(Getting the sack turned out to be the proverbial blessing in disguise for Mustaine, who founded Megadeth shortly afterward.) The songs were written by Ulrich, Hetfield and then-guitarist Dave Mustaine, who was famously fired shortly before the band hit the recording studio and replaced by Exodus guitarist Hammett. (Metallica had originally planned to call it “Metal Up Your Ass,” but the record company balked.)Ĭombining the speed of punk heroes the Ramones, American hardcore and the fury of NWOBHM bands like Mötörhead, and saturated with blistering solos inspired by Judas Priest, Metallica captured attention with a sound now known as thrash metal. James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett might have looked like a group of vapid, lank-haired kids, but they would change the face of music forever with “Kill ‘Em All,” its Megaforce debut, which was released 30 years ago this week in July of 1983. It did, however, make an impact on the underground and the members of a certain California rock band. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal that was on the rise in the late ’70s hadn’t connected with the mainstream in the States. Punk rock had evolved into hardcore, music that was fast and aggressive with lyrics that chiefly concentrated on either politics or positivity. British new wave acts like Duran Duran and Adam Ant still owned the charts.
But choices for the average American male teen rock fan remained limited. Quiet Riot had dropped “Metal Health” in first-quarter 1983, which, along with Def Leppard’s “Pyromania,” signaled that metal’s mainstream popularity was on the rise. The year prior, English titans Judas Priest had released “Screaming for Vengeance” and broke into the top 20 of the Billboard with a slick, commercial hard rock sound that broke through the gates watched by Men at Work and the Human League. In the summer of 1983, metal was in a state of flux. Here’s our track-by-track look back at Metallica’s classic debut, which changed the face of metal 30 years ago this week.
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