Today, Metallica are reissuing their first two albums, 1983's Kill 'Em All and 1984's Ride The Lighting. After years of planning, drummer Lars Ulrich tells Rolling Stone that for now he's just excited to see the first two major reissues make it into his fans' hands.

In the following excerpt from the interview, Lars discusses the band’s late bassist, Cliff Burton, who was killed in a bus accident in Sweden on September 27th, 1986.

Rolling Stone: You said that finding things related to Cliff is precious. There's a rough mix of his bass solo, "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)," on the Kill 'Em All box. What was that session like? Was it off the cuff?

Lars Ulrich: “Yeah. With "Anesthesia”, Cliff had just joined the party. And no disrespect to anybody else but he was at a different level. He did a bass solo with his previous band and when he came in, he asked if he could do a bass solo with us. I was like, "Come on, do a bass solo." At that time, drum solos and those sorts of solos were sort of frowned upon by who we were. But we figured with his talent, he should. So we tried to find a way to do a bass solo in a way that would maybe be a little more in line with the way we were thinking at the time, so we thought maybe putting some drums behind it and making it a little bit more of a rhythmic experience that people could bop along to or whatever was the right thing to do. And then when it came time to put it on a record, instead of it just being a bass solo, we turned it into more of a composition. It adds some different dynamics to it, almost like different acts – like, act one, act two and act three.

“We recorded in this old warehouse up in Rochester, New York, right downtown on the river, close to the Kodak building. The drums were set up in a room about two or three floors above where control room was. I don't think I was able to see Cliff. We could just hear each other, and we just set it up and played. We weren't so sure people would understand that it was a bass solo, so we had the engineer go, [silly voice] "Bass solo, take one." Even though it may have been take seven.”

Read the full interview at RollingStone.com.

The reissues of Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning have been remastered for the most advanced sound quality and are available in three formats - CD, vinyl, and deluxe box set. Both deluxe box sets include original source material from the band's personal collection with many never before heard or seen recordings, along with a book including rare photos and essays from those who were there.

Fans can order both Deluxe Box sets at the Met Store.

In support of the reissues, Metallica have posted this rare video of the band performing “Ride The Lightning” on August 31st, 1985 at Day On The Green, held at Oakland Stadium in Oakland, CA.

2016 Record Store Day Ambassadors, Metallica, have released another video in support of the upcoming event, in which frontman James Hetfield shares his early record store memories. Watch below:

Bassist Robert Trujillo and his son, Tye, talk vinyl in the clip below:

In another video, Kirk Hammet discusses his early memories of record stores:

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich recalls his record store memories below:

Metallica are set to perform live at Berkeley, CA's legendary record store Rasputin Music this Saturday, April 16th in celebration of Record Store Day 2016.

While a few lucky Met Club members and Rasputin customers have won tickets to see the rare in-store performance in person, fans from around the world will also be able to join from the comfort of their own living room via a Facebook Live stream on the band's page facebook.com/metallica. The band will hit the stage around 4:00 PM PST and will be celebrating the releases of the remastered reissues of Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning.

In celebration of this year’s Record Store Day, on April 16th Metallica will be releasing a special exclusive CD titled Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, Metallica! The artwork for the upcoming release can be seen below.

The nine-song set was recorded live at Le Bataclan in Paris, France on June 11th, 2003 and Metallica are donating all profits to victims of the attacks in Paris in 2015.

Tracklisting:

"The Four Horsemen”
"Leper Messiah”
"No Remorse”
"Fade To Black”
"Frantic”
"Ride The Lightning”
“Blackened"
"Seek & Destroy"
"Damage, Inc.”

“Fade To Black”: