Ride The Lightning Essay

Ride The Lightning: A Thrash Metal Essay
September 18, 2014

Listen to Ride The Lightning on vinyl.

The curse of a band's sophomore album is legendary. Simply put, musicians have their entire life to create a first album. All the collective experiences and emotions, all the best riffs, progressions, musical talent, and energy are at the band's disposal. Hungry, unknown, and often unsigned bands pour their heart and soul into that first album. If successful, they are usually urged by the record label to immediately put out a second album.  This keeps the band's name fresh, helps them to stay relevant, and builds a fan base. They must create a new body of work that is expected to be at least as good, if not better, than their first album. They must do this while touring or in the short periods of time in between tours. As a result, many promising bands put out ill-conceived second albums full of rushed songs that were not fully ready to be put on an album. Recorded in Denmark, Metallica's second album, Ride The Lightning, was under even more pressure. Metallica's initial demo, No Life 'Til Leather, was recorded in a basement with a fluid cast of characters playing different instruments, and it became a massively sought-after cassette among the niche metal subculture of the early 1980's. When Metallica released their first album, Kill Em All, it literally ushered in a new era of heavy metal music. Although it may not have been as apparent at the time, Kill Em All would become a historic album which influenced the future of metal and became the seminal album of thrash metal. So when Ride The Lightning first came out on July 27, 1984, through legendary Megaforce Records, just one year and 3 days after Kill Em All, hopes were high among metal fans. Furthermore, in that year between the first and second album, Metallica went from being a solid opening act for the biggest names in thrash metal, to having many of those same acts opening for them. Already, after only one album, Metallica burst onto the scene and made a name for themselves. Metallica, with their blinding speed, brutal riffs, virtuoso bass playing, and in-your-face drumming, became un-followable. Crowds were worked into a frenzy by what they were hearing and feeling. Two months after the release of Ride The Lightning, Metallica was signed by the major record label Elektra and the album was re-released. Flemming Rasmussen produced the album (along with Master of Puppets and ...And Justice For All) and it crushed the metal world and lifted the bar for not only what metal could be, but for Metallica as a band. It also firmly planted Metallica as pioneers, leaders, and gods of thrash metal.


In the midst of a grueling worldwide touring schedule, which would become the hallmark of the band's insistence for playing live, Ride The Lightning was born. What followed was one of the all time greatest sophomore albums in rock history, and arguably, the single greatest sophomore album in modern heavy metal history. From top to bottom, Ride The Lightning is an unblemished pinnacle of what thrash metal is and can be. It's pure Metallica: uncannily fast, riff-driven tracks that harbor melodic verses and choruses with Metallica's staple bridges and beautifully trans-genre metal solos. This six-time platinum album would breed a new era of guitar-driven music. Certified guitar god Joe Satriani, who gave lessons to lead guitarist Kirk Hammett before the recording of Ride The Lightning, said, “In those songs, people hadn't really soloed over chord structures like that, they weren't blues chord structures, they weren't pop structures, they weren't jazz structures. It wasn't cut and dry, and I think if you took even somebody as accomplished as Steve Lukather, who during that time was the first-call electric guitar player in LA for sessions, he probably would have looked at the chord progression and gone: 'Oh my god, what are you going to do over this?' What it took was the new generation to say 'Okay, I'm not going to get psychedelic, I'm not going to get bluesy, I have to create a new path to solo over this new kind of chord progression.'”

