Metallica: Kill ‘Em All - Ranking Every Song Worst To Best

The real secret weapon from Metallica's early years has always been Cliff Burton. Regardless of what you want to say about James and Lars commanding the Metallica train, the band that we know today would not exist if not for Burton's incredible gift for melody and intense knowledge of harmony. To actually get a peek at what he could really do though, all we needed was 4 words: "Bass solo, take one."

While the final take on the record might not have actually been the first one, Burton gives a masterclass on how to make a bass solo on Anesthesia, with some of the most creative uses of the four string that has ever been made in the rock genre. Compared to the more gritty style of Hetfield, there's a lot more tasteful melodies in Burton's delivery on here, pulling from different pieces of music theory and even peddling on certain notes much like a classical string player would if they were playing a recital.

This is metal after all though, and the back half of the song is where things really kick into gear, with Burton annihilating his fretboard and using the harmonics of his bass to create sounds that no one knew that the low end could even make. Seeing how this was just the first record, you can definitely see how something like this eventually shifted into the iconic bass breaks like Orion and For Whom the Bell Tolls.