Kill 'Em All

Kill 'Em All
Metallica studio album
Publication (s)	July 25, 1983
admission	May 10-27, 1983
Label (s)	Megaforce Records
Format (s)	CD , LP , MC
Genre (s)	Thrash metal , speed metal
Title (number)	10
running time	51:18
occupation	Rhythm guitar , vocals : James Hetfield Lead guitar : Kirk Hammett Bass : Cliff Burton Drums : Lars Ulrich
production	Paul Curcio, Jon Zazula
chronology - Kill 'Em All Ride the Lightning (1984)
Single releases 1983 Whiplash 1983 Jump in the fire

Kill 'Em All ( English for' kill (t) them all / bring (t) them all to ') is the first studio album by the US metal band Metallica . It was released in 1983 and is classified as Thrash Metal and Speed ​​Metal .

Emergence

The opening song Hit the Lights was written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich before Metallica was founded , when they were still members of the band Leather Charm.

Metallica had been looking for a producer before recording ; Initially, no major record company was interested in working with the young band until they met music manager Jon Zazula, who had just founded his company Megaforce Records . He signed the band on May 3, 1983. While listening to their demo recording, it was clear to him that “Metallica would be the next Led Zeppelin ”. The recordings took place at Music America Studios in Rochester, New York , and lasted from May 10 to May 27, 1983. Zazula had to take out bank loans for the production. The album was released on July 25, 1983, and shortly afterwards the band went on tour in support of Raven under the title Kill 'Em All for One .

Originally the album was supposed to be called Metal Up Your Ass , but the title was rejected by the record distributors. The title "Kill 'Em All" was inspired by a statement of bassist Cliff Burton, who criticized these words, the music manager, who did not accept the original disk names: "Well, let's kill'! Em all" to this comment is also the Attributed vinyl record cover showing a hammer, pool of blood and a blurred image of a hand; the cover was not objected to.

The melody and sequence of the song The Four Horsemen on the album has its origins in a song that was written years earlier under the title Mechanix by former band member Dave Mustaine . Mustaine was excluded from the formation shortly before the Metallica album was produced. Mustaine then founded the band Megadeth and in 1985 released their debut album Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good! This contains the song Mechanix , which was played faster than Metallica's version.

Music style and meaning

The album sold 17,000 copies after the first two weeks of release. Kill 'Em All didn't get bigger sales until years later, when Metallica released their third album, Master of Puppets . 'Kill' Em All 'then reached number 120 in the US charts. A minority consider the debut to be the band's only good album:

“Anyone who has only published overproduced and / or completely unnecessary filth since 1986 ('Master Of Puppets') can claim the crown of absolute backward development. Actually I wanted to write: Who since 1983 ('Kill' Em All ') ... That would have been my completely honest opinion, but over the past 20 years, after 47,123 one-on-one interviews, I had to realize that I unfortunately only subscribe to this opinion. "

- Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann : Rock Hard , No. 313.

The album is considered to be the first thrash and speed metal album, although Metallica was not the first thrash metal band; Exodus already played Thrash Metal in 1983, but the debut album Bonded by Blood was not released until 1985 due to problems with business partners. In addition to Kill 'Em All , Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy , released in the same year, is considered the "birth of Thrash Metal". Metallica's roots were, however, "the rock'n'roll of Motörhead " Show No Mercy , however, is "more of a reef -Platte closer to Venom ." Kill 'Em All mixes heavy metal and hardcore punk , combining "high speed with precision , a certain, still rudimentary technique - and above all a lot of aggression ”.

The album contains several tracks that are considered classics, such as Whiplash , "perhaps the most important original Thrash song ever", The Four Horsemen and Seek & Destroy , which is said to be heavily inspired by Diamond Head's Dead Reckoning . Jump in the Fire and Hit the Lights show influences from traditional hard rock .

The slogan “bang that head that doesn't bang” on the back of the album “has become common knowledge”; Götz Kühnemund , the former editor-in-chief of the German rock-hard magazine, ended the foreword of the November 2010 edition with the incorrect German version: “Shake the skull that doesn't shake!” The first “bang” , however, stands for the request to turn someone's head the second relates to headbanging .

