Metallica - No Life 'til Leather (1982) (2015, Remastered, Tape Rip)

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Metallica - No Life 'til Leather (1982) (2015, Remastered, Tape Rip)

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Recorded in the summer of 1982, No Life Til Leather is Metallica's most widely-circulated demo tape. The track listing contains early versions of their debut album 'Kill Em All' which has gone triple Platinum. This is the first time Metallica are releasing it officially, remastered for Record Store Day' 2015.

Think of this demo as an analog circuit. All electronic circuits that are digital have a whole bunch of analog circuits behind them as the backbone. Without analog, there is no digital, as analog is the backbone of digital. Think of this demo as the backbone of Kill Em All. Without it, Kill Em All wouldn't exist. For that matter, nobody just goes to a studio and records an incredible album, just like that. There's always some kind of work before it, whether it's an official release or not. However bands that try to do that, their debut tends to sound like a demo for how terrible the quality is, like Bathory's debut album. This one, however, takes the perfect route.

All of the tracks on here have mediocre quality, however for being a demo it sounds great quality-wise (compare it to Morbid Angel's 1986 demo of "Scream Forth Blasphemies" and see how they line up). All of these songs appear on Kill Em All, other than a few slight changes in the musical work itself, as the lineup is different. Also note that "The Mechanix" is changed to "The Four Horsemen" and is rewritten with different lyrics and made longer. Some argue that Metallica stole Mustaine's work for using some of his songs, and that it proves that Hammett didn't write his own material. Ok, then explain how they managed to make "The Mechanix" three minutes longer with guitar work? Not bashing Mustaine, as he is a better guitarist in my opinion. But Kirk Hammett is not bad by any means. Focusing on Mustaine though, I don't think that this demo represesnts his best work. His guitar solos and riffs on here are good, however I think that he did better in Megadeth and was meant to be in his own band. His solos are complex and don't get boring, but this man had far more to offer the world after the year 1982.

Now, James' vocals are something to be talked about. One would think they sound nearly identical to their first album, but they don't at all. These vocals are even higher pitched, and quite honestly sound more like they are just a heavy metal band, like Judas Priest. Had the instruments not been as thrashy and speedy as they were, it basically would have been. To be honest, they aren't really that impressive. They aren't terrible, but he must have done some vocal work and matured his voice in the year between this and their debut. When I showed this to one of my friends, he actually thought it was Mustaine singing. I can see it honestly. It's a lot more whiny and nasally sounding. So that is one really big difference between this and their first release.

Other than the vocals, the quality, and some minor changes to the tracks, as well as adding more, it's no different than Kill Em All (see my review for that). The drums are just as speedy and thrashy. There's nothing special to them, but they keep a good beat at an exceptional pace. It still has that punk drive to it, and the bass is somewhat audible, yet phenomenal, as it is complex. Kill Em All is a touched up version of this, as I said, this is the backbone to it. Despite some of the negativity in this review, it's still one of the greatest demos compared to other demos. It's phenomenal for not even being an album, as some demos are tough to listen to.

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