Well I know that Satriani wasn't surfing with a bunch of alienS and certainly isn't speed metal. 75% of my music I listen too I call thrash, or I guess speed metal, which could be argued there is a difference, but no sense splitting hairs on that here. I tend to think thrash metal is more of a music scene from the Bay Area as anything, but I'd group in Anthrax and a few other East Coast bands. So we'll say it's all speed metal. Yngwie and Via play blazing solos is what you were getting at, but it's not about speed in solos, it's the whole song. I've seen Roy Clark near set a Gibson on fire, they pry had to replace the string after pickin and grinnin, you get the picture.
Rather than define it, think Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Vio-lence, Machine Head, Kreator, Coroner, Forbidden, Death Angel, Testament, Sepultura, Pantera, etc... And while I have my favorites, the best speed metal lp ever was Reign in Blood of course, just because it was what it was at the time. Fast, brutal, original, ground breaking, good songs front to back. I think vio-lence and Forbidden were way better bands, Forbidden being WAY better players for certain (pry why Slayer got Bostoff from Forbidden as their drummer). Personally I'd go Vio- Eternal Nightmare, but the mighty Slayer gets it for the single best lp in the end. There ya go.
