Metallica Songs Co-Written by Dave Mustaine Ranked Worst to Finest

Listed below are all six Metallica songs co-written by Dave Mustaine, ranked worst to finest.

Mustaine performed a vital position within the early growth of Metallica. Between 1982 and early 1983, the long run Megadeth chief cooked up a smorgasbord of riffs that might finally discover their approach onto Metallica’s first two albums, Kill ‘Em All and Experience the Lightning.

“After we obtained out to New York [to try to get a record deal], I had a reel of tape, this quarter-inch tape, that had most likely two days’ value of guitar riffs on it, simply me enjoying and enjoying and enjoying,” Mustaine informed the Shawn Ryan Present in 2025. “And we took that tape participant and the reel of tape with us out to New York.”

When Metallica famously fired Mustaine and despatched him packing on a Greyhound bus again to San Francisco, Mustaine left them with an order. “I informed them after I left, ‘Don’t use my music,'” he recalled. “And naturally they used it.”

Mustaine’s frustration is comprehensible, contemplating his concepts helped spawn a few of Metallica’s finest and most enduring songs.

Learn on to see all six Metallica songs co-written by Dave Mustaine ranked worst to finest.

6. “Bounce within the Hearth” (Kill ‘Em All, 1983)

“Bounce within the Hearth” is not a unhealthy tune, per se, but it surely’s essentially the most primitive monitor on Kill ‘Em All — unsurprising contemplating it was the primary tune Mustaine ever wrote. Its chunky, chromatic riffs and simplistic grooves hew nearer to classic punk or basic rock than the full-throttle thrash Metallica had been busy pioneering.

It will get by on sheer charisma, but it surely’s removed from important.

5. “Phantom Lord” (Kill ‘Em All)

With its high-speed riffs, blistering solos and throttling tempo, “Phantom Lord” discovered Metallica bridging the hole between NWOBHM and thrash to exhilarating outcomes. The synthesized bass intro and sinister, mid-tempo bridge hinted on the extra formidable compositions the band would pursue on future albums as effectively.

4. “Steel Militia” (Kill ‘Em All)

You wanna discuss “full pace or nothing”? Look no additional than Kill ‘Em All‘s breakneck closing monitor, “Steel Militia.” Jam-packed with diabolically quick, tremolo-picked riffs and James Hetfield‘s charred-to-a-crisp vocals, it is a lightning-fast ode to the facility of heavy metallic.

Mustaine won’t have performed on “Steel Militia,” however the relentless composition is proof that no person might match his untamed aggression when he was feeling impressed.

READ MORE: Megadeth Albums Ranked Worst to Finest

3. “The Name of Ktulu” (Experience the Lightning, 1984)

Metallica made a quantum songwriting leap between Kill ‘Em All and Experience the Lightning, as evidenced by the latter’s epic instrumental “The Name of Ktulu.” Clocking in at almost 9 minutes, the album-closing monitor boasts a few of Metallica’s most spectacular dynamics so far. And if the sinister, arpeggiated chord development that opens the tune sounds acquainted, there is a good cause for that — it is the one Mustaine wrote and later repurposed for “Hangar 18.”

2. “The 4 Horsemen” (Kill ‘Em All)

“The 4 Horsemen” stays certainly one of Metallica’s hottest songs and enduring setlist staples and for good cause. With its jagged riffs, galloping drums, shout-along choruses and swaggering half-time bridge, it is obtained all of the makings of a metallic basic.

It needed to sting Mustaine to listen to Metallica use these riffs, therefore why he recorded a quicker model of the tune below the title “Mechanix” for Megadeth’s debut album, Killing Is My Enterprise … And Enterprise Is Good!

1. “Experience the Lightning” (Experience the Lightning)

The crown jewel of the MetalliDave catalog, “Experience the Lightning” stays certainly one of thrash metallic’s fiercest, catchiest and most formidable anthems. The bridge makes use of Mustaine’s basic “spider chord” method and, in line with the Megadeth chief, he is answerable for the majority of the tune’s epic, metallic grandeur.

“I did not write the entire music in ‘Experience the Lightning,'” Mustaine informed Rolling Stone in 2017. “Lars [Ulrich] wrote the melodic intro, after which the subsequent half I wrote after which the subsequent half I wrote after which the subsequent half after which it went again to his half after which it went again to my subsequent three elements after which at that time … who’s protecting rating?”