Kill ‘Em All is the debut studio album by the heavy metal band Metallica, released on July 25, 1983, through the independent label Megaforce Records. Metallica began by playing shows in local clubs in Los Angeles. They recorded several demos to gain attention from club owners and eventually relocated to San Francisco to secure the services of bassist Cliff Burton. The group’s No Life ’til Leather demo tape (1982) was noticed by Megaforce label head Jon Zazula, who signed them and provided a budget of $15,000 for recording. The album was recorded in May with producer Paul Curcio at the Music America Studios in Rochester, New York. It was originally intended to be titled Metal Up Your Ass, with cover art featuring a hand clutching a dagger emerging from a toilet bowl. Zazula convinced the band to change the name because distributors feared that releasing an album with such an offensive title and artwork would diminish its chances of commercial success.
Metallica promoted the album on the two-month co-headlining Kill ‘Em All for One tour with English heavy metal band Raven in the US. The album also generated two singles: Whiplash and Jump in the Fire. Although the initial shipment was 15,000 copies in the US, the album sold 60,000 copies worldwide by the end of Metallica‘s Seven Dates of Hell European tour in 1984. The album did not enter the Billboard 200 until 1986, when it peaked at number 155, following Metallica‘s commercial success with its third studio album, Master of Puppets; the 1988 Elektra reissue peaked at number 120. Kill ‘Em All was critically praised at the time of its release and has since been regarded as a groundbreaking album for thrash metal, because of its “precise musicianship, which fused new wave of British heavy metal riffs with hardcore punk tempos”. It was also retrospectively placed on a few publications’ best album lists. The album’s musical approach and lyrics were markedly different from rock’s mainstream of the early 1980s and inspired a number of bands who followed in a similar manner. It was certified 3× Platinum by the (RIAA) in 1999 for shipping three million copies in the United States.
Tracklist:
Side One
- Hit the Lights
- The Four Horsemen
- Motorbreath
- Jump in the Fire
- (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth (instrumental) Cliff Burton
- Whiplash
Side Two
- Phantom Lord
- No Remorse
- Seek & Destroy
- Metal Militia
Bonus tracks (1988 Elektra reissue)
- Am I Evil? (Diamond Head cover)
- Blitzkrieg (Blitzkrieg cover)
Metallica
James Hetfield: vocals, rhythm guitar
Kirk Hammett: lead guitar
Cliff Burton: bass
Lars Ulrich: drums
Jason Newsted: bass, backing vocals on the digital reissue bonus tracks
Production
Paul Curcio: production
Jon Zazula: executive producer
Chris Bubacz: engineer
Andy Wroblewski: assistant engineer
Jack Skinner: mastering
Bob Ludwig: mastering (Elektra reissue)
George Marino: 1995 remastering
Howie Weinberg: 2016 remastering
Metallica, Mark Whitaker: production on the Elektra reissue bonus tracks
Jeffrey “Nik” Norman: engineer on the Elektra reissue bonus tracks
Mike Gillies: mixing on the digital reissue bonus tracks
Artwork
Gary L. Heard: front and back cover design photos
Kevin Hodapp: inner sleeve photos
Shari & Harold Risch: graphics, design, and layout
Cliff Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986)
