How would you have the thrash metal scene develop without Metallica (maybe Lars decides to become a tennis pro instead of a drummer, and hetfield never develops out of garage bands)? Who would be the top thrash band if no Metallica and would it be very different?
Would that be a good opening for Crossover Thrash?
I'd love to see a timeline where Suicidal Tendencies hit the bigtime with a slightly more refined "Join The Army" album (IMO one of the most under-rated albums as it is..)
Rocky George is is a great guitar player. I saw Suicidal Tendencies open for Queensrych, shortly after their "Lights, Camera, Revolution" album came out, and they just RAGED onstage - a great show! IMO, they really didn't hit their stride until their "How Will I Laugh, When I Can't Even Smile Today" album came out. For "Join The Army" to become more (for lack of a better term) "listenable" to your typical John and Jane Q. Metalhead, it would have to lose a major amount of its punk rock feel (fast and short songs, with oftentimes little to no lead guitar work). "Join The Army" was the first album to feature Rocky George on lead guitar, and the music on the album very much feels to me, like they were trying to get used to having a lead guitarist in the band, so (as a guitar player) some of the lead guitar work is a little tentative sounding to me. Nah, the album would need major revamping to get to the level of later 'Suicidal albums.
What attracts me to "Join The Army" is the sheer grab-bag of influences at play. They hadn't totally shaken off their hardcore punk roots, Mike sings in a yelp reminiscent of Lemmy, and there's elements of old school rap in there for good measure.
Most of those those funk & rap influences got spun-off & developed further into the Mike's side project Infectious Grooves (which of course featured a certain R Trujillo on bass..) But a more successful "Join The Army" may mean rap-metal/funk metal becomes more popular earlier.
Another branch of the heavy metal tree to consider here is the SST records roster. Sure it was ostensibly Black Flag's hardcore punk indie label.. however it's roster of bands ranged to almost every corner of hard rock & heavy metal (and various points beyond - consider the Meat Puppets' take on country & the jazz-punk of the Minutemen.)
What chance that with no Metallica an SST band breaks through metal fans' anti-punk prejudices and does really really well?
I doubt Dave Mustaine's Megadeth would have the same intensity as he practically formed that band out of spite for being ejected from Metallica.
Would this mean there would be a different 'Big Four'? (If any?).
What would this mean for Extreme Metal in general?
Yeah, "Join The Army" certainly is a grab bag ("Possessed To Skate" is one of the cooler songs on that album IMO). It just didn't seem to slam like songs like "Sorry" (off of "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow, When I Can't Even Smile Today"):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOOdW4PuOK4
As for an SST record label thrash band - it might be possible. After all as Scott Hill of Fu Manchu mentioned in an interview I read a few years ago, Black Flag's later material was heading in a heavier, more Black Sabbathy vein (I agree with him - It doesn't sound like the buzzsaw stuff they were doing on the late 70s & early 80s), so they were certaily opening up to more metallic influences. Don't forget that SST did have a few non-punk bands on its roster (Soundgarden's first full length album "Ultramega OK" was on the SST label). I'm not 100% sure but a few of them may have been metal oriented.
Crossover thrash is definitely a possibility. They were already out there in the late 80s (don't forget that C.O.C. was a crossover thash/metal band for a goodly chunk of the 80s & early 90s).
IG, Chilli Peppers etc before funk became an 'acceptable' influence within metal in the 1990s.
What I'd like to discuss is who becomes Metallica in this TL? Who fills the void?