Kill ‘Em All - 1983
Tracklisting: 1.
Hit the Lights. 2.
The Four Horsemen. 3.
Motorbreath. 4.
Jump in the Fire. 5.
Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth). 6.
Whiplash. 7.
Phantom Lord. 8.
No Remorse. 9.
Seek And Destroy. 10.
Metal Militiahttps://open.spotify.com/album/1aGapZGHBovnmhwqVNI6JZ?si=SSTlXeIQRpiEhJXf-rhoOgThey were just a couple of angry teenagers back then. Back in late October of 1981, when a young Danish tennis prodigy named Lars Ulrich put an ad for band members in the local newspaper and met James Hetfield. It wouldn’t be long until they had recruited James’ housemate Ron McGovney and a young Dave Mustaine and started making sound together. Fast, ferocious, loud sound. They quickly rose to local fame, pushing hard with sheer determination. They quickly hit the “openers circuit” in LA, a great spot to be for a young band, started supporting bands like Saxon and soon cut their first demo tape that they called
No Life ‘Til Leather. They soon relocated themselves to the San Francisco Bay Area, where they’d just secured themselves a new bass player. An absolute prodigy by the name of Cliff Burton.
Of course, that brief rundown omits the ugly side. They were absolute drunkards, which didn’t suit Mustaine’s violent side very well at all. After a few nasty incidents, the band found themselves needing to make a huge change for the sake of their future. Shortly after signing to a new label called Megaforce Records and making the long trek from California to New York, Mustaine was kicked out of the band and replaced with the then-current guitarist of Exodus, Kirk Hammett. What followed became a career that has spawned 42 years at the time of writing this. A legacy other metal bands could only wish to have. And it all starts with their debut album,
Kill ‘Em All.
This album explodes to life with a wall of guitars and cymbals, bass slides and drum fills before we hear a guitar scratch into the first main riff of the album. While many could argue that this isn’t the most sophisticated, grand or complex of Metallica’s album openers, I have to say that this really sets the mood for
Kill ‘Em All very well. It’s a massive wall of tremolo picked guitars, so the speed and aggression of this album are already well established from just a few notes. Then you get into
Hit the Lights, a great speedy opener that opens with the line “no life ‘til leather, we’re gonna kick your ass tonight!”. What an awesome way to say “we’re here, we’re gonna do what we do, get on or get out of the way” right from the start. James screams his way through the lyrics, a real mission statement for what this album is. The chorus really says it all for their mindset here, “when we start to rock we never want to stop again, hit the lights!”. Kirk’s shredding is on full display here, with some great licks between choruses and verses. The climax of this song is a great jam for the rhythm section while Kirk goes full assault mode on lead guitar. It’s a great album opener, really setting the tone for all that will come.
Since we’ve brought up the name Dave Mustaine, we’ve also gotta talk about some of the controversy. The whole “Dave Wrote ‘Em All” thing. Admittedly, Metallica were in the wrong for using Dave’s material without his permission, but the songs were already staples of their live shows of the last two years at this point. They kinda had to be included.
As Mustaine said on the Rude Awakening live album by Megadeth, there are two ways you can hear this next song. There’s the faster, more aggressive approach from Megadeth and then there’s the slower, extended version by Metallica. As much as I don’t want to turn this into a comparison between Megadeth and Metallica, I will leave it at I massively prefer Metallica’s version,
The Four Horsemen. For one, Cliff’s bassline in the chorus is so catchy and then there’s the lyrical debate. The rewritten lyrics by Hetfield about the four horsemen of the apocalypse is a massive improvement over the somewhat juvenile “I want to have a lot of sex” of Mechanix. The galloping riff either side of the bridge sounds better at the slower speed for my taste and I think the bridge section is actually really great. Now, there is the matter of the melodic interlude which is very
Sweet Home Alabama influenced and almost does ‘t suit the song at all, but even that I still like. Comparing the final solos, I think I prefer Mustaine’s take on it, but Kirk is definitely no slouch either. The bass drop effect from Cliff that leads into the final gallop riff is definitely a really cool moment too, one that Mustaine never replicated for his recording.
Motorbreath is a decent song, opening with a great drum intro (wait, I just complimented Lars’ drumming). This song is one of only a handful in their entire career without a credit to Lars, being entirely composed by James. This song is about people who like to live their lives on the edge, full speed or nothing. The post-chorus interludes are a cool little change, but I’m not sure they really belong after the first chorus, where it makes a cool switch into the first solo section. Other than that, this one isn’t one I have a lot to say about. It’s a cool song for sure, but one that hasn’t left as grand of an impact on me as a lot of the others from
Kill ‘Em All.
Jump in the Fire, on the other hand, is a really interesting song. The riff is composed around the G blues scale and it sounds surprisingly upbeat. This whole song actually sounds pretty upbeat, I love it. This draws heavily upon Metallica’s influences from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, especially Iron Maiden and specifically
Run to the Hills. Lyrically, this song is about the Devil trying to tempt people to embrace their darkness and join him in hell. The first guitar interlude is a great section, I’ve always loved the offset feeling of it. The climactic solo is a great one too, but sadly one that commits one of my biggest pet peeves in music and FADES OUT AS IT GETS GOOD!
