KILL 'EM ALL

If there ever was a perfect debut, Metallica never listened to it. Nevertheless, when this was released, it was pretty much all that I wanted to listen to for a few months (at least). To me, at the time, Kill 'Em All felt dirty and Metallica seemed to be filled with venomous rage. This made perfect sense to me, or at least I understood it better than I felt a need to learn Calculus.

This music contained in Kill "Em All is simple, easy, angry, and vital. Hetfield had not yet defined himself as a vocalist and appears to have been drunk all of the time, so this is where he was best. The band sounded great; not technically accomplished and a bit sonically impaired by poor production, but pissed and good enough to communicate that to my 15 year old self.

Now with quite a few years passed, and having purchased all of their cds to this point (Hardwired to Self-Destruct being the most recent), 'Kill 'Em All' and '...And Justice for All' are the two that I can listen to anytime. The two cds between these are good and listenable, but less so than their bookends.

So, I suppose what I am trying to say is this. If you are 15, not interested in Physics, and find that there are times that you need to feel like you are not the only angry person in the world, give Kill 'Em All a listen; they may be old now, but Metallica used to be like you.