Hit The Lights: The Birth Of Thrash

by Martin Popoff

Man, this was a blast, like a big drunken kitchen party with all yer old school thrash heroes. Comprising 101,300 words of intense detailed history and piles of archival memorabilia shots, this book is planned as the first of a thrash trilogy that will wrap up in 1991 (stay tuned to find out why).

In the logical follow-up to Popoff’s celebrated New Wave of British Heavy Metal trilogy (Smokin’ Valves, Wheels of Steel and This Means War), Martin now brings us Hit the Lights: The Birth of Thrash, attacking heavy metal’s next wave of faster, heavier, angrier sounds, with a geographical shift in the axis to San Francisco and Los Angeles, with a bit of New York, Germany and Canada thrown in for good measure.

Utilizing his celebrated oral history method—rich with detailed chronological entries to frame the story—Popoff executes a slow and ruminating burn through 1981, 1982 and the first half of 1983, culminating in the release of Kill ‘em All, the landmark Metallica album widely considered to be the first thrash metal record proper.

Come join Martin, along with dozens of his old school headbanging buddies (including multiple members from thrash’s big four and beyond), as they together tell the tale of thrash’s forging from the influence of punk, ‘70s metal and the NWOBHM. Venom, Anvil, Exciter, Raven, Exodus, Anthrax, Metallica… they’re all here and willing to explain candidly and at length how and why metal past the implosion of the NWOBHM suddenly found itself barreling down the tracks at breakneck speed.

Genres: Music, History

240 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2017

About the author

At approximately 7900 (with over 7000 appearing in his books), Martin has unofficially written more record reviews than anybody in the history of music writing across all genres. Additionally, Martin has penned approximately 85 books on hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock and record collecting. He was Editor-In-Chief of the now retired Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, Canada’s foremost metal publication for 14 years, and has also contributed to Revolver, Guitar World, Goldmine, Record Collector, bravewords.com, lollipop.com and hardradio.com, with many record label band bios and liner notes to his credit as well. Additionally, Martin has been a regular contractor to Banger Films, having worked for two years as researcher on the award-winning documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, on the writing and research team for the 11-episode Metal Evolution and on the ten-episode Rock Icons, both for VH1 Classic. Additionally, Martin is the writer of the original metal genre chart used in Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and throughout the Metal Evolution episodes. Martin currently resides in Toronto and can be reached through martinp@inforamp.net or www.martinpopoff.com.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect snapshot of the formation of thrash, told by the key players that were there. Quotes from Metallica, Slayer, Death Angel, Anthrax, Testament, plus other key players from scenes on the East and West coasts. Entertaining, insightful, and well worth the read.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

In his introduction to this book, the first in a trilogy of books on the history of thrash, Martin Popoff compares it to the “trilogy” of books that he wrote on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. His history of the NWOBHM was masterful, a well-researched, well-documented account of the rise and fall of this important musical movement. But not really a trilogy. Popoff has written a two volume account of the movement’s history, and then chucks in an earlier book that he wrote that’s a guide to all the records that were released under the NWOBHM banner. I would consider that more of a supplementary text, rather than part of a trilogy.

Why I’m talking about this here rather than going straight into a review of the book at hand is because I think a comparison to that history is instructive as to why this book goes so far off the rails. The overwhelming feeling I get from this book is that there really wasn’t enough material to fill out three books. I don’t know what the next two books will be like (but having already bought them, I’m duty-bound to finish them), but the current one feels heavily padded. Quotes are used in their entirety when they would have been better edited to avoid repetition, topics are returned to again and again although they’ve already been covered, and quotes are used sometimes seemingly just because Popoff has them.

Part of the problem is that Popoff seems to be intent on getting a trilogy out of this. But unlike the NWOBHM which had pockets throughout the whole country, thrash, at least at this point, is confined to mainly to the Bay area in California, with a little pocket in New York/New Jersey. So all his quotes from different players all talk about the same thing – same references, same bands, same clubs. So we get the same information over and over again, just with different speakers. How many times do we have to hear people say that Slayer sounded more like Iron Maiden before they heard Metallica? How many times do we need to hear people describe Metallica and Exodus as being neck and neck? We get quotes about Jonny Z and New Jersey’s Old Bridge Militia long after they’ve already been discussed and explained – no new information, just the same crap that we already know.

We also get quotes for no reason at all. There is a lengthy quote from the guitarist from Bad Brains, prefaced with Popoff’s assertion that they were an inspiration to many thrashers, especially on the east coast. The quote is about the band itself, and makes no reference to thrash. Bad Brains are only mentioned twice in all the quotes from this book, both times in passing. Other bands like the English punk band Discharge, Suicidal Tendencies and Dead Kennedys are actually singled out by various musicians and commentators, but aren’t quoted at all. I would have liked to have had a little biographical information on Discharge as I’ve never heard of them before and their name kept coming up from various musicians as an influence, but Popoff never stops to provide this information.

Popoff also includes a few paragraphs on Pantera, their first album and a band that doesn’t feature in the history of Thrash, and by Popoff’s own admission, really had their heyday in the ‘90s. Since his thrash trilogy concludes in 1989, does Pantera need to be mentioned at all? Similarly, he includes a lengthy diatribe from Bob Nalbandian, founder of The Headbanger, on a description of thrash versus glam and why thrash is better. Does anybody reading this book need a primer on the difference between the two? Nalbandian finishes by talking about how thrash is still going strong and glam is gone. But Bon Jovi sells out arenas just like Metallica. Motley Crue can draw like Slayer, maybe better. And Poison has done a good job of putting together packages for bigger venues, kind of like Megadeth does. I think neither genre is really blowing anybody away, but neither has gone completely away. Why do we need this quote?

Popoff has written another book, Who Invented Heavy Metal? In it, he goes through the history of heavy music, trying to determine trying to determine which was the first heavy metal album. When I first heard of the book, I thought it was a little ridiculous, but I ended up reading it and enjoying it. I thought he did a good job of considering contenders for the title and then rejecting them and giving reasons for his judgement. Through parts of this book, he seems to be doing this here, having decided in advance that the title is going to go to Metallica’s Kill ‘em All, the release of which ends this book. I found this annoying for several reasons. One is that unlike the other book, this book isn’t entitled “Who Invented Thrash?” Therefore, if a band has a song that could be considered thrash on an album that otherwise isn’t, then they should get credit for it. It feels like Popoff isn’t so much trying to trace the evolution as to declare Metallica the first. It weakens the book. Secondly, in his race to crown Metallica king, he starts playing with terminology. He dismisses contenders to the throne as speed metal, not thrash. He doesn’t really try to explain the difference, aside from a couple of quotes thrown in. When I tried to search the difference on the Internet, there are several attempts to define the two, but nothing convincing. I saw several commentators describe Kill ‘em All as speed metal, while later Metallica albums as thrash. So I think this desire to name a first thrash album takes away from the book rather than adds to it.

I don’t like to be so negative in a review, but Popoff uses the same technique that he’s used so well in the past, but it’s failed him this time, and I feel that it mostly fails because instead of letting this book breathe and let the story tell itself, he chooses to try to force it into a trilogy. I can’t speak to the other parts as yet, but the first book is a thin gruel as opposed to the meaty stew of Popoff at his best.