With the publication of MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, the important beginnings of Bay Area thrash metal was made available in startling clarity via the photographic lenses of Brian Lew and Harald Oimoen. The Bay Area took notice, as every regional newspaper, bookstore, and library stocked up, turned up, and recognized the power of local music created post-Summer of Love.
Well, the jagged wheels of steel have now rolled all the way uphill to National Museum of American History. The Smithsonian’s “Center for Innovation and Invention” has pieced together a short film titled SLAYER: The Origins of Thrash in San Francisco, CA. The scholars behind this crucial work obviously consulted the copies of MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW on file up the hill at the Library of Congress.