Fight Fire With Fire


Right out of the gate Metallica attacks their new album with an intense first track entitled Fight Fire With Fire. This song could have been on Kill Em All and fit in perfectly. At the time, Metallica was a thrash metal band first and foremost. They couldn't care less about mainstream appeal, indeed it would be almost ten more years until they would see any kind of real radio play. Fight Fire With Fire is a testament to that attitude. The album and song begins with an acoustic 12-string guitar piece that is very Black Sabbath-esque. But as Lars' cymbals rise, the similarities to earlier metal end. Fight Fire With Fire explodes into a blazingly fast and straightforward thrash metal anthem. This song is heavy, fast, and perfectly simple. Rhythm guitarist and front man James Hetfield's vocals are distinctively different from Kill Em All. Here they are much lower in tone and more growling than anything on Kill Em All. Although throughout the rest of the album we hear James' vocals to be only marginally different from Kill Em All, here he begins his journey, lasting several albums, to find his distinctive vocal style. In fact, this is probably the heaviest vocal track Metallica produces until ...And Justice For All. What separates Metallica from other thrash metal bands is their ability to not only play fast, but their ability to quickly change riffs, melodies, break downs, alternate riffs, solos, bridges etc. My own personal gripe with metal music is that most bands show an inability to create real, listenable melodies. Not just speed, not just heaviness or screaming vocals, but plain, whistle-inducing melodies. Fight Fire With Fire is a barrage of metal that hits you from all angles. Riffs and sub-riffs are abound and the transitions themselves are enough to keep a listener coming back for more. In a catalog of headbangable songs, Fight Fire With Fire is among the most headbangable. The drums are furious and relentless. Drummer Lars Ulrich’s double bass plays perfectly with this fast-moving, multi-riff track. And, unlike way too many of his metal drumming peers, Lars doesn't feel the need to have some sort of cymbal crashing on every eighth note. His cymbals are used artfully, which adds to the heaviness of the track. The drum sound itself is a lot more traditional than most of Lars' drums (you don't hear the skin sound of the drums), but the beats carry all the style and creativity of a Lars Ulrich drum track. Bassist Cliff Burton is at the top of his game with his uniquely raw and technical bass prowess. Lightning fast- pun intended- and technical bass playing is heard throughout this track, however, sadly, some of this has been covered up when formats changed from vinyl. Take a listen to the bass isolation of Fight Fire With Fire to hear Cliff's unique and brooding style. Burton is a virtuoso of the fingerstyle and it clearly shows here, even with the rawness and distortion he adds to the track. All in all, Ride The Lightning starts off with a brutal kick in the teeth, right were Metallica left off with Kill Em All. And what better way to close out the opening song on their second album than with a nuclear explosion?

Ride The Lightning


Inspired by Stephen King's The Stand, the titular track on this pristine album begins with a squealing guitar harmony and drum beat that sets the tone for an amazing song/story combination. In contrast to Fight Fire With Fire, the second song on the album, and indeed the rest of the album itself, is much more melodic and complex. While some might argue that Hetfield's vocals sound outdated on Metallica's early albums, this song lends particularly well to the high pitched, early era Hetfield vocals. With heavy riffs and plenty of Kirk's lead work prominent in Ride The Lightning, this track is what the old folks would call, “a toe tapper.” In large part to the simple but effective drumming of Lars Ulrich. It should be noted that Lars gets much more than his fair share of hate for being a bad drummer. He has been criticized for his lazy drumming, boring fills, and most of all, his ineffective double bass playing. I think songs like Ride The Lightning are part of the reason why this is a common opinion. As stated before, I see Lars' technique as simple and often not flashy. But as for being boring or having bad technique, I just don't buy it. For whatever Lars has become over the years (and yes, he has simplified his live drumming) early Lars Ulrich is a fast, powerful, unique, and creative drummer. Just listen to Master Of Puppets (Damage Inc. anyone?) or ...And Justice For All and see how well the 'Lars blows' argument holds up. So, for now, I digress. I'll leave the issue by saying that the drumming on Ride The Lightning, both the song and the album, is simple and effective. Again, notable on the track is the insane bass playing of Cliff Burton, only this time is cleaned up a little bit and structured much closer to the guitars. What I love about Cliff is that his playing sounds like every track was done in one take. He often plays bass in a way that augments or blends well with the guitars, but here we see a bass track that closely matches the riffs of the guitars. Again, it's great to listen to isolated. But the piece de resistance of this song, and perhaps of the entire album, is the insane, nearly two-minute guitar solo by Kirk, right in the middle of the song. Just looking at the tablature makes me dizzy. It's brutal to play, amazing to watch, and fun as hell to listen to. If that's not enough for you, Kirk has a second, beautifully melodic solo towards the end. The song breaks down, resets with a raw, E-driven riff, concludes its story, and leaves the listener wanting to rewind to the beginning and go through it all over and over again.

