What kind of electric guitar pickups are best for me?

The second paragraph is my question, the first will be the situation; you can disregard the first half of this question if you don't need that much information.

I've played guitar a little over a year. Though I'm by no means great, I plan on starting lessons in the next few weeks (I've learned everything from time signatures to vibratos to scales to chords to hammer-ons/pull-offs, the circle of fifths, even a few licks on my own). I hope my lessons will take me a little higher in my guitar as I'd like to perform in front of family and friends before 2015. I have 5 guitars; 1 acoustic, 1 acoustic-electric, and 3 electrics. All my guitars have been used and bought rather cheaply, and I have taken them to stores for repairs and putting together some different things. There is a used guitar I would like to get soon, it's a Warbeast electric. Being concerned about spending a few hundred dollars online, I have taken the liberty of reading some reviews on the guitar. Most of which are positive, but have honest feedback about the pickups being terrible, and the headstock being a little weighted, making it no good to play sitting down. I plan on having the guitar shipped to Guitar Center and picking it up there.

Since the pickups are no good on the guitar I am buying, I would like to get pickups for the guitar that will, more or less, be my type. I enjoy a more thrash metal type of sound (my favorite band is Anthrax), but I want a little bit of versatility--not a lot, mind you, but just enough to where I can play it without distortion as well as with a pedal or two. I've never purchased pickups, nor do I know the first thing about them. I want to be able to play some really speedy licks, but also be able to tone down to, say, a nice slow opening like Metallica's "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)". What kind of pickups should I look for?

I will call ahead to a local guitar shop to get the pickups and some new strings put on the guitar the first day of having it, so I'm not too worried about price as long as it's between $1 - $200, I have time to save up and get the right option. What would you recommend?

PS. I would also like to change tunings on my guitar for things like "Walk" by Pantera (Drop D), though I will not go lower than a whole step down on all strings (DGCFAF)

If needed, the specifics of the guitar are (as provided by the website:)

"Construction: bolt on

Body wood: basswood

Top style: beveled

Headstock style: SOB 3 to a side

Headstock color: black

Tuners: sealed die cast

Neck wood: maple

Neck radius: 12"

Back of neck: satin

Neck binding: none

Nut width: 43mm

Fretboard: rosewood

Inlay: none

Frets: 22 jumbo 2.7mm

Factory strings: 9-42

Scale: 25-1/2"

Bridge type: tune-o-matic

Tailpiece type: string-through-body

Pickups: 2 black plastic covered BC Rich humbuckers

Controls: 1 volume, 1 tone and 1 three-way toggle

Hardware: chrome

Finish: glossy"