METALLICA — Kill 'em All (review)

METALLICA — Kill 'em All album cover Album · 1983 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
AtomicCrimsonRush
Welcome to Metallica. A debut to savour.

Metallica unleashed their brand of speed thrash metal to the world with one of the best metal debuts in history. Every track features brutal bass heavy riffing and crunches from beginning to end. This is a relentless 'metal militia'. The young band showed 'no remorse', no repent. They didn't care what it meant. Another day, another death, another sorrow, another death. The lyrics spelled it out in case we didn't get it. Raw, in your face stone cold thrash. Metallica focused on death, victories and losses, fiery hell, the apocalypse with the four horsemen, revelation, valiant struggles, motorbike speed runs, banging heads, lords of death, bloody destroyers and er.... death. These themes would become a blueprint for every budding metal band who were inspired by Metallica's no nonsense approach to the underground metal scene. It was not for the squeamish and still packs a whallop. Even the vocal style would drive and instigate the style of many bands such as Megadeth, Pantera and Testament, who cite Metallica as key influences. Highlights include 'The Four Horsemen', 'Whiplash', and 'Seek & Destroy'. All quite simple in structure, very straight forward - bang your head and get out of there. The simplistic style was easy to play for the budding guitarist and of course the tracks on this debut have been covered by zillions of cover bands worldwide. Heck, even I know most of the riffs and i am know lead guitar extraodinaire. The point was it ws not the complexity of the riffs but how they were pieced together. Take the best track on the album 'No Remorse', for example. Clocking in at over 6 minutes, it features complex arrangements of simple but brutal riffs to die for. It is perhaps my favourite track in the early phase of the band's meteoric rise to power.

In conclusion, a great start for the legends of power metal; the band were still wet behind the ears of course, and the best was yet to come, but this debut is marginally flawed brilliance. Deserving of at least a 4 star rating for its sheer importance in the history of metal.
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