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CD: Metallica - Kill Em All	Released: 1983
Reviewed By: Dave Elder (FaceInTheSky)	Rating: (4/5)

Do you remember a time when Metallica played great heavy metal? Do you remember a time when metal fans marked the release date of the upcoming Metallica album? Do you remember a time when the members of Metallica had hair? If you said yes to any of that then you must be pretty damn old.

It's a decade later from all of that and Metallica are now a blues rock band and a shell of what they used to be. But thankfully they released some good albums for us to listen to and enjoy while their later releases have been.. well.. crap.

1983's Kill Em All was the start of it all. It was the first thrash metal album to be released all over the world and it gave us US metal fans something to be proud of. The album was raw, fast, heavy, and brutal. The album did lack the polish the band would later come to love, but it didn't need polish. This was a thrash metal album. Something to sound mean and dirty. Something to make you bang your head from start to finish as you blasted it out of your stereo and annoyed your neighbors or parents. The riffs sounded like chainsaws and James' vocals were high and unpleasant to some .. I mean most people outside of the metal scene. The drumming while not breath taking were enough to get the job done and pull the songs together. The bass playing was unlike anything else. Cliff Burton was the master of the bass and it showed on every album he played on and every live show he did. The man was just a monster on the bass. The lyrics, while not up to the standard they'd have on the 3 albums to follow, were good at best with a few exceptions (The Four Horsemen) Nothing to look back on and laugh at, but they weren't lyrics to set them apart from other bands of the time releasing demos.

While not as loved or remember as the 3 albums that followed Kill Em All, this is still one of the best thrash metal releases of the 80's. And one of the best debut metal albums. Period.