Kill 'Em All, Metallica's Debut Album

Kill ‘Em All was Metallica’s first album released on the 29th July, 1983. Megaforce Records printed an initial run of 1,500 copies and the album wasn’t a great financial success for the band on release although it did spark their growing fan base. With the band becoming increasingly famous and popular over the years the album eventually went on to sell over 3 million copies in the US alone.

The album features a raw, fast and youthful sounding Metallica perhaps lacking in the sophistication they later brought to their music. It was still an important landmark in metal and it soon began to draw in a fan base for them. The whole album was recorded in just two weeks on a minimal budget and production values are fairly low.

The album was originally going to be called Metal Up Your Ass but the publishers Megaforce Records persuaded them to change it. They even had an original album cover in mind featuring a hand clutching a knife poking up through a toilet bowl. The name change was probably for the best. The new album cover, a bloody hammer, was Cliff Burton’s idea; apparently he liked to carry a hammer around with him wherever he went.

The line up for this album was James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett. Hammett had been recently recruited as a replacement for Dave Mustaine who was kicked out of the band in 1983. Mustaine still got credit on four songs, The Four Horsemen, Jump in the Fire, Phantom Lord and Metal Militia. All of the other songs are credited to Hetfield and Ulrich with the exception of the awesome bass track (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth which was written by Cliff Burton.

The stand out tracks on the album include Seek and Destroy, which is classic Metallica and always played at their live shows. Hit the Lights, the song which opens the album was also the first song Hetfield and Ulrich ever wrote together. The Four Horsemen, which was originally written by Mustaine for his previous band and released on Megadeth’s first album as Mechanix, Hetfield re-wrote the lyrics for the Metallica version and Hammett added a big guitar solo. (Anethesia) Pulling Teeth which shows off Burton’s tremendous talent on the bass and was apparently based on the solo he was playing when Hetfield and Ulrich first saw him and immediately wanted him to join the band. Whiplash is another great track which is apparently about Hetfield’s fear of the dentist and is often played at live shows as a tribute to the original fans.

This album was aggressive, extremely fast and packed with attitude. It helped spawn the thrash metal genre. It doesn’t bear much relation to Metallica’s more recent output and they have definitely become more mainstream and radio friendly with age. The only songs released as singles on Kill ‘Em All were Jump in the Fire and Whiplash. Some versions of the album also included two bonus tracks, Am I Evil? and Blitzkrieg. This album shows Metallica at their loudest, fastest and most energetic and it remains a classic.