Kill 'Em All
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Template:Album infobox Kill 'Em All is Metallica's first album, released July, 1983 on Megaforce Records
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Impact
Released in 1983, Kill 'Em All was the first album to completely feature everything that made the nascent Bay Area thrash metal scene so unique, and while even today it is still uncompromisingly heavy, upon first release it seemed impossibly so. The record's release saw many imitators and followers release albums in its wake, and set the band that made it on the path to "world domination", as drummer Lars Ulrich would put it in the following year.
The album reaches furious speeds on every track (discounting the Cliff Burton bass solo "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth"), a testament to the band's early influences: Diamond Head, Motörhead and Venom, all English bands who combined the heaviness and technicality of Black Sabbath with the speed and aggression of punk rock. This made the band a total anomaly in the early 1980s heavy metal scene in the USA. The band wear their influences on their sleeve, and shades of tracks like Diamond Head's "Dead Reckoning" can be heard in "Seek & Destroy".
The Mustaine Factor
When Metallica settled on a lineup originally, the band featured James Hetfield (guitar/vocals), Lars Ulrich (drums), Ron McGovney (bass) and Dave Mustaine (lead guitar). Due to tensions between McGovney and Mustaine, the band would soon recruit Castro Valley-born bassist Cliff Burton, and Metallica's first "classic" lineup was forged. However, there was considerable tension between Mustaine and the rest of the band (particularly Hetfield), which resulted in him being sacked in early 1983, prior to the recording of Kill 'Em All - he went on to form the band Megadeth, who themselves would later achieve multi-million selling success. After Mustaine's departure, Metallica recruited Kirk Hammett, Exodus guitarist and one-time student of shred guitar legend Joe Satriani, whisking him into the studio barely a month after joining to record the album.
Mustaine and Hetfield were infamously opposed on many occasions, with Mustaine later blaming the rivalry on the fact that "there were too many personalities" in the band. These tensions came to a head with a number of things: the first is an alleged fist-fight that broke out between Mustaine and Hetfield, after Mustaine accused Hetfield of kicking his dog. The other was slightly more serious, with Hetfield and Ulrich blaming Dave's firing on his alcohol problem: while Mustaine would vehemently deny this, his struggles with addiction through his later career would certainly add some weight to Metallica's claims. Also, some Megadeth fans have cried foul over this, citing Hetfield's 2001 rehabilitation for alcoholism as hypocrisy, asking why the band didn't send Dave to Alcoholics Anonymous: Mustaine himself also asked this during a conversation with Ulrich in Metallica's 2003 movie Some Kind Of Monster.
Despite their differences, Mustaine's contribution to the early years of Metallica was not neglected as he received four co-writing credits on Kill 'Em All. One song, "The Four Horsemen" was originally written by Mustaine and titled "The Mechanix". It was performed at many early Metallica shows. Following Mustaine's exit, Hetfield and Ulrich added a mid-paced, melodic middle section. Hetfield also wrote new lyrics and the band renamed it The Four Horsemen. Mustaine kept the faster paced original version of the song, dropped the "The" from the title, and included it on the first Megadeth album, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!. Mustaine's other writing credits are for the songs "Jump in the Fire", "Phantom Lord" and "Metal Militia.
Controversy
The band would achieve minor controversy in the Bay Area scene and the underground rock press at the time for their proposed title for their debut: it was to be called Metal Up Your Ass, and would boast a cover featuring a toilet bowl with a hand clutching a butcher's knife emerging from it. The band's label urged them to change this, so they agreed, switching to the marginally less-offensive Kill 'Em All, featuring a hand letting go of a bloodied sledgehammer. That Kill 'Em All could be considered more acceptable than Metal Up Your Ass is a subject worth investigating. Also, Cliff Burton is credited with coming up with the name Kill 'Em All (referring to timid record distributors) as a response to the whole situation.
Track listing
- "Hit the Lights" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:17
- "The Four Horsemen" (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 7:08
- "Motorbreath" (Hetfield) - 3:03
- "Jump in the Fire" (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 4:50
- "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" (Burton) - 4:14
- "Whiplash" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:06
- "Phantom Lord" (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 4:52
- "No Remorse" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 6:24
- "Seek and Destroy" (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 6:50
- "Metal Militia" (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 5:11
Singles
"Jump In The Fire" was released as a UK EP in February 1984 to promote a UK tour with Venom. The EP would feature "Phantom Lord" and "Seek & Destroy" as live tracks, although they are actually studio recordings with fake crowd noise dubbed over them. It should be noted that this was solely a record company manoeuvre.
"Whiplash" was released as a US 12" EP, featuring the same tracks as the UK Jump In The Fire EP but also featuring a special "Neckbrace Remix" of Whiplash.
Miscellaneous Information
The song "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" is a bass solo by Cliff Burton. An instrumental track, with accompaniment on drums by Lars Ulrich, it features Burton's distinctive style of playing, incorporating heavy distortion, use of the wah-wah pedal, and tapping. This is also the bass solo that Cliff was playing when James and Lars first saw him at a gig. When they first entered the club where Cliff was playing, both James and Lars thought the sound was coming from a guitar. When they saw Cliff's red hair thrashing around, and that the sound was coming from a bass, they immediately wanted Cliff in their band.
Most of the lyrical matter on Kill 'Em All is typical "fly the flag" heavy metal cliche, with lines like "When we start to rock, we never want to stop again!" (Hit The Lights) or "The deafening sound of metal nears!" (Phantom Lord), although when the band's age at the time (late teens/early twenties) is taken into account this seems excusable. The album does contain a song that would be held up by fans as a statement of intent, however, in the form of Whiplash, with its closing verse line of "We'll never stop, we'll never quit, 'cause we're Metallica!" At future concerts, the band would turn this line around and dedicate it to the crowd, with Hetfield singing "We'll never stop, we'll never quit 'cause you're Metallica!"
An early re-issue of the album by Elektra Records added the songs "Blitzkrieg" (a cover of a song by the band of the same name) and "Am I Evil?" (the aforementioned Diamond Head song).
The original lyrics to "Jump In The Fire" from the "No Life Till Leather" demo were more of a sexual/glam nature, and are as follows:
Sitting in my room with my head in my hands
I just can't seem to move
I gotta get up, get out, get high
Get back in the groove
There's a job to be done, and I'm the one
You people chose to do it
Now I tighten my belt, I'm sure you all felt
It's time to get to it
So come on, jump in the fire
So come on, jump in the fire
Movin my hips in a circular way
Push forward a bit
Pull your body to my waist
Feel how good it fits
There's a job to be done, and I'm the one
You people chose to do it
Now I take off my pants, a second chance to get down
So lets get down to it
So come on, jump in the fire
So come on, jump in the fire
Sitting in my room with my head in my hands
Just can't seem to move
I gotta get up, get out, get high
Get back in the groove
There's a job to be done, and I'm the one
You people chose to do it
Now I tighten my belt, I'm sure you all felt
It's time to get movin to it
So come on, jump in the fire
So come on, jump in the fire
Come on, jump in, yeah!
Personnel
- James Hetfield - Guitar, Vocals
- Lars Ulrich - Drums
- Cliff Burton - Bass
- Kirk Hammett - Guitar (recording and composition)
- Dave Mustaine - Guitar (composition)
- Jon Zazula - Executive Producer
- Paul Curcio - Producer
- Chris Bubacz - Engineer
- Andy Wroblewski - Assistant Engineer
- Bob Ludwig - Mastering
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