one who went out and bought all the tapes. I was the one who sat down and copied them. I was the one who sent them out to people. That’s where it started. Somebody had to do it.’ Although they did also send tapes to various record companies, that side of it ‘was never that serious’, insisted Lars. ‘All we wanted to do was send it out to the traders, get mentioned in some fanzines.’ Typical of the reaction among the tape-trading fraternity was that of future Metallica fan club chief K.J. Doughton, who also received a tape from Scott. ‘After hearing the demo, I freaked out. Metallica had a distinctly European slant to their music, at a time when most US bands were light alloy at best. There were heavy Yank bands like Y&T, Riot, and The Rods, but Metallica took on the big, biblical, slash-and-burn, good-versus-evil issues. No party music. No girl-magnet ballads. Just brutal, attack-oriented audio death.’ Says Scott, ‘They were what we were all looking for.’ He recalls playing the tape down the phone for Ron Quintana. ‘I called him one day and played him “Hit the Lights” and he was like, “Oh my god!” He was just going crazy over it.’ When Quintana realised it was Lars Ulrich’s new band he was listening to, he ‘couldn’t believe it’. Says Ron now, ‘None of our friends were in popular bands so I never expected a little metal mad rocker like Lars would ever be in a big band! He talked a good game, but I never heard him play till mid-’82 on tape and LP and live till later.’ When Quintana then asked Scott to write an article on Metallica for Metal Mania, Patrick told Lars and they sat down and wrote it together. ‘This was like top secret back then,’ Patrick says. ‘We sat in [Lars’] bedroom and he was like, “You can’t tell anybody!” We were just laughing, saying these things which seemed ridiculous, like the famous line: “potential to become US metal gods”.’ As a reward, Lars gave Patrick a rare copy of 1980, the one and only album by Danish punk-metal progenitors Brats, the band guitarist Hank Shermann had before he joined Mercyful Fate. ‘I didn’t ask for that but [Lars] had two copies. I still have that. But I sent the article to Ron and it got into Metal Mania.’
Musically, Metallica’s influences were obvious to anyone then acquainted with the NWOBHM scene – which most American fans weren’t. Mixed in with obvious touchstones such as Diamond Head and Motörhead, though, were more obscure traces, including hardcore British and American punk. Hanging out after rehearsals, they would mix their Motörhead and Angel Witch records with new releases from the Ramones, Discharge and the Anti-Nowhere League, ‘and no one flinched’, said James. ‘It all belonged together. It was aggressive, it had guitars. It felt good. Discharge’s guitarist Bones was pulling off some serious metal riffs.’ Patrick Scott recalls introducing James and Lars to Accept’s Restless and Wild album, in particular the track ‘Fast as a Shark’. ‘They were a little bummed, like, “Somebody beat us to it!” They wanted to take all this stuff they loved and bring it to another level. Mainly Lars. He knew what he liked and what he didn’t like. He wanted to be like them but he wanted to take it a step further and combine Motörhead with the NWOBHM bands. Heavier, faster.’ It was also Patrick who first played them Mercyful Fate. James would play ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’ to get his guitar tone down. They loved Mercyful Fate…they were a big influence on Metallica, as far as an approach to be progressive with time-changes and putting just riffs in. They didn’t want chord progressions, they wanted riffs. That was the big thing. Ten riffs in one song you could make ten songs out of.’
The common thread running through all their listening habits back then – certainly the ones that were influencing their own writing – were speed, power and aggression. The first time Lars brought in a copy of Venom’s Welcome to Hell album – the original self-styled ‘black metal’ release – it had a huge impact, says Ron McGovney, although not necessarily in the same way for him. ‘The other guys loved Venom.