The American heavy metal band Metallica recorded several demos throughout their career.
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Ron McGovney's '82 Garage demo is a demo tape that was never officially released, but the tape found wide circulation in full and partial versions. The demo contains two original songs, "Hit the Lights" and "Jump in the Fire" along with six cover songs. These include one Sweet Savage cover, a Savage cover and four Diamond Head covers. "Hit the Lights" and "Jump in the Fire" were later released on the No Life 'til Leather demo and eventually were released on the band's debut studio album, Kill 'Em All. Most of the covers were later released as b-sides and on the compilation album Garage Inc. The demo was recorded in Ron McGovney's garage on March 14, 1982.[1]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hit the Lights" | 4:19 |
| 2. | "Jump in the Fire" | 4:25 |
| 3. | "Killing Time" (originally performed by Sweet Savage) | 2:36 |
| 4. | "Let It Loose" (originally performed by Savage) | 3:10 |
| 5. | "Sucking My Love" (originally performed by Diamond Head) | 6:43 |
| 6. | "The Prince" (originally performed by Diamond Head) | 5:00 |
| 7. | "Am I Evil?" (originally performed by Diamond Head) | 7:43 |
| 8. | "Helpless" (originally performed by Diamond Head) | 6:13 |
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Total length:
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38:11 | |
Power Metal was a demo recorded sometime in April 1982. Although the demo was never officially released, it was given the bootleg name "Power Metal" and contained four original songs by Metallica. It contained "The Mechanix", written for the band by Dave Mustaine, and "Motorbreath", which was written (lyrics) solely by James Hetfield. It was also recorded in McGovney's garage.[2]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hit the Lights" (James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich) | 4:18 |
| 2. | "Jump in the Fire" (Dave Mustaine) | 3:55 |
| 3. | "The Mechanix" (Mustaine) | 4:47 |
| 4. | "Motorbreath" (Hetfield) | 3:23 |
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Total length:
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16:23 | |
No Life 'til Leather is Metallica's widely circulated demo tape. All of the tracks are early recordings of songs that would later appear on the band's debut album Kill 'Em All. The track listing on Kill 'Em All is the same as that on the demo tape, with the exceptions of Cliff Burton's bass solo "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", "Whiplash", "No Remorse" and "The Four Horsemen" (See notes above). The title of the demo comes from the first line of "Hit the Lights".[2]
The demo has been re-released twice unofficially, first under the title of Metallica: Bay Area Thrashers, and was alleged to be a live bootleg recording of Metallica in the early days, however all "live" sounds had been added from various sources including the Metallica video Cliff 'Em All. This was soon discovered by Metallica and all copies were removed from stores. The demo was re-released a second time under the title Metallica: In the Beginning... Live, containing no differences from Metallica: Bay Area Thrashers.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hit the Lights" | 4:18 |
| 2. | "The Mechanix" | 4:28 |
| 3. | "Motorbreath" | 3:18 |
| 4. | "Seek & Destroy" | 4:55 |
| 5. | "Metal Militia" | 5:17 |
| 6. | "Jump in the Fire" | 3:51 |
| 7. | "Phantom Lord" | 3:33 |
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Total length:
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29:41 | |
Metal Up Your Ass was recorded on November 29, 1982, at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco. The supporting band was Exodus, featuring Metallica's future lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. The band played all of its original material (nine songs) that the group had written up to that point, which included all of the songs from its previous demo No Life 'til Leather and two new songs (which were later released on the Megaforce demo). Two covers of Diamond Head songs were played: "Am I Evil?" and "The Prince", however "The Prince" was not recorded as the tape had ran out. Both the name and album cover of the demo were to be used as the name of the band's debut studio album and album cover. However, Metallica's record company would not allow it. The band changed the name to Kill 'Em All.[3]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hit the Lights" | 4:15 |
| 2. | "The Mechanix" | 4:28 |
| 3. | "Phantom Lord" | 4:59 |
| 4. | "Jump in the Fire" | 4:40 |
| 5. | "Motorbreath" | 3:05 |
| 6. | "No Remorse" | 6:23 |
| 7. | "Seek & Destroy" | 6:51 |
| 8. | "Whiplash" | 4:08 |
| 9. | "Am I Evil?" (originally performed by Diamond Head) | 7:50 |
| 10. | "Metal Militia" | 5:59 |
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Total length:
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52:38 | |
