Kill em All : The Mustaine factor

The Mustaine factor

Metallica's original lineup featured James Hetfield (guitar/vocals), Lars Ulrich (drums), Ron McGovney (bass) and Dave Mustaine (lead guitar). Due to tensions between McGovney and Mustaine, McGovney left the band. Castro Valley-born bassist Cliff Burton was recruited as a replacement.

Mustaine and Hetfield had personality conflicts, with Mustaine later blaming the rivalry on the fact that "there was too much personality" in the band.[4] These tensions led to a fist-fight that broke out between Mustaine and Hetfield,[5] after Mustaine accused Hetfield of kicking his dog.[6]

Mustaine was fired in 1983, just prior to the recording of Kill 'Em All. Hetfield and Ulrich stated[citation needed] that they fired Dave because of his drug and alcohol problems, as well as his overly-aggressive behavior. 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 Kill 'Em All with Hammett barely a month after his joining. Mustaine went on to form the band Megadeth, who also achieved multi-million selling success.

Despite their differences, Mustaine's contribution to the early years of Metallica were still acknowledged; he received co-writing credits on four of the songs in Kill 'Em All. One song, "The Four Horsemen" was originally written by Mustaine and titled "The Mechanix". It was performed at many early Metallica shows. Following Mustaine's exit, replacement lead guitarist Kirk Hammett added a mid-paced, melodic middle section.[citation needed] Hetfield also wrote new lyrics and the band renamed it "The Four Horsemen". Mustaine then sped up the original version of The Mechanics, renamed it simply "Mechanix", and included it on the first Megadeth album, Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!. Mustaine's other writing credits on Kill 'Em All are for the songs "Jump in the Fire", "Phantom Lord" and "Metal Militia". Mustaine claims he had asked the other members not to use music he had written; Hetfield and Ulrich dispute this.[7]