Cover design

The idea for the cover came from Jon Zazula, the producer of the album. The original hangs in his living room. It shows the typical Metallica logo in red against a black background, including an image with a red frame. This shows a pool of blood on a white background with a hammer in it. In addition, an open hand is shown out of focus behind the hammer. The red lettering Kill 'Em All can be read under the picture .

On the back there is a picture of the musicians and the slogan “bang that head that doesn't bang” .

On the pressings of Megaforce Records , Music for Nations and Sony Music Entertainment , the lettering of the album name is larger than the picture with the pool of blood and the hammer. With other pressings, the lettering is considerably smaller.

Track list

1. Hit the Lights (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:17
2. The Four Horsemen (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 7:13
3. Motorbreath (Hetfield) - 3:08
4. Jump in the Fire (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 4:42
5. (Anesthesia) -Pulling Teeth (Burton) - 4:15 (Instrumental)
6. Whiplash (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 4:10
7. Phantom Lord (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 5:02
8. No Remorse (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 6:26
9. Seek & Destroy (Hetfield, Ulrich) - 6:55
10. Metal Militia (Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine) - 5:10

The two cover titles Am I Evil? (Original by Diamond Head ) and Blitzkrieg (Original by Blitzkrieg ) can be found as bonus tracks on the re-release of the album by Elektra Records from 1989 onwards .

1. Am I Evil? ( Brian Tatler , Sean Harris ) - 7:50
2. Blitzkrieg ( Ian Jones , Smith, Jim Sirotto) - 3:36

Chart successes and sales figures

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Kill 'Em All   DE 58 05/20/2016 (1 week)   CH 65 09/28/2016 (1 week)   US 66 02/27/1988 (21 weeks)

After the release of the remastered version, Kill 'Em All entered the German charts at number 58 for a week on May 20, 2016. In the United States, the album was 66th and was in the top 200 for a total of 21 weeks. The album was particularly successful in Finland, where it reached position 12.

Kill 'Em All was triple platinum record in 1999 for more than three million units sold in the United States .

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Argentina (CAPIF)	gold	35,000
Germany (BVMI)	gold	250,000
Canada (MC)	platinum	100,000
United States (RIAA)	3 × platinum	3,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	Gold (original 1983) + gold (reissue 1993)	200,000
All in all	4 × gold 4 × platinum	3,585,000

Main article: Metallica / Music Sales Awards

Trivia

• James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich are listed as authors of all Metallica titles written, with the occasional involvement of other band members. Kill 'Em All contains the only exceptions to this rule to date: Motorbreath was written by Hetfield without Ulrich, while the bass solo Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) is a solo composition by Cliff Burton.

Web links

• Kill 'Em All on the official website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Jan Fleckhaus, Christof Leim: The origin of hardness . In: Metal Hammer , March 2008, p. 35.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Metallica Timeline - 1983. In: metallica.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2010 ; accessed on March 16, 2020 (English). 
3. ^ Matthias Weckmann: Metallica . Great times . In: Metal Hammer , February 2013, p. 22.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Matthias Weckmann: The reef dealer . In: Metal Hammer , February 2013, p. 27.
5. ↑ Dave Mustaine: The Story Behind Metallica's 'The Four Horsemen' In: blabbermouth.net . August 15, 2011, accessed March 21, 2020.
6. ↑ Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Wolf howl . Earth caves in Indonesia . In: Rock Hard , No. 313, June 2013, p. 9.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Jan Fleckhaus, Christof Leim: The origin of hardness . In: Metal Hammer , March 2008, p. 34.
8. ↑ Jan Fleckhaus, Christof Leim: The origin of hardness . In: Metal Hammer , March 2008, p. 37.
9. ↑ Jan Fleckhaus, Christof Leim: The origin of hardness . In: Metal Hammer , March 2008, p. 40.
10. ↑ Kill 'Em All or Show No Mercy? . This is how the protagonists of the scene think of the two albums . In: Metal Hammer , March 2008, p. 37.
11. ↑ Götz Kühnemund: King of Metal . In: Rock Hard , No. 282, November 2010, p. 3.
12. ↑ Chart positions: DE AT CH UK US
13. ↑ Chart tracking Kill 'Em All on officialcharts.de
14. ↑ International chart tracking Kill 'Em All
15. ↑ US: 3x platinum