10 Famous Rock Albums That Were Almost Called Something Else
1. Metallica - Kill ‘Em All (Almost Called “Metal Up Your Ass”)
James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were both just 19 years old when Metallica's first album came out, which might explain why they wanted to call it something so gloriously infantile.
Kill 'Em All, as it came to be known, was what set the ball in motion for the world's biggest metal band. Songs like Hit the Lights, The Four Horsemen, and Seek and Destroy changed the game, bringing thrash to a new audience and turning Metallica into one of the coolest groups in the world.
Whether this opinion would have remained had the album been given its original name is up for debate.
Because of course they did, the band wanted to call their studio debut Metal Up Your Ass, complete with a picture of a dagger emerging from a toilet on the front cover. Thank God, Satan, and every other mystical being going that Jon Zazula, the head of Megaforce Records, managed to talk them out of it.
That man should be in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame for this achievement alone.
Imagine if Metallica's career had begun with an album with a toilet on the front cover? Doesn't even bear thinking about.