METALLICA — Kill 'em All (review)

METALLICA — Kill 'em All album cover Album · 1983 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
bonnek
If the 70's were the golden era for prog, then the 80's were the dark battleground for post-punk and metal. It makes both decades equally interesting to me. If I remember well, you had the choice to be totally un-cool or you could join either the Goth or the Metalhead legions in the 80's. A dissection that seems awkwardly irrelevant these days.

Things evolved rapidly in the 80's. Iron Maiden, leading force of British new wave of heavy metal, had started their career by injecting 70's hard-rock with a shot of punk-adrenaline. Three years later in their career, that punk spirit had faded and they had already started to embrace anthemic pop metal idioms by then. But already a new generation was eager to take over and prove that not only Motörhead had the right to stay true to the rebellious spirit of metal. In the California Bay area a new scene evolved, thrash metal: louder, more aggressive, faster, more vicious, darker and more uncompromising then music ever was before.

Iron Maiden remained an icon for Metallica but on this debut, it’s mainly Motörhead's speed and roughness, Black Sabbath's evil tritone and Judas Priest's twin guitar attack that are stretched to their ultimate possibilities. The great improvement that the thrashers did on the NWOBHM was to make the punk aggression more prominent and to eschew entirely from commercialism and metal sing-alongs. At least, in the beginning they did.

Metallica's debut is a rollercoaster of raw and unpolished energy, it's an album that I love a lot but within Metallica's entire discography, 3.5 stars is a fitting rating. I rarely play this album in its entity but it’s the kind of album I put on if I need a 10 minute shot of energy.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The First Breath Is The Beginning Of Death Sludge Metal
IDIOT CHILD
Buy this album from MMA partners
Morbid Curiosities Sludge Metal
LUURCH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Asbestos Tiles Hardcore Punk
SUNDOWNER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lysergic Ritual Sludge Metal
SUNDOWNER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Terra Preta Sludge Metal
TITANOBOA
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 1 day ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 1 day ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 2 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed