American heavy metal band
Metallica recorded several demos throughout their career. The following is a chronological list of Metallica demos:
Ron McGovney's '82 Garage demo
This is a demo tape that was never officially released, however the tape found wide circulation both in full and partial versions. The demo contains two original songs, "Hit the Lights" and "
Jump in the Fire" along with six cover songs. These include one
Sweet Savage cover, a Savage cover and four
Diamond Head covers. "Hit the Lights" and "Jump in the Fire" were later released on the
No Life 'til Leather demo and eventually made it onto the band's debut album,
Kill 'Em All. Most of the covers can be found in the band's much later album,
Garage Inc.. The demo was recorded in
Ron McGovney's garage on
March 14,
1982.
Track listing
Personnel
Power Metal demo
Power Metal was a demo recorded sometime in April 1982. Although the demo was never officially released, it was given the bootleg name "Power Metal" and contained four original songs by Metallica. It contained "
The Mechanix", the first song written for the band by Dave Mustaine, and "Motorbreath", which was written solely by James Hetfield. It was also recorded in Ron's garage.
Track listing
- "Jump in the Fire" - 3:55
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Dave Mustaine - lead guitar, backing vocals
- Ron McGovney - bass guitar
Note: The Mechanix was the original version that latter will be called the four horsmen Mustaine increased the pace from the original version of the song, renamed it simply "Mechanix", and included it on the first
Megadeth album,
Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!.
No Life 'til Leather
No Life 'til Leather is Metallica's widely circulated demo tape featuring Dave Mustaine on lead guitar. All the tracks are early recordings of songs that would later appear on the band's
Kill 'Em All album. The track listing on
Kill 'Em All is the same as that on the demo tape, save the addition of
Cliff Burton's bass solo "
(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", "
Whiplash", "No Remorse" and "The Mechanix" (See notes above). The title of the demo comes from the first line of Hit the Lights.
The demo has been re-released twice unofficially, first under the title of
Metallica—Bay Area Thrashers, and was alleged to be a live bootleg recording of Metallica in the early days, however all 'live' sounds had been added from various sources including the Metallica video
Cliff 'Em All. This was soon discovered by Metallica and all copies were removed from stores. The demo was re-released a second time under the title
Metallica—In the Beginning... Live, containing no differences from
Metallica-Bay Area Thrashers.
Track listing
- "Jump in the Fire" - 3:51
Personnel
- Cliff Burton is given credit on the demo but does not perform.
Metal up Your Ass (Live)
Metal up Your Ass was recorded on
November 29,
1982, at the Old Waldorf in
San Francisco. The support band was
Exodus, featuring Metallica's soon-to-be lead guitarist
Kirk Hammett. The band played all their original material (nine songs) that they had written up to that point, which included all the songs from their previous demo
No Life 'Til Leather and two new songs (which were later released on the Megaforce demo). Two covers of Diamond Head songs were played: "Am I Evil?" and "The Prince", however "The Prince" was not recorded as the tape had run out. Both the name and album cover of this demo were to be used as the band's first album name and sleeve. However, Metallica's record company would not allow it. The band changed the name to
Kill 'Em All.
Track listing
- "Jump in the Fire" - 4:40
- "Am I Evil?" (Diamond Head cover) - 7:50
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Dave Mustaine - lead guitar, backing vocals
- Ron McGovney - bass guitar
Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Horsemen of the Apocalypse was a demo recorded in early 1983. It contained a cover song by the band Diamond Head "The Prince" along with three songs that were later recorded on the "Ride the Lightning" album. "Fight Fire with Fire", "Ride the Lightning" and "Creeping Death" which did not appear on
Kill 'Em All. All three songs, modified with input from
Cliff Burton, were later re-recorded on the
Ride the Lightning Demos. The demo has not been officially confirmed as a bootleg. The existence of this demo is doubtful as no recordings seem to be in circulation anywhere of the songs "Fight Fire with Fire" and "Ride the Lightning" with Dave Mustaine as guitarist. The only demos of these songs that are available are the versions recorded with Kirk Hammett on the later 4 song demo recorded in October 1983.
