Thrash-Groove
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The transitional fusion where thrash's speed and razor riffing collapse into mid-tempo half-time groove: tight palm-muted chugging traded against syncopated, staccato stop-start riffs, frequent gear-shifts between blasting thrash double-bass and a stomping, head-nod bounce around 100-140 BPM. Guitars are down-tuned with squealing pinch harmonics and chromatic, bouncing power-chord patterns; vocals are typically a barked, rhythmic mid-range shout rather than a thrash shriek. The defining trait is the riff that grooves more than it gallops, abandoning continuous thrash velocity in favor of percussive, swung phrasing built to make the body move.
History
Thrash-groove is the missing link that birthed groove metal, forged as late-'80s thrash bands slowed down and added bounce. New Orleans' Exhorder pioneered it on 1990's Slaughter in the Vatican and 1992's The Law, while Texas's Pantera completed their thrash-to-groove pivot on 1990's Cowboys from Hell and perfected it on 1992's Vulgar Display of Power. Brazil's Sepultura made the most explicit transition, trading the thrash of Arise for the tribal groove of 1993's Chaos A.D. and 1996's Roots. Anthrax's John Bush era, White Zombie, and Prong's New York machine-groove all pushed thrash toward syncopation, establishing the groove vocabulary that the genre's modern and Southern strains would inherit.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Wikipedia: Cowboys from Hell / Vulgar Display of Power (Pantera)
- Wikipedia: Chaos A.D. / Roots (Sepultura)
- Wikipedia: Exhorder / Slaughter in the Vatican
- AllMusic: groove metal / Prong / Machine Head