thehistoryofthrashpart21

   

PART XXI.
THE DECLINE.
THE MASS EXTINCTION OF THRASH METAL.
(1991-1997)

THE COLLAPSE OF MOMENTUM.

Between 1992 and 1996, thrash metal entered its most uncertain and least unified period. After nearly a decade of pushing boundaries and dominating the heavier end of the metal spectrum, the genre suddenly found itself without momentum. The early ’90s brought a perfect storm of cultural shifts: grunge exploded, alternative rock took over MTV, and death metal became the new underground obsession. Thrash, once the cutting edge, now looked like yesterday’s news to younger listeners and too abrasive for the mainstream that had briefly flirted with it. Labels that had once aggressively signed thrash bands began dropping them, tour sizes shrank, The metal magazines started writing about grunge and alternative metal and the budgets that fueled the late ’80s boom evaporated almost overnight.

THE GRUNGE INFLUENCE

There was a lot of reasons why thrash died in the nineties, one of the biggest ones being the popularity of grunge. In 1991 we saw the release of Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten and nothing would ever be the same. The thrash bands of the eighties were forced to adapt or die and a lot of them did. Grunge might not have been the influence of Metallica's black album but it also came out in 1991 and it showed a lot of bands that slowing down and recording softer material was the way of the early nineties. Metallica then went even softer with Load and Reload from 1996 and 1997 and those two were more or less just alternative rock records.

Megadeth went in the same direction, the jump from Rust in Peace (1990) to Countdown to Extinction (1992) was huge. Youthanasia (1994) was also rather soft in Megadeth terms.

But it wasn't just Metallica and Megadeth that went in this direction. Death Angel's Act III (1990), Exodus' Force of Habit (1992), Testament's The Ritual (1992), Anthrax' Sound of White Noise (1993) and Stomp 442 (1995), Flotsam and Jetsam's Cuatro (1992) and Drift (1995). All these records are proof that we were in a new era where metal wandered into a softer direction, with some albums worse than others.

Metallica - Metallica (1991)

THE PANTERA INFLUENCE

Musically, the thrash genre began to splinter. Some bands slowed down and took influence from the alternative rock scene in Seattle or the new version of Metallica. Some looked towards punk for inspiration.

While others absorbed groove‑metal influences, trying to stay relevant in a landscape shaped by bands like Pantera and Machine Head. We saw a rise of a slower version of metal, more rhytmic, often combined with more shouty type of vocals. (Forbidden, Sacred Reich, Sepultura, Annihilator, Sodom, Destruction & Overkill)

Even the most stubborn traditionalists, still let some 90's groove metal influence their sound. Sodom's Tapping the Vein (1992) leaned into death metal. Get What You Deserve (1994) and Masquerade in Blood (1995) were weaker albums with a slight groove or Hardcore punk influence. 

While German thrashers Tankard brought in more punk elements to their music in the mid nineties. 

Overkil's I Hear Black (1993) was a slightly softer record, W.F.O. (1994) had some groove-influences while 1996's The Killing Kind leaned even further into the groove.

Annihilator - Set The World On Fire (1993)

THE DEATH METAL INFLUENCE

While many thrash bands dissolved during the 1990s, a different group survived by mutating. Instead of abandoning heaviness, they pushed into harsher, darker, or more contemporary directions that kept them active even as the classic thrash sound fell out of fashion. Some bands drifted toward death metal and a few even experimented with early nu‑metal textures.

Slayer were one of the most visible examples of this shift. After the raw extremity of their 80s output, they spent the 90s tightening their sound into a heavier, more rhythmic form that culminated in Diabolus in Musica, an album built on down‑tuned riffs, chugging patterns, and a darker, more suffocating atmosphere that flirted with the emerging nu‑metal aesthetic without fully crossing into it.

Testament took an even more dramatic turn, after lineup turmoil and the rather commercial The Ritual, they embraced a death‑metal‑infused approach on Demonic, with Chuck Billy adopting a deeper, harsher vocal style and the band leaning into thick, crushing riffs that pushed far beyond their late‑80s sound.

Other bands followed similar paths. Kreator experimented with industrial and gothic elements while keeping their aggression intact, and Sepultura, though already evolving. fused groove, tribal rhythms, and hardcore intensity into a sound that still carried the DNA of thrash, at least until Roots came out in 1996. Were these shifts betrayals of their values or survival strategies?

