NOTE: This is a pretty lighthearted editorial. The Big Four of North American Thrash and their German counterparts are widely known in metal circles yet the Euro side always seems to get a little, how can we put it, brushed aside. While my first forays into metal were American Thrash bands and dabbling in the Euro side, it wasn't until much later on that I really got into the Euro thrash bands. Add on top of the classics the new wave of "re-thrash" bands that popped up around 2007, 2008, and well, the German thrash bands tend to disappear into the crowd. Anyways, think of this editorial as a semi-primer and if you are familiar with the American Four then let me try and hook you up with some German might.

Now, much smarter men than me with much more defined abs have already cemented what The North American Big Four is: Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. I mean, honestly if these bands are new to you then you are in for a smorgasbord of cool information and documentaries plastered all over YouTube. But, just like supposedly everyone has a doppelganger, there was a group of bands from Germany that were also named the "Big Four" of their own province. These bands were Sodom, Destruction, Kreator, and Tankard. It's almost eerie how these bands line up with each other.

The first connection I want to make is probably the easiest: Sodom and Slayer. Both bands start with "s," both bands sing enthusiastically about war and war issues, both bands have a frontman who is a singer and bass player, and both bands play some of the fastest, most hellish sounding thrash out of anyone in the genre. I'm not even gonna mention the similarities in both singer's "yelling" delivery they utilized in the 2000's. Both bands have a strong punk influence. Slayer released a punk covers album, Undisputed Attitude in 1996, Sodom released a punk inspired studio album in 1994. Agent Orange would probably be best paired with Seasons In The Abyss for maximum compatibility. Destruction to Metallica is a bit odd because the former is nowhere near as financially huge as the latter, but if one were to take the first three Metallica albums and compare them to Destruction's work, they would find quite an overlap in similarities. Hell, Destruction even did a cover of Whiplash. Sonically though, both groups have that really intense feeling of pushing limits and raunchy speed driven guitar riffing. Despite having a crunchy tone, both bands employed tight rhythm sections and by that I mean bass, drums, and exceptional rhythm guitar as well. Vocals are different in timbre, but similar in execution and attitude. There's a reason why James sounds different today singing early Metallica songs. Schmier (Destruction singer / bassist) keeps his distinctive snarl throughout the band's career.

Next up on the list of metal pairings would be Megadeth and Kreator. Both bands are heavily socially and politically driven with their lyrics. Kreator, especially beginning with Extreme Aggression, turned into a sociology metal band and that lyrical trend continues to this day. Megadeth also were really known for their technical riffs and Kreator followed suit. While Dave Mustaine had several highly skilled guitar players with him, for the most part Mille is the riff master general of Kreator. Even though they were a four piece, albums such as Pleasure To Kill, Terrible Certainty and Extreme Aggression had the guitars all recorded by him. And, this is just me being a butt, but both bands have had some Power Metal influence to them. Starting around, what, 2003, Mille and Tobias Sammet began palling around together. Mille guested on Hellfire Club by Edguy in 2004 and let's be honest, Kreator's music got much more melodically inclined following Enemy Of God in 2005. Megadeth got the god tier guitarist Kiko Loureiro from Angra since 2015 and have been enjoying their best tenure since the glory days. Or at least since Cryptic Writings. This brings us to the last couple of the evening, Tankard and Anthrax. These bands going together is almost as obvious as Sodom holding hands with Slayer. Both bands have punishing riffs and speed, but both Tankard and Anthrax exhibit a light heartedness that some of the other bands don't stray into. The first bits of Anthrax and their "teenager proclivities" came with singing about Judge Dredd and Stephen King. In fact, both Megadeth and Anthrax are mentioned in Stephen King's IT, so hey. Tankard began their career singing about drinking, watching zombie movies, hangovers, thrashing out live onstage, and how much metal rules. Their album covers quickly became humorous and off beat compared to the norm that was going on at the time. Similarly, Anthrax adopted their Not Man logo, started wearing bright ass clothes and shorts, put out an album that was blindingly yellow and bright, and cultivated a "no fucks given" attitude with their rap experimentation. Collaborating with Public Enemy for Bring The Noise and doing their own rap song I'm The Man put them in a seperate section that was distinctly their own. Just like with Tankard, I'm pretty sure folks had some good natured laughs and whatnot watching Anthrax's antics. Plus, they had some pretty vulgar versions they'd do live of I'm The Man that they put out as various b-sides.

This is literally the tip of the iceberg lettuce here. It's hard for me to imagine being new to say, Metallica, but everyone was at one point in life. My tree of metal then expanded out to more USA based thrash bands such as Exodus, Overkill, Testament, and what I like to call the double DD angels, Death Angel and Dark Angel. I attribute this to the fact that at one point a shitload of these thrash bands were signed to major labels. Anyone remember those $8.99 "nice price" stickers? Oh man. If I remember correctly, quite a bit of Atlantic Records with the white spine and red letters were "nice priced." Compare that to hard as hell to get European imports for Sodom and Tankard and yea, my Euro section got neglected for a bit. Anyhoo, if you are a diehard American thrash nut, try the Germanican Big Four. Who knows where you might end up.