kill 'em all is thrash metal band metallica's first album. it was released on july 29, 1983. it has sold over three million copies in the united states. when it was released most of the reviews were good. two singles were released from the album, "whiplash" and "jump in the fire". the album was going to be called "metal up your ass". however, the record label did not want this. the bass player, cliff burton said about the record label, "why don't we just kill 'em all?" then the band decided to use "kill 'em all" as the album's name.