METALLICA — Ride the Lightning (review)

METALLICA — Ride the Lightning album cover

Album · 1984 · Thrash Metal

4/5 · 2011-09-17
UMUR

"Ride the Lightning" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US thrash metal act Metallica. The album was released in August 1984 by Elektra Records. After the success of their debut album "Kill ´em All (1983)" the band was expected to release something equally groundbreaking with their second album and "Ride the Lightning" is indeed a big step forward for Metallica in every possible way. Rather than staying in the US to record the album Metallica went to Denmark to record with prolific Danish producer Flemming Rasmussen (Blind Guardian, Morbid Angel among others) at the Sweet Silence studios on Amager (an island outside Copenhagen). Three singles were released with the album in "Fade to Black", "Creeping Death" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The album has at this moment in time sold more than 5 million copies in the US alone. It´s noteworthy that former guitarist Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) is credited for co-writing the two tracks "Ride the Lightning" and "The Call of Ktulu" which suggests that those songs (or parts of the songs) were written even before the release of "Kill ´em All" (apparently The Call of Ktulu was featured on an early demo called "When Hell Freezes Over").

The music on "Ride the Lightning" is a lot more sophisticated than the music on "Kill ´em All" and it´s a lot more varied too. The layered guitar work is impressive and innovative, the songs are cleverly composed with more than a few twists and turns and with an improved sound production too "Ride the Lightning" actually comes off as a rather mature effort by a band that were still very young. Regarding the sound production it´s very strong for the time. The production is way ahead of it´s time IMO and I can´t seem to recall any other thrash metal album from that early in the eighties which featured such a professional sound production.

The three songs chosen as singles "Fade to Black", "Creeping Death" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" are all thrash metal classics in my book and as far as I recall they´ve played those three songs every time I´ve seen Metallica live. The rest of the songs are strong compositions too (even though I don´t appreciate the awful staccato vocal rythm in the verse of "Fight Fire with Fire") but I don´t count any of them as classics. The instrumental "The Call of Ktulu" starts the tradition of long instrumental songs on Metallica´s eighties albums.

The level of musicianship has increased greatly since the debut and Kirk Hammet´s guitar solos are more varied and melodic this time around which is a great treat IMO. James Hetfield´s voice still sounds a bit imature but there is a notable difference between his performance on this album and his performance on the debut. Overall the band´s performance is tight and powerful.

"Ride the Lightning" spawned what I think of as three thrash metal classics and greatly increased Metallica´s popularity. It´s considered a seminal thrash metal album by many and rightly so. I still think there are a couple of tracks that aren´t on par with the best material on the album. Tracks like "Fight Fire with Fire", "Trapped Under Ice" and "Escape" aren´t exactly classics in my book and my rating drops slightly because of those tracks. Still a 3.5 - 4 star rating is warranted.