review em all (Kill 'em All - Metallica)

Member Name: mr blonde

Product:	Kill 'em All - Metallica
Date:	09/05/02 (92 review reads)
Rating:

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We all know my opinion on this particular band, well, anyone who has read a couple of my reviews will do anyway!!!!! This is the album that symbolises Metallica, and the album that brought them to the plate so to speak.

kill Em All is the very first album that Metallica released mainstream, and considering it got absolutely no airplay whatsoever on the radio or television, the fact it got to number 10 in the album chart is testament to the power of the band's music.

The 4 band members that produced the Kill Em All included James Hetfield (vocals and mean guitarist), Kirk Hammett (sublime lead guitarist from the school of Satriani), Lars Ulrich (insane drummer can't sing, but can't stop singing) and the man that a tribute must seriously go out to for being a part of making the Metallica truck roll, and he is Cliff Burton (Supreme Bassist), who was tragically killed when the band's coach crashed.

I have said before that i feel Metallica are the fastest band in the world (i know there are faster individual musicians, as a guitarist, Satriani is a perfect example, i am talking as a band here), and this is the album that i would use to back that fact up, and that was without the maturity and power of their playing, that they possess today, this album is raw power, and raw grunt

Back the the album.....

The Playlist:
Hit The Lights
As with every song on this album, this track starts as the album stays throughout, and that is true thrash metal, something that Metallica created, as they changed the metal scene with their superfast guitar riffs, from the more mellow sounds, and far more mundane tracks of the likes of AC/DC and Iron Maiden. The song basically introduces the album as a supercharged high impact guitar riffs, and equally as influencial drum playing. Lars Ulrich truly is the pulse behind metallica.

Next up is my personal favourite on the album, The Four Horsemen, again, superfast,
and super hard hitting, but then that is what this album is all about. The song tells of the Four Horsemen of Apocolypse, and has a multitude of guitar solos, this seems almost like the song that sybolises the early days of the band, and is almost the song that their other albums tries to compete with as they matured, they have almost tried to keep that Horsemen style of speed and weight in their music, albeit on a more mellow plain these days.

Motorbreath: To be honest i am getting bored of saying superfast etc each time i write about a song on the album, i know you will have taken the hint by now. Therefore i will not say it again in this review, i promise!!! Motorbreath is one of my less favourites of the album, the song is good enough, but i love the power of Horsemen and indeed Seek and Destroy more than any. Motorbreath is what a lot of tallica songs follow, little bit more rhythm within the chaos, but still that feeling that only metallica have managed to produce with the music they perform. A lesser album trac, but still pretty good.

Jump in the Fire is what Hetfield is good at, making vocals sound like they have balls basically. He places more emphasis on the words he sings, similair in many ways to "Aint My Bitch" (Reload), where he sings it as "Aint my biiiiiiittcccchhhhaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh", the vocals have that little bit extra. Good song, one of the best ones on the album. The guitar work throughout this album is of an extremely high level.

Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth). This is the only real change in the pace and style of the album, and that is for the simple reason, that this is the song that shows just what a bassist can do, when they are allowed to have their own solo, Anesthia is an out and out bass solo, which shows that bass players aren't just there to add to the beat of a band, similair to what Jason Newstead does in the Cunning Stunts video, where he plays his own bass solo, it adds a who
le different dimension to the album, and an enjoyable twist.

Whiplash. We are back to the norm again with whiplash, high speed true thrash, and a complete contradiction to the previous track. Whiplash is another song that people think of along with seek and destroy and four horsemen, it has become ne of the more well known earlier metallica songs, and it is deservedly so.

Phantom Lord, (reviews are about to get a little shorter at this point), i have already talked about ow fast this album is, and to many people there are parts that seem unlistenable, this is one of the songs i often hear of that peple dislike, but to me i don't see why, but then i like the whole album ayway. The album is perfectly listenable if you are prepared to take into account that this is a whole new generation of metal that metallica started with this album, and that it was done on an almost amateur level.

Seek and Destroy. Righty, here we go, now this is an excellent song, and one that in recent times i have listened to over and over again, i just have an addiction to the opening guitar riff, i don't know why, it is almost like the effect that the opening to sweet child o mine (guns n roses) has on me, the power that the soslo creates for the rest of the song is magnificent. Powerful vocals, even for someone who looks like they are struggling at the time to grow facial hair, an excellenteffort and an influencial song on their future few albums. The song also has guitar solos within it, aswell as a mean rhythm line.

Metal Militia. The song that caps the album off, and what a way to do so, the replica effect of the first song on the album, an ideal way to close the album which became the beginning of an amazing career for the tallica boys.

This entire album is amazing, even though it takes a little getting used to, once you have gotten used to it though, get ready, because you won't look at this new school metal stuff in
the same light again, because you will have seen the masters of the old school performing the original form of speed/death metal, to me, there just is no other comparison. Bands such as Korn ad Slipknot, who screech down the microphone, and then have the nerve to call themselves a metal band, this album puts them to shame, it is faster than the likes of Korn and Slipknot, the vocals can actually be heard, and to be honest, the album itself quite simply has a bigger set of testicles than anything those 2 weill ever produce!!!

Summary: