Rock Docs: Get Thrashed - Reviewed

Let me just start off by saying that going into Get Thrashed, I was certain I was going to like it, a lot.  Thrash Metal is and will always be one of my favorite forms of music.  Thrash Metal was, in its infancy, part of my formative years and I consider myself privileged to have watched it start, grow, and unfortunately get pushed to the wayside by the next big thing.  So, needless to say, it was a challenge to keep this review of Get Thrashed objective in between excited jumping in my chair saying things like “I LOVE THAT RECORD” or “I WAS AT THAT SHOW!”.

Doing a genre piece like Get Thrashed is a great challenge given the frayed nature of a story being told in retrospect by dozens and dozens of different sources.  There are many interpretations of how a story like this could go.  So, Director Rick Ernst gets major points for even taking on a project like this.  Even if you don’t agree with everything presented in the meat of Get Thrashed, the one most important thing shines through all of the debate; the music.  Get Thrashed rams that point down your throat creating a clear case of how different music would be today without Thrash Metal’s less than decade reign.  We get proof of this through conversations with major players in bands from the NWOSDM (New Wave of Swedish Death Metal) such as At The Gates and In Flames and NWOAM (New Wave of American Metal) such as Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall.

Through all the storytelling and history lessons though, Get Thrashed is a jaded film at times.  When any movement loses steam, it is understandable that the key players who were at the forefront of it will be frustrated that what they have built is being threatened, but the overall mood in this part really drug down the exciting nature of the film.  The anger and frustration gets very pointed at times even.  There is not a thing wrong with this when you look at the picture as a whole, but I think some of the subjects being talked too in Get Thrashed were and are a bit disconnected with what they went through.  The facts are very few artists stay on top forever and if you want to stay relevant, you have to change.  While those are the facts, I do not agree with them, and I know someone like Scott Ian from Anthrax does not agree with them either.  That is what brings Get Thrashed full circle, back to the music.  That is all that really matters.

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Get Thrashed is an awesome headbanging journey with some great nostalgia for the old men like me and firmly injects another shot of adrenaline into one of the most exciting and colorful genres of music in history.

Get your thrash on and share this review.

Scott W. Lambert