Ride the Lightning - 1984
Tracklisting:
1.
Fight Fire With Fire.
2.
Ride the Lightning.
3.
For Whom the Bell Tolls.
4.
Fade to Black.
5.
Trapped Under Ice.
6.
Escape.
7.
Creeping Death.
8.
The Call of Ktulu.
https://open.spotify.com/album/05DePtm7oQMdL3Uzw2Jmsc?si=JY2e46wWQRKMfgB53KiO8gIn cinema, there’s a trend that most sequels aren’t as good as the originals, apart from a few rare occasions. I find that the inverse is true in music.
Ride the Lightning is definitely a worthy sophomore release, one I feel sets up the Metallica formula for at least a few albums to come.
Since the release of
Kill ‘Em All, Metallica were playing support shows on a 32 date US tour with Raven that they called the Kill ‘Em All For One tour. This went from July 27th to September 3rd 1983. They would later go out with Raven in Europe for 16 shows in Europe under the name Seven Dates in Hell, starting in February of 1984.
But already, something was starting to change on the
Kill ‘Em All shows. According to Metallica’s historical archive for setlists, at least five of the Kill ‘Em All for One shows contained an extended instrumental, known at the time as
When Hell Freezes Over (which was the working title for
The Call of Ktulu). By the time they got on stage in Europe five months later, three more new songs were starting to make their way into the setlists. These songs were
Ride the Lightning,
Creeping Death and
For Whom the Bell Tolls.
On a break in the touring plan for the Seven Dates of Hell tour, Metallica found themselves in Copenhagen with producer Fleming Rasmussen, recording a collection of seven songs that then became eight at the label’s insistence. These songs became Metallica’s sophomore album,
Ride the Lightning.
We open with
Fight Fire With Fire, one of the most ferocious songs in the catalog to this day. That being said though, this opens with an amazingly beautiful intro which, surprising no one, was composed by Cliff Burton. Using a lot of 12 string guitars, this creates such a peaceful mood that is almost immediately destroyed by the main riff. These lyrics, written about nuclear war and Armageddon, open the album on such an intense note with Hetfield’s staccato vocal and the jagged riffing beneath. As we step into the instrumental section of the song, Kirk’s soloing is in fine form, but we see that James and Kirk have really stepped up their guitar harmony game since
No Remorse. Again, this was probably a Cliff thing, as the record shows that he had a great affinity for classical music and all of it’s aspects. All up, this is still one of their top 5 album openers for me and it really cemented a formula that I love seeing them follow with the epic intros before the main riffs.
Fight Fire With Fire closes on the sound of a nuclear explosion which runs straight into the title track,
Ride the Lightning. Man, this is one of my favourite songs of their 80s era. With a guitar harmony into, that is somehow credited to Lars, before running into one of my favourite main riffs on the album, this song just sounds sonically immense. Lyrically, this one is about a prisoner being taken to the electric chair and executed, but with a twist in the last verse that it’s all a dream. The first riff in the bridge section is another that was stolen from Mustaine, which you can hear in
Wake Up Dead if you want the Megadeth equivalent. However, it’s the solo section that really gets me going here. Being based over a great riff definitely helps, but Kirk’s melodic solo over the first riff into shred for the second half is such a cool solo. I’d be hard at work trying to think of another solo I thought was better. By the way, those screams you hear in the bridge are actually provided by Lars, which I think is kinda cool. Even the outro is great with how it expands upon it’s simple four note phrase before ultimately leading into one last run through the intro harmony. This is just such a great song, I absolutely love it and I was lucky enough to catch it live back in 2013. It should speak volumes that across the 25 date “By Request” tour in 2014,
Ride the Lightning was played 20 times!
Bust out your anvils, boys and girls, it’s time for an absolute classic!
For Whom the Bell Tolls is our third track here and man, what a great song it is. Opening with the sound of an anvil being struck to make the perfect bell for this song, we’re very quickly hit over the head with crushingly heavy guitars and a bass lead, one that Cliff lifted from the band he was in before Metallica. The song keeps expanding, adding heavy riff after riff. Kirk has a little melodic lead over what will shortly become our verse before we hear what I’d probably consider to be the main riff of the song. Our lyrics are loosely based on the book of the same name by Ernest Hemingway (if you want more about him, may I suggest you watch this for an informative laugh
https://youtu.be/PUB9D78ajmI). These lyrics have become absolute classics in the Metallica catalogue thiugh. We get even more guitar harmonies after the first chorus and it all ends with Kirk going insane. Look, it’s not my favourite ever Metallica song, but to try and deny it’s status as a classic is impossible. But, I must say, I don’t think any of Metallica’s bassists ever hit this intro as perfectly as Cliff did here.
Track four was a controversial one upon it’s release. We all know about how people took the
Black Album as a sign that they had sold out, but even this early on those accusations were flying. Why? Because Metallica made a ballad. The story goes that one night, someone managed to break in to Metallica’s van and managed to steal Hetfield’s favourite Marshall amp. This, understandably, put him in a pretty bad mood.
Fade to Black is, very openly, a suicide song and over the years, they’ve been blamed for writing this as if it were the cause of kids killing themselves. But, they’ve also received hundreds of letters from fans that say that this song has saved their lives, because they felt as if they weren’t alone and someone understood what they felt.
