Metallica

Metallica took the speed of punk and the riffs of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and helped build thrash metal on them. Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning were fast and furious, and Master of Puppets added long, complex songs, crushing riffs and bassist Cliff Burton's melodic flair, before his death in a tour bus crash in 1986.

...And Justice for All went even more intricate, and the self-titled 'Black Album', produced by Bob Rock, slowed down and streamlined everything into huge, polished heavy metal, with 'Enter Sandman' and 'Nothing Else Matters' making them one of the biggest bands in the world. Load and Reload flirted with blues rock, before later records like 72 Seasons returned to thrash.