Ride The Lightning by Metallica
January 30, 2007 by Jo Minor
If there ever was, within the endless plethora of recordings of the music world, an album that was truly brilliant; the sound of limitless ingenuity and youthful bravado, the essence of raw rock ‘n roll and thunderous heavy metal rolled into one; then Ride The Lightning by Metallica would fit the description just perfectly.
Ride The Lightning was the band’s second effort after their groundbreaking debut Kill ‘Em All, and displayed the maturity and complexity of singer/songwriter/guitarist James Hetfield. There are 8 tracks present in this album, and there are no weak moments whatsoever.
From the blistering run of Fight Fire With Fire, to the band’s first ever ballad Fade To Black, across the hair-raising moments of the title track all the way to the epic Creeping Death, and ending with the majestic instrumental masterpiece The Call Of Ktulu - Ride The Lightning is a breathtaking and wondrous journey into a time where music was made for the sake of music, and music alone: away from the greedy intentions of the media and the record companies.
Ride The Lightning is far more complex than just a Hard Rock album, its way more progressive than a Thrash Metal album, and is sonically and lyrically more complete than a million other albums pigeonholed into the same genre. When it came out in 1984, it possessed, within the confines of a single album: several skull-crushing thrash numbers, a brilliant ballad and an unforgettable instrumental.
The album is Metallica at its best; having already dealt with the hiring and firing of Kirk Hammett and Dave Mustaine, respectively, and with primary songwriters James Hetfield and bass monster Cliff Burton at their creative peaks, Ride The Lightning was an album bound to happen within the band’s span as a touring and recording success. Ride The Lightning was also a far more experimental and varied album than the other 2 masterpieces to come - Master of Puppets and …And Justice For All - which were far more focused and, dare I say, far more formulaic as well. In that respect, Ride The Lightning is a better album than those I just mentioned - if it wasn’t for the no-rules, no-holds-barred approach in Ride The Lightning, the other great albums might not have come to fruition at all. This album laid the groundwork down for Metallica to build their success upon.
It would be tragic for someone to not have listened to this masterpiece, over and over again.
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