Ride The Lightning

As you may have noticed from the song titles, Ride The Lightning is all about death, in its various guises, with topics from the electric chair (the title track) through war (For Whom The Bell Tolls) to suicide (Fade To Black), amongst others. What really impresses me about Metallica on this album, apart from their musicianship (which is of course outrageously high), is the tact with which they handle the various sensitive issues, from the poignancy of Fade To Black to the desperation and horror of Trapped Under Ice.

Opening track Fight Fire With Fire is a fantastic slice of thrash, with a deceptively gentle build-up followed by a rip-roaring thrash riff, some rather morbid lyrics about Armageddon, and an excellent solo.

The title track is, again, an emotive thrash song which captures perfectly the dread of Death Row (or at least I expect so, having not recently been on Death Row myself), and the lyrics also give Metallica's thoughts on the injustice of capital punishment. The solo found later on in the song is eardrum-burstingly good, and the pounding thrash riff keeps up the sinister tempo throughout.

For Whom The Bell Tolls is one of the true Metallica classics, and one of their most crowd-pleasing numbers in concert. The lyrics are some of Hetfield's most memorable (I, amongst many other Metallica devotees, have often found myself muttering "Men fight for the hill in the early day" at many an inopportune moment) and the da-da-da-daa riff thingy is also quite catchy (in the best, least popsong-chorus kind of way). FWTBT is an odd Metallica track in that it is the first one, prior to St.Anger, not to feature a proper guitar solo, at a time when solos all to often made up 50% of a Metallica song.

Fade To Black is my personal faourite Metallica song, with a gentle, poignant intro (later reminiscent of the similarly brilliant Unforgiven), a heart-rending crescendo mid-song, and a late solo to die for. James Hetfield's lyrics and vocal performance make you really believe that he's going to jump of that cliff or pull that trigger, and this, along with the aforementioned musical brilliance, is what makes Fade To Black one of the greatist songs ever written.

The album then goes through what could almost be called a mediocre patch, with Trapped Under Ice and Escape. Neither of these songs is bad as such, it's just that neither of them gets close to the brilliance of the other six tracks. When I first got the album I quite liked them, but it seems to me now that they are somewhat generic in their thrashiness. One standout aspect of Trapped Under Ice, however, is the desperation and panic in James Hetfield's voice, and Escape has a decent sing-along chorus.

Creeping Death pulls the slight downward spiral back up to scratch however, and is one of Metallica's most exclusively thrash songs. Anyone with basic knowledge of biblical history who hears the lyrics can tell that it's about the Passover, and the lyrics and the key are suitably threatening. The solo is also one of Kirk Hammet's best.

The Call Of Ktulu is a fantastic instrumental, and a rare one in that it's actually quite interesting to listen to. The S&M version is actually better (it's the ideal song to augment with strings and horns etc), but this original is still very eerie.

Overall the album cannot, from the point of view of a fan of Metallica or quality metal in general, really be faulted, though pedants will no doubt comment on the slight mediocrity of tracks 5 and 6. An excellent place to start a Metallica collection, as it lets you lightly into their thrashier era with subtlty and finesse.

R.T.L is Metallica's second album, and the album that I think everyone was waiting to see if they could come up with the goods to top the monster that was Kill 'em All.
The second album is always the make or breaker (unless you are Iron Maiden), and Metallica came up with the goods in style.
The thrashy "gallop" that was used through out 'Kill em All' has been dropped for more complex guitar work, and a slower pace in large sections of the songs. Although, there are super fast riffs through out this album, its just not 100% beginning to end like Kill em All was.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a thrash album !! But they changed their sound, becoming more mature. More power less speed.
From the opening accoustic intro of 'Fight Fire with Fire', to the bombatsic and epic built up finish to 'Call of the Ktulu', this album rages with super fast riffs, slow dark moments and that ever present snare drumming of Ulrich !
'For whom the Bell Tolls', is a powerful track, focusing on the ravages of warfare. It never really lets go on the speed side of things, but its a proper head banging tune with its heavy riffs and powerful chorus. Hetfield still "sings" through out the length of this album, something he did less and less as they progresed, prefering to shout/sing the words later in their career.
Highlights on this album include Fade to black, a power ballad (for want of a better term). People seem to go crazy over this track. Yes its a n amazing song, but if you are going to get all funny over a Metallica "power ballad" get crazy over "One on 'Justice... its far superior.
'Creeping Death' tells the tale of the Angel of Death coming down over Egypt and killing every first born son. Who'd have thought the old testament could have been so finly put into a thrash song !
Every song on this album is a winner, with maybe the exception of 'Call of the Ktulu' simply because its too long and too repetative. They made up for that on Master of Puppets with ' Orion' !!
R.T.L. is an exceptional album further deserving worthy praise when you think its 22 years old !!!!! And its not dated in any way !!
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Listening to the early albums like 'Lightning' and hearing the stuff they do today makes me wonder why they ever thought they needed to change ?