Metallica: The Mechanix

Vocals: James Hetfield
Drums: Lars Ulrich
Lead Guitar: Dave Mustaine
Bass: Ron McGovney
Date: April 82
Recorded in Ron's Garage: 13004 Curtis & King Road, Norwalk, CA

Power Metal

"We recorded that demo in my garage on a 4-track. The four songs were Hit The Lights , The Mechanix , Jump In The Fire , and Motorbreath - which were all originals. Those songs were later re-recorded on the demo called No Life Til Leather . James sang differently on it, like on Jump In The Fire he would hold the note on the chorus. He was trying to be like the singer Sean Harris from DIAMOND HEAD, but he later figured that he didn't sound like Sean Harris so he decided to sing gruffer. It's funny how that demo was labeled the Power Metal demo. The story is, I went to make Metallica business cards to send to the club promoters along with our demo. The card was supposed to just have the 'Metallica' logo and a contact number. But I thought it looked too plain and decided it should say something under the logo. I didn't want to put 'hard rock' or 'heavy metal', so I coined the term Power Metal, I thought it had a nice ring to it. No band had used that term before as far as I knew. I remember bringing the business cards to the band and Lars got so pissed off at me. He said, 'What did you do! What the hell is Power Metal ?! I can't believe you did such a stupid thing! We can't use these cards with the words Power Metal on it!'. So, that's how that tape became known as the Power Metal demo."

Ron, fall 1996 SHOCKWAVES

Some versions of the 2 CDs bootleg "The Apocalypse" contains fake versions of these demos. They are actually speeded up songs taken from No Life 'Til Leather.