Ride The Lightning

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
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. --Genevieve Williams

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-09-22 rating:
Sheer Genius
ok who,s " A customer " who gave this 1 star and said it wasn,t even Metallica,s material ? .. it was you dave wasn,t it ?
This album is a classic , still i sit spellbound when i listen to this , their finest imo

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review by: TMFCK date: 2008-08-31 rating:
The classic Thrash album, absolutely perfect!
This is my personal favourite. One of the most important albums in Metal, a standard upon which it's peers were measured, and has influenced more modern metal bands that I can list here. The fact that it was a second effort froma bunch of kids barely out of their teens only cements the genius that is this album. There are 8 out and out classics on this album - or put another way the ENTIRE album. From the genre defining opening of 'Fight Fire With Fire' with it's classical guitar opening, right into all out metal fury, the pace does not let up through title track to 'Creeping Death'. Only when you get to 'Fade to Black' does the pace change, but what a change. Melodic and beautiful, 'Fade to Black' could have easily been a complete ballad, but the fact is it launches into a full throated metal chorus only elevates the song beyond the Thrash label. This was the song that transcended Metal into something else, and has proven very difficult for other bands to imitate (only Pantera I think ever came close). Again, remember that Metallica's members were only just into their 20's! How many bands these days write such a stunning follow up so early in their careers? Even the instrumental 'The Call of Ktulu' is an operatic experiment in fusing clasical with metal. Truly one of the best albums ever written.

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review by: gary20312 date: 2008-08-11 rating:
Metal perfection!!!!
Jesus how can an album now nearly a quarter of a century old still sound so fresh and exciting! Yep before metallica lost the plot and released mediocre albums (ie St Anger) they were producing monsters like these.

Now I have owned this album for over 15 years and when I still listen to it today it still thrills as much as the first time I heard it. Songs such as For Whom The Bell Tolls and Creeping Death are as devastatingly crushing and the quality of material on this album has rarely been bettered. The only weak point on the album is the instrumental track on the end (Call Of Cthula) but it doesn't distract you from the brilliance of this album. I'll be very surprised if Death Magnetic (due for release soon) will be half as good as this.

If you're new to Metallica or looking for a starting point you won't go far wrong with this.

Metal Perfection!!

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review by: Twitch date: 2008-06-13 rating:
Ride the Lightning... No, No Really Ride the Lightning
Now I want to star by saying that I am completely honest in my ratings off albums and don't let blind loyalty to my favourite bands cloud how I rate them. I very rarely rate albums 5 stars simply because to be a 5 star album it has to be nearly perfect. I can hand on heart though say that this is one of them albums. There are problems with this album of course there are, I have yet find an album with no faults but they are small and not really big enough to affect it overall.

This is Metallica's 1984 release and was their second delivering of thrash metal that would make all other bands at the time and even now look mediocre. I'm not the biggest fan of thrash metal because although I love guitar solos I prefer them to be delivered in different varieties rather than as fast as possible every single time. Metallica are however a thrash band that vary their music and show strong degrees of creative intelligence. On Ride the Lightning the `Tallica do fast solos but also have mid paced ones as well as the slow majestic beauty that is Fade to Black. This is a mix of thrash and slow melodic beauty that will draw you in and keep you asphyxiated until the end. Many reviewers have said that Lars is a poor drummer and that his beats are simplistic but I totally disagree, I think he's a very good drummer and although technically not the most proficient especially when compared to a couple of my favourite drummers Jukka Nevalainen (Nightwish) and Travis Smith (Trivium), but what he produces with Metallica is of a high standard. Lars is credited to 99% of Metallica songs and if he weren't in the band would they really be the band we know and love. Anyway I don't want double bass beats in songs just for the sake of having them, that's one of the things that ruin Epica's `The Divine Conspiracy'. James Hetfield isn't the greatest vocalist in the world but then again this isn't Power Metal but James is one of my favourite metal vocalists he's also a great rhythm guitarist and gives the songs an epic galloping feel. Kirk Hammett is one of the best guitarists in the world and although some people think ex Metallica man Dave Mustaine is the better guitarist, but I've always preferred Kirk. Lastly Cliff Burton Metallica's bassist at the time was the man credited with moving Metallica towards their more `progressive' approach to music because of his classically trained background. I don't know whether this is really true but he was a great bass player as can most evidently be seen on For Whom the Bell Tolls. Some people argue that Lars is weak on drums and that Kirk isn't as good as Mustaine (I disagree) but overall as a band they compliment each other perfectly. As a band they are a perfect unit... look at it this way in football you can get the 11 best players in the world but if they don't play together as, if they don't gel or compliment each others abilities they won't win anything.

