| Kill 'Em All | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Metallica | ||||
| Released | July 25, 1983[1] | |||
| Recorded | May 10–27, 1983 at Music America Studios in Rochester, New York[1] | |||
| Genre | Thrash metal, speed metal | |||
| Length | 51:14 | |||
| Label | Megaforce, Elektra | |||
| Producer | Paul Curcio, Johny Zazula | |||
| Metallica chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Kill 'Em All | ||||
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Kill 'Em All is the debut studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on July 25, 1983.[1] Since its release, it has been certified 3x platinum by the RIAA, having sold over 3 million copies just in the United States.[4]
Contents |
Metallica's original line-up featured James Hetfield (guitar/vocals), Lars Ulrich (drums), Ron McGovney (bass), and Dave Mustaine (lead guitar). Because of tensions with Mustaine, McGovney left the band. Castro Valley-born bassist Cliff Burton was recruited as his replacement. Mustaine was fired in April 1983, just before the recording of Kill 'Em All, for his drug and alcohol problems, overly aggressive behaviour and clashes with bandmates. After Mustaine's departure, Metallica recruited Kirk Hammett, who previously played for Exodus and was a one time student of Joe Satriani. The band started recording Kill 'Em All with Hammett, whose guitar solos on the album were partially based on Dave Mustaine's original solos (the first four bars of most solo's were written by Dave)[5] , barely a month later. Mustaine then formed the band Megadeth, which also achieved multi-million selling success.
Despite their differences, Mustaine's contributions to the early years of Metallica were still acknowledged; he received co-writing credits on four of the songs on Kill 'Em All. The songs "The Four Horsemen" (originally titled "The Mechanix"), "Jump in the Fire", "Phantom Lord" and "Metal Militia" were co-written by Mustaine, most of "The Four Horsemen" was written by Dave Mustaine when he was in his previous band Panic.[6] "The Mechanix" was performed at many early Metallica shows, but following Mustaine's exit, the band added a mid-paced, melodic middle section. Hetfield also wrote new lyrics for both "The Mechanix" and "Jump in the Fire" (a song originally about teenage sexual frustration), and retitled "The Mechanix" as "The Four Horsemen".
Kill 'Em All is notable for having several songs with a concert-like ending, with slowing tempos and climactic final riffs. Examples of this include "Hit the Lights", "Phantom Lord" and "No Remorse".
The album is acclaimed for combining the rawness and fast tempos of speed metal and punk rock with the technicality and sharpness of New Wave of British Heavy Metal, influences include Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Black Flag and the Misfits, making it one of the earliest and most influential thrash metal albums ever recorded.
The band initially intended to title the album Metal Up Your Ass with the cover featuring a toilet bowl with a hand clutching a dagger emerging from it. However, Megaforce urged them to change this,[7] and they agreed, switching to Kill 'Em All. This time the cover featured the shadow of a hand letting go of a bloodied hammer. Burton is credited with coming up with the name Kill 'Em All (referring to timid record distributors) as a response to the whole situation.[8] Even though the original title was unused, the band did later release a "Metal Up Your Ass" t-shirt with the proposed artwork. A live bootleg recording of a 1982 performance is in existence, titled Metal Up Your Ass (Live), and includes the originally intended cover artwork.
