Technical thrash metal

Technical thrash metal

Technical thrash (also known as progressive thrash) is a "far more complex" variant of thrash metal that emphasizes "progressive" songwriting. The style is mostly combined with elements and influences from the styles of thrash metal, the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), progressive rock, avant-garde and jazz fusion. Watchtower are said to be pioneers of technical thrash metal, and their debut album Energetic Disassembly (1985) is widely regarded as the first album to mix thrash with progressive metal. Other practitioners of the style include Voivod, Coroner, Annihilator, Deathrow, Blind Illusion, Toxik, Artillery, Mekong Delta, Sadus, Heathen, Forced Entry and Anacrusis. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, several veteran thrash metal bands began to expand their sound with a combination of technical, complex and progressive structures; notable examples include Metallica's ...And Justice for All (1988), Annihilator's Alice in Hell (1989), Overkill's The Years of Decay (1989), Megadeth's Rust in Peace (1990), Dark Angel's Time Does Not Heal (1991), Heathen's Victims of Deception (1991), and much of Testament's late 1980s and 1990s output. Technical thrash metal is considered by some to be a precursor to technical death metal. Coroner guitarist Tommy Vetterli himself took credit for "co-invent[ing] the technical progressive thrash metal movement" in a 2026 interview with Metal Hammer.