Metallica certainly was ahead of its time bringing on thrash metal into the public consciousness in 1983. But I don’t think they invented thrash.
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We had our own ‘metal’ band in 1981, “Alexis” ( hence, my screen name ‘AlexisHeavyMetal1981’. Our lineup:
From Pico Rivera
Alfred (me) - Rickenbacker 4001 bass+Sunn amp
Ray - TAMA drums
Downey
Frank - had the PA system.
South Gate
Blake - Gibson Flying V + Marshall amp.
We were gigging around in Pico Rivera, Downey (James Hetfield’s neighborhood), South Gate, Huntington Park (Slayer’s neighborhood) to a vastly growing audience. We did the usual metal covers, but then we started composing our own metal tunes. Everything was coming together quite nicely.
Then came Gazzari’s and in Santa Barbara.
Fun times for all. I had my black ‘69 Chevy Malibu with my personalized CA license plate “KHMR”, for mythical radio station ‘Heavey Metal Rocker’.
At the time, we had our hopes and dreams, but the band broke up in late 1981. I went on to a career in IT. Our guitar player went on to bigger and better fortune in the metal scene.
In the spirit of that time-honored lament “Legend in my own mind”, I’ve occasionally had that fleeting thought that if we had succeeded, it would not be the ‘Big Four’ of heavy metal, but the “Big Five’.
Fond memories.
Nice story. I am from So Cal and was living in the area in 1981! Never caught you, though...
John Deacon from Queen used Sunn bass amps and speaker cabs in the ‘70’s when Queen was more of a hard rock band than in their later career. Great amps!