AllMovie

Explore the blistering rise, brutal fall, and lasting impact of thrash metal in this documentary focusing on some of the hardest and heaviest music of the 1980s and early 1990s. The time was the 1980s, and a collection of ambitious young bands from Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and New York City were seeking to create a new and exhilarating brand of music. The result was a scene so extreme and powerful that the poseurs were separated from the hardcore fans as soon as each concert started. There was no doubting those who were in it for real, and from Anthrax and Exodus to Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica, it seemed as if thrash was a musical force to be reckoned with. But that all changed in the early 1990s, when a shifting musical landscape revealed grunge, not thrash, to be the dominant form of "hard rock." Though a precious few trash bands like Metallica would still go on to achieve unprecedented levels of fame, most would simply languish and fade away as the grunge trend took over. Despite the fact that the scene had changed, the music would live on through the artists and fans who never forgot the thrill of the thrash.