CREEPING DEATH / JUMP IN THE FIRE

This collection combines both the 'Creeping Death' single and the 'Jump in the Fire' single, both originally made available singly in 1984. The combination of the two singles create an EP with a run time of over a half and hour, almost enough time to be considered an album.

The title track to Creeping Death was the one and only single released from the 'Ride the Lightening' album. It utilizes biblical references to when Moses commanded the plagues to help humble the Egypians. As the band was watching the film 'The Ten Commandments', they were impressed with the plague section of the film, especially the plague that took the first born child of every family, and Cliff Burton commented that it was like creeping death. The name and inspiration stuck. The lyrics are from the point of view of the Angel of Death. The song has got the usual heavy, thrash sound that Metallica was known for in their early days, before they commercialized their sound anyway. The guitar riff that comes in later in the track that acts as a bridge was originally written by Kirk Hammet when he was 16 years old, that's the part where the word 'Die' is repeated over and over in the background. 'So let it be written, so let it be done', part of the lyrics, come from lines right in the movie.

The next two tracks, 'Am I Evil?' and 'Blitzkrieg' are both covers, the first from the British band 'Diamond Head' and the latter from the band of the same name, 'Blitzkrieg'. 'Am I Evil' was originally on the Japanese version of the debut album 'Kill 'em All' as a bonus track and later included on the 'Garage Inc.' album in 1998. Metallica's cover was the one that popularized this song. The original version of the song had it's roots with the classical work 'Mars, the Bringer of War' from Gustav Holst's 'The Planets' and also uses a riff from 'Ring of Fire' by The Eric Burdon Band. This track reflects the faster thrash sound and rhythm that was apparent on their debut album. Before Metallica covered it, the song was only popular in the United Kingdom's heavy metal circles. The song was also influenced by 'Symptom of the Universe' by Black Sabbath. 'Blitzkrieg' was added to the re-release of 'Kill 'em All' as a bonus track and also on 'Garage, Inc.'. This is where it originally appeared, at least on the original version of the Creeping Death single. It is a much shorter track, but still continues in the same fast thrash sound as the previous track.

The second part of this collection is the 'Jump in the Fire' single. This was released as the 2nd single from 'Kill 'em All'. The song was written to sound like Iron Maiden's 'Run to the Hills'. The demonic creature on the front of the cover was actually taken from the front cover of the novel 'The Devils of D-Day' by Graham Masterson. The song reflects the less complex sound of the Kill 'em All album. The chorus is quite repetitive with the continued singing of the title phrase.

The next two tracks, or the B-sides to 'Jump in the Fire' are credited as live versions, but in actuality, they are alternative studio versions with crowd noise overdubbed on them. The first one is 'Seek and Destroy' which is inspired by 'Diamond Head's' song 'Dead Reckoning' with some of the guitar solos coming from 'Saxon's' 'Princess of the Night'. This is the best track from the 2nd half of the collection with more time for guitar solos because of the extended length of the track. The original song comes off of the debut album and it was also featured on the 'No Life 'til Leather' demo. The last track (also with overdubbed crowd noise) is 'Phantom Lord' which is one of the fastest tracks on this collection.

So, as it is, most of these tracks are available on various other recordings. However, there is something nice about having the original versions of these singles together on one recording and it also gives insight to the early (and better) days of Metallica as it features some of the earliest material the band every recorded. But, I believe ownership of this or the original singles is mostly only appreciated by collectors and die hard fans. The collection is pretty much obsolete, which knocks down the overall rating, but it is still a joy to have the collection, so 3 stars sound fair, mostly because of the obsoleteness of this collection.