Honestly, I feel that this is one of Metallica’s best composed songs. The intro alone is beautiful and I love the interplay between the melodic verses and that heavy riff for a chorus. Kirk’s leads on this song are pretty much perfect and the interplay between electric and acoustic guitars throughout the verses sounds amazing. But, nothing can prepare you for how great the second half of the song is. The bridge portrays the character taking his life before the other most perfect solo Kirk ever played plays out. This is another song that absolutely defines a part of Metallica. While I may prefer another ballad personally, which we will get to before too long, I think this is probably one of the best songs they ever composed. While I can’t really justify it, I wouldn’t be surprised to read that a lot of people feel the same. Chronologically, this is Kirk’s first writing credit with the band and I can’t think of a better first song to have my name to than this one, Even though it’s another song that commits my cardinal sin in music by fading out the solo, I can actually kinda accept it here and I think it makes for a pretty great closer to the first half of the album.
The second half opens with two pretty deep cuts as far as Metallica’s 80s output goes. Opening with the better of the two though, we have
Trapped Under Ice. This is a great short and sharp thrash song about being frozen in ice and facing death. I must say, the riff that bookends the bridge is one of my top moments on the album. I’ve always loved it. The song is based on a riff that Kirk Hammett had brought over from his previous band, Exodus, you can find it at about the 1:46 mark in the song
Impaler. It’s short, sharp and to the point, which is great. It kinda feels like the crossover point between
Kill ‘Em All and
Ride the Lightning in a way, or at least it does to me. I like it a lot, I just don’t feel I have a lot to say about it.
The other deep cut is actually James Hetfield’s least favourite Metallica song ever,
Escape. This is a song that the record label kinda forced them into making to fill up the time a little more and have something a little more commercial on the album. This definitely doesn’t hit the same as the rest of the songs here, but I actually really like
Escape’s intro and chorus. The lyrics here are pretty great, being a bit of a call to individualism and getting to live your life your own way. This song actually features the first proper breakdown in a Metallica song and damn is it cool. Kirk’s solo on this one is a bit of a nothing for me, but I do love the ending with the main line of the chorus being repeated in the lower key. I find this to be a really tight song, but yeah, I can see why they don’t like it that much. They’ve only ever played it once live as part of playing the full album, so, I suppose that’s that.
Oh, but then we get onto probably the most famous song off of Ride,
Creeping Death! This song is huge! This is a song directly taken from a passage in the bible. Story is there was a Pharaoh that refused to free his slaves and they weren’t happy, so ten plagues were unleashed upon him and his people that increased in intensity, culminating into the ultimate killing of every firstborn child in Egypt, unless their door was painted in lamb’s blood. The band had watched the film The Ten Commandments one night and found themselves really invested in it. The riffing in this one is intense. I love the verse riff, but the bridge is where it all comes to a head. This was another riff that Kirk brought from Exodus (funnily enough, the book from which this story comes) and an unused demo called
Die By His Hand. The guitar harmony that ends it off is another classic Metallica moment in a song that’s absolutely packed full of them. The song has been described as a “mosh pit anthem”, which we will most definitely address more throughout our live deep dives as I think the only live albums this song isn’t on is the
S&M duo.
The album ends with the first song that Metallica had unleashed from it back in 83,
The Call of Ktulu. While it is an instrumental, this one musically portrays the coming of Cthulhu from The Shadow Over Innsmouth, which was one of Cliff’s favourite books. This song actually starts a long running saga of Metallica songs that has reached all the way to
Hardwired about Ktulu. I love Cliff’s bass effects here acting as the actual calling o that the song was named after. My favourite riff in this song has definitely gotta be the bridge that launches the solo though. It’s such an epic sound. I do like some of Kirk’s licks here too, I think it’s a great solo. I really respect this as the first fully realised instrumental. This is the basis from which the rest would take it’s cue and I think it’s just awesome that they decided to give it a shot. The first ending section with the guitar harmonies is a super cool way that the song could’ve ended, but I’m really glad it didn’t all Peter out there as I think the proper ending to this is a perfect motif to end an album on. Also, shout out to that glockenspiel in the return of the intro riff
Of course, I have to mention that the ascending pattern is Mustaine’s riff which you’ll all no doubt recognise from
Hangar 18. But, that’s all I really need to say about that.
So.
Ride the Lightning. I think this album took all the right cues from
Kill ‘Em All and took what Cliff and Kirk could add to the mix and created a perfect follow up. This still isn’t their best 80s album, but I feel like this album will at least crack my top 5 at the end. James’ vocals are in the perfect spot between the growls we know him for and the screams of Kill ‘Em All here, Kirk’s finally composing his own solos that work much better for him than trying to rework what Mustaine did before him, Cliff is an absolute asset and Lars is also super tight here. I feel like most of this is the prototype for what
Puppets and
Justice would build upon, where as
Escape was an experiment in trying to make something commercial that would later be perfected upon within the
Black Album.
I give this album an
8.75. There are still rougher edges that would really be ironed out in the coming albums, but this album proved the true start of the Metallica ascendancy.
Recommended listens:
Fight Fire With Fire
Ride the Lightning
The Call of KtuluEssential listens:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Fade to Black
Creeping Death
And now it’s your turn. What do you guys think of Ride the Lightning. I’m keen to hear your thoughts. Catch you in the chat, and be ready to obey your master in a week’s time.
Topic: Deadeye Deep Dives: Metallica (Chapter 13: 72 Seasons) (Read 13735 times)
