Review: No Life ‘Til Leather – A Tribute To Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All

Silver Lining Music (November 14^th, 2025)

Reviewer – Jason Hopper

Now here is something unusual. I have covered tribute albums to bands before, but never a tribute album to one specific album. With that said, I could see why bands would want to pay tribute to an album that is considered by many to be the birth of the thrash metal movement.  ‘Kill ‘Em All‘ is a fantastic album, an amalgamation of the sound that guitarist Dave Mustaine would carry over into his offshoot band Megadeth and the direction of metal Metallica would continue to foster.  A completely unique record in a band catalog that is full of unique records, for better and for worse.

What might turn some people away from buying this release is that half the album has already seen the light of day in other tribute albums to the band, in particular the second half. This review will thus cover the first half of newly recorded material from bands both new to the scene and established artists.

Tailgunner are up first and get to flex their muscles with ‘Hit The Lights’ I appreciate when a band covers a song but does so utilizing their own style. Singer Craig Cairns sounds a bit like old school Stephen Pearcy and does not try to mimic James Hetfield, creating his own nuances in his vocals. The backgrounds in the chorus (with the band screaming “Lights”) was a nice touch. I have never heard a band cover this tune before and they do a fantastic job with it.

I was intrigued by what The Almighty had to offer for ‘The Four Horseman’. It is their first recorded work with their founding line-up since 1991. Within the first few seconds, I immediately responded with laughter. Not because it is bad, it’s done very well. Due to either the guitar being tuned slightly higher, a different style of guitar used, and the lead singer sounding similar to Gene Simmons, the song comes off as a reworking of ‘Detroit Rock City’. I never noticed that if you slow down the melody a bit, you get the tune for that famous Kiss track. Not throughout of course, but certainly with the opening melody. Once again, a band taking a song and making it their own to great success.

Then we come to Soen’s version of ‘Motorbreath’…and it’s a production mess, with a consistent tape hissing sound and the vocal slightly buried. The choral vocal delivery is truly awful. Singer Joel Ekelöf sounds like he can’t get all the words out in time, so he cuts them short to accommodate. It was never Metallica’s best song, and this cover does nothing to help in that assessment. I never heard this band before and there is nothing here that makes me want to seek them out.

Tygers of Pan Tang are a band that I got into a few years ago, with their recent output over the last decade being terrific. I expected ‘Jump In The Fire’ to sound great and they did not disappoint. The track is mostly faithful to the original, but I liked the talk box effect that was subtlety added to the chorus. This song naturally fits into the band’s wheelhouse, which is perhaps why they chose to cover it. It would have been interesting to see what they would have done with a more thrash-centric track.

Given what most people know about the relationship between Metallica and Megadeth, it seems a bold decision for former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson to record ‘(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth’. With that said, if there’s any bassist who should record an iconic bass track, David would certainly be one of the top contenders. Interesting enough, it is not a note for note remake. It starts out that way, but soon enough David does his own type of bass solo. There’s elements he re-incorporates, but he mostly reimagines it.  It still has the band kick in at some point, but he continues down his own path.  Just a guess here, but I believe he didn’t want to do anything that would be considered flashy or disrespectful to the departed bassist. David does an admirable job but can’t come close to the beauty of the original…and I think that was the point.

If you like the bands listed or are interested in cover albums in general, then you’ll find a lot to like here. While fans may have some of these covers from previous releases, it’s nice to have this as one collection. I could see people wanting to play this occasionally as a change up to an album many have been listening to for over forty years.  I would not mind seeing future releases like this, where various bands take on defining albums.  It’s an intriguing concept.

Tracklisting:

1. Hit The Lights (Tailgunner)
2. The Four Horseman (The Almighty)
3. Motorbreath (Soen)
4. Jump In The Fire (Tygers of Pan Tang)
5. (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth (David Ellefson)
6. Whiplash (Motörhead)
7. Phantom Lord (Saxon)
8. No Remorse (Diamond Head)
9. Seek & Destroy (Testament)
10. Metal Militia (Raven)