Original pressings of the album came with an inner sleeve that included pictures and lyrics as well as a silver label on the vinyl. Subsequent pressings had a blank white sleeve and standard album label. The 1988 re-release re-introduced the lyrics and photos. The original release can be distinguished by the words "Bang That Head That Doesn't Bang" at the top of the back cover. This was dropped from the re-release.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [9] |
| The Daily Vault | (A)[10] |
| Metal Storm | [11] |
| Punknews.org | [12] |
| Q (Summer/01, p. 127) | |
| Rolling Stone | [13] |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hit the Lights" | James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich | 4:17 |
| 2. | "The Four Horsemen" | Hetfield, Ulrich, Dave Mustaine | 7:11 |
| 3. | "Motorbreath" | Hetfield | 3:08 |
| 4. | "Jump in the Fire" | Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine | 4:41 |
| 5. | "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" (Instrumental) | Cliff Burton | 4:14 |
| 6. | "Whiplash" | Hetfield, Ulrich | 4:07 |
| 7. | "Phantom Lord" | Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine | 5:01 |
| 8. | "No Remorse" | Hetfield, Ulrich | 6:26 |
| 9. | "Seek & Destroy" | Hetfield, Ulrich | 6:55 |
| 10. | "Metal Militia" | Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine | 5:09 |
|
Total length:
|
51:14 | ||
| Bonus tracks (1988 Elektra reissue) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 11. | "Am I Evil?" (originally performed by Diamond Head) | Sean Harris, Brian Tatler | 7:49 | ||||||
| 12. | "Blitzkrieg" (originally performed by Blitzkrieg) | Ian Jones, Jim Sirotto, Brian Ross | 3:35 | ||||||
| iTunes Bonus Tracks (Live in Seattle 1989) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 11. | "The Four Horsemen" (Live) | Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine | 5:31 | ||||||
| 12. | "Whiplash" (Live) | Hetfield, Ulrich | 4:19 | ||||||
Kill 'Em All features the only two songs to ever be written only by one band member of Metallica each; "Motorbreath" (Hetfield) and "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" (Burton). Mustaine credits Hugh Tanner for "Motorbreath" and "Hit the Lights" in a 1984 call-in radio interview.[18]
"Hit the Lights" was the first song that Hetfield and Ulrich worked on when forming Metallica. Early versions of the song can be heard on the compilation album Metal Massacre, as well as its subsequent re-issue and the band's first demo, No Life 'Til Leather. The demo's title comes from the first line of the song. Hetfield had brought the majority of the song to Ulrich from his old band, Leather Charm, and the two worked out different arrangements. It was one of only a handful of songs that were performed live with Mustaine as the lead guitarist.
In the instrumental interlude in the latter half of the song, a guitar riff can be heard that Queen originally used in their song "Great King Rat" and later in "Stone Cold Crazy". Metallica would later cover the latter song.
The lyrical theme of the song is about performing live, traveling on the road and living a "heavy metal" lifestyle.
The song was covered by Black Tide on its debut album Light from Above.
The song was also featured on Guitar Hero: Metallica along with "Whiplash" and "Seek and Destroy"
"The Four Horsemen" is a fan-favorite song of Metallica. The title also served as a source for one of the band's nicknames. The lyrics, as the title suggests, are about the end of the world and the apocalypse, referring to the Biblical text about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. However, some believe the song is about Metallica themselves as the "horsemen". The lyrics refer to the horsemen as Time, Famine, Pestilence and Death. This is a revision upon an already non-canonical misinterpretation of the Biblical passages. In the Bible, the four horsemen are actually Conquest, War, Famine and Death. In other popular culture they are known as Pestilence, War, Famine and Death.
The song is a reworking of the Mustaine penned "The Mechanix". "The Mechanix" had different lyrics, symbolically referring to sexual themes[19] and was written by Mustaine during the time when he was in his previous band Panic.
After Mustaine was ejected from Metallica, he included it on Megadeth's debut album, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!, with the title slightly shortened to just "Mechanix", with the original lyrics and at a much faster tempo. At this time, Hetfield rewrote the lyrics,[20]and the band added a new, melodic guitar solo in the middle of the song. This section is rarely played when Metallica performs the song live. Mustaine has claimed that the bridge to the song The Four Horsemen is inspired by the main riff in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song Sweet Home Alabama. [21]
During the bridge of the song, bassist Cliff Burton's voice can be heard providing the backing vocals.
The iTunes bonus track of the song can be watched on the Live Shit: Binge & Purge box set. The song was performed in Seattle on August 29, 1989.
An excerpt of "The Four Horsemen" is used in the queue video for the Zombiegeddon house in Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights XX: Twenty Years of Fear.
"Motorbreath" is about "living life in the fast lane" and "not ending up like others [the] same song and dance". It means to live life to the fullest and enjoy being alive. It is the only song in the history of the band that is credited to Hetfield alone, and one of two in which Ulrich does not have credit (both on Kill 'Em All, the other is "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", which was solely written by Cliff Burton). Dave Mustaine later used the main riff to create "FFF" for Megadeth's Cryptic Writings.
The original lyrics of "Jump in the Fire" were written by Dave Mustaine, and also contained vague sexual themes. The lyrics James wrote for the album were written from Satan's point of view.[22] [23] It describes how the Devil watches the people who are killing each other, and so he is sure that they will all go to hell for their actions as they, allegorically, "jump in the fire". The original lyrics, featured on the No Life 'til Leather demo, dealt with sexuality and were written by Mustaine. It is known for its guitar outro at 3:46.
