Metallica's Reviews
Ride The Lightning (Average Rating: 9.50 out of 10)
The album that got me into metal. (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
NomadLLama
from Naperville, Illinois United States
There was a day when i was going through my friend's cd collection and i laughed at many a cds. Peace Sells, Appetite for Destruction, Blizzard of Oz and over 50 more. I laughed at all of them, but Ride the Lightning seemed to catch my attention. I dont know why, but I decided to steal this out of my friends collection and listen to it. I heard the title track first and laughed, I absolutely hated it, but something kept making me play the song again and again and again. And before i knew it, i loved the song.Some people would not categorize this as thrash metal, but the lyrics and instruments show enough to say it is. the death theme of the album, the singer's growl and the heaviness of the drums are all enough to prove this is indeed thrash. I find this album to be better than Master of Puppets because this is Metallica's last album with songs that do not drag or repeat so many times. think about Battery's repetition of the word "Battery" and the dragging at the end. Then think about the dragging of almost every song on Justice, but dont get me wrong, both of those albums are great works from this band. Fight Fire with Fire- an excellent opening to this album with a soft acoustic (or is it a keyboard?) introduction then plunges into a heavy guitar with anti war lyrics and a great solo. A Ride the Lightning- this is a strange song mainly because it is so good, but metallica does not seem to like it very much. first, i saw only 1 instance where they performed this live: 2003 in france on some new EP that they released. plus, this is not on the Live Sh*t box set, and it belongs on there. This is probably one of metallica's top 5 songs with an awesome riff and an almost 3 minute guitar medley. A+ For Whom the Bell Tolls- a great bass solo in the beginning and long introduction. shows that you can still be heavy at a slow tempo. A- Fade to Black- metal's first ballad. again, one of metallica's top 5 songs with an awesome guitar at the end. Also heavy at a slow tempo, deals with suicide and created much controversy in the 80s about people killing themselves with this song playing or the lyrics written on a paper close by. defeats Sanitaruim on master of puppets. A+ Trapped Under Ice- i wonder what this song talks about! [/sarcasm] After 2 songs of slow tempo, this is back to being fast and heavy, and the guitar shows the style of Kirk Hammett with the sort of "country" sounding guitar. that style is extremely evident in "enter sandman"'s solo if u dont know what im talking about. A pure thrasher. A Escape- Nothing much here other than a good melody. solo kinda begins the same way as in The Call of Ktulu, but then changes. B+ Creeping Death- great introduction and melody. it takes 2-3 listens to find out what the song is about (ill leave that up to you) heavy at a moderate tempo. A The Call of Ktulu- Orion's competition. I find this one to be a lot more aggressive and orion to be a bit calmer. The solo is awesome in this one (starting at 3:33). funny, on the booklet, it says that a familiar "D. Mustaine" had to do with this song. Somehow, when i first heard this song, it seemed familiar, but I dont know from where. A+ metallica showed the world what they were made of with this album and laid a base for thrash/death metal
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