Ok, most (if not all of you guys) will be familiar with this one, it’s Metallica’s first record Kill em All. This album marked the start of what would become the biggest Heavy Metal band of all time. I’m not sure how may people would have picked them becoming so big this early on but this was a great slab of Heavy Metal riffage with some catchy song writing that obviously drew from Venom, Motorhead and Black Sabbath and to some degree took a page of out of the book of some of the more intense punk bands at the time like Dishcharge etc. and rolled it up into one neat package ready to be digested by metalheads the world over.
Drummer Lars Ulrich had a rare insight into Heavy Metal (especially the NWOBHM scene), being a record collector from the start and being exposed to a whole bunch of bands from Europe that no-one in US had heard, meant that he could expose his band mates to a whole bunch of bands (Mercyful Fate, Budgie, Blitzkrieig etc) which meant the band could take on a bunch of influences that most in America hadn’t heard yet and create something that meshed all these things together and hopefully made something that stood above other releases at the time.
Two years previously we’d had Venom unleash “Welcome to hell” this took Heavy Metal to totally new dimension. Metallica took what Venom did, but they did it more professionally. Where as Venom (as much as I love them) had serious production issues with their first couple of releases. Kill em All sounded great to the first time listener. The music was also almost perfectly in time and didn’t have the overtly Satanic overtones that Venom did. This meant that people that anyone that appreciated loud and fast guitars could listen to the album. Venom scared a lot of people off their music with the imagery (I do realise there was some mild satanic imagery in KEA but nothing compared to Venom or others).
Lets get into the album though. On this album are a whole heap of Metallica classics. Many of these songs are still being played in their live set almost 45 years later. This is a testament to well written songs that have a wide appeal. As most of you know Dave Mustaine played guitar in the band for the year or so previous to this album being released so much of it was written by him. After being ejected from the band for his drug / alcohol issues, Kirk Hammet was drafted into the band and had to learn the solos with only 2 weeks to go before recording started. His solos are more formulaic than Mustaine’s were, but for someone that got thrown in the deep end, he did a stellar job given the conditions.
My Fave cuts would have to The Four Horsemen, Pulling Teeth, and Whiplash though every song on this stands up on its own. There is nothing on this album that can be considered filler.
This album was a statement of intent by a young thrash band. Musically I’d say it was probably the weakest of the big 4 thrash bands debut album, but you know what? They got there first. They were the first band to put out a pure thrash metal record, the first thrash band to produce it properly and many times in life, it’s those who get there first that get the spoils. Metallica definitely got theirs. The fact that the album sold rather well (considering it was an underground release) absolutely paved the way for the releases from Anthrax and Slayer that followed that year. For the first time ever there was now there was a market for thrash metal.
The only thing I can say about this album is put it on nice and loud, grab yourself a beer and get your head kicked in by the first real thrash metal record. If you have it on vinyl even better! THRASH!!!
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