Review Summary: Metallica's sophomore album is still a genre classic.
This is an album that warrants little to no introduction, but I chose it as my first pick for a classic review as its my personal favourite Metallica album. Of course, all of the bands 80s albums are must listens to any metal fan, and key to the lore of the culture, but this is the album I’ve always felt the most connection to.
Released almost an exact year after their debut, the evolution from Kill 'Em All to Ride The Lightning is pretty incredible. While the debut was a pummeling full steam ahead assault of youth and rebellion, Ride The Lightning sees a level of maturity in their songwriting, an increase in their virtuosity, and a more varied, more precise approach to the tracks. A lot of this is attributed to the late great Cliff Burton, who came from a background in music theory and helped the band expand and level up their respective games. Its really cliché old hat to bang on about how great Cliff was, especially considering he’s been dead for close to 40 years now, but this is an album that really speaks to how incredible of a talent he was and how influential he proved to be not just on his own band but on the wider metal landscape.
Almost every aspect of the band’s approach is improved here from their first album. The melodies are better and more varied, the heavy section hit harder, there’s more emotion and thoughtfulness, and the song-writing is more vivid, often creating images or stories that relate to the theme of the track. Where Kill Em All had a more broad sense of rebellion, Ride The Lightning is more specific in some of its commentary about power, taking on themes such as nuclear war and the justice system.
'Fight Fire With Fire' immediately opens the album with a melodic acoustic guitar section, which straight away shows this new more mature, harmonic approach, before it drops into the blistering riffs. And when it drops, the riff still absolutely shreds ass. Just because this album has more harmonies, make no mistake the bulk is still ass kicking, breakneck, thrash.
'Ride The Lightning' takes a story of a death row inmate awaiting the electric chair, the album, which by the way – still rules – perfectly encapsulates this and the vibe, particularly the soaring solo which makes me feel like I am in the middle of the swirling vortex or a tornado. Some truly cheek clapper riffs and even though their lyrics are quite simple, its some of their most vivid songwriting.
'For Whom The Bell Tolls' remains one of the bands best and most iconic songs, with an intro that any metal fan will know off their head. I will hold my hand up and admit it took me years before I realized that opening riff was played on the bass guitar, but again that just speaks to the talent and virtuosity of Cliff that he could manipulate the bass and make it just sound like a standard guitar, but create one of the most famous well known riffs of all time. There’s not much to add whats been said a million times on this track, it still remains one of the greatest metal tracks of
ALL-TIME.
'Fade To Black' is maybe the first ever metal ballad? I guess there are others like Black Sabbaths’s 'Changes' to came before, but this may be the first actual metal track ballad with riffs and solos and ***. It’s personally, one of my favourite songs ever, with James’s lyrics about depression and suicide being super powerful, the excellent melodies, and the big explosive riffs that essentially form the chorus are incredible and really raise and lower the emotional tension as the track progresses. Its also one of the most complex and multi-layered metal tracks of its time, with the acoustic guitars, the duo solos, the escalating song structure. The outtro and solo is an all-timer. Considering the state of metal at the time, its such an personal, introspective and vulnerable track but still manages to kick ass.
We then get
'Trapped Under Ice' which picks the pace back up into full thrash territory, with noodling leads over fast galloping riffs.
'Escape' is a track which is controversial in the Metallica canon as it was initially conceived as an attempt to put out a more "commercial" or "accessible" track, as directed by the band’s label, and even now they’ve only ever played it one or twice live ever. But listening to it now, I still wouldn’t call it BAD. It is more mid tempo and has a chorus clearly meant to be more catchy and radio friendly, but it’s not terrible or an auto-skip for me, though it is the one track that stands out as a bit of a dud here.
'Creeping Death' is another genre staple and classic. Conceptually referring the plagues of Egypt, it has maybe the biggest chorus and
pops off live. Along with 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', its one of the bands most dramatic and epic in scale tracks. The bridge with "Die By My Hand" is pure, fist pumping adrenaline. Ending the album with a lengthy instrumental is a bit of a bold, maybe questionable choice.
'The Call Of Kthulu', named and influenced by Lovecraftian tales, has a decent mid tempo riff rhythm section with Cliff once again flexing his muscles with this bass solo that starts off like hes warping it and bending it to his will. I’m not sure anyone considers it one of the great instrumental metals tracks ever, but its still very decent and ends with a fitting climax.
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So that’s an overview of this classic album. An album super important both in the career of the biggest and most important American metal band ever and in the wider metal lore. My one main observation re-listening is that the first half is much stronger than the second half, I mean that run from the opener to 'Fade To Black' is an elite run with some of the band and the genre’s best tracks. It holds up as a great album not just in the context of the 80s but its still a blast to listen to now. While their following albums Master Of Puppets and And Justice For All are generally considered the bands best, this one still holds a special place for me.
