Metallica, Kill ‘Em All

By Christian Lipski

For a brief shining period in my life, this was the hardest music ever. My brother (yet again), acting as the advance scout, returned from the fringes of the music world carrying Metallica’s debut in a thick mesh net. It was like the Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest I had heard, only faster, more aggressive. It sounded like freedom!

I had heard Kill ‘Em All at get-togethers with my brother and his friends, but I didn’t take the initiative to buy the album until I was a junior in college, about 1988. I listened to the whole tape in one go (yes, it was what we called a “cassette”), and read the lyrics as the beat pounded into me. The album was a way for me to enter this world of aggression, to adopt the attitude of the music. I didn’t really have any other music of this nature, so I would say that Kill ‘Em All filled a niche for me. It satisfied the part of me that wanted to thrash, really. Walking down Telegraph Ave with “Motorbreath” on my Walkman filled me with the confidence of a thousand men.

From beginning to end, the songs are all listenable and understandable (the music, not necessarily the lyrics), with distinct and well-crafted riffs. They also carry with them the seeds of those who came before, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. I liked the early metal, and this album gave me the same, but more. The solos are clean and fast and melodic—Hammett and Hetfield scream. But I would say that my favorite track back then and still today is “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth),” because it is a bass solo. This is what got Cliff Burton into the band in the first place, and it’s a tribute to his talent that the band gave him his own time on the record to do his thing. Listen to it.

Kill ‘Em All was the reason I bought . . . And Justice For All, and the reason why that later album disappointed me so much. There was none of the fire, the energy, and the rawness of the debut. But I can always scroll back to Kill ‘Em All and get that feeling again.