Kill 'Em All is Metallica's debut album, and it is the cornerstone of what would be named soon after speed metal or thrash metal. Prior to July 25, 1983, no album had shown such an outpouring of energy, violence and extremes, right up to the album art. Initially entitled Metal Up Your Ass (rejected by the Megaforce label), the cover was going to feature a hand holding a dagger coming out of a toilet bowl. In the end, it featured a pool of blood with a hammer next to it and a hand trying to grab it. In both cases, the message is quite clear.
The album opens with the hyper-rapid Hit the Lights, featuring a heady riff and wild bawling, with a punk touch in the execution as well as in the sound. Everything is too fast, too loud, like on Motorbreath, a song straight from hell with razor-sharp drums. The record also contains Seek and Destroy, the band's first real classic, as a tribute to the bands so loved by Lars Ulrich (drums) and James Hetfield (guitar/vocals), Diamond Head and Saxon. On steroids, of course. Kill 'Em All also has Dave Mustaine to thank, the guitarist who was fired from the band a few days before going into the studio and replaced by Kirk Hammett. The future leader of Megadeth was indeed the composer of four tracks on the album. A multitude of bands (Slayer, Exodus, Anthrax to name but a few) would follow in Metallica's footsteps after this release that would lead the Four Horsemen to the pantheon of metal. © Maxime Archambaud/Qobuz