For Whom The Bell Tolls


For Whom The Bell Tolls. For me to even begin to express what this song really is, I'm going to have to get very, VERY nerdy. From 1983 through 2012, Metallica played For Whom The Bell Tolls 1,223 times, making it the second most-played song from Ride The Lightning and the fifth most played Metallica song overall. So this is a powerful song, but what does power really mean? Well - and this is where it gets really nerdy – power can be calculated by dividing the total play count of a song by the number of concerts played after its first playing date (Shut up! I know some of you fruits play fantasy football, so don't even act like you don't nerd out on math sometimes). For Whom The Bell Tolls clocks in at 0.796. Similarly, Album Power can also be calculated, and Ride The Lightning gets a 0.239, making it second only to Metallica's latest album Death Magnetic, which, because of it's newness, skews the numbers. So for all intents and purposes, Ride The Lightning is Metallica's most powerful album. So now that the song is in its proper context, let's get down tot he nitty gritty. The song opens with the chimes of a church bell, a la AC/DC, and quickly explodes with a powerful riff that permeates the entire song. Every member of the band and their respective instrument shines in this song, both together and individually. The opening foreground riff is commonly mistaken for guitar, but it's actually Cliff Burton's innovative bass playing that takes the lead. The trade-offs between guitars, drums, and the droning church bell makes the first minutes of this Metallica classic undeniably metal. Kirk enters around 1:20 with a great lead and the beginning of the song evolves into its main riff. All told, it's just over two minutes in before James' verse kicks in. Quite a build. The lyrics set a couple of tones here, first it furthers one of Metallica's most prevalent themes throughout their entire career, war, and it also starts the album-long trend of basing songs off of novels, in this case, For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. With heavy, simple metal riffs, great lead riffs, enigmatic bass, and brilliant drumming (fills, cymbals, and all), For Whom The Bell Tolls is an absolute monster of a song. Maybe not as truly thrash, as it lacks speed, but a behemoth of the genre none the less. As always, you want to listen to Metallica on first press, Megaforce recording vinyls, but if you aren't as pious (or stupid) a listener as I, at least get your hands on some solid vinyl FLAC's. Or just click here.

Fade To Black


And here we go. The beginning of Metallica losing “fans.” From this moment on, Metallica, inexplicably, will lose certain fans with each new album. Disgustingly dubbed a “power ballad,” (words that make my stomach wretch) Fade To Black is significantly slower, at first at least, than any Metallica song at the time. As a result, thrash metal purists (metal's equivalent to hipsters. Basically, dorks who only listen to niche thrash bands while wearing ironic pants and wearing shirts with text so distorted it's impossible to read unless you happen to know that exact niche metal band) shat collective bricks when they first heard Fade To Black. To Metallica fans, or at least to fans of Metallica's work up to The Black Album, Fade To Black is an undisputed masterpiece. Telling the story of a man who contemplates his eventual suicide, the song has, according to fans, ironically given comfort to many listeners in the same situation. They say it's nice to know that other people think like that, and it's comforting to know they're not alone. James wears his heart on his sleeve with this one and has stated several times that he receives much fan mail about this song getting people through tough times. Fade To Black has a very high Song Power to Song Duration value (I know! I know, I know I know, I know...) which basically means it's in the upper echelon of Metallica songs, like Master of Puppets and Seek and Destroy. It's a beautiful piece that begins with an elegant 12-string guitar overlaid with a melodic and emotional solo. That's a big key here, the emotions of this song are expressed immaculately through the tone and instrumentals. While the lyrics are clear, the true emotion and intent can be found in the acoustics and solos. The song is somewhat straightforward at first, very melodic 12-strings and vocals, and a chorus that is juxtaposed nicely by a heavy riff. Rinse and repeat. The song is one long slow build. It really starts to kick in after the second verse/chorus with an abrupt pace change and guitar bridge, along with a requisite badass riff. The song breaks down into its final riff and Kirk Hammett delivers the single most emotional solo in Metallica's catalog. Frequently mentioned in all-time greatest rock solos in Guitar Magazine, Rolling Stone, and other debatable sources around the globe, Fade To Black can be thought of as the Stairway To Heaven of it's genre and time period. The two songs are also quite similar structurally. Personally, I've always seen the lineage of superior rock bands to go : Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath to Metallica. Fade To Black reinforces that opinion and deserves to be in spoken of in the same breath as two of the greatest bands in rock history.

Trapped Under Ice


In sharp contrast to the “softer” song that is Fade To Black, Metallica follows up with a raging roller coaster of pure thrash. Slightly more complex than Fight Fire With Fire, Trapped Under Ice is unflinchingly thrash. Fast paced, screaming solos, and shouting lyrics make for a headbanging frenzy of a song. Lars again provides a solid but simple drum beat, but this time his fills and cymbals are considerably more interesting and powerful. Kirk shows signs of his signature style with heavy use of the wah pedal that matches perfectly with the screaming, high-pitched timbre of the song. As always, the bass provided by Cliff Burton is pristine, and this time much less distorted. His amazing fingerstyle really shows on this track. Trapped Under Ice, for whatever reason, is known to be an absolute rarity of a live song, which is a shame. Numbers differ depending on sources, but it has only been played about five times live in its entirety. Metallica set a Guinness Book Of World Records for being the first band to play on every continent in a single year. Sadly, in December of 2013, when Metallica played an hour long concert at Carlini Station on Antarctica, Metallica passed on the perfect opportunity to play Trapped Under Ice. The subject matter tells the story of someone who is literally trapped under ice and must deal with the crippling loneliness of not being able to be free. It's also a great metaphor for dealing with pain, loneliness, and hopelessness. There is also a wonderfully melodic ear-worm of a bridge that rounds the song out nicely.

