In 1988, a few awkward teenagers from the East Bay area got together and jammed out some new-age punk-meets-thrash metal riffs.  They liked the sound so much, that they formed a band and appropriately named it Kaos and over the next two and a half decades, would play countless shows across North America, Europe and beyond.

On Friday night, at the world-renowned Slim’s Bar in San Francisco, that era came to an end.

To a humble audience of around 150, Kaos played their last show to some quality fans, some of whom may have even been around since the beginning of their reign. After 25 years of blood, sweat, tears and unapologetic alcohol-fueled thrash metal, the band decided to call it quits.

“It’s just time to come up for some air,” said original member and guitarist Stacey Murray. When asked about a future reunion, he simply replied with, “We’ll see what happens.”

The band warmed up back stage before their set, which is really just a few small rooms down in the basement of the old building. Sewer and water pipes hung just directly over their heads as they sat on sagging couches and warmed up on their instruments. A few road crew buddies squeezed in and out of the room, shuffling whiskey, gear, and whatever else is required of pre-gig rituals.

Despite the energetic and loud conversation, the energy in the room seemed sad, upset and oddly quiet, like there was an unspoken tension in the room. Maybe an uncertainty about whether or not this was a good thing, or a just bitter reflection of the decades vested in what can be such a ruthless and cut-throat industry.

“It’s bittersweet,” said original member and lead vocalist Jason Darnell about being minutes away from their last show. “We’ll always be doing something musically, though.”

Other newbie members came to the band with histories of their own, including Steve Brumbaugh on guitar (formally of Starch, Throwdown), Chad Murphy on bass (formally of The Venting Machine), and Jesse Bellino on drums. But that’s the circle of life in local thrash metal: everyone moving around, working with each other in hopes of finding that one perfect niche where you click and everything just falls into place.

But even still, there is no Lady Gaga of thrash metal (the word pop doesn’t exist in the heavy metal dictionary) so the marketability of the genre hasn’t really existed since the early 90’s, where bands like Metallica, Pantera and Slayer dominated the international scene.

The glory of metal just hasn’t quite been the same since, and even though the genre still has a die-hard following of fans, advances in media technology have all but killed the record store, where metal was at its most glorious.  For every one band that is fortunate enough to make it, there are tens of thousands that don’t.

And so if one band can even scratch the surface of the scene and manage to cause a ripple significant enough to catch the attention of the locals even remotely close like Kaos has, that in itself is an accomplishment.  But Kaos has bled alongside other veterans of a scene that gave rise to other big names like Machine Head, Testament and Exodus to name a few.

The highlight of the show was after the encore when Phil Demmel of Machine Head joined them on stage for a song, and shared a few laughs on how he and the band first became friends.

I appreciate this band so much and what they mean to the bay area, Demmel told the audience, who joined him in applauding the band’s long history.  He then joined them in a Vio-lence cover of Kill on Command – the band Demmel was in when they all first met.

The show makes one reflect on the uniqueness of thrash metal. It’s a raw power you cannot duplicate or acquire in any other way other than through the bands who create it.

It’s sometimes an honest look at your ugly self, and it acts as a portal for others to join you so you don’t feel alone.

It’s a constructive way to get out your anger, and it doesn’t care what color, class, sex or age you are – everyone is welcome.

It’s history could be turned into a very thick biography where a big section of that story showcases the contributions and talent of SF bay area musicians.

The end of Kaos era is simply the end of a very long chapter in that book.