Kill ’Em All: How Metallica’s Chaotic First Album Came to Life
- Daniel Holland
- Sep 13
- 4 min read
Imagine driving across America in a beat-up rental van, sleeping on your gear, broke, hungover, and half-frozen, all for the chance to record your first album. That’s exactly how Metallica showed up in New York in April 1983. They weren’t legends yet, just four scrappy kids with big riffs and bigger dreams. By the end of that year, they’d released Kill ’Em All, an album that would change heavy metal forever.
From a Newspaper Ad to a Partnership
It all started back in late 1980 when Danish émigré Lars Ulrich placed an ad in The Recycler, a small Los Angeles paper, looking for musicians into the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. He name-dropped Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, and Tygers of Pan Tang, bands most Americans hadn’t even heard of.
One of the few who did know them was James Hetfield, a young guitarist and vocalist with a love for punk energy and metal heaviness. He answered the ad, and after a shaky first jam, the pair formed the partnership that would become the heart of Metallica.
By 1983, after a revolving door of early members, the line-up included Hetfield, Ulrich, bassist Cliff Burton, known for his wild wah-drenched solos, and fiery guitarist Dave Mustaine. But Mustaine’s drinking and volatility made him impossible to keep, and just weeks before the studio sessions he was replaced by Exodus guitarist Kirk Hammett.
Johnny Z and the U-Haul Gamble
The band’s big break came when New Jersey record-store owner John Zazula (Johnny Z) got hold of their demo No Life ’Til Leather. Recognising the potential, he wired the band $1,500 to drive cross-country.
“They got a one-way rental: a U-Haul van and a truck,” Johnny later said. “They had two drivers, they slept in the back with all their gear, and they arrived at my front door. It was basically, ‘We’re here. What do we do next?’”
What came next was a deal with Johnny’s fledgling Megaforce Records and a crash course in survival. The band first stayed at the Zazulas’ mansion until they raided the liquor cabinet and drank the champagne Johnny and Marsha had saved from their wedding. Banished, they moved into a filthy rehearsal space called The Music Building before finally heading upstate to record.
Haunted Studios and Stolen Amps
The sessions took place at Music America Studios in Rochester, a colonial-style building with a ballroom upstairs that was perfect for drum sounds. It was also, according to Lars, haunted.
“My cymbals would start spinning for no reason,” he remembered. “I had to have someone else up there with me while I was recording. It was scary.”
Meanwhile, James and Kirk hunted for the guitar tone that would set Metallica apart. The secret weapon? James’s “magical, mythical Marshall”, his first amp, tweaked for extra bite. Sadly, it was stolen from a truck soon after the sessions, becoming the stuff of Metallica legend.
Equipment was scarce. Both James and Kirk had just one guitar each: James with a white Flying V, Kirk with a black one. Every take meant endless retuning and restringing. There were no roadies, no techs, just the band doing everything themselves.
Chaos Off the Tape
If the music was disciplined, their living habits were not. Back at the studio, they trashed the place. “We totally thrashed it,” Kirk admitted later. “There was carpet in every room, including the kitchen and bathrooms. We drank 24 hours a day. Moist places shouldn’t have rugs, but there were rugs. It was a mess.”
Amid the chaos, Cliff Burton recorded his iconic bass solo “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth.” Standing in a loft surrounded by his amps, headphones clamped on, Cliff’s distorted, almost guitar-like lines became a highlight of the record, something no other metal band would have dared to include at the time.
Kill ’Em All vs. Metal Up Your Ass
Money was tight. The band had just over two weeks, from 10 to 27 May, to record and mix everything. They worked marathon sessions, then drank deep into the night. When mixing time came, producer Paul Curcio and engineer Chris Bubacz locked the band out of the studio, adding reverb and effects Metallica would later criticise.
Still, the raw energy of songs like “Seek & Destroy,” “Whiplash,” and “Hit the Lights” punched through. One track, “The Four Horsemen,” came from Mustaine’s old song “The Mechanix,” but James rewrote the lyrics, swapping sleazy innuendos for apocalyptic imagery.
The album title caused another fight. The band wanted to call it Metal Up Your Ass, complete with cover art of a machete bursting from a toilet. Distributors flatly refused. Cliff Burton summed up their frustration: “Those record company fuckers. Kill ’em all!” The phrase stuck, and the album finally had its name.
Release and Legacy
Released in July 1983, Kill ’Em All didn’t dominate the charts right away. Early pressings were limited, and the album peaked at number 120 in the US. But word spread quickly through tape trading and the underground metal scene. Within a few years, it had sold millions and become a cornerstone of thrash.
“When it came out, it was the achievement of our lives,” Kirk Hammett said. “Our first album, finally on vinyl. We knew we were onto something different, but I didn’t think we’d hit the heights we eventually did. Back then, it was just about world domination.”
Today, Kill ’Em All is recognised as one of the most influential metal albums ever made, raw, fast, unpolished, and groundbreaking. It’s the sound of four young outsiders thrashing their way into history.
Sources
McIver, Joel. To Live Is to Die: The Life and Death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton. Jawbone Press, 2009.
Wall, Mick. Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica. Orion, 2010.
Metallica, So What! Magazine archives.
Popoff, Martin. Metallica: The Complete Illustrated History. Voyageur Press, 2013.
Interviews with Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and John Zazula in Classic Rock and Guitar World.
Zazula, Jon & Marsha. Heavy Tales: The Metal. The Music. The Madness. Crazed Management, 2019.
