KILL 'EM ALL

Many people say that thrash metal was born with this album. Many people claim that this album has an important role for the history of metal music. Many people argue that this album was the first step of a famous legend. All of those things are true but when it comes to review Metallica's debut album, I would like to leave the nostalgic feelings away and concentrate on the music. That's where I must admit that this album is rather one dimensional and has a few fillers in here. Don't get me wrong, I like this record that is full of energy and emotions and I don't question its status at all. Many people may now contradict me by saying that thrash metal must sound exactly like this. But the debut albums of "Overkill" or "Voivod" prove that bands can already innovate within their first albums and sound rather diversified. The only time Metallica try out something else is during the memorable bass solo "(Anasthesia) Pulling Teeth" which may be one of the greatest bass guitar solos ever recorded in the metal genre. It's simply experimental, diversified and technically of a pretty high standard and one of my favourite tracks in here. This courage, this open minded creativity, this last little kick of genius is what is a little bit missing in here.

The other nine songs are mostly straight forward thrash metal tracks with sharp riffs, aggressive but melodic vocal lines, fast guitar solos, a pumping bass guitar and a tight drumming. The sound is raw and aggressive and fits perfectly to the songs and the album title itself. The band employs the technical qualities of the heavy metal genre and mixes them with the fast paced energy of the punk wave and unites two genres that were very distinguished at the time and didn't seem to match together. The birth of thrash metal was a first step of the approach of the two genres and their fans. The great opener "Hit The Lights" hits right my nerve and is a perfect definition of the Bay Area thrash metal genre. A little bit more elaborated tracks like the great grower "No remorse" or the catchy band hymn "Seek And Destroy" work even better and are still a great definition of its genre almost thirty years after the initial release. The killer track "Whiplash" is also one of my favourite tracks on the record and varies a little bit more than some too generic songs its riffs, drum loops and melody lines. The song gives you no time to breathe and delivers everything the band stood for back in time. The guitar solo is simply outstanding and proves us that Kirk Hammett was the ideal choice for Metallica and delivers already here a better job than the overrated and arrogant egoist and former guitar player of Metallica Dave Mustaine would ever do. Sorry for the attitude and I apologize to all the "Megadeth" maniacs, but that's something where I just felt the need to write it down. Anyway, all those songs can without a doubt be called some classics.

But next to many catchy and great songs, there are also a few fillers on here that can't hold the high level. "Motorbreath" is a short and sweet track but has nothing outstanding to survive. The single "Jump Into The Fire" was not the best choice to spread the name about this young band and the new genre and is a rather overrated track. It's difficult to criticize this bunch of motivated and energized teenagers for some repetition but that might be the only weak point of this album and where there is a thin line between a very good album and an outstanding or even perfect record. That's in the end why my rating is really just slightly below the highest degrees of amazing and absolutely outstanding metal music.

Nevertheless, any metal fan should have this great thrash metal record in its collection even if Metallica created even better albums in the next few years in my opinion. This album is a raw definition of the birth of thrash metal with some great and unforgettable classics. But only a few years after, the concurrency and Metallica itself showed us that the summit of thrash metal has not yet been reached yet. They showed us that there was far more to discover than just this respectable beginning of an era. By the way, this album is a grower and gets really addicting and catchy with its simplistic but effective attitude. Anyway, anybody that would like to metal up its ass in an old school way has the perfect record for this right here. Any progressive fan has the occasion here to metal up his ass but it's surely not a complex and thought out masterpiece.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on July 14th of the year 2011.