By comparison, on Ride The Lightning, Kirk is credited with co-writing four of the eight tracks, Cliff no fewer than six. Save for Cliff’s bass solo on (Anaethesia) Pulling Teeth, neither man received a single songwriting credit on Kill ’Em All, which was entirely written before the bassist and lead guitarist joined the group. It’s difficult to underestimate here the pivotal roles which ‘new boys’ Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett, both trained musicians, played in the group’s development. Complex and melodically sophisticated, the latter track in particular served notice that the local heroes were fast outgrowing the thrash metal community they’d helped spawn. Also amid the dozen songs played that night was a lengthy new instrumental track titled When Hell Freezes Over, soon to be renamed The Call Of Ktulu. Excited by the progress they were making in the garage of James and Lars’ El Cerrito home, on Halloween night the quartet premiered three stunning new compositions – Fight Fire With Fire, Creeping Death and Ride The Lightning – at the Keystone club in Palo Alto. In the winter of 1983, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Cliff Burton were utterly focused on the writing of their forthcoming second album. It’s doubtful that Metallica would have paid much attention at the time. It is notable however, that for all the column inches that would later be devoted to the nascent thrash metal scene, neither Slayer’s Show No Mercy album, nor Metallica’s debut Kill ’Em All, featured among the 20 AOTY selections. Drilling deeper, Kerrang!’s Albums Of The Year list for ’83 provides an instructive insight into the contemporaneous state of the hard rock/heavy metal community, with LA glam newcomers Mötley Crüe and Ratt featuring in the critics’ Top 10, Ronnie James Dio being acclaimed for his solo band debut Holy Diver and Manowar and Accept drawing plaudits for Into Glory Ride and Balls To The Walls, respectively. festival, and ZZ Top and Def Leppard released, with Eliminator and Pyromania, two of the decade’s biggest-selling rock collections. Quiet Riot became the first metal band to top the Billboard album chart in America with their Metal Health album, Van Halen and a stellar supporting cast ( Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest among them) drew 375,000 headbangers to the ‘Heavy Metal Day’ at the U.S.
1983 was a landmark year for hard rock and heavy metal.
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