Old school Metallica fans are about to get even more old school. The band is reissuing their 1982 demo No Life ‘Til Leather on cassette, just in time for Record Store Day, on April 18th. Yes, the only Metallica recording with Dave Mustaine on guitar.
Drummer Lars Ulrich explained some of the history of this demo to Rolling Stone:
“This is the second demo that we made and circulated. I sat in my bedroom and wrote on the J cards and went to the post office and sent it around to all the tape collectors around the world. Now, 20, 30 years later, it has become synonymous with the pre–Kill ‘Em All era.”
This will be the start of a series of reissues, released on the band’s own Blackened Recordings. According to Rolling Stone, Metallica owns the master recordings of their entire catalogue, so we can expect much more down the road. Said Ulrich:
“Yesterday, I found another tape and handed it to [engineer] Greg Fidelman, and there was some crazy stuff on the B-side that I didn’t even know existed. It’s all coming. We’re doing our best.”
