Metallica's best..awesome (Ride The Lightning - Metallica)

Member Name: 666thebeast

Product:	Ride The Lightning - Metallica
Date:	25/06/03 (109 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great songs, Superb performances, Very influential album

Disadvantages: 'Trapped under ice'

Metallica's best two albums are this and 'Master of Puppets', but this wins With their debut, 'Kill em all', Metallica had been one of the creators of thrash metal, mixing the heavy riffing of bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead and Diamond head (the latter one of their biggest influences) with the speed and attitude of hardcore punk. It featured great songs, most notably 'the four horsemen' and 'seek and destroy', and was a superb straight-up heavy metal record. with 'ride the lightning' the band evolved its unique sound, adding progressive elements to the song structures, and upping the levels of musicianship and dexterity. The album's first track, 'fight fire with fire', begins with a classical guitar opening before exploding into pure mayhem. An unbelievable riff mixed with amazingly fast and powerful drumming from Lars Ulrich. A great, thrashy opener telling you that Metallica are playing. The title track is where the progressive elements come in, the song mixing yet another amazing thrash riff with numerous time changes, brilliant lead breaks from Kirk Hammett, and powerful lyrics from vocalist/rhythm axeman James Hetfield. 'For whom the bell tolls' features great bass work from Cliff Burton, and has some excellent riffs and chorus. 'Fade to Black' is one of those songs that can only be described as brilliant in every way. The band's first power ballad, it displays an emotional vocal from Hetfield, beautiful lead guitar, and when that riff kicks in half way through...wow. a true metal classic.
'trapped under ice' is the only track is usually skip. its good, but no way near as great as the others. 'Escape' is a cool song, but for me it serves as a taster for what's next.
'Creeping death' is my favourite Metallica song of all time, an absolute bonafide metal super-classic. The main riff is amazing beyond description, hetfield's lyrics a
re about a plague in ancient egypt (very evocative), lars' drumming drives the song superbly, while kirk's solo is pure brilliance, both technically flawless and melodic in a way. 'Creeping Death' is simply amazing.
The closing instrumental 'The call of ktulu' still ranks as their finest non-vocal track ('orion' from 'master of puppets' comes a close second), and has some great playing all round.
'Ride the lightning' is in many ways the definitive prog-thrash album, not just because of the quality of the songs but primarily because of the influence it would have on future thrash and prog-metal bands. Artists such as Dream Theater, King Diamond, Helloween, Blind Guardian and many others would be hugely influenced by 'Ride the Lightning'. Get this piece of metal history in your collections.

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