MetalRock Films While California’s Bay Area is considered to be the epicenter of thrash metal, bands including Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer actually got their start further down the coast in Los Angeles. That scene is documented in The Rise of L.A. Thrash Metal, which was released on DVD today.
Narrated by Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, The Rise of L.A. Thrash Metal explores the roots of the genre, which began as a rejection of the ’80s glam metal scene.
“We were the first generation that owned punk rock and heavy metal records,” Ellefson tells ABC Radio. “So what we did is we basically, without knowing it, kind of fused the speed, the politics and the aggression of punk rock into the more refined riffing and guitar solo[s] [and] really good drumming that encompassed heavy metal bands.”
As The Rise of L.A. Thrash Metal documents, there were many diverse bands in the scene, but most of them had the same goal: to play faster and heavier. Ellefson says for his band mate Dave Mustaine, who was Metallica’s original guitarist, the motivation came from a fan letter.
“It said, ‘Dave, I can’t wait to hear your new band, I hope your new s***’s faster than Metallica,'” Ellefson remembers. “And that one letter changed the course of Megadeth forever.”
While The Rise of L.A. Thrash Metal doesn’t concentrate so much on Metallica, who moved from L.A. to San Francisco in 1983, their shadow looms large over the scene. In fact, Ellefson calls Lars Ulrich the “Steve Jobs of thrash metal.”
“He’s the guy who really had the vision for so much of this genre,” Ellefson says. “When he put Metallica together…they really single-handedly carved this huge, wide swath for all of us to be able to follow in.”
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