The song was released as Metallica's second single, accompanied by fake live performances of "Phantom Lord" and "Seek & Destroy", which were alternate studio recordings with sounds of a crowd overdubbed in. According to Ulrich in an interview in 1991, "Jump in the Fire" was written and inspired by the Iron Maiden song "Run to the Hills", which was number one on the charts as Kill 'Em All was in the process of being written.
The cover of the "Jump in the Fire" single features an oil painting entitled Devil's D-Day that the artist Les Edwards created in 1978.[24]
"(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" is a bass solo by Cliff Burton, which fades into the next song, "Whiplash". It is an instrumental track, with some accompaniment on drums by Ulrich. The song features Burton's distinctive "lead-bass" style of playing, incorporating heavy distortion, use of the wah-wah pedal and tapping. At the beginning of the track, Burton says, "Bass solo, take one", likely to inform people that the song is played on bass guitar. It was also the bass solo that Burton was playing when Hetfield and Ulrich first saw him at a gig, Hetfield stated, "We heard this wild solo going on and thought, 'I don't see any guitar player up there.' We were both counting the strings and I finally turned to Lars and said, 'Dude, that's a bass!' Cliff was up there on stage with his band Trauma with a wah-wah pedal and his huge mop of red hair. He didn't care whether people were there. He was looking down at his bass, playing."
"Whiplash" was the first single released from Kill 'Em All. It is credited to Hetfield and Ulrich. The song is mostly about the feeling one gets from headbanging. "Bang your head against the stage", "Make it ring, make it bleed, make it really sore" and "You're thrashing all around...acting like a maniac" are examples of this.
Often in concerts, Hetfield changes the original lyric from "But we'll never stop, we'll never quit, 'cause we're Metallica" to "But you'll never stop, you'll never quit 'cause you're Metallica" emphasizing that it is the fans who've made Metallica what they are. In live performances, Jason Newsted often sang for part or all of the song, notably in Live Shit: Binge & Purge in San Diego, California. He also sang it without Hetfield on the stage July 7, 2000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, July 8, 2000 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, KY and July 9, 2000 at Texas Stadium in Irving, TX. Hetfield was icing down a recently injured back while Hammett, Newsted and Ulrich performed.
A number of covers of the song have been performed. In 2005, Motörhead won their first Grammy Award for the cover of the song on a Metallica tribute album. It was also covered by Billy Milano and Scott Ian and Phil Soussan and Vinny Appice for Metallic Assault: A Tribute to Metallica, while Pantera, using the joke name "Pantallica", performed the song live with Newsted on bass and members Dimebag Darrell (guitar) and Philip Anselmo (vocals) switching instruments.[25]
Metallica's Seattle 1989 performance of the song, and the iTunes bonus version are almost exactly similar, except at the end of the song, Hetfield addresses the audience differently.
During the Live Shit version of the song, Hetfield counted off random numbers to start the song. Instead of saying "1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4", he said "1, 2, 4, 3, 2 and a half!"[26]
The song was also covered by the German thrash metal band Destruction on their 2000 album All Hell Breaks Loose.
"Phantom Lord" was written about the war cry of a mythical creature. It was primarily written by Dave Mustaine. The track was included on the band's first demo, No Life 'til Leather. It is the first Metallica song to include clean melodic guitars into its structure.
The lyrics deal with a mythical battle between heavy metal beasts. The band would often dedicate this song to members of the audience who "were bumping heads and getting their heads bumped too" during their early concerts.
Hetfield's third band before Metallica was called Phantom Lord.[27]
Anthrax recorded a cover of the song as a b-side to its 1998 album, Volume 8: The Threat Is Real. It can be found on the import-single for the song "Inside Out".
"No Remorse" contains a variety of tempo changes and guitar riffs. It is popular in gaming circles for being the inspiration behind the first song of the first Doom game. The song is about not feeling any remorse or repent during battle in war.
The song was covered by death metal band Cannibal Corpse on its album Gore Obsessed (2002) and its extended play Worm Infested (2003).
"Seek & Destroy" has been frequently played in concerts over the years since its live debut in 1982 and has been Metallica's closing song since the Madly in Anger with the World Tour.
During the documentary film about Metallica, Some Kind of Monster, the song is used when footage of the band down the years is shown highlighting the progression in the band's appearance and sound over time. In the book Metallica: This Monster Lives one of the film's directors said how initially they wanted to alter the footage so it flowed smoothly but soon noticed the value of showing the alteration in the band in each piece of footage.