I'll let you be the judge of that. But it was certainly a strange time for thrash bands trying to stay relevant in a decade that had little interest in the classic form. By adapting rather than dissolving, these groups kept the flame alive in a period when the genre’s traditional structure was collapsing around them.

Sepultura - Chaos A.D. (1993)

THE MASS EXTINCTION OF THRASH

The collapse of thrash metal began in 1991, when Death Angel disbanded after the bus crash then Artillery (Den) Sabbat (UK) and Exumer (Ger) fell apart just as the genre’s momentum was shifting. Laaz Rockit disbanded in '92. In 1993, the genre took one of its hardest hits when Metal Church, Nuclear Assault and Vio-Lence broke up, followed soon after by Heathen, whose progress stalled under lineup and label problems.

The mid‑90s deepened the damage: Defiance dissolved in 1994, and Dark Angel’s long inactivity solidified into a full breakup soon after, ending one of thrash’s most extreme and influential runs. Xentrix (UK) collapsed in 1996 as their attempts to modernize failed to connect. The decade’s final blow came in 1997, when Forbidden dissolved, marking the fragmentation of the Bay Area’s second‑tier giants and closing the book on the movement’s first generation. By the end of the decade, thrash’s biggest survivors stood almost alone, surrounded by the silence of the many major bands that hadn’t made it through the 90s.

The unified identity that defined the first two waves of thrash was gone; in its place was a fractured scene where every band seemed to be heading in a different direction. This era produced albums that were often misunderstood or ignored at the time. Some were bold experiments, others desperate pivots, and a few were genuinely strong thrash records that simply arrived when no one was paying attention. The genre didn’t disappear, but it retreated back to the underground where it had started. Only the most dedicated bands or the most creatively restless kept going, surviving on smaller tours, smaller labels, and the loyalty of diehard fans.

Looking back, 1992–1997 wasn’t a wave so much as an aftershock. It was the moment when thrash shed its mainstream visibility and returned to the shadows, reshaping itself in response to a world that had moved on. The decline was real, it could have been the end but fortunately, it was just a transitional era, a period of fragmentation and survival that quietly set the stage for the genre’s eventual revival in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

THOSE WHO KEPT THRASHING

Even though thrash metal was largely swept off the map during the 1990s, a handful of bands refused to abandon the style. While many groups shifted toward groove metal or alternative influences, these survivors kept enough speed, aggression, and riff‑driven intensity to remain recognizably thrash. In the West, the scene was hit hardest: most of the Bay Area and US second‑tier bands had dissolved by the mid‑90s, leaving only a few stubborn holdouts like Testament, Sodom and Overkill, who continued releasing albums that blended their classic sound with heavier, more groove‑oriented elements. Some countries being more trend sensitive than others. In Germany, thrash survived a year or two longer than in the States for example. 

Sodom - Get What You Deserve (1994)

But the real lifeline came from the East. In the former Soviet union, thrash never disappeared as completely as it did in the US or western Europe. Russia had quite an active scene in the mid nineties with bands such as Master, Korrozia Metalla, Zhelezny Potok, End Zone, Trizna, Front, Aspid and a few others. 

Even as global trends shifted toward grunge, alternative metal, and groove, these Russian bands continued releasing albums that carried the traditional thrash spirit into the mid‑90s. Their persistence created a parallel scene where thrash remained vibrant long after it had faded elsewhere.

There were still some classic thrash going on in 1992 but if I would list the more important thrash releases between 1993-1997 I would mention Coroner's Grin (1993) and Anacrusis Screams and Whispers even though those leaned more into prog metal than 80's thrash. Sacrifice's Apocalypse Inside, Nuclear Assault's Something Wicked, Slayer's Divine Intervention (1994) which had a darker sound but still thrashy enough. Overkill's W.F.O. from the same year, Assorted Heap's Mindwaves, Aftermath's Eyes of Tomorrow, Tankard's Two-Faced (1994) and The Tankard (1995). Germany's Depressive Age. We have to dive deep into the underground to find anything that resembles thrash by the mid 90's. 

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>>> PART XXII >>>