Testament’s Alex Skolnick Suggests Metallica Was the Only Thrash Band That Could Reach a Mainstream Audience

When it comes to those early thrash metal bands of the ’80s, a lot of the conversation focuses on the “Big Four” bands of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax — and rightfully so. Those dudes paved the way for modern acts to thrive these days. Yet when it comes to popularity, Metallica sits head and shoulders above the rest.

While speaking with the Riffhard podcast (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick said that despite all of the talent he and his contemporaries displayed, it was always going to be Metallica that would break the glass ceiling and become one of the biggest bands of all time.

“Metallica found a way to make their music very popular, but they really kind of broke loose from the scene that they came up in. And it’s brilliant what they did, but they’re really the only ones that could achieve any mainstream popularity. They ended up being one of the biggest bands in the world. But the rest of the bands, the bands that were influenced by Metallica — folks talk about the ‘Big Six’ or whatever: Testament, Exodus, Overkill, Death Angel, maybe you could add FORBIDDEN, and then argue about who else would be there — but all of those bands, it was so left field and it wasn’t a sign of the time. It got no mainstream attention other than an hour on MTV on Saturday nights where they’d play some of the videos. Yeah, somehow in the 2000s, it’s almost like the times caught up with it. And then once you had the bands that were playing on Ozzfest, for example, guys that were a few years younger than me, not so much, but, yeah, LAMB OF GOD, SLIPKNOT and so forth, and they managed to reach pretty big audiences — still do. So it’s weird. So then, just next to groups like that, if we play the songs that we had from back in the day — I don’t know — it doesn’t sound dated for some reason. Whereas you could play any number of songs from the time period, the late ’80s that were very popular, that were on regular rotation on MTV and played on the radio and a little bit more commercialized and catchy and more image-based, and it feels much more dated. It’s very strange.”

In the meantime, what do you think about Skolnick’s comments? Does he have a point? Let us know in the comments below.