Oh Janzoon, there is a reason why Master of Puppets is continually cited as the best metal album ever made,while Reign in Blood often pops up between spots 5 and 10. :)

As for Kill em All, you will never find a bigger advocate of that album on MB than me. The whole thing from start to finish is packed with gripping harmonic guitar riffs. I personally think it walks all over Slayer's Show No Mercy and is a testament of the natural gifted song writing Metallica possessed from the get go.

But it appears Cliff Burton was as important to Metallica as Bon Scott was to AC/DC, so now this debate rages on, early Metallica however, will always be uno numero for me.

While I agree that KEA is the better album, it's really close for me. I definitely disagree that KEA "walks all over Slayer's Show No Mercy."
The thing that makes KEA better is, indeed, the songwriting, which is what tips the scales.

Second of all, I don't understand how you can notice the riffs in KEA and not notice the riffs in Show No Mercy. I just mentioned this in my journal but Metal Storm / Face The Slayer has like 4 different riffs in the song and is way better than any riff from KEA. Hell, Black Magic's riff is better than any riff from KEA.

I'm not saying that Show no Mercy is a bad album, its not its a good album but unlike Kill'em All there are a lot of sleepers.

In my opinion Kill em All is solid through and through, its generally the marker for the first notable thrash metal album and a fabulous initial release for a band, I can't think of many that started off so good.

In terms of guitar riffs I disagree





Since this was later added to Show No Mercy later, likewise added to KEA later



My problem with Slayer is that they've got the breaknecking speed but often didn't go anywhere with it.

The problem with Metallica is they became soft. They turned into big fat dough boy rock stars that no one can see as threatening or respect. But if you can just narrow the time capsule of Metallica down to the days when a young Hetfield & Burton where at risk of going to jail if for not for playing in a band, accompanied by a group of **** ups and thrown out guitarist who practiced black magic...than Metallica rules!

I guess we can agree to disagree because Show No Mercy wins by a ****ing landslide in the riff department. It seriously is no damn competition, IMO of course.
Even my favorite riff from Kill Em All, "The Four Horsemen" simply pales in comparison to any riff from Show No Mercy.
The edginess and very lo-fi qualities of Show No Mercy just make those riffs to much to handle for me.

Also, "Haunting the Chapel" is one of the first Slayer songs I listened way way back in October when I still had no idea what Slayer is or what the hell thrash metal was, and it's pretty much the song I compare any other thrash metal song to. I love the riff in that song, so again, no competition.


Also, on a side note, "Show No Mercy" has one of the sickest covers in thrash metal with a bad-ass looking minotaur with a cape. God that is awesome.

I would have so loved to see Metallica when they still had Dave Mustaine. I hear he was a drunken train wreck onstage who would take over James' job of interacting with the crowd without James' consent. Supposedly he was pretty damn good at getting the audience into it too. Hell I'd love to see him join the band onstage now, just to see how awkward it was. I imagine it wouldn't be entirely different from the old days honestly.

And I think the main reason why KEA is better than Show No Mercy, other than Metallica just outclassing Slayer as songwriters, is the Diamond Head influence. Without that kind of riff wizardry I doubt Metallica would have ever written anything as awesome so early on as "Seek and Destroy" or "The Four Horsemen". I mean I think "Seek and Destroy" may have been their self conscious attempt at writing a kind of towering, riff monster like "Am I Evil". You can hear the atmosphere of Lightning to the Nations all over Kill 'Em All. If you actually listen to Metallica's No Life Till Leather demo, or their song off Metal Massacre you can ever hear James doing a quasi-embarrassing imitation of the the guy from Diamond Head.

I guess it all depends on who does the citing. I like Master of Puppets a lot, but 9 times out of 10 I'd much rather listen to Reign in Blood.

Honestly, I find Kill 'Em All kind of a tough slog. I'll listen to a little bit then get bored.

Well all I can say is that is the beauty and mystery of music, our brainwaves are all firing on different synapsis, so as they say another man's gold...

I do find that when it comes down to it, early Metallica fans & Slayer fans are pretty entrenched on who is better, I think it would be a hard task to convince either side, lol.

Diamond Head is one of those bands people have been telling me to listen to for years but I've never got around to it. I like my hard rock straight up on the rocks AC/DC, Saxon style but stand by I'm listening to it now.

Yes I'm digging this. Hmmm very 70's with a Jimmy Page feel to it, yes I can see how this could put Metallica over the top in terms of songwriting and riffs, it defiantly wasn't the Discharge influence that did it, lol.

Anyhow I would love to see Mustaine on stage with Hetfield... that would be priceless, I don't think the two eog's would be able to co-exist.

Wow the Diamond Head guitarist is fu(kin phenomenal (Listening to the song Suck my Love), Hmmm I think I'm going to smoke...a cigar and take a closer listen, night.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the band after you've... smoked your cigar.

He'll probably conclude that they're the best metal band to ever have out of these hallowed shores and that Metallica just rode their lightning.

I do not know what lists you are looking at, but I often see them hand in hand. I have never seen a list (not counting rateyourmusic or whatever else) where anyone who is seriously into Thrash would rank RiB half way to the end.

Usually those 2 albums compete for top spot.