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Caught In A Mosh: The Golden Age Of Thrash
In the intensities in ten cities follow-up to Popoff’s celebrated New Wave of British Heavy Metal trilogy (Smokin’ Valves, Wheels of Steel and This Means War) along with Hit the Lights: The Birth of Thrash, Martin now offers all the tales of the bands and records that built thrash metal into a juggernaut circa 1983 to 1986.
In the words of those who were there plus the music-makers themselves, this is the story of records like Ride the Lightning, Killing is My Business, Spreading the Disease and Reign in Blood, along with contributions from Anvil, Exciter, Voivod, Overkill, Pantera, Exodus, Celtic Frost and the German contingent of Sodom, Kreator and Destruction. Multiple members of all the above bands get their say, along with the industry giants that sent the records into the shops. The end result is the ultimate history of thrash’s most blessed and blasted years, a golden time for metal that forms the bedrock of the thriving thrash scene of today.
In the words of those who were there plus the music-makers themselves, this is the story of records like Ride the Lightning, Killing is My Business, Spreading the Disease and Reign in Blood, along with contributions from Anvil, Exciter, Voivod, Overkill, Pantera, Exodus, Celtic Frost and the German contingent of Sodom, Kreator and Destruction. Multiple members of all the above bands get their say, along with the industry giants that sent the records into the shops. The end result is the ultimate history of thrash’s most blessed and blasted years, a golden time for metal that forms the bedrock of the thriving thrash scene of today.
- GenresMusic
236 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2017
20 people want to read
About the author
Martin Popoff
224 books247 followersAt 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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 19, 2020
Excellent overview of thrash from mid-'83 and the release of Metal Massacre III, through the Fall of '86 with the release of Reign In Blood. This book covers a lot of ground, and we hear from a wide variety of players in the thrash scene...as we not only get the regular voices from Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, but also there is plenty of space devoted to bands like Exciter, Voivod, Onslaught and Nasty Savage. Very well done, and I expect that I'll be revisiting this one often.
August 11, 2025
Wow! Wasn't that big on the first volume of this trilogy but the second volume is even worse. Basically, all the complaints that I had about the first volume still ring true in the second - quotes are too long, too much talk about hair or glam metal, the same information repeated by different people in different quotes. Popoff even repeats a quote here - on page 32 he has Exciter's Dan Beehler talking about their second album, and then on page 49 he has the same quote with only a couple of words difference and the paragraph formatted differently. I don't know if he was trying to pull a fast one, or it was just lazy editing.
A lot of talk of Paul Baloff and how he originated the anti-glam movement, the "Kill the Posers" attitude, and how he used to go up to guys with hair metal band t-shirts with a knife and cut up their shirts and wear them around his wrist as trophies. Interesting once, maybe twice. Popoff keeps mentioning it. I'm not sure why Baloff gets so much time, as he was only around for the first Exodus album.
The constant talk of glam versus thrash get tired quickly. He talked about it in the first volume, nobody says anything different in this one, can we just drop it? This book is supposed to be in chronological order. If in the first book, there's already a schism between the hair bands and the thrash bands, and the hair bands are all in Los Angeles and the thrash bands are all in San Francisco, or at least the Bay area, why are we still talking about it a couple of years later? In the first volume, Baloff is noted for starting the whole "hair metal bands are posers, kill the posers" thing. So he's still doing it a couple of years later. We need several quotes about this? Filler.
The chronological format is also problematic. It leads, for instance, to Popoff talking about Slayer starting to record Reign in Blood with quotes about the album from the band. Then, a little later they release Reign in Blood and there are more quotes about the album from the band and others. Can't we put this all in one section? It's not like the earlier ones were about the recording process and the later ones were about the release or looking back at the album. The quotes could have been all put together. Again, it feels strongly like padding.
And most of the book is just quotes and facts. So for instance, "1986. Chicago's Wrath issue their debut, Fit of Anger, on Medusa Records. Cheap Trick and Trouble have competition." Who is Wrath? Are they thrash? Cheap Trick is rock, maybe hard rock at best, and Trouble is considered one of the earliest doom bands. How do they fit in with Wrath? Are they all from Chicago? A quick Google gives me the fact that both both are from Illinois, so maybe that's it. Why should we care about Wrath? There are lots of examples like this. Popoff will mention a band releasing an album with no context except for date. This worked for his books on the NWOBHM because there was an understanding that metal was bubbling up all over England. But with just a mention of a band, you don't know if they're a thrash band or not.
There is a mention in this book of Hawaii releasing their second and last album. I vaguely remembered Hawaii being mentioned in the first book, so I went back and looked. As far as I can tell, the only reason they merit mentioning at all is because Marty Friedman was a member and he later went on to play in Megadeth. In the first volume, when Popoff talks about Hawaii's first album, he says "not a lot of thrash or proto-thrash on an otherwise pure heavy metal record that helps usher in the ear (I assume a typo for era?) of the heavy metal shredder." If there's not much thrash, why are we discussing this band at all?
