Some average metal garage band tape? I dont think so man. They sound like every other hair metal band of the time, just a little heavier and a littlr faster.
I heard ride the lightning full album the night before it was released on metal shop. Maiden and Priest were de throwned overnight as the kings of metal.
When I heard this, I freaked out!! I listened to Motorbreath very little, mostly I liked the solos in Metal militia or Phantom lord, but this is just fucking awesome!
Look, the change from Dave to Kirk was a necessary one, but: 1) They never gave Dave the appropriate credit for his part in creating the Metallica sound, and; 2) They should have fired Dave *AFTER* recording _Kill Em All._ Look, I love many of Kirk's contributions so much that I couldn't imagine Metallica being as good as they were without them, but _Kill Em All_ was Dave era Metallica and Dave just did everything he created better (just as I couldn't imagine Dave doing justice to "Fade To Black"). _Kill Em All_ was _Metal Up Your Ass" and that's Dave's attitude and playing 100%!
They gave Dave so many warnings. But they should’ve said “hey listen, you are being a pain in the ass towards the whole band and you have 2 choices, either get tf out, or fix the drug and alcohol problem”. That probably would’ve worked. Its annoying that they kicked Dave out cause i think Dave is better than Kirk.. Their best lineup was when they had both Cliff and Dave
Not only is Dave's solos the emphasis of what thrash metal solos should sound like listen to his rhythm playing. Just perfect playing. Then match it up with the precision with Hetfield's rhythms. Just perfect. Those two as a guitar tandem. Perfect!!!
yeah they were tight. And NLTL was the last time Metallica rhythm guitar was double tracked using both players (to my understanding James did all the non-lead on subsequent recordings
Heard this when I was 17 years old as a bootleg demo being passed around a bunch of metal heads…guitar players… it totally changed what I wanted to do on guitar. I was just blown away and couldn’t stop listening to it. Still is amazing but the way it hit me back then probably changed my life. It was so fast and different than anything before. To think what they turned into( biggest metal band ever) makes sense to me now.
Dave is without any doubt better than Kirk but it's not a contest. Dave was a front man anyway and it never would have worked with him and James. It was a blessing they branched into two amazing bands.
Kirk only started wah spamming in the 90s watch metallica live at Seattle 1989 that energy was unmatched I’d say even by Megadeth still love both bands tho
yes JAMES was still trying to copy the singer from DIAMOND HEAD and MUSTAINE's solos were completely improvised not set in stone at all. incredibly interesting to hear these earliest versions of "KILL' which is and always will be my fave 'TALLICA album.
I thought that was Dave singing honestly I think he does sing actually cuz this is too similar to Dave for me to shake I know James still sung live at this time
@@bendup52 Truth be told, in Jump in the Fire's second solo, Kirk's version is way better than Dave's. The same for the solo on Phantom Lord. The speed is the same, but Kirk's melody is much better and truly matches the songs, they are in harmony. Before you call me a Metallica fanboy, I am also a fanboy of both😆. My first concert was Megadeth's, way before Metallica's.
I like the approach Ron Mc Govney did to the basslines. They're different from what Cliff Burton did in Kill em All. More simple, but effective basslines, closer to a punk bass
@@somebodybody6514 maybe he was just not allowed to open his damn mouth , just like Jason , anyways lol with Dave and James in the team , i'd have an hard time dictating the direction of my bass lines regardless !
Hearing this and a live concert with Mustaine in the band is eye opening. I can't believe I never heard his influence on Kill em All until now. So much of the guitar work in these songs sound like strait up Megadeth LOL.
Im an old dude now... almost 52 Metallica fan and Megadeth fan from waaaaay back. Still banging my head and throwing the horns! Both bands gave us great metal and im fucking glad i got to witness and experience them both!! 🤘🤘
I got so lucky to get a dub off an original copy of this. The owner of The Vinyl Revolution in Monterey, CA was friends with Lars and was given a copy. He made a dub and gave it to me. So amazing.
1s time i heard this was in english class in 85 a kid next to me had a walkman and i heard KEA coming out of his headphones, listened to 1 song and left school at lunch, went to Tower records and bought it. Most amazing thing i'd ever heard at the time.
I imagine listening to this back then, coupled with Van Halen for the first time on the radio. Man, I bet that was amazing, those were great decades for metal!
Knowing the context and history of Metallica, this demo is fantastic! This was just the beginning of something great in the metal scene of California and the rest of the country!
Dave’s solos have signature bits that u hear over his career especially his signature solo endings he’s used over the years but it’s crazy how simplified Kirk made his solos It’s like playing guitar hero on medium vs expert
Hit The Lights [0:00] The Mechanix [4:05] Motorbreath [8:20] Seek & Destroy [11:28] Metal Militia [16:04] Jump In The Fire [21:00] Phantom Lord [24:42]
This is actually playing back at the wrong speed (slightly fast), it’s a half step sharp- which is also why James sounds so young, check out other postings of this to hear it as it was recorded.
Kill ‘Em All is the best. I lost interest once they put the slow ballad “Fade To Black” on Ride The Lightning. They went too commercial for me. They had some good songs after that but Kill Em All is the only record I like as a whole.
Dave is an excellent guitarist and bad ass on vocals. Spent most of my life hating on the guy for no reason. He's an absolute beast. Live the metallica we have but that group back then were metal
I was the one who gave the demo to Jon Zazula. I was going to college in Arizona in 1982 and took a spring break trip to LA. I went to the troubadour and saw Malice, Pandemonium and Metallica. I could not believe how great Metallica was! I talked to James and told him I knew a record producer in Jersey (mega force records) who loves metal and would love you guys! James told me to talk to Lars. So I did and Lars gave me the demo tape which I still have! After my semester I went back to Jersey for the summer. I stopped in at the local flea market and talked to J.Zazula. He listened to the demo tape and cranked it loud and said I love this and I will call them! That summer if you all remember Metallica was playing around Jersey and NY. I went back to college and saw they had signed with Jon Zazula. I never received any real recognition for helping Metallica get their break but I am okay with that. I know if I talked to Lars he would remember me for sure! I have seen them many times but never have been in the right situation to chat with the band. Rock on headbangers! Long live Metal!
