7 metal radio station hosted by heavy-music experts like Megadeths Dave Mustaine and Lamb of Gods Randy Blythe. Get more metal here.Thrash is all about feeling. It’s about low-register riffs that hit you in the gut, high-flying solos that make you throw those devil horns in the air, and gravelly singing imbued with a sense of purpose and meaning. It’s about raging against the powers that be with everything you’ve got in you. The “Big Four” of thrash defined these traits. Once they hit the scene some 30 years ago, the earth truly shook.Technically from L.A. but more commonly associated with their adopted home of San Francisco, Metallica is the Big Four group with the widest appeal. Everyone loves Metallica—classic rockers who want to go hard; hard rockers and heavy metallers who want something precise and driving; punk rockers in search of a bigger, tougher sound. Metallica were the sum of diverse influences, a cauldron that had been slow-cooking an angry stew of punk, rock, classic heavy metal, and NWOBHM, finally overflowing and creating something new: thrash. Metallica’s first two albums were great, but they really busted out of their shell with their third: 1986s Master of Puppets, the record that sent them on a skyward path. Above all, throughout their signature work, Metallica has displayed an unparalleled energy—a spark of cohesion and crispness thats rarely matched, even to this day.Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was actually in Metallica for their first few years, but he was asked to leave in 1983 due to substance abuse and behavioural issues. Also from L.A., Megadeth’s a little thrashier than Metallica: Compared to the formers balanced, well-tempered aggression, Megadeth is wilder and more NWOBHM-influenced—which is to say they feel closer to the satanic howls, classic-style solos, and soaring riffs of Iron Maiden. Their second release, Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? (1986), was one of the decades best metal albums, and it remains near the top of many critics’ greatest-metal-records-ever lists. That said, Megadeth’s catalog is pretty divisive—some prefer Rust in Peace (1990), others Countdown to Extinction (1992). In any event, Megadeth have been hugely influential, especially in the burgeoning genre of extreme metal.Satanism, serial killers, crime, violence… these are Slayer’s bread and butter. And their heavy topics elicit equally heavy music. There’s no other way to put it: Slayer slays. Formed by Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo, and Tom Araya, Slayer hit the scene in ‘83 with Show No Mercy, which was pretty well-received. Like Metallica, though, it was their third album that catapulted them into the realm of greatness. When the Rick Rubin-produced Reign in Blood dropped in ‘86, it announced Slayer as one of the most formidable voices in metal. Its unhinged riffs and hellish yawps conveyed the feeling that the music was constantly going off the rails, a quartet of possessed musicians just jamming too hard and fast to ever stop. Reign in Blood was the beginning of an incredible run that also saw South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss. Of the Big Four, Slayer is the most deranged—in a good way.Finally, we’ve got Anthrax, the only one of the Big Four from the east coast—New York City, to be exact. Anthrax has had something of a fluctuating lineup, but their core centers around guitarist Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello, and vocalist Joey Belladonna (who comes and goes). Oddly enough, their third LP was their big breakout, too. Among the Living (1987) was explosive among metalheads, and dealt with decidedly nerdy stuff like Stephen King novels, Judge Dredd, John Belushi, and, quite possibly, the film Poltergeist II. Anthrax’s music is built from big riffs and thundering drums—and compared to their Big Four peers, its not nearly as Satanic!

Welcome to the sixth chapter of Thrash 101. This feature was produced in partnership with GimmeRadio, your free 24/7 metal radio station hosted by heavy-music experts like Megadeths Dave Mustaine and Death Angels Will Carroll. Check it out here.By the mid-1980s, the sound of heavy metal had come a long way from the demonic riffs of Sabbath and the groovy beats of Deep Purple. Its themes had evolved a lot, too. When Ozzy encounters Satan on the song “Black Sabbath,” he lets out a petrified cry of “Oh, no, no, please, God, help me!” But in the music of Slayer, Entombed, and the other bands in this playlist, we start to see man aligning with evil, pursuing it, making peace with it, even encouraging it. As thrash gave way to the rise of death metal, the mantra became “the more evil, the better”—we start getting dark, mythological, and even sadistic lyrics accompanying faster, heavier, and gnarlier music. As Mercyful Fate sang, “You know my only pleasure/ Is to hear you cry.” If that ain’t true evil, I don’t know what is.

Thank you for checking out the 12th installment of our Thrash 101 program, produced in conjunction with GimmeRadio, your free 24/7 radio station hosted by heavy-music experts and artists. Get more awesome metal right here.Thrash songs can be about a lot of things, but sometimes theyre just about the act of thrashing. Call it meta-metal if you like, but sometimes the best mindset for thrashing is simply thinking, “I’ve gotta bang my head right now, for no other reason than because thrash exists.” It’s a perfectly sound rationale.Here are a few songs that are about thrashing, whether directly or indirectly. Of course, something like Metallica’s “Metal Militia” is extremely direct with lyrics like “Joining together to take on the world/ With our heavy metal/ Spreading the message to everyone here/ Come let yourself go.” Other tracks are a little more veiled, but are clearly about the band giving it to you hard, like Pantera’s “Cowboys from Hell” (about some outlaws who come to town intending to mess shit up) or Anthrax’s “Metal Thrashing Mad” (which uses the metaphor of an out-of-control car to conjure the sensation of thrashing). Either way, if you feel like you gotta thrash because you simply must thrash, this playlist will do the trick.

