Nowadays, fans of different metal genres are more accepting of each other. But back in the ‘80s, there was a clear division between thrash metal and glam metal. If you showed up to a Slayer gig in spandex and mile-high hair, chances are you very well would have been ridiculed. And on the other side of the coin, if you attended a Poison performance in a patch-filled denim battle jacket, you’d have stuck out like a sore thumb.
As the longtime leader of Megadeth (and also an important early member of Metallica), Dave Mustaine witnessed the whole rivalry firsthand – while his band was issuing such thrash classics as Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying and Rust in Peace during the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, an era which is widely considered a peak for both aforementioned genres.
But decades on, the singer-guitarist explained to Heavy Consequence that the genres may not have been as different as originally thought.
“The whole thing with glam and thrash at the time, metal had so many different factions and splinters that had taken place in the very beginning,” said Mustaine. “We were all heavy metal. And then, you started hearing people called the power metal trio, and then there was, ‘Well, heavy metal’s not good enough because you’re thrash metal.’ ‘What’s thrash metal? I’m fucking playing all over the place. OK. We’re not thrash, we’re speed metal.’ ‘What the fuck is speed metal?’ ‘We’re faster than thrash.’ ‘OK. Well, we ain’t thrash or speed…we’re black metal!’ ‘Well, what the fuck is black metal?’ ‘Well, we talk about the dark side.’ ‘OK. Well, we ain’t black. We’re white metal!’ ‘Well, what the fuck is white metal?’ ‘Well we talk about the light.’ ‘OK. So, what about, uh…death metal? What about all the other types of metal? Outlaw metal, grind metal, punk metal?’”
He added, “Y’know, it’s like metal has become a qualifying word just to signify a certain heaviness of music regardless of what original genre it is they come from. And I think if you can have people say bands like Blink-182 is like alternative metal. Or you see bands like Green Day, alternative metal. Pearl Jam, alternative metal. But are they? They’re pop bands. And what does pop mean? Is that a bad word? Well, some people think so. But what does it really mean? Well, pop is short for ‘popular.’ So if Megadeth had a really successful record with the population, it would be a popular record – like Countdown to Extinction was. Countdown is a triple platinum record and we’re probably going to be seeing some certification for that in the near future. And that was a popular album, which would make it a ‘pop album.’ Do you get what I’m saying? How weird all these terms are.”
Mustaine then went on to break down the musicality of thrash and glam, pointing out the commonalities between the two genres — specifically between Metallica and Mötley Crüe.
“So, what do I think between glam and between heavy metal?,” pondered the thrash icon. “Let’s boil it down to its least common denominator. Let’s look at the first two albums by Mötley Crüe and Metallica. You can’t really say that the first Mötley Crüe record [Too Fast for Love] didn’t have some metal tracks on it – because ‘Take Me to the Top’ or ‘Live Wire’ had the same kind of real fast right hand picking like James [Hetfield] and I were doing. And when Vince [Neil] was first singing and James was first singing, their voice was very similar in the registry where it was at. They both sang really high.”
He continued, “But I think that if you would have taken those two songs and had Metallica record them, they would have been heavy as fuck. Probably would have stayed pretty similar because we were doing a lot of copy songs. And so, when you take a band that is dressing up, wearing high heels, wearing leather, wearing makeup, using hairspray, belts and chains and big hoop earrings and jewelry and fingernails painted and stuff like that, and start getting way into mascara, lipstick, foundation, all that kinda shit, that’s somebody’s impression of what a rock star is supposed to look like. I promise you, if you go up to a guy who’s dressed up like that, who has that kind of an image, and, and you say, ‘What is this image that you’re going for? What would it be described as?’ They would say they’re a rock star. And I think if you go to a little kid and you said, ‘What is this?’ They would say, ‘You’re a rock star.’ Not that ‘You’re glam.’”
The thrash vs. glam conversation came out of Heavy Consequence‘s extensive interview with Mustaine centering on his signature Gibson Collection. In addition to speaking with the legendary metal guitarist, Heavy Consequence has teamed up with Gibson to give away one Epiphone Flying V Prophecy in Aged Dark Red Burst and one Kramer Vanguard “Rust in Peace” in Alien Tech Green to a pair of lucky winners (one guitar each) who enter the contest below.
