List of Metallica demos

The American heavy metal band Metallica recorded several demos throughout their career.

Whiskey Audition Tape

These two cover songs were recorded in then bassist Ron McGovney’s garage, during rehearsals that took place in March of 1982. On the strength of this demo tape Metallica were booked to open for NWOBHM band Saxon on March 27, 1982 at the Los Angeles club Whisky A Go-Go.[1]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Killing Time" (originally performed by Sweet Savage)2:36
2."Let It Loose" (originally performed by Savage)3:11
Total length:5:47

Personnel

Ron McGovney's '82 Garage demo

This demo tape was also recorded in McGovney's garage during March 1982. Although the demo has never been officially released, it has been in wide circulation in various bootleg versions. Apart from the songs listed below, two other tracks recorded during different sessions, consisting of songwriting ideas and various unreleased riffs, have also been widely bootlegged. One track consist of riffs and ideas that would later go on to become both Metallica and Megadeth songs, it is commonly titled as "Jam". While the other track is a melodic piece played by James and Ron, widely known on YouTube as, "Unreleased Kill 'Em All song". The validity of these two tracks was confirmed by McGovney, during a 1996 interview with Shock Waves and also via the Metallicabb forum.[1][2]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Hit the Lights"4:20
2."Jump in the Fire"4:25
3."Sucking My Love" (originally performed by Diamond Head)6:43
4."The Prince" (originally performed by Diamond Head)5:01
5."Am I Evil?" (originally performed by Diamond Head)7:44
6."Helpless" (originally performed by Diamond Head)6:14
Total length:34:27

Power Metal demo

Power Metal was the name given to a demo recorded sometime in April 1982. Although the demo was never officially released, it was given the bootleg name "Power Metal" after the tagline McGovney had printed on Metallica's first business cards. The tape contained four original songs, including two new songs, "The Mechanix", written by Dave Mustaine, and "Motorbreath", written by James Hetfield. It was also, like all previous demos, recorded in McGovney's garage.[3]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Hit the Lights" (Hetfield, Ulrich)4:18
2."Jump in the Fire" (Mustaine)3:55
3."The Mechanix" (Mustaine)4:47
4."Motorbreath" (Hetfield)3:23
Total length:16:23

Personnel

No Life 'til Leather

No Life 'til Leather was recorded on July 6, 1982. It is Metallica's most 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".[3]

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 apparent differences from Metallica: Bay Area Thrashers.

In March 2015, Metallica announced that they will be releasing 'No Life 'til Leather' on limited-edition cassette for Record Store Day.[4]

As Lars Ulrich told to Rolling Stone magazine: "It's time for us to put out some next-level reissues and do the song and dance of the catalog that everyone else has done; the U2s and the Led Zeppelins and the Oasises [...] Instead of starting with Kill 'Em All in 1983, we figured we'd go back another two years to when the band was formed in 1981.".[5]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
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
Total length:29:40

Personnel

Live Metal Up Your Ass

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), all 9 of which would essentially be the entirety of their debut album minus Cliff's bass solo "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)". Two covers of Diamond Head songs were played, "Am I Evil?" and "The Prince", however "The Prince" was not recorded as the tape ran out before the full duration of the band's set.

Both the name and album cover of the demo were to be reused for the band's debut studio album and album cover. However, Metallica's record company would not allow it.[6]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
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
Total length:52:38

Personnel

Megaforce demo

The Megaforce demo was recorded on March 16, 1983 and was the band's last demo release recorded with Dave Mustaine.[1] The tape was recorded with the intention of introducing 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 has 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.

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Whiplash"4:12
2."No Remorse"5:38
Total length:9:50

Personnel

Ride the Lightning demo

The Ride the Lightning demo was recorded 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 renamed "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.

Track listing
No.TitleLength
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
Total length:26:16

Personnel

Master of Puppets demos

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).

Track listing
No.TitleLength
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."Only Thing (Welcome Home (Sanitarium) / Orion)" (instrumental)9:38
7."Only Thing (Welcome Home (Sanitarium) / Orion)"8:55
Total length:55:58

Personnel

...And Justice for All demos

The ...And Justice for All demos were recorded in 1987 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 and some lyrical differences, one of which includes an improvised lyric about James needing to write lyrics for the song. Most demo versions of the album do not include both takes of the song.

Track listing
No.TitleLength
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
Total length:63:12

Personnel

Metallica demos

The demos recorded for Metallica’s self-titled fifth album were recorded by James and Lars on August 13, 1990 in Lars’ home studio “The Dungeon”. Four of the songs from this particular session were later released as B-Sides on various album singles. Two other songs, “The Unforgiven” and “Holier Than Thou”, were recorded as demos during studio recording sessions.

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Enter Sandman" (B-side Enter Sandman single)5:05
2."Holier Than Thou" (B-side Enter Sandman single)3:48
3."Nothing Else Matters" (B-side Nothing Else Matters single)5:52
4."The Unforgiven" (B-side The Unforgiven single)6:15
5."Wherever I May Roam" (B-side Wherever I May Roam single)5:35
6."Sad but True" (B-side Sad but True single)4:53
Total length:31:28

Personnel

Load and Reload demos

Many of the songs that would later appear on both the Load and Reload albums were recorded as demos by Hetfield and Ulrich between winter 1994 and spring 1995, in Ulrich's home studio “The Dungeon”. A large portion of the recorded tracks were released on the MetClub only release “Fan Can III”, while other songs were released throughout various singles from both albums. Most songs were released under working titles, as opposed to their final titles as appear on both albums.

Fan Can III

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Load" (King Nothing)5:50
2."Devil Dance" (Devil's Dance)4:46
3."Streamline" (Wasting My Hate)4:20
4."Bleeding Me"8:36
5."Bitch" (Ain’t My Bitch)5:31
6."Fixer" (Fixxxer)5:57
7."Mine Eyes" (Low Mans Lyric)7:58
8."Skimpy" (Carpe Diem Baby)6:24
9."Unforgiven II"7:14
10."Outlaw" (The Outlaw Torn)9:18
11."Memory" (The Memory Remains)6:44
12."Fuel"4:25
Total length:77:03

Single releases

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Until It Sleeps" (B-side to Until It Sleeps single)4:56
2."Mouldy" (B-side to Hero of the Day single)5:22
3."The Story So Far" (B-side to Mama Said single)6:52
4."Fuel for Fire" (B-side to The Memory Remains single)4:41
Total length:21:51

Personnel

Demo Magnetic

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 track list uses the working titles instead of the final titles. 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.

Track listing
No.TitleLength
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
Total length:74:22

Personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 4
  2. ↑
  3. 1 2 MetallicaWorld.co.uk demos
  4. ↑ "Metallica celebrate Record Store Day with limited-edition tape". Never Enough Notes. Never Enough Notes. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Metallica Kick Off Reissue Project With No Life Til Leather Cassette". Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  6. ↑ Archived September 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
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