‘We built a castle on stage complete with battlements’: how 80s German thrash bands pushed metal to new extremes

As Metallica et al broke through, Kreator, Sodom and Destruction were forging an even harder sound. They recall gigs in coalmines, sessions in steelworks – and boozing with Slayer The noise might have been building since the early 80s, but 1986 was the year thrash metal broke – bursting like a zit on a teenage metalhead’s bumfluffed chin. Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica all released landmark albums, with the latter swapping fleapit rock clubs for a string of arena dates supporting Ozzy Osbourn...

By Alex Deller