In an era where taking ownership of and proclaiming faith in one’s own project seems a rarity, Chief Keef’s confidence in his own work and that of his friends is a breath of fresh air. When asked by Complex to list his favorite songs, he submitted a list almost exclusively of his own music. He justified this by pointing out that the meaning of each song is communicated in the title of each song, and the list ends up reading like more of an OKCupid “About Me” than a list of favorite songs. An interesting aberration here is “Gucci Mane’s Entire Catalog,” although Keef gives a bit by disclosing that his favorite Gucci song is “Spanish Plug.”

The despair in our world is not enough for Bruce Springsteen—he’s spent his entire career constructing heartbreaking narratives and fateful losses in parallel worlds, and each song is a complete, grim universe in itself. In the tempestuous “Lost in the Flood,” a soldier drives a racecar directly into a hurricane and evaporates into a tableau of detritus in which oil and blood are indistinguishable. In the dour and menacing songs of Nebraska, he sings about the never-ending crisis of faith that plagues the working man: “Reason to Believe” sees a bystander staring despairingly at a dead dog, trying to will it back to life; in “Atlantic City,” a phantom protagonist becomes involved with organized crime, knowing full well that it will kill him. In Springsteen’s vast repertoire of harrowing misfortune, it is often the living who are dead, and yet his faith in the possibility of emancipation is soothing.

The black metal mythology is well known at this point, pored over by metalheads like the Greeks studied Homer: the church-burning, the murder, the suicide, the darkness. In Hyperborean black metal, as Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix calls it, the nascent style focused on dark themes, Norse imagery, burst beats, and epic walls of sound built on distorted guitars. These albums often used lo-fi recording techniques as well; for Burzum’s seminal Filosofem, for example, Varg Vikernes selected the worst microphone possible, one from a headset. Newer black metal has maintained much of the core sound of Hyperborean black metal, yet newer bands like Ashbringer, Panopticon, Deafheaven, and False have begun to transform the game.Contemporary black metal often features more frequent tempo changes, lighter, thinner guitar tones, more uplifting climaxes, high-quality production, and brighter imagery. This isn’t necessarily to say it’s more optimistic—in a largely unchanged society, these musicians are as despairing as their predecessors. And yet the forms of expression they have come to use to channel that despair exists in a fundamentally different musical landscape, one that has seen the full unfolding of post-rock, grunge, and indie. Just as Gandalf returned to his followers in The Two Towers after what appeared to be certain death, black metal comes back to us now, appearing transformed and disfigured, beckoning with rippling beauty and crushing riffs. These are the complex and grand songs of the new wave.

Jim James’ angelic falsetto floats above his soulful jams like that of a mezzo-soprano in an operatic aria, flowing to and fro through the grooves and harmonies. A heavy sense of chill exudes from nearly every track, from the hard-hitting bangers to the tender ballads. It isn’t just his voice, but his whole attitude that makes his songs great. He rides the slow build of My Morning Jacket’s “Smokin’ from Shootin’” like a focused surfer, while “Golden” sees him glide over its percussive shuffle like a leaf in the wind. Singing and guitar are far from his only strengths—the Monsters of Folk album featured his work on guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, percussion, and electronics. All these talents come together cohesively and effectively in his solo work, such as 2013’s celestial Regions of Light and Sound of God, whose tracks saw him moving into more vulnerable thematic territory (“A New Life”) while still maintaining his trademark chill vibes and occasional funkiness (“Know Til Now”). Eternally Even’s “Here in Spirit” continues the trajectory, acting as a masterclass in James’ eternally solid vibes. Whether shredding on guitar, vocals, or other, the man is in a class of his own when it comes to contemporary jam theory.

One cannot listen to Slayer without intent. When you listen to Slayer, you are not just listening to Slayer, but committing to a philosophy—the mere act of listening to Slayer situates you as a bearer of dualities: reflective, yet aggressive; grizzled, yet tender. Of all the American thrash metal bands that came out of the ‘80s, Slayer has been one of the most enduring, and for good reason. They are the a dependable machine. Frankly, they slay. Built on the partnership of guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, as well as bassist and singer Tom Araya, most of Slayer’s discography boasts a remarkably united sound, consisting of a perfect blend of grimy guitars, kerosene-fueled solos, and bone-crushing percussion. Between their macabre themes and hellish garb, their demonic affect is total. Araya’s howls are so iconic by now that, for many, his voice *is,* categorically, metal itself. And being a fan of Slayer has social currency: when you encounter someone in public wearing a Slayer shirt or sporting a Slayer tattoo, you can be reasonably sure that that person is sick as hell. Here are a few essential tracks that go right to the deep end of the inferno.