METALLICA: Kill’em All
Released 7-25-1983 on Megaforce Records
Recorded 5-10 to 5-27-1983 at Music America Studios (Rochester, NY)
James Hetfield - Vocals, Guitar
Kirk Hammett - Guitar
Cliff Burton - Bass
Lars Ulrich - Drums
TRACK LISTING:
1 Hit The Lights…..Hetfield/Ulrich
2 The Four Horsemen…..Hetfield/Ulrich/Mustaine
3 Motorbreath…..Hetfield
4 Jump In The Fire…..Ulrich/Hetfield/Mustaine
5 (Anesthesia)-Pulling Teeth…..Burton
6 Whiplash…..Hetfield/Ulrich
7 Phantom Lord…..Mustaine/Ulrich/Hetfield
8 No Remorse…..Hetfield/Ulrich
9 Seek & Destroy…..Ulrich/Hetfield
10 Metal Militia…..Ulrich/Hetfield/Mustaine
Metallica first started playing shows in L.A. but soon moved to San Francisco in order to bring Cliff Burton into the fold. Their “No Life Till Leather” demo caught the attention of Jon Zazula, the head of Megaforce Records. Originally titled Metal Up Your Ass with the classic dagger out of the toilet bowl artwork. They were asked to change the title and artwork in hopes of more record sales. The initial shipment was only 15,000 copies to the U.S. but by the end of their tour in 1984 it had sold 60,000 copies worldwide.
Zazula brought the band to New York to record the album. Mustaine was fired on April 11th after a gig in New York because of his drug and alcohol problems. Mark Whitaker, manager of Exodus recommended Kirk Hammett who ended up learning the songs and recording the record with them about a month later. Zazula was not happy with the initial mix because the drums were to loud and the guitars not loud enough. The final product cost Zazula about $15.000 which nearly bankrupted him. Burton is credited with coming up with the album title. Referring to weak hearted record distributors he said, “Those record company fuckers...kill ‘em all”. He also suggested the use of the hammer for the album cover.
The albums style is very reminiscent of the NWOBHM movement but played at a much faster pace. The album is without a doubt responsible in helping to develop the thrash genre with it’s heavy power chords, fast paced drums and blinding solos. The album had a major impact on the scene, even among the other Big 4. Kerry King has said while Slayer was still honing in on their identity, Metallica has already done so. Scott Ian of Anthrax enjoyed the heaviness of the albums songs and that they influenced him as much as albums by Iron Maiden. It has even influenced Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy.
SLAYER: Show No Mercy
Released 12-3-1983 on Metal Blade Records
Recorded November 1983 at Track Record Studios (Los Angeles, CA)
Tom Araya - Vocals, Bass
Kerry King - Guitar
Jeff Hanneman - Guitar
Dave Lombardo - Drums
TRACK LISTING:
1 Evil Has No Boundaries…..King
2 The Antichrist …..Hanneman/King
3 Die By The Sword…..Hanneman
4 Fight Till Death…..Hanneman
5 Metal Storm/Face The Slayer…..Hanneman/King
6 Black Magic…..Hanneman/King
7 Tormentor…..Hanneman
8 The Final Command…..Hanneman/King
9 Crionics…..Hanneman/King
10 Show No Mercy…..King
While performing an Iron Maiden cover at a gig in L.A. they were spotted by Brian Slager, founder of Metal Blade Records. He asked them to be on his Metal Massacre 3 compilation which created a buzz around the band and he asked them to sign to his label. They financed the album with money from Tom Araya’s job and money borrowed from Kerry Kings father. Slagel originally wanted Dave Lombardo to record the drums without using any cymbals, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to clean the tracks up enough, but he eventually did.
The album went on to become Metal Blades highest selling release at the time. Their average album sales was around 5,000 copies. Show No Mercy sold 15,000 to 20.000 in the U.S. and another 15,000 overseas. Slagel then wanted the band to put out in EP and another album. Journalist’s were all over the map in their reviews for the album. It was everything from junk to state of the art speed metal. Terry Butler of Obituary stated the album was the beginning of Death Metal. Darkthrone’s drummer, Fenriz, has stated the album influenced their style of fusing NWOBHM with Black Metal.
ANTHRAX: Fist Full of Metal
Released January 1984 on Megaforce (US), Music For Nations (UK) and Roadrunner (Europe)
Recorded late 1983 at Pyramid Sound Studios (Ithaca, NY)
Neil Turbin - Vocals
Dan Spitz - Guitar
Scott Ian - Guitar
Danny Lilker - Bass
Charlie Benante - Drums
TRACK LISTING:
1 Deathrider…..Turbin, Spitz, Ian, Lilker, Benante
2 Metal Thrashing Mad…..Turbin, Spitz, Ian, Lilker, Benante
3 I’m Eighteen…..Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith
4 Panic…..Turbin, Ian, Lilker
5 Subjugator…..Turbin, Spitz, Ian, Lilker, Benante
6 Soldiers Of Metal…..Turbin, Ian, Lilker
7 Death From Above…..Turbin, Ian, Lilker
8 Anthrax…..Turbin, Ian, Lilker
9 Across The River…..Ian, Lilker
10 Howling Furies…..Ian, Lilker
Anthrax was formed in 1981 by schoolmates Ian and Lilker. Lilker switched from guitar to bass when they couldn’t find a bass player they liked. They added singer and fellow schoolmate Turbin in 1982. In 1983 Benante and Spitz were added to the fold. They recorded a 5 song demo in early 1983 which got them signed to Megaforce Records. A single of “Soldiers of Metal/Howling Furies” was released and sold 3,000 copies in a matter of weeks. They then went on to record Fistfull of Metal.
