  kill 'em all is the debut studio album by american heavy metal band metallica, released on july 25, 1983, through independent record label megaforce records. since its release, it has been certified 3Ã platinum by the riaa, having sold over three million copies in the united states. ==background== metallica's original line-up featured james hetfield (guitar/vocals), lars ulrich (drums), ron mcgovney (bass), and dave mustaine (lead guitar). because of tensions with mustaine, mcgovney left the band. castro valley-born bassist cliff burton was recruited as his replacement. mustaine was fired in april 1983 for his drug and alcohol problems, overly aggressive behavior and clashes with bandmates. 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 the album with hammett, whose guitar solos on the album were partially based on mustaine's original solos (the first four bars of most solos were written by mustaine), barely a month later. mustaine then formed the band megadeth, which also achieved multi-million selling success. despite their differences, mustaine's contributions to the early years of metallica were still acknowledged; he received co-writing credits on four of the songs on kill
1983_debut_albums Albums_certified_gold_by_the_British_Phonographic_Industry Albums_certified_multi-platinum_by_the_Recording_Industry_Association_of_America Albums_certified_platinum_by_the_Canadian_Recording_Industry_Association Elektra_Records_albums English-language_albums Megaforce_Records_albums Metallica_albums Vertigo_Records_albums