Big 4 Tour.... so what.

To say I like Thrash metal is an understatement. Thrash metal is what defines the whole movement for me. The first proper metal band I heard was Metallica back when I was 8. Our lives were blessed with this music. My friends loved it, we all just got it. To those of you who are unaware of what Thrash metal is let me give you a quick crash course. Thrash metal began in the early 1980’s, primarily in the United States of America. Bands from the Bay Area ( San Francisco) and The East Coast (New York) combined the sounds of The New Wave of British Heavy metal ( bands such as Motorhead, Iron maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head and Venom) and Punk/Hardcore ( Sex Pistols, Black Flag, UK Subs).
With this article you only need to know about 4 bands. These 4 bands are the big players/innovators of the genre. You have Metallica, arguably who made the Genre. Metallica really took an embarrassing metal scene and made their mark by bringing it back down to earth. Instead of spandex and clad they wore t shirts and jeans. Their approach to music was what people wanted to hear because its straight to the point, aggressive, and dealt with subjects other than Sex, Drugs and Warlocks. As the band was beginning to gather steam they fired their second guitarist, Dave Mustaine. Mustaine didn’t take the ordeal well, fuelled by anger, rage and wanting sheer revenge on his former band mates he formed Megadeth. Megadeth took the core sound of Metallica, made it faster and a hell of a lot more complex. With members Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson they started to incorporate the sounds and timing patterns of Jazz Fusion. Both Chris and Gar were previously in The New Yorkers who were a Jazz Fusion band. Megadeth had a turbulent start from the very beginning. And it wasn’t long before the revolving door of never ending line up changes began. Chris Poland was fired during the debut album tour and in came Kerry King.
Kerry King was from the third band in this story, Slayer. Fed up he left and joined Megadeth. It was to be short lived though and King returned to Slayer after playing only a handful of shows with Megadeth. With his return to Slayer, King and the rest of his band mates crafted the jewel in the crown for Slayer. The 1986 album “Reign in Blood”. If you thought Metallica and Megadeth were heavy, think again. Slayer raised the bar to a whole new level. Their heavy sound, intensity and satanic driven lyrics were unparraled that era. This leads us to the last of the 4 bands.
The 3 bands I have mentioned so far were more or less scattered round the same area. Metallica being from San Francisco,Megadeth being from Los Angeles and Slayer from Orange County. While Thrash on the west coast was taking place it was also happening on the east coast, mainly New York. Anthrax had all the traits of a Thrash band but were a lot more light hearted, often humorous. Their fun sound and talented vocalist Joey Belladonna really struck a chord with the scene cementing them in the big 4. Let us recap now.

The Big 4 are:

Metallica
Megadeth
Anthrax
Slayer

Why ?

Each band innovated and pioneered the genre, selling more albums than any of the other bands in Thrash.
These bands have being going since the early 1980’s and to this day there all still going strong making new albums. Over the years between the bands, feuds and rivalries happened. Grunge music came killing the commercial success of Thrash and hard times hit all 4 bands. It wasn’t until the mid 2000’s Thrash really began to start getting popular again. New Thrash bands such as Municipal Waste, Evile and Bonded By Blood led the charge. With this, interest was restored in the original Thrash bands. I must stress the Big 4 never went away. They just changed musical styles to stay relevant in modern metal, to varying degrees of success and critism. It was only once the public eye turned back to Thrash, the Big 4 went back to writing more Thrash orientated music. It was a pretty astounding thing but these bands had never played on a same bill together. This was thought never to happen, but in 2010 what was thought impossible did. In Sophia, Bulgaria at the Sonisphere open air rock festival. All 4 bands played on the same stage,on the same night and history was made. The event was witnessed by thousands there and was also broadcast to cinemas worldwide. I watched in the Carlisle Vue Cinema with my brother Alex, his girlfriend Cayce and my good friend Tom. A truly unforgettable experience.
It wasn’t long after this night the mumblings started to happen. The rumours started spreading and the press started the blab about the obvious. When will it happen again. So this year after much speculation, the worst kept secret of all time became reality. The Big 4 are going on tour together worldwide with the Sonisphere festival. Well the UK for now, with more announcements to be made. The news came to me and I should of been happy. Why wouldn’t I be, 4 bands I love are playing together in the UK.
The truth is I couldn’t give a damn. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the event. Sonisphere can go to hell with their manufactured cash in. I have a lot of problems with this whole Big 4 thing now and I’ll explain why. I don’t like how the Big 4 is becoming a brand now. I mean the DVD release of the original night was fair enough but what now with new shows. T Shirts, pens, pencils, posters ? it wouldn’t surprise me. Another reason is the heavy metal media. They killed Thrash in the first place and they’ll do it all again once they’ve made there buck from it. They’ll parade the bands round and sing there praise. But as soon as something more lucrative comes along they’ll cast them aside once again and stop plugging the genre killing it. And most of all is the fans. Fickle people who will attend the show knowing like 3 songs per band and claiming to have been fans all along. I can’t be bothered with this whole charade and I’m sure a lot of Thrash fans feel the same. I’m sure most will go anyways and deal with the idiots which are fair enough. It’ll be a great show, don’t get me wrong. So this year I’ll be waiting for the bands to tour smaller venues with the real fans. The people who live and breath Thrash.
I could have a bee in my bonnet about nothing here. And a lot of people reading this with disagree with this article. I respect your views whatever they may be. I just don’t want to see something I love and we grew up with sold out more than it has been.

Matt.Adamson.