Bands only need 1 front man. I look at it this way. Dave and James are both alpha. They were always going to split. We got 2 awesome metal bands but I can see where you are coming from. Imagine if dave (and cliff) still part of Metallica...
@@danielvician6339 they was all Drunk AF all the time. And you're telling me James didn't have an attitude or Lars? Look at the way they bullied Jason, Treated Ron, still treat Kirk like an outside these days and Robert is treated still to this day as a full in musician. They all was dicks, drunk and high AF. Dave gets a lot of hate but everyone forgets all the shit Lars has done and James!
Can anyone else hear the diamond head influence ? . Gotta say Metallica at its best in the early days loved listening to them in the 80s brings back so many great memories. Still listen to em and still more the older stuff ,
I've listened to Metallica since I was a kid and heard Sandman when I heard it on the radio in 92 or 93. When I played football in high school we would play Metallica in the locker room and when we lifted weights. In college, I listened to Ride and the first Black Sabbath album to get me through late night study sessions. On long car rides with my parents I'd listen to Justice. Working cruddy jobs in my 20s and 30s I had the first 3 Metallica albums on repeat. This music is in my marrow. I'm 40 now and I still come back to it. It is one of the many influences in the music I write and play.
When this demo was made in 1982, I don't think any of the band members in Metallica (at that time) realized just how popular this music was going to become. And they didn't fully understand how famous they were about to become in the following year or two.
@@apacheworrier3776 are u kidding me? i know someone that went to see them in Paris in 1984 taking a moped from Rouen , it was freezing cold and a 6h drive total.. Who was nuts enough to do that to see a live show? Metallica was already popular.
My favorite thing about Dave is u can hear riffs and solos on this demo that he would hold onto for years before digging them out and claiming them back as his
Thanks for posting this! The first Metallica song I ever heard was Ride the Lightning, and I've never been the same since. This recording is great, and I prefer it to much of their later stuff; makes me wish they'd never broken up with Dave Mustaine!
this is so much better a fans dream my dad had this tape in 83 when i was 9 in LA. this is the best of megadeth and metallica. this is how it was meant to be
I like how some folks in the comments are all "imagine playing 'mama said' to these guys, and tell em it's what theyll be playing in 15ish years". And not "nothing else matters" with the "in 35 years Elton John will cover this song of yours, and refer to it publicly as a ageless classic akin to Green Sleeves". Or "the rolling stones are going to contact you directly to ask, actually insist, that you open for them" But some people are still sour 30+ years later that these (literal) boys grew into men and their music went through a similar maturation
@@joshgore8256 They sold themselves to the business during x years. SO painful for their first hour fans. At least they've brought metal..to the masses ! And made it more decent for them...
I wonder if there are any original copies of No Life Till Leather still floating around? As a huge Metallica fan, that would be like the Holy Grail to get my hands on one.
Gotta love this "let's pitch it up so the guitar sounds as if it was playing faster, don't give a shit how it affects the other stuff or the vocals-approach". Great stuff! Today metal is all about "you gotta use this amp and this guitar, then you have to do this and that and don't you dare doing this and that!" I really miss this attitude..."I don't give a shit" rings with every note of this amazing demo!
@@RafaelCDet Well, then try to play along with a guitar tuned at 440hz in E Standard. It's definitely pitched up a tad, my dummy brother. Changing the speed of the tape was not some expansive studio magic, it was just as easy as that. Also when changing the speed of the tape not only the pitch changes, but also the formant of the vocals. That's why it just doesn't sound like James.
@@RamonPalonski dude, it sounds like Hetfield, just not the KEA Hetfield, this was when didn't discovered his own style and just keep trying what his favorite singers did
I was just a little little kid in 81 if I had heard this then my brain would have melted into goo. I didn't have any older siblings to show me the way so it wouldn't be until the late 80's until I was shown the way. My brain still almost melted then. This is the way.
@@FyreofShadow probably because a lot of them are "improved" versions of dave's solos from the demo. the four horsemen for example is straight up ripped from dave, as well as mechanix
@@juangil8284 LOL, actually that's the reason. James and Lars realized the same in Kirk's audition and got him in the band. Kirk Hammett's solos and killer riffs (4 songs in RTL, 5 in MOP, 5 in AJFA, 4 in the black album) are part of the reason why Metallica became a behemoth in the metal world, but that is usually forgotten given that Mustaine is/was a motormouth always making it about him before the music.
In late 1981 I actually heard a bootleg of this, as best I remember only 4 songs on the cassette tape, the 1st song on it was MOTORBREATH.... had been stationed in the Marine Corp. in Camp Pendleton Ca, one of the guys in my squad had this tape on his car's glove compartment, heard it while we were washing his car. I got immediately blown away.....never heard anything like it, I was sold on Metallica. My buddy never revealed the source of how he obtain the tape. 1-1/2 years later when they were touring to kill m all...I saw them between duty stations on my way to Camp Lejeune NC, 1st concert in my hometown of Chicago at the METRO, now in the present 2023 I have racked up 59 shows all over the world, coming up on my 59-60 in Dallas, Tx next month August.
I honestly would preferred James incorporating this into his vocals instead of the yodeling that we got from 94-present time . Like Indiana Jones said .. this belongs in a museum .
