Thrash Metal Conventions

Today we were given the genre we would be creating our Preliminary Digipack for. I was given the genre Thrash Metal. So I decided I would create about the conventions of Thrash Metal and what they entail, here is what I found:

Thrash Metal originated in the late 1970's and early 1980's. It began when a series of mostly American bands decided to experiment with British Heavy Metal and began mixing it together with the aggression and speed of Hardcore Punk. Thrash Metal is a sub genre of Heavy Metal and is seen to be much more aggressive than some of the other sub genre's that came out of Heavy Metal such as Speed Metal and Glam Metal. As the 1990's progressed a variety of other sub genre's were born such as Death Metal and Black Metal. As time went on all these sub genres began intermitting with each-other for example artists that had all the traits of a Thrash Metal band would start to incorporate aspects of Black Metal for example the use of synthesisers. Thrash Metal itself has recently seen a resurgence In recent years It is believed this is due to the genre's high energy and recklessness and appealing to the younger generation. 

Metallica - The Black Album

Thrash Metal is known for it's fast tempo, its complex guitar rifts and double bass drumming as well as it's famous guitar solos. The vocals associated with Thrash Metal can consist of anything from singing to shouting. Lyrics include  addiction, isolation, suicide, warfare, murder, destruction as wealth as disease and death.The guitar solos are usually fast and aggressive, they are well known for their shredding style. Thrash Metal has an extremely aggressive drumming style part of the reason the the genre has such a fast tempo and beat. Drummers usually use either two bass drums or a double bass pedal to creating a dominant thumping beat. Most Thrash Metal bassists use a pick to keep up with the other instruments however some use their fingers such as Cliff Burton. Several bassists also use a distorted bass tone.

Thrash Metal artists include the likes of Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer and Anthrax. These are knows the "Big Four" and were the dominant forces within the Thrash Metal scene throughout the 1980's. Other Thrash Metal artists include Moral Sin, Vio-Lence, Forbidden, Razor, Death Angel, Dark Angel, Holy Moses, Overkill, Onslaught, Metal Church, Grinder, Exodus, Testament, Iron Angel, Discharge, Destruction, Nuclear Assault, Kremate, Distortion, Demise, Demons Dream, Motörhead, Sinner, Intruder, AC-DC, Artillery, Sacred Reich, Turbo, Mercyful Fate, Messiah Force, Coroner, Defiance, Virus, PC Death Squad, Slaughter and Macabre. 

Death Angel - The Art of Dying

Thrash Metal Digipacks usually consist of various symbols and imagery relating to death, danger, suffering and destruction. Examples of this can be found In a variety of album covers from the likes of Metallica as seen above with the snake symbolising potential danger and death. Other examples can be found when looking at Albums such as Reign In Blood by Slayer as seen below. Most Thrash Albums will also have their own unique font or text style to compliment their destructive covers a classic example of this is Megadeath's logo, another example would also be the Death Angel logo to left of this text. Thrash Metal album covers are often dark with mainly red, black and white colour schemes however some albums have golds and greens as seen above. Thrash Metal album cover are usually cartoon or computer generated, with creative and comic book style designs very rarely will it ever be of the band.

Slayer - Reign In Blood 

Thrash Metal music videos are usually made up of the band performing. Sometimes this will be taken from concert footage with focus drawn on the key elements of Thrash such as shredding guitar solos, big bassy drum beats and destructive lyrics. However some Thrash Metal videos explore a narrative route also, for example Metallica's famous "Enter Sandman" video as well the narrative seen in Megadeaths "Symphony of Destruction" video which doesn't even feature the band in it at all. 

Analysing these conventions of Thrash Metal will be extremely useful when it comes to designing my own Thrash Metal Digipack, I will know what artists to look at for inspiration which will be a great help. I will be able to use my knowledge about the what I have learnt and justify my decisions when creating my own Thrash Metal Digipack.