Impact
Released in 1983, the record's release set the band on the path to "world domination," as drummer Lars Ulrich would put it in the following year.[1]
The album is acclaimed for combining high-speed (especially "Motorbreath" -which has a tempo of 168 bpm- and the Cliff Burton bass solo "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" of which the fastest section is played at 200 bpm) and a tribute to the band's early NWOBHM influences: Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Venom, all English bands who combined the heaviness and technicality of Black Sabbath with the speed and aggression of punk. It is one of the first and most influential thrash metal albums.
The Mustaine factor
Metallica's original lineup featured James Hetfield (guitar/vocals), Lars Ulrich (drums), Ron McGovney (bass) and Dave Mustaine (lead guitar). Due to tensions between McGovney and Mustaine, McGovney left the band. Castro Valley-born bassist Cliff Burton was recruited as a replacement.
Mustaine and Hetfield had personality conflicts, with Mustaine later blaming the rivalry on the fact that "there was too much personality" in the band.[3] These tensions led to a fist-fight that broke out between Mustaine and Hetfield,[4] after Mustaine accused Hetfield of kicking his dog.[5]
Despite their differences, Mustaine's contribution to the early years of Metallica were not completely neglected; he received co-writing credits on four of the songs in Kill 'Em All. One song, "The Four Horsemen" was originally written by Mustaine and titled "The Mechanics". It was performed at many early Metallica shows. Following Mustaine's exit, replacement lead guitarist Kirk Hammett added a mid-paced, melodic middle section.[citation needed] Hetfield also wrote new lyrics and the band renamed it The Four Horsemen. Mustaine kept the faster paced original version of the song, renamed it simply "Mechanix", and included it on the first Megadeth album, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!. Mustaine's other writing credits on Kill 'Em All are for the songs "Jump in the Fire", "Phantom Lord" and "Metal Militia". Mustaine claims he had asked the other members not to use music he had written; Hetfield and Ulrich dispute this.[6]
Mustaine was fired in early 1983, just prior to the recording of Kill 'Em All. Hetfield and Ulrich stated that they fired Dave because of his alcohol and drug problems, as well as his overly-aggressive behavior. Mustaine initially denied this, but in Metallica's 2004 movie Some Kind of Monster, Mustaine stated that he wished Metallica had told him to go to AA. After Mustaine's departure, Metallica recruited Hammett, who previously played for Exodus and was a one-time student of Joe Satriani. The band started recording Kill 'Em All with Hammett barely a month after him joining. Mustaine went on to form the band Megadeth, who also achieved multi-million selling success.
Album title
The band initially planned to title the album Metal Up Your Ass, and the cover would have featured 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. Cliff 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 album title Metal Up Your Ass was unused, the band did later release a Metal Up Your Ass t-shirt with the proposed artwork.
Reception and awards
In 1989, the album was ranked #35 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the '80s.
The album would reach #120 on the charts, according to Metallica.com
The album was deemed the #1 underground album by Hit Parader
Q magazine (Summer/01, p.127) - 5 stars out of 5 - "Reaffirms their status as the pre-eminent metal band of the modern era....combining the power of classic rock with the raw speed and DIY attitude of punk. Thrash metal had arrived."
Songs
This album features the only two songs to ever be written only by one band member of Metallica each; Motorbreath (Hetfield) and (Anesthesia)-Pulling Teeth (Burton). It should be noted, however, that neither song was originally intended for Metallica and both were written before the band's formation.
Hit the Lights
"Hit the Lights" is the first track on the album. It was the first song that Hetfield and Ulrich worked on when forming Metallica. Early versions of the song can be heard on 1982's Metal Massacre compilation of unsigned metal bands, as well as its subsequent re-issue, and the group's first demo, No Life 'Til Leather. The demo's title happens to come 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. This 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, 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 their debut album Light from Above.
The song is included on the music game Guitar Hero: Metallica.
The Four Horsemen
"The Four Horsemen" is the second track on the album. The original song, called "The Mechanix", had different lyrics, 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 first 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. After he left, Hetfield rewrote the lyrics and Hammett added a new, melodic guitar solo in the middle of the song. This section is rarely played when Metallica performs this song live.
"The Four Horsemen" is a definite 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, many believe the song is about Metallica themselves as the "horsemen."
The lyrics refer to the horsemen as Time, Famine, Pestilence and Death. However, in the Apocalypse, Time is not represented by a horseman; War is.
During the bridge of the song, bassist Cliff Burton's voice can be heard providing the backing vocals.
The iTunes Bonus Track of this song can be watched on Live Shit: Binge & Purge, the Live Metallica Album Box Set. This song was performed in Seattle on August 29th.
Motorbreath
"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. During early shows former lead guitarist, Mustaine, said that it was their version of a love song.[citation needed] This is the only song in the history of the band that is credited to Hetfield alone, one of two in which Ulrich doesn't have a credit (both on this album, the other is "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth"). At 3:08, it is the shortest original Metallica recording. (Only certain cover songs recorded by the band are shorter.)
"Motorbreath" is featured on the soundtrack to the game MTX: Mototrax. During the film Any Given Sunday the song can be heard playing in the locker room after one of the Miami Sharks' victories.
The song was covered a couple of times, most notably by Canadian punk band D.O.A. on the "Punk Tribute to Metallica"-Sampler and in 2004 by Scott Ian and Page Hamilton.
The song "Love is a Danger Zone 2" in the Pump It Up series of rhythm dance video games is inspired by "Motorbreath."
The song was covered by Anacrusis on some of their early recorded rehearsals and is available for download on their website.
Singles
"Jump in the Fire" was released as a UK EP in February 1984 to promote a UK tour with Venom. The EP would feature "Phantom Lord" and "Seek & Destroy" as live tracks, although they are actually studio recordings with fake crowd noise dubbed over them[citation needed].
"Whiplash" was released as a U.S. 12" EP, featuring the same tracks as the UK "Jump in the Fire" EP but also featuring a special Neckbrace remix of "Whiplash". However, Lars Ulrich stated that there is no difference between the remix of "Whiplash" and the original version[citation needed], except of course that it is a different mix of the song, it has added reverb which is very noticeable. It's the same track instrument tracks but with a different mix.
themetsource - HOME