Upon release the album was called everything from off putting to the album that would put New York back on metal map of the U.S. Kerrang! Journalist supposedly used the term Thrash Metal for the first time when referring to “Metal Thrashing Mad”. It was released as a double album in the UK, it had additional mixes of “Soldiers of Metal” and “Howling Furies”.
MEGADETH: Killing Is My Business…
Released 6-12-85 on Combat Records
Recorded 12-1984 / 1-1985 at Indigo Ranch Studios (Malibu, CA) and Crystal Sound Labs (Hollywood, CA)
Dave Mustaine - Vocals, Guitar, Piano
Chris Poland - Guitar
David Ellefson - Bass
Gar Samuelson - Drums
TRACK LISTING:
1 Last Rites/Loved to Death
2 Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good
3 The Skull Beneath The Skin
4 These Boots
5 Rattlehead
6 Chosen Ones
7 Looking Down The Cross
8 Mechanix
Mustained met up with Ellefson just two months after being fired from Metallica. All he could think about was being faster and heavier than them, therefore he upped the intensity level for Megadeth’s first album. He decided to take over vocal duties after a six month search for a singer. They recorded Last Rites, a three song demo early in 1984. This led to them signing with Combat Records in November 1984. They were given $8,000 to record their first album, they spent half on food, alcohol and drugs. They then fired their producer and did it themselves.
The album cover was an unhappy accident. Mustained and Ellefson both talked to Combat about how the cover could be reproduced from a sketch given to them by Mustaine featuring their mascot Vic Rattlehead. The actual album cover is a result of the studio losing the artwork and improvising a replacement much to the band shagrin. It is their only album to not make in onto the Billboard 200, only because it was released on a small independent label.
The record received mostly positive reviews. The only drawbacks being song ideas not being fully realized, and the thin production.
The Big 4’s 10 best albums according to worshipmetal.com
http://www.worshipmetal.com/features/the-10-best-albums-by-the-big-4-of-thrash/
00.01: Intro (how’s that pronounced?)/The Big 4: Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer, and oh by the way…The First albums of The Big 4/Human Resources issue
05.05: Our first Big 4 experiences/ F.O.D. (The D-Sides)
06.56: Kill ‘em All (07/25/1983): The Total package (from BOTH ends!), including an epical Track listing!
13.22: The Mind-blowingness of Metal Militia/NWOBHM influence on Metallica’s songwriting style
17.27: L.A. to S.F./No Life til Leather/The original title of the album was WAY too metal to be sold in stores!!/The Power of the Cliff compels me (you never know)
21.21: Metal Nerdery sound fx/The influence of Kill ‘em All among the rest of the Big 4 (save for MegaDave)
24.39: Show No Mercy (12/03/1983)/Evil Has No Boundaries/Swords and Pentagrams: the most Slaytanic!/Tracklisting/More Eviler/Slayer, Maiden and Brian Slagel/The weird drum lore around Show No Mercy…”next, on Metal Dude’s Know Best”
30.28: Highest selling release for Metal Blade/”The beginning of death metal…”/The jump from Show No Mercy to Hell Awaits/Tangentionally related “ism”/Matt and Adam’s favorite movie to ruin for everyone
34.22: Fistful of Metal (Jan. 1984)/Deathrider/kudos and condiments to Neil Turbin/awesome song track titles/Metal Nerdery Loincloths: COMING SOON to metalnerdery.com/merch/ Dan Lilker and the Soldiers of Metal/Anthrax and The Howling Furies/Metal Thrashing Mad
43.07: Killing is my Business…and Business is good (06/12/1985)/The initial lineup (the Di’Anno version of Megadeth)/Rattlehead (and the one after the next one…)/Mechanix aka Four Horsemen with Mour Horsepower
51.46: One second…/Going off the rails, Metal Nerdery style/Airplane ”…explain to me the feeling while sitting in the chair…”/Megadeth with a different singer?/Production budget, the end-result and the Drug Tracker/ metalnerdery.com/episodes /Album cover snafu
57.41: The Big 10 from The Big 4: Spreading the Disease, …And Justice for All, Persistence of Time, Seasons in the Abyss (who’s editing this?), Among the Living (the 2nd Metal Nerdery Anthrax commonality)/A.D.I. (whaddya mean?)The Horror of it all (Ohhh, NOW I know whaddya mean!)/Arabian Douchebag Intro/ Peace Sells (but who’s buying?)/RockNPod3 flashback/Rust In Peace (It’s hard!)/Master of Puppets (Masters of Songcraft)/Ride the Lightning (rifftastical cornucopia)/REIGN IN BLOOD (thrash perfection!)/”You got any Slayer, man?”/CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORDERY ABOUT METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!