“Phantom Lord” by Metallica

"Phantom Lord" is one of the songs on Kill 'Em All, the debut Metallica released through the independent Megaforce label on July 25, 1983, and its credits carry a name that was gone by the time the tape rolled. Dave Mustaine, who co-wrote several of the album's songs, shares the writing here with Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield, but he was fired shortly before recording began. Kirk Hammett took his place and plays guitar alongside Hetfield, who wrote the words and sings, with Cliff Burton, the bassist the band moved to San Francisco to get, on bass and Ulrich on drums.

Paul Curcio produced it at Music America Studios in Rochester, New York, in May 1983, with Chris Bubacz engineering and Megaforce boss Jon Zazula as executive producer. The record around it is now counted as a groundbreaking thrash metal album.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.