Kill 'Em All

Kill ‘Em All is the first studio album by the American Thrash band ‘Metallica’. Some of the songs were written by a different line-up than the musicians that played the songs in the studio. It was recorded at Music America Studios, Rochester, New York. It was released by Megaforce on July 29 1983 and later rereleased by Elektra records.

Before Kill ‘Em All was recorded the songs were written and recorded on demo’s by James Hetfield, Lloyd Grant, Ron McGovney and Lars Ulrich. On later demo’s featuring the first full tracks that would appear on Kill ‘Em All, Dave Mustaine took Lloyd’s place and Ron was replaced by Cliff Burton. Mustaine was kicked from the band for having a bad attitude and was replaced by the final Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. With this final line-up Kill ‘Em All was recorded.

The album features a lot of Metallica’s remarkable thrash songs such as: Seek And Destroy, Whiplash and The Four Horsemen. Unlike the later albums, Kill ‘Em All didn’t have any Symphonic sounds or instruments supporting the tracks.

First title for the album was Metal Up Your Ass and it has a different cover artwork (hand with a dagger sticking out from WC). Megaforce permissed it. The title Kill Em All was what Cliff Burton said after the record company rejected the original Metal Up Your Ass cover. “Just fuckin’ kill ‘em all” were his exact words.