Similarly, we learn that after All for One, Raven moved away from a speed metal or thrash direction. Then why do we keep hearing about them? They should disappear from the story. Popoff mentions that Ozzy Osbourne puts out a weak album with The Ultimate Sin, implying that it cleared the way for thrash. Really? So if Ozzy put out a great album, thrash wouldn't have gotten big? I don't think Ozzy's '80s stumble had much to do with thrash's success. This is irrelevant to the issue at hand.
And although as a fellow Canuck, I admire Popoff talking up all the Canadian bands that were active through this period, I really feel that more space should have been spent on talking about the burgeoning German thrash scene. He makes reference to a possible German Big Four, but never delves into it too deeply - maybe in the next book? - just keeps talking up the same bands over and over again - Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Exodus and Testament. Not much of a scene really - closer to grunge than to the NWOBHM.
I will eventually read the last book in this trilogy, mostly because I've already purchased it, but I'm finding the series growing increasingly frustrating and a slog to read. Hopefully it ends on a high note, because so far it's been getting worse as it goes along. Not much happens in these three years to warrant a whole book dedicated to them.
A lot of talk of Paul Baloff and how he originated the anti-glam movement, the "Kill the Posers" attitude, and how he used to go up to guys with hair metal band t-shirts with a knife and cut up their shirts and wear them around his wrist as trophies. Interesting once, maybe twice. Popoff keeps mentioning it. I'm not sure why Baloff gets so much time, as he was only around for the first Exodus album.
The constant talk of glam versus thrash get tired quickly. He talked about it in the first volume, nobody says anything different in this one, can we just drop it? This book is supposed to be in chronological order. If in the first book, there's already a schism between the hair bands and the thrash bands, and the hair bands are all in Los Angeles and the thrash bands are all in San Francisco, or at least the Bay area, why are we still talking about it a couple of years later? In the first volume, Baloff is noted for starting the whole "hair metal bands are posers, kill the posers" thing. So he's still doing it a couple of years later. We need several quotes about this? Filler.
The chronological format is also problematic. It leads, for instance, to Popoff talking about Slayer starting to record Reign in Blood with quotes about the album from the band. Then, a little later they release Reign in Blood and there are more quotes about the album from the band and others. Can't we put this all in one section? It's not like the earlier ones were about the recording process and the later ones were about the release or looking back at the album. The quotes could have been all put together. Again, it feels strongly like padding.
And most of the book is just quotes and facts. So for instance, "1986. Chicago's Wrath issue their debut, Fit of Anger, on Medusa Records. Cheap Trick and Trouble have competition." Who is Wrath? Are they thrash? Cheap Trick is rock, maybe hard rock at best, and Trouble is considered one of the earliest doom bands. How do they fit in with Wrath? Are they all from Chicago? A quick Google gives me the fact that both both are from Illinois, so maybe that's it. Why should we care about Wrath? There are lots of examples like this. Popoff will mention a band releasing an album with no context except for date. This worked for his books on the NWOBHM because there was an understanding that metal was bubbling up all over England. But with just a mention of a band, you don't know if they're a thrash band or not.
There is a mention in this book of Hawaii releasing their second and last album. I vaguely remembered Hawaii being mentioned in the first book, so I went back and looked. As far as I can tell, the only reason they merit mentioning at all is because Marty Friedman was a member and he later went on to play in Megadeth. In the first volume, when Popoff talks about Hawaii's first album, he says "not a lot of thrash or proto-thrash on an otherwise pure heavy metal record that helps usher in the ear (I assume a typo for era?) of the heavy metal shredder." If there's not much thrash, why are we discussing this band at all?
Similarly, we learn that after All for One, Raven moved away from a speed metal or thrash direction. Then why do we keep hearing about them? They should disappear from the story. Popoff mentions that Ozzy Osbourne puts out a weak album with The Ultimate Sin, implying that it cleared the way for thrash. Really? So if Ozzy put out a great album, thrash wouldn't have gotten big? I don't think Ozzy's '80s stumble had much to do with thrash's success. This is irrelevant to the issue at hand.
And although as a fellow Canuck, I admire Popoff talking up all the Canadian bands that were active through this period, I really feel that more space should have been spent on talking about the burgeoning German thrash scene. He makes reference to a possible German Big Four, but never delves into it too deeply - maybe in the next book? - just keeps talking up the same bands over and over again - Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Exodus and Testament. Not much of a scene really - closer to grunge than to the NWOBHM.
I will eventually read the last book in this trilogy, mostly because I've already purchased it, but I'm finding the series growing increasingly frustrating and a slog to read. Hopefully it ends on a high note, because so far it's been getting worse as it goes along. Not much happens in these three years to warrant a whole book dedicated to them.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews