An Electrifying Ride! (Ride The Lightning - Metallica)

Member Name: scream4bruce

Product:	Ride The Lightning - Metallica
Date:	21/08/08 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vocals well done, great guitar and drum playing, awesome first half

Disadvantages: Production values could be somewhat better, not so consistent 2nd half

Amazing! The classical guitar-work which opens the album might be misleading, but make no mistake - this is a mighty fine thrash metal album, and opener 'Fight Fire With Fire' soon becomes engulfed in blazing riffs, played at a breakneck pace. The song never lets up on the speed, and when it comes around to the vocal break there's some bloody brilliant blistering guitar leads from Hammett, followed by the guitars backing off temporarily, in which you can just sense Ulrich picking up the pace on the drums - sometimes I burst into laughter because it's so damn awesome. The perfect way to begin the album and oh yes, this is my favourite track.

But other songs are as good. Title track, 'Ride The Lightning' follows, and whilst it's not as fast as the first song, it's also got great chugging guitar riffs and an electrifying guitar solo - a highlight for sure! Perhaps the third verse and chorus are one too many but this is really good stuff, and the manner in which the song ends - nice to hear a quick gallop in the rhythm - is cool.

The next two tracks, musically, are about as accessible as Metallica gets (at least back then) and incidentally, are their slowest efforts on the album. There's no mistaking the tolling of bells in 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', a song which appears to have been speeded up hence the slighter sharper than usual pitches of the guitars, but curiously the bass in the introduction playing chromatics is put through wah-wah and distortion, and sounds like an electric with a big fat tone. A song which is likely to be My First Metallica Song if you're learning the guitar, so that's simple rhythms with trickling, but not tricky leads into sustained power chords. Not that it makes it any less of a song.

'Fade To Black' is a ballad. That's right, a ballad beginning with acoustic guitars, but without James Hetfield's vocals being reduced to cheese, despite the song's theme being that of suicide - apparently written with the band's equipment having being stolen recently in mind! An absolute monster of a distorted guitar riff makes up the chorus, and the song progressively becomes heavier, with Hammett coming up with a number of fine guitar solos. Recommended listening.

Unfortunately, the second half of the album does not compare to the first, with 'Trapped Under Ice' and 'Escape' being of the good, but not great category. In 'Trapped Under Ice', possibly my least favourite track, it's back to thrash metal stylings, and an opportunity for Hammett to go nuts on the wah pedal - but the introduction is lacking and some of the riffs could have been upped in intensity. 'Escape' however, has a cool intro, one which, if it were up to me, I'd have extended and given fuller harmonies, but while the verses chug away effectively - love the sudden rushes in rhythm - the chorus is not something you'd expect from Metallica. By the end it fades away rather than goes out with a bang.

Musically, 'Creeping Death' - a song which tells of the bible tale where the ten plagues are set upon the Egyptians - doesn't quite reach the same peaks as the album does as in the first half for me, but it's heavy, and fast! 'The Call Of Ktulu', an instrumental, is a great way to end the album - there's some captivating stuff from each of the guys as they move from one fine riff onto another.

James Hetfield is not someone I would choose to listen to when it comes to singing, but the vocals on this album are well done. Rather, it's the abrasive qualities of the rhythm guitars which I dig and also, I love the drumming from Lars Ulrich - it certainly gets me excited enough at times to start air-drumming along! And then there's Kirk Hammett delivering some mesmerising guitar solos as well. While there are musical lapses in Ride The Lightning, there are enough outstanding songs to make up for this. An electrifying album!

Summary: Metallica - Ride The Lightning