Thrash Metal - Genre Spinoffs

Genre Spinoffs

Thrash metal is directly responsible for the offshoot of popular underground metal genres, such as death metal and black metal. The blending of punk ethos and metal's brutal nature led to even more extreme, underground styles after thrash metal began gaining mild commercial success in the late 1980s. With gorier subject matter, heavier downtuning of guitars, the more persistent use of the blastbeat, and darker, atonal death growls, death metal was established in the mid-1980s. Black metal, also considered the offspring of thrash, may have risen even sooner, with many black metal bands taking influence from thrash metal bands such as Venom. Black metal continued with such deviations from thrash, often providing more orchestral overtones and Pagan or Occult-based aesthetics to distinguish itself from thrash. In the 2000s, an Ohio band named Skeletonwitch was formed, who combine the musical traits of both traditional thrash and black metal.

Thrash metal with stronger punk elements than standard thrash is called crossover thrash, or crossover for short. Its overall sound is more punk-influenced than traditional thrash metal, while more metal sounding than traditional hardcore punk and thrashcore.