Ride the Lightning along with Master of Puppets are Metallica's two biggest albums and essential to any real metal heads collection. Most people award Master of Puppets as the superior; I've always slightly preferred its predecessor although I can't really say why its just one of those things.

Two of the songs are co credited to Dave Mustaine (Ride the Lightning and The Call of Ktulu) but these are Metallica songs simply because they are better than anything Megadeth ever produced as a result I don't see Mustaine as having had any major impact on these. To make my point Mechanix is a song Mustaine wrote when he was with Metallica which Megadeth later released. For Metallica's debut Kill `em All Hetfield and co rewrote it and called it The Four Horsemen, which is the superior version i.e. any thing he does Metallica do better so any input he had here will have been redone only better.

Track by Track:

1) Fight Fire with Fire- A good fast and aggressive opening, once the acoustic intro is out of the way of course. 8.9/10

2) Ride the Lightning*- A fast more mid paced song compared to Fight Fire with Fire, but much better. This is a song from the view of someone who is on death row awaiting execution by electric chair. 9.2/10

3) For Whom the Bell Tolls*- This has one of the best riffs of any song ever, courtesy of Cliff's bass. This is one of my favourite songs from the album and a fantastic song live The only minor problem is it's to short, at 5.11 it's not exactly too short it just should have been more along the 8 minute mark, it needs another verse and a guitar solo. Even so it is such a fantastic song I still can't give it any less than ten. 10/10

4) Fade to Black*- This is the ballad of the album and also the best song here, and arguably the best song Metallica have ever done. The lyrics are about suicide and the song starts of with one of the best and most beautiful guitar intros ever the music gradually builds and gets heavier as it progresses. The outro is 2 minutes long and has fantastic couple of minutes of guitar soloing, possibly Kirk's best. 10/10

5) Trapped Under Ice- This is the thrashiest song on the album and is not as good as the previous songs or the last two, decent enough though. The closest song to that of Kill `em All 8.2/10

6) Escape- This is easily the most filler song and poor in comparison to the rest of the play list. 7.6/10

7) Creeping Death*- This is another brilliant song about the plagues of Egypt. There is also fantastic instrumental play and superb lyrics. This song kicks arse live much like For Whom the Bell Tolls. 9.7/10

8) The Call of Ktulu*- This is an instrumental and most people seem to prefer Orion from Master of Puppets, although I personally have always preferred this one as Metallica's best instrumental. 9.9/10

Overall Rating 9.18

Highlights*

This is one of the best thrash metal albums ever and better than anything Megadeth have ever done and is an important addition to any metal fans music collection. I believe this is better although only slightly than the more praised Master of Puppets.



review by: TRUE METAL date: 2008-06-07 rating:
My pick of Metallica albums, I just can't seem to fault this album.
(EDIT FROM MY OLD REVIEW) Right now this is my favourite Metallica album (alongside their new album Death Magnetic). This album is just perfect you've got everything fast thrash metal songs, the beautiful ballad "Fade To Black" (still got the heavy riffs and solos) and an instrumental "The Call Of Ktulu". My favourite things about this album are the solos perfectly played by Kirk Hammet and brilliant Lyrics. Lar's drumming is great but man listen to his drumming on "And Justice For All" that will blow your brains away. Cliff Burton as everyone knows is a brilliant bass player and I think Rob Trujillo is the modern Cliff Burton.

The albums starts off perfectly with "Fight Fire With Fire" an acoustic kind of intro which is breathtaking then blast into a fast heavy riff then kicks in Fight Fire With Fire as I said before perfect. I don't think I have a favourite song on this album as it's just perfect. Every song is a masterpiece. In my opinion i'd rate this above Master Of Puppets. This is a fantastic start to Metallica if you're new to 'em, this is classic metal from start to finish. A MUST BUY! ! ! ! ! OH STOP COMPARING MEGADETH AND METALLICA THEY ARE BOTH GREAT BANDS JUST TOTALLY DIFFERENT STYLES! ! ! ! ROCK ON! ! ! !

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