Metallica’s debut album from 1983 is the fastest the band has ever created. The recording took 15k dollars, and was financed by Megaforce label head John Zazula from his own money. It took everything he had. The resulting album defined the genre of thrash metal, by playing a faster version of what the English metal bands of the “New wave of British heavy metal” (NWOBHM) were doing, with added low register singing and aggressive lyrics. Kill ’em all is fast, but also very precise. It is fitting for the band’s ambitions.
I added this band quite late to the Metallica collection I already had. I doubt I listened to it much at the time, as I bought it at the market of a gothic festival in Germany. In trying to find the record on discogs, I found it is not allowed to be sold there, because it is not a legal version. It might not be bootlegged, but the proceeds probably did not go to the band. Something I find funny, because Metallica was so hard assed against the pirating of their music in the early 2000’s.
