In the liner notes to the reissue of "Killing is my Business", Scott Ian writes words to this effect. At first I was a bit shocked but then the more I thought about it, the more that I thought it might be true.

He says he was for the most part the only guitarist in METALLICA at the time he was in the band because James had moved over solely to vocals. And since I think we can all agree that "Kill em All" was the first thrash album then that puts Mustaine as at least one (if not the primary) of the originators of the movement.

To me the thrash riffs Dave Mustaine was writing in the early days were "thrashier" than standard thrash fare. Where other people would ape the basics of thrash, Dave to me seemed to get it and go all the way with it. His riffs were a lot more twisted than his contemporaries.

The only thing that makes me think it may not be true is that there are some no-name guitarists who wrote stuff on "Kill em All" too, like didn't Lloyd Grant write "Motorbreath" and I think someone else wrote "Hit the Lights" IIRC.

Dave also says that he had a big hand in all the big 4 thrash bands. He wrote a lot of METALLICA's early stuff, he was of course the primary songwriter in MEGADETH, he says he taught Kerry King his riffing style in the early days, and he says he told ANTHRAX to fire their singer and bassist and once they had they got a lot more successful.

I know Dave has a big mouth and says a lot of stuff but I think there's probably a lot of truth in all that.

If not the inventor, then certainly one of the most important figures in the movement. Now, I think both Overkill and Dark Angel already had demos out by the time "Kill 'em All" was released, and both bands had a def. thrash style. But "Kill 'em All" was the first album.

I read that in the liner notes too and I think I can agree. Mustaine penned a good portion of the riffs on Kill Em All and No Life til Leather. However, wasn't Exodus playing thrash at the same time in the early 80's. I remember reading an article where Kerry King said that Exodus was the band that influenced them to player faster and heavier. Before that they were Dragonslayer and were doing more of a classic Judas Priest style.

I don't know that it can ever be traced back to the work of a single person but Dave is obviously one of the main architects of the whole thrash movement.

I think because of his huge impact on two of the frontrunners of thrash you could make the arguement that he is.

I think it would be very hard to say that OVERKILL invented thrash considering that there are no reports that anyone was influenced by them in their earliest days or that they toured the west coast and made an impression on anyone.

Overkill's song "The Beast Within " was apparently written as early as 1981, but wasn't recorded 'til their first "Power in Black" demo, taped between March and September of 1983.

So it would probably be more accurate to say that Mustaine was one of the early fathers of thrash metal.

Metallica's Kill Em All was the archetype for thrash. The riffing on that album would come to define the genre. Whomever wrote the bulk of that was the father of the genre, IMO. Slayer, Anthrax's and Overkill's first albums were essentially Judas Priest on speed, so they aren't contenders if you ask me.

I read something interesting in the current issue of Sweden Rock Magazine. They had this Queen special in there, and regarding the song "Stone Cold Crazy" they said it is widely accepted as one of the earliest thrash-sounding songs. (Oh, and don't come here talking about the Metallica cover version. These guys knows their musical history so that has nothing to do with it). While I have never heard such a claim, I found it really interesting. I know we've all talked about Motörhead, Accept and even Deep Purple as forefathers of thrash metal. But Queen?

I always thought that Kill 'Em All sounded like Diamond Head on speed.

Id definitly say ONE of the founders fathers

Mustaine is among the many founders of thrash IMO. You cant pinpoint any one person in the genre really. All we can say is who did it better then others.

I don't have anything to add to this really, but I do like the discussion. I guess I never thought of Mustaine as a "father of a genre", but all of you are making some real good points and it's an interesting read over lunch.

I would say He would be a contender for the title as much as any other.