The 50 best thrash metal albums ever, from Metallica to Power Trip

 

The 50 best thrash metal albums ever, from Metallica to Power Trip

Metal Hammer / Nov 1, 2026 at 4:42 PM

It was the abrasive metal sub-genre that shot out of the early 80s like a punch to the gut.

Fast, heavy, and blatantly in-your-face, thrash metal was a fierce antidote to glam metal as well as a big ‘fuck you’ to the conservatism of the Reagan era. Thrash had its roots in myriad influences, from NWOBHM to Motörhead to punk rock, but in the end the sound was all its own, and as the thrash movement grew scenes began to develop around the world from the Bay Area to Brazil.

From the ‘Big Four’ of Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth to the newer crop of thrashers like Evile and Municipal Waste, here are the 50 greatest thrash albums of all time as voted for by Metal Hammer readers.

Retrospective Review: Exploring the Anatolian Metal Legacy of Pentagram's "Unspoken"

 

Retrospective Review: Exploring the Anatolian Metal Legacy of Pentagram's "Unspoken"

The music blog The Progressive Subway has published a retrospective analysis of Unspoken, the 2001 album by the pioneering Turkish progressive metal band Pentagram (internationally known as Mezarkabul). The review highlights the band's unique blend of thrash and doom metal with traditional Anatolian elements, heavily featuring regional instrumentation such as the ney (end-blown flute) and the zurna (double-reed instrument). The album is recognized as a significant cultural milestone that elevated Pentagram to international prominence, eventually leading them to become the first Middle Eastern metal act to perform at the prestigious Wacken Open Air festival in 2002. According to the piece, Unspoken remains a timeless classic in the regional progressive metal scene.

Sources:

• https://theprogressivesubway.com/2026/09/27/lost-in-time-pentagram-a-k-a-mezarkabul-unspoken/

Iron Maiden's first ever festival is a triumph and a true celebration of one of heavy metal's most storied bands

 

Iron Maiden's first ever festival is a triumph and a true celebration of one of heavy metal's most storied bands

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Metal Hammer

"You'd think there was a football match on!" grins Bruce Dickinson as he looks out over 50,000 giddy Iron Maiden fans having a thoroughly lovely time in the hazy evening sunshine. In just over three hours from now, England's men's team will have confirmed their place in a World Cup semi final, but here at Knebworth, there are far more pressing matters: celebrating 50 years of this country's most storied heavy metal band.

A year on from a historic homecoming gig at West Ham's London stadium, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Eddfest - Maiden's first ever curated, multi-day festival - is little more than a fist-pumping victory lap for a band that are well into the second year of their Run For Your Lives world tour. Nope. From the second you walk onto the festival grounds, you feel less like you're at Yet Another Iron Maiden Show and more like you've just stumbled into a fanatic Maiden fan club member's fever dream.