This was also the theme song of former WCW and current TNA wrestler Sting and AAA wrestler Cibernético. In Sting's case, the song was a live recording from Woodstock 1999 which would be included on the 1999 compilation WCW Mayhem: The Music. New York Mets pitcher John Maine takes the mound to "Seek & Destroy". Also, the San Jose Sharks and the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League use the song as their entrance theme during home games.
"Seek & Destroy" was covered by Chuck Billy and Jake E. Lee and Jimmy Bain and Aynsley Dunbar for the album Metallic Assault: A Tribute to Metallica. The song has also been covered by thrash metal band Testament, Bludvera and Acid Drinkers and instrumentally by Freaklabel as part of a tribute medley. Malaysian death metal band Sil Khannaz also cover this song on their tribute album The Best of Sil Khannaz. Apocalyptica, and Pantera, the latter with Jason Newsted, covered it live.
Numerous sources from different heavy metal magazines point out the song's lyrics are anthemic towards their hatred for the LA glam scene.
The song has become a fan favorite and has been played at almost every Metallica gig since the song was written. It is usually played as a closing number for their live performances, with Hetfield often asking the audience to sing along with him; he shouts "Searching", and they shout "Seek & Destroy!" The most memorable renditions of the song occurred during the years 1991, 1992 and 1993 for the Wherever We May Roam Tour. Here, "Seek & Destroy" was played with Newsted singing vocals; however, at the end of the song, the band would commence in a jam for nearly 7 minutes until Hetfield took the microphone and continually had the audience sing the lines "Seek & Destroy!" He also went to the edge of the barriers holding off the crowd and got them to sing the lines individually. The song length went from an average of 7 minutes to an average of 16 to 20 minutes for the elongated concert version of the Black Album tour. During the Shit Hits the Sheds Tour of 1994, the song would be introduced as a new song that Jason wrote and would include an extended jam, that would include one of the main riffs of "The Outlaw Torn". From 2004 until 2011 it was a regular closing song at the end of the band's set (Some gigs in 2011 ended in Creeping Death). However, instead of it being played in E standard tuning, it is played in D standard tuning. It was also played in E flat tuning during the years 1995 - 2002.
When played live, Hetfield (in the past also Newsted) often changes the beginning lyrics "in the city tonight" by replacing "the city" with the name of the town in which they are performing.
The song is about feeling the urge to kill. It can be inferred from the lyrics that it's not senseless killing but as revenge to someone that very much deserved it. During the Kill 'Em 'All for One tour, Hetfield would jokingly say that it was about hunting. It is said to be heavily influenced by the Diamond Head song "Dead Reckoning". The first three mini solos are derived from the song "Princess of the Night" by Saxon. Metallica added the final solo. Since the song's debut on Kill 'Em All, Hammett has apologized for the unusual pitch of the string bend which occurs at 3:47 to 3:48, during the solo, is in fact a mistake or "bum note".
"Metal Militia" is the tenth and final track on the album. It was primarily written by Dave Mustaine even though writing credits were given to Hetfield and Ulrich. It is one of Metallica's fastest songs and the namesake for the band as well as a series of Metallica tribute albums. The song describes Metallica as the Metal Militia taking on the world with their heavy metal. As the militia, Metallica is trying to get the message out.
The eleventh track in 1988 Elektra Records re-issue of Kill 'Em All (initially not on the album) is a cover of "Am I Evil?" by English heavy metal band Diamond Head. The song first appeared on Diamond Head's album Lightning to the Nations. "Am I Evil?" was included in the Garage Days Revisited b-side of Metallica's single "Creeping Death". The song appeared again in 1998 on Metallica's Garage Inc. anthology of covers, as well as on Disc 3 of the Live Shit: Binge & Purge boxed set. Metallica has made the song recognizable to metal fans today when playing it live many times. In Los Angeles on the Damaged Justice Tour, Metallica switched the line-up for "Am I Evil?" in five shows: Ulrich was on vocals, Hetfield played drums, Hammett played bass and Jason Newsted played guitar.
The 1988 re-issue of the album by Elektra Records also added the song "Blitzkrieg" (a cover of the song by the band of the same name). "Blitzkrieg" was previously released as Garage Days Revisited on the b-side of the "Creeping Death" single from the label Music for Nations in 1984. "Blitzkrieg" is now easily attainable on the Garage Inc. compilation.
| Year | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Billboard 200 | 155 |
| 1988 | Billboard 200 | 120 |
| 2007 | Finnish Albums Chart[28] | 12 |
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