Ride the Lightning

Artist: Metallica
Label: Elektra / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 075596039642
EAN: 0075596039642
ASIN: B000002H2I

Release Date: 1990-10-17

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Listmania:

Metallica's Best

Tracks:

Fight Fire with Fire
Ride the Lightning
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Fade to Black
Trapped Under Ice
Escape
Creeping Death
Call of Ktulu

Similar Items:

Master of Puppets
...And Justice For All
Kill 'Em All
Metallica
Load

Customer Reviews:

Metallica gaining momentum.......2007-02-26

One of thrash metal's finest hours, this album proved that Metallica were going to put a serious dent in metal, whether fans were ready or not.

As earlier reviews stated, the main theme on this album is death. "Ride the Lightning" is an intense song describing the electric chair experience, while "For Whom the Bell Tolls" elaborates on the horrors of war. Then there's "Fade to Black". Wow. This song about suicide is so haunting and yet energetic at the same time, and is perhaps Kirk's finest hour at lead guitar. (I really wish they would play this song more at their live shows). The brutality continues throughout the second half of the album as well, with the devastating "Creeping Death" leading the way.

If you don't already have this album and are a fan of rock music of any kind, especially metal, then do yourself a favor and buy it immediately. It's a gem.

Best Metal.......2007-02-25

I bought this record, yes record, when it came out on Metal blade Records. This is a classic. So sad to see metallica in their present "bloated" state. They just go through the motions to get cash when they need it these days.
Bottom line. Kill em all, Ride the lightning, Master. IS metallica. Dispose of the rest.

my review........2007-02-08

Well this is a pretty great song in For Whom The Bell Tolls which I would rank or repeat a 4 and it's one of the best they've done along with Sandman Orion and Blackened.. Fade To Black is awesome too! Call Of Ktulu is good too.

Metallica - Ride The Lightning - 1984.......2007-02-03

An amazing sophomore effort, Metallica showed they could not only top the debut album "Kill 'em All" but produce a record that perhaps replaced some of the raw edge the first album had with more polished track listing. Don't misunderstand me, if anything these songs showed that the band was improving in their technical structure and overall approach at delivering harsh, hard hitting songs that were dark in theme and spectacular in guitar work.

Released in 1984, RTL is an album with 8 tracks and featured founding members James Hetfield on vocals, Lars Ulrich at drums, Kirk Hammet on lead guitar and Cliff Burton on Bass. Burton was replaced years later after getting killed from an accident in Sweden when the tour bus flipped on an icy road.

It's Heavy, its fast and its furious. The track starts off with an almost oriental sounding guitar piece that quickly launches into the song "Fight Fire with Fire". Fire is a thrash masterpiece and amidst the flurry of guitars is the thunder of drums, as well as Hetfield's almost demonic delivering of choppy vocals, which emphasizes power in each word as much as possible. There is some great guitar work just on this song alone, and amidst the speed parts there are nice changeups that offer difference within the tone and overall feel of the song, which in turn gives it more diversity and builds up for a superb ending. Then you get the monster intro for the title track, which is another gem all its own. "Ride the Lightning has a great opening riff by Hammet that is heard off and on throughout the song. The songwriting on this album is superb as we can clearly hear the story of the electric chair's recipient being played out before us. The gothic "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is stoic as it gongs an old church bell at the beginning of the song, which quickly leads into a wide range of guitar work. A stomping, marching beat is installed as well, and the power riffs on this one are some of the best on the album. This song features more melodic, doomy guitar parts as well that hit some great high notes as they escalate into an anxiety type mood that finally drops into the main part of the track.

Oh yes, track four is "Fade to Black" and one of those songs you can't miss! They slow it down into a mournful slow song that has beautiful guitar parts that are layered well. My review of this melodic and dire track won't do it justice. It's not all melody and swooning however, as it assaults into some frenzied guitar pieces that are very heavy, and also a song that I feel you can appreciate the bass of Cliff Burton a little more.

"Trapped under Ice" is just a regular and great thrashing tune that never slows down and yes, has a story to it that is pretty grim. The guitars on here are extremely fast, and as Hammet goes 100mph on six strings, Hetfield belts out the lyrics "No release from my cryonic state/What is this? I've been stricken by fate/Wrapped up tight, cannot move, can't break free/Hand of doom has a tight grip on me".

"Escape" tones down the high angered vocals a tad, as it is a song that rolls along before getting to one of the best chorus parts I have heard. The tones and sound when they start into the chorus:

"Out of my own, out to be free
One with my mind, they just can't see
No need to hear things that they say
Life is for my own to live my own way"

The ends of each sentence are carried out farther and are done with a great style that really made this chorus and this song yes, another gem. At the end it breaks off into a final goodbye of riffs as a siren (like one of those POW Camp type) starts going off in the distance. Overall, it is a song I still enjoy hearing to this day.

"Creeping Death" is another thrash gem, which features Hammet in full force at lead guitar. It is a haunting and powerful track that also has a lot of diversity in chorus and overall structure. The album rounds out with a song based on the Lovecraft mythos in the famous "The Call of Ktulu". You will see the spelling of Ktulu vary from Metallica's to Lovecraft's and other sources as well. This track starts out with a melodic guitar peice that dances along a doom laden soundscape before revving up into an aggressive assault of guitars that progresses further on with the original intro's riffs. Louder and louder it climbs and eventually you are hearing a masterful instrumental track that clocks in at over eight minutes long. This was also the first instrumental in which all the members played together, giving it that much more power. Overall a five star album that is sometimes under appreciated by many fans as it sometimes sank between the lines between the debut smash hit "Kill 'em All" and the masterpiece that was "Master of Puppets".

SUPERB SONGS!!.......2007-01-15

I just cant get enough of this album! I am actully a kid but I am 15 years old and I am a autistic music fan from Napa, California. I am a Metallica fan too. I think most of these songs were one of the greatest songs ever like For Whom The Bell Tolls(One of my favorite songs), Fade To Black, and Call Of Ktulu. I also like Fight Fire W Fire and Ride The Lightning too as those are also both pretty great!! This is amongst one of my favorite albums and this is probably the finest Metallica moment I have ever heard. I did not like their first album before this one Kill Em All as that was too much noise for me and one night I listened to it and i threw it out of my car so I decided that I wasn't going to make that mistake of buying that crappy CD ever again. Metallica albums are good from this,til about Load. If you dont have this then what are you waiting for??? this is the best heavy metal CD before And Justice For All. Get all their albums from this til Load and avoid a few of their albums like Kill Em All, St Anger, Reload which all of those sucked horribly. Get this great album with Green Day's American Idiot too
as you'll then find a fine line with the two greatest San Francisco Bay Area bands. Highly recommended.

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