Track listing
- "Fight Fire with Fire" - 4:44
- "Ride the Lightning" - 6:37
- "The Prince" (Live; Diamond Head cover)
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Dave Mustaine - lead guitar, backing vocals
Megaforce demo
This demo was recorded on March 16, 1983 and was the last demo recorded with Dave Mustaine. The demo was designed to introduce Cliff to potential record labels and landed the band a deal with
Megaforce Records. The demo was also played live on KUSF FM in San Francisco. It contained two new songs which had not been previously released. The demo received several names including
The Megaforce Demo (due to it landing a deal with Megaforce Records),
The KUSF Demo (due to it being played on KUSF FM) and
The Whiplash/No Remorse Demo.
Track listing
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Dave Mustaine - lead guitar, backing vocals
- Cliff Burton - bass guitar
Ride the Lightning demos
This demo was recorded on
October 24,
1983 and contained the original material Metallica had written that did not make it onto
Kill 'Em All. Two of the tracks had already been released on the band's
Horsemen of the Apocalypse demo. Both "Ride the Lightning" and "When Hell Freezes Over" (later re-named "The Call of Ktulu") were partially written by Dave Mustaine. Both "Fight Fire with Fire" and "Ride the Lightning" had been changed from their original version due to input from Cliff Burton. All four songs appeared on the band's second album
Ride the Lightning. The four demos for
Ride the Lightning were recorded at the expense of Metallica's European record label, Music for Nations, when the label paid for studio time to record fake live tracks of "Seek and Destroy" and "Phantom Lord" to release as b-sides for the "Whiplash" and "Jump in the Fire" singles. In 2005 several other re-recorded demos surfaced on bootlegs. Out of the seven demos that surfaced, only "Trapped Under Ice" was confirmed as an official demo.
Track listing
- "Fight Fire with Fire" - 4:45
- "Ride the Lightning" - 6:24
- "When Hell Freezes Over" - 8:17
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Cliff Burton - bass guitar, backing vocals
Dave Mustaine Credits on Ride The Lightning and Fight Fire With Fire
Master of Puppets demos
This demo was recorded on
July 14,
1985 and was essentially a rehearsal more than it was a demo but was released nevertheless. The demo included five songs that were included on their next album
Master of Puppets.
Track listing
- "Battery" - 5:23 (Instrumental)
- "Disposable Heroes" - 9:13 (Instrumental)
- "Disposable Heroes" - 9:15 (Vocal)
- "Welcome Home" / "Orion" - 8:56 (Vocal)
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Kirk Hammett - lead guitar
- Cliff Burton - bass guitar, backing vocals
...And Justice for All demos
This demo was recorded in 1988 and included early, shorter versions of songs which later appeared on the band's fourth album
...And Justice for All. The intro to "Blackened" on this demo is an unreversed version, unlike the reversed version that appeared on
...And Justice for All. Also, "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" is recorded with gibberish sung in place of most lyrics (with the exception of the chorus' "Frayed ends of sanity/Hear them calling me"), although the final version of the song contained lyrics. "Eye of the Beholder" had two different demo versions, however there are few differences between the two besides running time. Most demo versions of this album do not include both takes of the song.
Track listing
- "Blackened" (Forward intro) - 0:36
- "The Shortest Straw" - 6:28
- "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" - 7:30
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Kirk Hammett - lead guitar
Demo Magnetic
Metallica's ninth studio album,
Death Magnetic, had all its songs released as demos, recorded in early 2007 and 2008. The demos were included on a bonus disc titled
Demo Magnetic, released with a different "experience" version of
Death Magnetic. On the demo, the name of all the songs were different than the song's album version, but the track listing order remained the same. All music was written by Metallica, while all lyrics were written by James Hetfield.
Track listing
Personnel
- James Hetfield - vocals, rhythm guitar
- Kirk Hammett - lead guitar, backing vocals
- Lars Ulrich - drums, percussion, backing vocals
