 " ( Anesthesia ) - Pulling Teeth " is a bass solo by Burton , accompanied on drums by Ulrich . A staple of Burton 's live performances since his high school days in the band Agents of Misfortune , the instrumental track featured Burton 's distinctive " lead @-@ bass " style of playing , incorporating heavy distortion , use of wah @-@ wah pedal and tapping . Bubacz introduces the track as " Bass solo , take one " , informing listeners that the song was recorded in one take . " ( Anesthesia ) - Pulling Teeth " was the bass solo that Burton was playing when Hetfield and Ulrich first saw him at a gig . Hetfield stated : " We heard this wild solo going on and thought , ' I don 't see any guitar player up there . ' We were both counting the strings and I finally turned to Lars and said , ' Dude , that 's a bass ! ' Cliff was up there on stage with his band Trauma with a wah @-@ wah pedal and his huge mop of red hair . He didn 't care whether people were there . He was looking down at his bass , playing . " " Whiplash " was the album 's first single , issued on August 8 , 1983 . It features a swift rhythm line of straight 16th notes played at about 200 beats per minute . Hetfield and Burton performed with palm muted technique and precise metronomic control . The lyrics celebrate crowd energy and headbanging . Rock journalist Mick Wall wrote that " Whiplash " signified the birth of thrash metal , stating : " If one wishes to identify the very moment thrash metal arrived spitting and snarling into the world , ' Whiplash ' is indisputably it . " 
