best metallica album? (Ride The Lightning - Metallica)

Member Name: chrisi

Product:	Ride The Lightning - Metallica
Date:	14/09/01 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: rock, rock, rock

Disadvantages: it ends

Ride the Lightning
Metallica
Track Listings
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. Call of Ktulu


Don't let that classical-guitar opening to "Fight Fire with Fire" fool you--Ride the Lightning packs a heavy-metal wallop. While not as ambitious as the subsequent Master of Puppets, this early Metallica album is indubitably one of their best. Thematically, it explores death and dying from myriad points of view: nuclear war ("Fight Fire with Fire"), electric-chair execution (the title track) and drowning ("Trapped Under Ice"). Interestingly, the best track on this album is probably "Fade to Black", a slower, more introspective song about suicide. There's also "Creeping Death", which remains a concert favourite. An excellent mix of rapid-fire guitar riffs, rip-roaring solos and singer James Hetfield's trademark growl, this is thrash metal at its finest.


This is an essential work of art, made by the ultimate masters of thrash metal in their heyday. It is tremendous. Nearly every track is standout. You must buy this, and "Master of Puppets" and "Kill 'em all" as well or you might as well start listening to Belgian reggae music.Every true metal fan should own these three albums."Kill 'em all" was fast and abrasive and aggressive, "Ride the Lightning" was in a more classic vein, and "Master of Puppets" was the most brutally heavy of the three. Musically, this album is quite diverse compared to it's predecessor. Savage thrash metal dominates throughout, but the album also has it's quite melodic parts,(although these are still heavy) such as the epic "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and the execution anthem of "Creeping Death." "Fight Fire With Fire" is
full-on thrash with an almighty, bruising riff. Don't be fooled by that classical intro; this is one of the heaviest songs on the album. The title track has to be one of the most doomy things ever written, with a pounding riff which leaves considerably large holes in your metallic eardrums. And "Trapped Under Ice" is another frash classic."Escape" is a slower, riff-laden, Sabbath-esque song which is probably the most bluesy song on the album (if you could call it that) and the classical-played with-rock-guitars epic, "The Call of Ktulu" is absolutely fab, an atmospheric, dramatic track which never gets boring despite being seven minutes long. Overall this a timeless album and set the scene for what was to come next from the masters of metal . . . in the form of their best album yet. Kill 'em all was great too. Oh, yeah, I already said that a few times. Also, . . . And Justice For All is a very good record, and so is the black album, although I would rate the former at four-and-a-half stars, and the latter at four stars. The first three Metallica albums are, in my opinion, the joint three best Metallica albums. The first five Metallica albums are the ones worth buying especially.

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