The Big Four all have a pulse again. When’s the last time you could say that?
Anthrax is releasing its first album in ten years this September and just got off the road with Megadeth. Megadeth is on what’s supposedly the final tour of their career — final album already out, a farewell run mapped to stretch years. Slayer is semi out of retirement, playing special 40th anniversary shows celebrating Reign in Blood — including two nights at the Kia Forum in November, their first hometown LA shows in seven years. And Metallica is in full Metallica mode: a massive European stadium run on the M72 World Tour, then a 24-show Sphere residency in Vegas kicking off in October. First metal band to ever play that building.
That’s all four bands of the big four thrash metal movement with significant projects underway at the same time. It’s been a while since we could say the big four all had this much life in them. Which makes this the perfect moment for a game me and my friends have always played: give an order to your big four.
Here’s mine.
1. Metallica
Metallica is one of my favorite bands of all time, full stop. Ride the Lightning and …And Justice for All in particular are two of the best albums ever made — not two of the best thrash albums, two of the best albums, period. Nobody else in this conversation has a ceiling that high.
2. Megadeth
Followed closely by Megadeth. Rust in Peace is about as perfect as a thrash record gets, and unlike a lot of their peers, even some of their newer work is really outstanding. The gap between #1 and #2 here is smaller than people think.
3. Anthrax
Among the Living is the obvious one, and it earns every bit of its reputation. But I’ll go further — even albums like Worship Music really hit home for me. Anthrax catches strays for being the “fun one” of the four. The catalog says otherwise.
4. Slayer
Bottom of my big four — and it feels almost criminal typing that, because Reign in Blood and South of Heaven are two incredible albums. Somebody has to be fourth. That’s the whole point of the game.
Now the second question, and the one that actually starts fights: is it even these four?
Talk to enough thrash fans and someone will tell you Anthrax’s seat belongs to Testament. Or Exodus — the band that arguably built the Bay Area sound before getting written out of the headline. Overkill diehards have a case too. The “big four” was always as much a marketing designation as a musical one, and the bands a tier below it have spent forty years making albums that keep the argument alive.
So that’s the assignment. Two questions: What’s your order of the thrash metal giants? And who’s actually in your big four? Drop your order in the comments or come argue with us on socials. Wrong answers welcome. That’s what makes it fun.