But, if you’re looking for a great solo, the next track is a huge 4 minute bass solo. Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to take a moment and remember the genius that was Cliff Burton as we just let
Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) was right over us. It’s a very well structured solo, I like that we get a switch up for the second half where Lars lays down a groove for Cliff to absolutely shred over. It’s hard to really say much, but seriously, just go and listen to this track again, it will always be worth the listen.
Something else I love about
Anesthesia is how well it transitions into the start of
Whiplash. And then, how great is Whiplash! This one is lyrically describing the feeling of being at a Metallica show and the symbiotic nature between the fans and the band. “We do our best, you’re the best, you make it real you know”. This song just has so much going for it, including one of my favourite solos on the album. The third verse does contain an interesting line though. The lyrics have always stated “we’re gathered here to maim and kill”, but James has often sworn that it’s “we’re gathered here to be with you”. I suppose it doesn‘t overly matter though. Another cool lyric change can be found in the last verse, where on the album it’s “we’ll never stop, we’ll never quit, coz we’re Metallica”, but live James often puts it on the crowd and says “YOU’RE Metallica”. It’s just a cool moment. I love the outro here too. Such a great little fast riff.
Uo next is a song that I’d equate to being the filler of the album,
Phantom Lord. Man, this is a song that has a lot of elements that I really like, but it’s elements I like within larger elements I really don’t. For example, the intro before the main riff. It feels like it should be the invitation to a much better payoff. Instead, it feels like it just goes dead before the song kinda restarts when the main riff kicks off. Then the verses feel well connected to the choruses, but the little solo turnaround that take the chorus back to ANOTHER reset with the main riff feels like they may have gotten a little lazy with structuring this song. When it gets to the instrumental section, I really like all the parts, individually. However, I feel like the connection from the clean section and the subsequent build out of it is once again released poorly with the big E chords before the solos restart at pretty much the exact same point it was before, just check out a live version (like this one
https://youtu.be/ZQzCOcCbmxA). Even lyrically, this one doesn’t feel as mature as any of the others on this album. So what do I like? I really like almost everything instrumentally. I think all these riffs are great, especially the clean section, but I just feel like this wasn’t structured well enough to let it all go together,
No Remorse is the song that starts a long running theme throughout many Metallica albums, the war song! And what a great way to kick it all off. The intro is a great grooving riff with an absolutely blistering solo over the top. As it kicks into the verse riff, the energy dissipates for a few seconds, giving us a brief breather before it all kicks in again. Hetfield’s soaring screams really sit in well on this song for me. I really like the instrumental bridge between verse and chorus here and gamers should definitely recognise the chorus riff here (E1M1, anyone?). It’s actually this instrumental breakdown here that leaves me undecided how I feel. This section and the third verse often get skipped live, but I often feel like this section is skipped unfairly. Other times, I’ll hear it and think “huh, that’s really not as good as I remember it being”. Fun thing is that the end of this section actually features the very first harmony guitar in a Metallica song. The ending of this song is definitely a highlight of the entire album though.
Not as much of a highlight as the song that follows it though. Three simple words,
Seek And Destroy! The
Kill ‘Em All song that has been featured the most prominently on setlists across the last 40 years. Deservedly so. I don’t think I have to say much about this song, because there’s a very strong chance you’re already familiar with the track. It’s one of the most essential lyrics for any new Metallica listener and if you’re going to a Metallica weekend on the M72 tour, you’re gonna hear this on at least one of the two nights. Also, I really envy you, coz I will not be getting that chance for ages.
Closing out
Kill ‘Em All, we have
Metal Militia. Man, going back to the album version again after a long time has not done me any favours. This is a song where James’ screaming does not work for me at all. It’s just too high, too dissonant and it just doesn’t work for me. Riffs are very cool though, especially the one used for the intro and the chorus. I don’t care for the solo on this one, but I love the rising pattern that follows it and the transition back into the final verse. The song fades out into some really cheesy sound effects too, which really doesn’t help. I was lucky enough to see this song live on Metallica’s last show in Australia almost ten years ago now and I actually thought it was a great treat, even though it no longer suits James vocally (you can check out that particular performance here
https://youtu.be/6MafRlNKtgY) pretty cool to see this has made a resurgence on setlists lately, I enjoy hearing it live, but the album version really does nothing for me.
So,
Kill ‘Em All. It’s a solid effort for a debut album and they did a lot right. Ultimately, this album needn’t do much more than set up the base on which they would grow their sound and I think it achieves this mission. It doesn’t have a lot of my absolute favourites on it, but it doesn’t really need to either. This album has a few songs I’d absolutely recommend with Hit the Lights, Four Horsmen, Whiplash and No Remorse and one essential listen with Seek And Destroy.
I rate it a
7.5, but what do you guys think of
Kill ‘Em All after almost 40 years? Let’s open up a discussion til I deep dive Ride the Lightning next Friday!
Topic: Deadeye Deep Dives: Metallica (Chapter 13: 72 Seasons) (Read 13721 times)
