Background
Metallica's original line-up featured James Hetfield (guitar/vocals), Lars Ulrich (drums), Ron McGovney (bass), and Dave Mustaine (lead guitar). Because of tensions with Mustaine, McGovney left the band. Castro Valley-born bassist Cliff Burton was recruited as his replacement. Mustaine was fired in April 1983 for his drug and alcohol problems, overly aggressive behavior and clashes with bandmates. After Mustaine's departure, Metallica recruited Kirk Hammett, who previously played for Exodus and was a one time student of Joe Satriani. The band started recording the album with Hammett, whose guitar solos on the album were partially based on Mustaine's original solos (the first four bars of most solos were written by Mustaine), barely a month later. Mustaine then formed the band Megadeth, which also achieved multi-million selling success.
Despite their differences, Mustaine's contributions to the early years of Metallica were still acknowledged; he received co-writing credits on four of the songs on Kill 'Em All. The songs "The Four Horsemen" (originally titled "The Mechanix"), "Jump in the Fire", "Phantom Lord" and "Metal Militia" were primarily written by Mustaine, most of "The Four Horsemen" was written by Dave Mustaine when he was in his previous band Panic. "The Mechanix" was performed at many early Metallica shows, but following Mustaine's exit, the band added a mid-paced, melodic middle section. Hetfield also wrote new lyrics for both "The Mechanix" and "Jump in the Fire" (a song originally about teenage sexual frustration), and retitled "The Mechanix" as "The Four Horsemen".
Read more about this topic: Kill 'Em All
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)