The Megaforce demo was recorded on March 16, 1983 and was the band's last demo album recorded with Dave Mustaine.[1] The demo was designed to introduce Burton to potential record labels and earned the band a contract with Megaforce Records. It was also played live on KUSF FM in San Francisco. The demo contained two new songs which had not been previously released. It received a number of names including the Megaforce demo (due to it earning a contract with Megaforce), The KUSF Demo (due to it being played on KUSF FM) and Whiplash/No Remorse Demo.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Whiplash" | 4:12 |
| 2. | "No Remorse" | 5:38 |
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Total length:
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9:50 | |
The Ride the Lightning demo was released on October 24, 1983. It was the group's first demo recording to feature lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. The demo contained the original material Metallica had written that was not released on Kill 'Em All. Both "Ride the Lightning" and "When Hell Freezes Over" (later re-named "The Call of Ktulu") were co-written by Dave Mustaine. "Fight Fire with Fire" and "Ride the Lightning" had been changed from their original versions due to input from Cliff Burton. All four songs appeared on the band's second studio album Ride the Lightning. The four demos for Ride the Lightning were recorded at the expense of Metallica's European record label, Music for Nations, at the same time the band recorded versions of "Seek & Destroy" and "Phantom Lord" to be used as fake "live" b-sides for the "Whiplash" and "Jump in the Fire" singles.[1] In 2005 seven other re-recorded demos surfaced on bootlegs. Out of the seven demos that surfaced, only "Trapped Under Ice" was confirmed as an official demo.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Fight Fire with Fire" | 4:45 |
| 2. | "Ride the Lightning" | 6:24 |
| 3. | "Creeping Death" | 6:50 |
| 4. | "When Hell Freezes Over" | 8:17 |
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Total length:
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26:26 | |
The Master of Puppets demos were recorded on July 14, 1985 and was essentially a rehearsal more than it was a demo. The demo included five songs that were included on its third studio album, Master of Puppets (1986).
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Battery" (Instrumental) | 5:23 |
| 2. | "Battery" | 4:43 |
| 3. | "Disposable Heroes" (Instrumental) | 9:13 |
| 4. | "Disposable Heroes" | 9:15 |
| 5. | "Master of Puppets" (Instrumental) | 8:51 |
| 6. | "Welcome Home/Orion" (Instrumental) | 9:38 |
| 7. | "Welcome Home/Orion" | 8:55 |
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Total length:
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55:59 | |
The ...And Justice for All demos were recorded in 1988 and included early, shorter versions of songs which later appeared on the band's fourth studio album, ...And Justice for All (1988). It was the group's first demo album to feature Jason Newsted on bass, since the death of Cliff Burton. The intro to "Blackened" on the demo is an unreversed version, unlike the reversed version that appeared on ...And Justice for All. "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" was recorded with gibberish sung in place of most lyrics (with the exception of the chorus' "Frayed ends of sanity/Hear them calling me"), although the final version of the song contained lyrics. "Eye of the Beholder" had two different demo versions, however there are few differences between the two besides running time. Most demo versions of the album do not include both takes of the song.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Blackened" (Forward Intro) | 0:36 |
| 2. | "Blackened" | 5:57 |
| 3. | "...And Justice for All" | 8:14 |
| 4. | "Eye of the Beholder" | 6:18 |
| 5. | "One" | 7:00 |
| 6. | "The Shortest Straw" | 6:28 |
| 7. | "Harvester of Sorrow" | 5:37 |
| 8. | "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" | 7:30 |
| 9. | "To Live Is to Die" (Instrumental) | 9:57 |
| 10. | "Dyers Eve" | 5:35 |
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Total length:
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62:03 | |
Metallica's ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, had all its songs released as demos, recorded between November 2005 and January 2007. The demos were included on a bonus disc titled Demo Magnetic, released with a different "experience" version of Death Magnetic. The track listing order remained the same, however the titles of the songs are different. All music was written by Metallica, while all lyrics were written by James Hetfield. It is the group's first demo album to feature Robert Trujillo on bass.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hi Guy" | 7:11 |
| 2. | "Neinteen" | 7:35 |
| 3. | "Black Squirrel" | 6:13 |
| 4. | "Casper" | 8:15 |
| 5. | "Flamingo" | 7:59 |
| 6. | "German Soup" | 6:32 |
| 7. | "UN3" | 7:51 |
| 8. | "Gymbag" | 7:56 |
| 9. | "K2LU" (Instrumental) | 9:31 |
| 10. | "Ten" | 5:19 |
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