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.
