Metallica demos

The American heavy metal band Metallica recorded several demos throughout their career.

These two cover songs were recorded in then bassist Ron McGovney’s garage, during rehearsals that took place in March of 1982. On the strength of this demo tape Metallica were booked to open for NWOBHM band Saxon on March 27, 1982 at the Los Angeles club Whisky A Go-Go.

Personnel

This demo tape was also recorded in McGovney's garage during March 1982. Although the demo has never been officially released, it has been in wide circulation in various bootleg versions. Apart from the songs listed below, two other tracks recorded during different sessions, consisting of songwriting ideas and various unreleased riffs, have also been widely bootlegged. One track consist of riffs and ideas that would later go on to become both Metallica and Megadeth songs, it is commonly titled as "Jam". While the other track is a melodic piece played by James and Ron, widely known on YouTube as, "Unreleased Kill 'Em All song". The validity of these two tracks was confirmed by McGovney, during a 1996 interview with Shock Waves and also via the Metallicabb forum.

Power Metal was the name given to a demo recorded sometime in April 1982. Although the demo was never officially released, it was given the bootleg name "Power Metal" after the tagline McGovney had printed on Metallica's first business cards. The tape contained four original songs, including two new songs, "The Mechanix", written by Dave Mustaine, and "Motorbreath", written by James Hetfield. It was also, like all previous demos, recorded in McGovney's garage.

Personnel

No Life 'til Leather was recorded on July 6, 1982. It is Metallica's most widely circulated demo tape. All of the tracks are early recordings of songs that would later appear on the band's debut album Kill 'Em All. The track listing on Kill 'Em All is the same as that on the demo tape, with the exceptions of Cliff Burton's bass solo "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", "Whiplash", "No Remorse" and "The Four Horsemen" (See notes above). The title of the demo comes from the first line of "Hit the Lights".

The demo has been re-released twice unofficially, first under the title of Metallica: Bay Area Thrashers, and was alleged to be a live bootleg recording of Metallica in the early days, however all "live" sounds had been added from various sources including the Metallica video Cliff 'Em All. This was soon discovered by Metallica and all copies were removed from stores. The demo was re-released a second time under the title Metallica: In the Beginning... Live, containing no apparent differences from Metallica: Bay Area Thrashers.

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