Metallica: Ranking Every Album’s Last Song

The finale to Metallica's first album is very similar to its opener, in the sense that it holds nothing back.

The tenth and final song on Kill 'Em All is "Metal Militia", a track all about the unusual lifestyle of heavy metal and how its fans are like one big army. The riff was composed by future Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine and it is one of the fastest played songs on the whole album.

Kill 'Em All is a really unique sounding Metallica album and that definitely works in its favour. The guitar and drums are totally off the rails, the guitar-playing Hetfield's voice verges on terrifying, and "Metal Militia" even comes with bass breakdown in the middle from the late, great Cliff Burton.

There's also a nice bit of production work as the song ends with a recording of footsteps and bullets flying overhead. This was undoubtedly a Mustaine touch; he wrote the riff to sound like an army marching in unison.

Just as insane as the rest of the album and with a good message at its core, "Metal Militia" is a great way to close out the band's first record and was an exciting glimpse into the future.