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Track Listing: Hit the Lights The Four Horsemen Motorbreath Jump in the Fire (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth (Instrumental) Whiplash Phantom Lord No Remorse Seek & Destroy Metal Militia

On the 27th anniversary of this amazing album, I take a minute to pay tribute.

Holy shit! Where do I even start? How about this simple statement: Kill Em' All is the greatest metal album of all time. Period. Wanna disagree with me? Perfect, let's chat! Ok, if I back down just a little, you can get me to agree that it might only be the greatest thrash metal album ever.

We're talking about an album that was recorded in just two weeks.
We're talking about the catchiest, meatiest, fastest guitar parts (mostly written by Dave Mustaine and recorded by Kirk Hammett) ever caught on an album.
We're talking about the greatest front man of a heavy band ever at a time when he knew how fucking amazing he was and wanted the world to know it too.
We're talking about the first release by the biggest heavy band of all time.
We're talking about a bass player that would have gone down as one of the greatest ever, were it not for his untimely death.

How the album came to be:
Metallica took their English influences such as Priest, Maiden, Motorhead, Diamond Head and so on, combined them with some punk guitars and style and then topped it all off with the most aggression and biggest 'Fuck You' attitude that had ever been seen at the time. Dave Mustaine is credited on four songs on the album, but it is safe to say that he and Hetfield wrote this masterpiece together.

The album is 10 songs of fury. Here are some of the highlights:
"Hit the Lights": Perfect opener. Aggressive, pissed off, shocking. A perfect warm up for the carnage to follow.
"The Four Horseman": Originally titled "The Mechanix" (and found on the first Megadeth album titled as such). The song incorrectly identifies the four horsemen as: Time, Famine, Pestilence and Death. Bible lovers can go cringe now.
"Jump in the Fire": A song lyrically written from Satan's point of view (the title refers to sex), with a genius rolling guitar riff that feeds right back into itself.
"(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth": A Cliff Burton bass solo that cannot be given justice with words alone... so I won't.
"Whiplash": The first single from the album, one of the most well known, but (in this writer's opinion) not even one of the better songs on the album.
"No Remorse": Some of my Metallica- loving friends swear that this is the best song on the album. I think it's up there. Players of the video game Doom probably know this song and don't even realize it.
"Seek and Destroy": If Metallica has a theme song, this is it. The song now closes almost every Metallica concert as fans use the last of their energy to shout, "Seek and destroy."

In my opinion this album is the essence of metal. It is the greatest metal ever recorded. The instrumentation, musicianship, and attitude on display on this record have never been matched and probably never will.