Pilot Breakdown

Was the first Thrash metal band ever existed, but still remains mostly unknown. Pilot Breakdown is known as pioneer for such bands as Metallica or Megadeth. They invented the term "Thrash" and recorded the first Thrash-Metal song "Plane Crush", which is dated back to 1979. It was released on their "Loud and Proud" Demo and later re-recorded on "Flash". Its riff resembles the sound of an aeroplane.

History

Formed in 1975, in Bay Area, California by lead guitarist and -singer John Cooper, rhythm guitarist Andrew Saddler, drummer Michael Betford and bassist Rick Niels, they mostly played songs that resembled early Motörhead and didn't record any songs until 1979 and refused to play cover versions. They tried to get louder and faster with the time and at one day in October 1979, lead guitarist John Cooper tried to abreact and played in a very fast and aggressive way. This would later be famous as the first "shred". The other band members improvised alongside him and out of this improvisation evolved their first Thrash Metal song "Plane Crush". Inspired by AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Queen's Stone Cold Crazy they further developed their fast and aggressive style and eventually released the demo "Loud and Proud" in December, 1979 which is the first Thrash Metal recording. After that, they released their only two albums "Flash" and their double album "Fortune Hunters", in 1980 and 1981 respectively. They got less popular with the years, because their music got too loud and aggressive for their audience even as half of their songs actually weren't Thrash Metal at all and so they officially split in August, 1981.

Legacy and Influence

The storyline build by Pilot Breakdown in some of their songs was later used and developed in Crimson Skies, an alternate history universe, created by Jordan Weisman and Dave McCoy, that has spawned a number of games and novels. They only appeared on TV once, in an interview on the new launched channel MTV just two weeks before they split. They only had very little airplay in the early 80's and never had an official music-video. They have sold over 400.000 albums to date, even if their highest album peak was in the US charts at #132 with "Fortune Hunters", in March, 1981. After they split, each band member went his own way and made music further, with exception of John Cooper, who had become a LSD-addict and had a strong Bipolar I disorder, so he couldn't work further and had to make a psychotherapy and slowly started to stop taking drugs.