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Rating: Live EP 1982.
Metallica: "The Bay Area Early Days" (all written with horrible computer graphics).
The question I asked myself half an hour after buying this CD was: "Are we sure this is a Metallica CD?". Indeed, having become accustomed to the surprising and majestic MetallicA logo, with the M and A amusingly elongated downward, I was a bit surprised to notice that, in fact, the logo is characterized by a gray-plastic-metallic coloration (if I conveyed the idea...) and, above all, no elongated letters!
First negative impact, therefore, an impact that leaves me quite perplexed about the actual authenticity of the album in question (having previously read online a warning about the possible presence of a fake Metallica album, passed off as original, in reality a hoax). I check to be sure: James Hetfield gu. & voc., Lars Ulrich dr., Ron McGovney bass, Dave Mustaine le. gu. & voc. Confirmed the presence of the early Metallica lineup (which lasted briefly) and slightly reassured, I turn on the stereo.
The first track is NOT a track: it’s a recording of a voice, with a metallic tone (how strange...), presenting the CD. Horrible, especially for the echo effect at the end. Convinced I’ve wasted nine euros down the drain, I prepare my ears for anything that might come out of the pseudo-stereo (CD player and PC speakers). Good thing, I think, as the first notes of "Hit the Lights" shoot out and overwhelm with the still young and biting fury of a Hetfield still unripe as a singer (but not as a guitarist): it’s then fun to catch the small variations that distinguish the solo performed by Mustaine compared to the one that would later be recorded in "Kill 'em All" with Hammett's performance. Then we catch a ruinous and driving "Seek and Destroy", the star of the live shows (if you’re familiar with 'Live Shit'), performed with violence, intensity, and emotion, as well as "Motorbreath", another piece useful to wake up listeners, with the immortal riff that characterizes it. No doubt, it is Metallica, and from this moment onwards I no longer care if the album is original or not, in fact, I completely forget about it. We then move on to a "Phantom Lord" that sounds stranger without that dark arpeggio, which dampens everything and breaks the song's rhythm, making it more attractive (but this is a personal opinion). One might even gloss over the excellent “Jump in the Fire” as engaging as always, to discuss more extensively about "The Mechanix", the "mother" song of the subsequent (and far more famous) "The Four Horsemen", always in Kill 'em All. Here is a much rougher version, without the musical arrangements inserted by Metallica when they later released Kill, very different from this (and you only need to listen to understand). It concludes with "Metal Militia", a track that needs no further comment.
Essentially, it is an album in some respects unripe, in some aspects mature enough to blow everyone’s "speakers": uncertainties that would later be smoothed over with the reformed line-up. Despite wanting to give a 5 to this album, for the affection I have for the old Metallica, I found myself forced to give it a 4, because it’s poorly produced: understandable for an EP, but to a certain point. Okay, that's enough nonsense, I have to feed the hamsters.
Cheers to the old PKers!
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Hit The Lights (03:54)
No life till leather
We are gonna kick some ass tonight
We got the metal madness
When our fans start screaming
It's right well alright
When we start to rock
We never want to stop again
Hit the lights
Hit the lights
Hit the lights
You know our fans are insane
We are gonna blow this place away
With volume higher
Than anything today the only way
When we start to rock
We never want to stop again
Hit the lights
Hit the lights
Hit the lights
With all our screaming
We are gonna rip right through your brain
We got the lethal power
It is causing you sweet pain Oh sweet pain
When we start to rock
We never want to stop again
Hit the lights
Hit the lights
Hit the lights
04 Motorbreath (03:14)
Living and dying laughing and crying
Once you have seen it you will never be the same
Life in the fast lane is just how it seems
Hard and it is heavy and dirty and mean
Motorbreath
It's how I live my life
I can't take it any other way
Motorbreath
The sign of living fast
It is going to take
Your breath away
Don't stop for nothing it's full speed or nothing
I am taking down you know whatever is in my way
Getting your kicks as you are shooting the line
Sending the shivers up and down my spine
Motorbreath
It's how I live my life
I can't take it any other way
Motorbreath
The sign of living fast
It is going to take
Your breath away
Those people who tell you not to take chances
They are all missing on what life is about
You only live once so take hold of the chance
Don't end up like others the same song and dance
Motorbreath
It's how I live my life
I can't take it any other way
Motorbreath
The sign of living fast
It is going to take
Your breath away
05 Phantom Lord (03:34)
Sound is ripping through your ears
The deafening sound of metal nears
Your bodies waiting for his whips
The taste of leather on your lips
Hear the cry of War
Louder than before
With his sword in hand
to control the land
Crushing metal strikes
on this frightening night
Fall onto your knees
For the Phantom Lord
Victims falling under chains
You hear them crying death pains
The fists of terrors breaking through
Now there's nothing you can do
Hear the cry of War
Louder than before
With his sword in ha o
to control the land
Crushing metal strikes
on this frightening night
Fall onto your knees
For the Phantom Lord
The leather armies have prevailed
The Phantom Lord has never failed
Smoke is lifting from the ground
The rising volume metal sound
Hear the cry of War
Louder than before
With his sword in hand
to control the land
Crushing metal strikes
on this frightening night
Fall onto your knees
For the Phantom Lord
Fall to your knees
and bow to the Phantom Lord
07 The Mechanix (03:27)
Imagine you were at my station
And you brought your motor to me
Your a burner yeah a real motor car
Said you wanna get your order filled
Made me shiver when I put it in
Pumping just won't do ya know luckily for you
Who ever thought you'd be better
At turning a screw than me
I do it for my life
Made my drive shaft crank
Made my pistons buldge
Made my ball bearings melt from the heat
We were shifting hard when we took off
Put tonight all four on the floor
When we hit top end ya know it feels too slow
I'm giving you my room service
And ya know it's more than enough
Oh one more time ya know I'm in love
08 Metal Militia (05:10)
Thunder and lightning the gods take revenge
Senseless destruction
Victims of fury are cowardly now
Running for safety
Stabbing the harlot to pay for her sins
Leaving the virgin
Suicide running as if it were free
Ripping and tearing
Oh through the mist and the madness
We are trying to get the message to you
Metal Militia
Metal Militia
Metal Militia
Chained and shadowed to be left behind
nine and one thousand
Metal militia for your sacrifice
iron clad soldiers
Join or be conquered the law of the land
What will befall you
The metalization of your inner soul
twisting and turning
Oh through the mist and the madness
We are trying to get the message to you
Metal Militia
Metal Militia
Metal Militia
We are as one as we all are the same
fighting for one cause
Leather and metal are our uniforms
protecting what we are
Joining together to take on the world
with our heavy metal
Spreading the message to everyone here
Come let yourself go
Oh through the mist and the madness
We are trying to get the message to you
Metal Militia
Metal Militia
Metal Militia
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