Heavy Metal reached a whole new level when bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and Sepultura appeared in the 80s. Those brought more heaviness and speed to the genre, selling million of records worldwide and inspiring countless artists. The origins of this kind of Metal is not precise but in an interview with Total Guitar, the legendary Queen guitarist Brian May says there are people who credited the band’s album “Sheer Heart Attack” (1974) as the record that gave birth to Thrash Metal.
Brian May says people tell him he “created” Thrash Metal
“It was one of the first songs we ever played together, so it’s interesting that it never made it onto a record until the third album. That’s quite unusual, isn’t it? I think we were playing ‘Stone Cold Crazy’ in our very first gigs.”
“(The) original version … sounded like a lot of other things which were around at the time, with quite an easygoing riff. It didn’t have much pace to it. But I thought, ‘These lyrics are kind of frenetic, so the music should be frenetic as well.’ So I put this riff on it, which people are telling me is the birth of thrash metal or something! I don’t know about that. But was unusual at the time to play at that pace.”
“I don’t think we regarded it as that serious, which is perhaps why it never made it onto an album until number three. But it’s nice and heavy. I still remember going in to do the definitive version of it, and it was faster than ever – we just went for it! There’s a lot of adrenaline: ‘Let’s go for it!’ It really does burn. And I liked the sounds that we had in place by that time.”
Released in 1974, “Sheer Heart Attack” is the third studio album released by Queen. “Killer Queen”, the first single of the record reached number 2 in the British charts. Also was their first Top 20 hit in the United States. That record also has other famous tracks like “Now I’m Here” and “Stone Cold Crazy”.