Product Description

Metallica turned the metal world on its ear with their debut album, KILL 'EM ALL and then blew its mind with the follow-up, RIDE THE LIGHTNING. The riffs and arrangements are moreintricate, the lyrics are more intelligent and biting and James Hetfield's growl is meaner. The set starts out with twotunes that would have been right at home on KILL 'EM ALL, but the next two are slower and more involved. "Ride The Lightning" is a slow (by Metallica's standards) dirge about the futility of war. "Fade To Black" is a ballad (!) that buildsto an instrumental coda featuring the guitar melodies that the band would later base their sound around. It's also Hetfield's first attempt at singing in tune. The most ambitious song is a dense instrumental, "The Call Of Ktulu", that starts with a single arpeggiated guitar and slowly adds layer upon layer, building in intensity until it all comes crashing down nine minutes later.

Track Listing

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. The Call Of Ktulu

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #587 in Music
• Released on: 2007-07-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 47 minutes

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

Customer Reviews

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

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.

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!!