Maggots: The Record is often credited as being the first "Thrash Metal Opera." This comes largely because of the album follows the rock opera formula done in a form of thrash metal. Every other track on the album is spoken-word and is used to describe various scenes between songs. The central theme of the album is that a group of scientists trying to eliminate trash in the rivers and oceans develop a breed of maggot designed to eat the garbage and then, when the trash is gone, the maggot dies. Melting glaciers bring floods that carry the maggots into contact with land creatures. The genetically engineered maggots continue to eat and breed, growing larger with every cycle. By the album's end, human beings are extinct and the maggots have taken over. Scientists and politicians are overheard discussing exactly what can be done, trying to calm the doomed populace.