Escape


Probably the catchiest song on the album, Escape is just a damn good rock song. Its got a heaviness to it, but you don't have to be a metalhead to enjoy this one. James explores his full vocal range and foreshadows how great a vocalist he will eventually become. The verse is solid and the guitars grab the listener, but the chorus is truly amazing. It's a melody that could have worked in any time period in any style of music. It gives the song a great contrast of metal with more classical forms of rock. Another ultra rare live play, which is sad. Even though it came out in 1983, it was first played in Atlantic City on June 23, 2012 when Metallica played Ride The Lightning in its entirety. To date, this is still the only time Escape has ever been played live. The lyrics are typical for Metallica's anti-authoritative, freedom-seeking, and soul-searching themes. It touches on individualism, endurance, and the struggle of keeping your identity in an unjust world. Needless to say, it's a perfect metal anthem for any teenager, and as the album ages (recently hitting its 20 year anniversary) it reminds me of my childhood, when I first discovered Metallica. And although I and the album have grown up, I think it's important to keep in touch with these themes as an adult. Kirk delivers another powerful solo, it breaks down with a nice bridge which leads to a coda, and ends with the repetition of the lyrics, “Life's for my own to live my own way.” Metal fans are often a little left of center, if not totally ostracized and belittled socially, so songs like this are important and in fact liberating, especially with youths, often depressed, and feel alienated themselves. Countless times over the years, Metallica has stepped up and was not afraid to tackle subject matter that was sensitive and personal. In an era where “rock stars” were dressing up like women and singing about sex and cocaine, Metallica sang from the heart, which is why so many fans feel such a deep connection with the band.

Creeping Death


Well, sorry folks, but I'm going to have to get nerdy again because Creeping Death is an atom bomb of a metal song. Creeping Death is the second most played song that Metallica plays live; the most played being Master Of Puppets. And it’s a close race as Creeping Death has 1,351 live plays as of 2012 and Master of Puppets has 1,384, even though Creeping Death had a two year head start. As an aside, most casual or non Metallica fans would probably assume Enter Sandman to be their most played song because it was easily their biggest commercial success. It is, in fact, sixth, lower than even I expected. Creeping Death tells the tale of The Plague of the Death of the First Born from Exodus 12:29 in the Christian Bible. More accurately, it was ten plagues that, well... plagued Egypt for four hundred years. In the song, the lyrics mention four of those plagues by name, as well as Hagadah, the Passover exodus. The song also refers to many other specific events of Exodus, most dealing with the Goshen region of Egypt, Moses, and the Pharaoh/slave relationship. Definitely an interesting metal song and one that neither preaches nor denounces religion but simply uses the subject matter to fuel a fast and furious thrash metal anthem. The song is told from the point of view of an Angel of Death who, as commanded by Moses by way of his dialogue with God, is commanded to reign down ten plagues upon Egypt. The tenth and most severe strike saw the God of Israel killing every male first-born in Egypt, one of those killed being the Pharaoh's. If this wasn't enough Exodus for you, the bridge of the song, with its infamous, “Die, by my hand!” which is repeated several times, was a leftover piece that Kirk wrote with his old band, Exodus. But depth and intrigue aside, Creeping Death is loved by fans because it rocks incredibly hard, even by Metallica standards. Its got a Power Rating of 0.866, which puts it at number six of all Metallica's songs. The reason's simple: it's just a great song. Simple, headbangable, great riffs and solos, and screamable vocals all make it a fan favorite. It’s very high energy but still musical. In classic Metallica fashion, Kirk throws in an awesome solo right in the middle of the song, then they pick right back up and keep rocking. In high school, when I saw Metallica for the very first time, they opened with this song and it's still the most indelible memory of that night. Well, that and the fact that James wasn't in attendance due to a spinal injury he received on a jet ski, making it the first and only Metallica show to not include James Hetfield. It was actually quite amazing because members of System of A Down, Korn, and other bands joined in and made what could have been a bad situation into an awesome mix of Metallica classics and random rock songs, like Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was also fun to hear then bassist Jason Newsted sing on most of the songs, forgetting lyrics and all. Simply put, Creeping Death is a top-tier Metallica song, one that crushes live, even under the most bizarre of circumstances.

The Call Of Ktulu


Over the years Metallica has made several bold moves, even right from the beginning. On their debut album Kill Em All, Metallica included a four-and-a-half minute bass solo, something that was highly unusual but incredibly well received. In addition to writing and including Fade To Black on their second album, Metallica closes out with a nine minute epic instrumental. In theory that's asking a lot from a listener, but The Call Of Ktulu is such an amazing song that nobody in their right mind could question they're judgment. A beautifully arranged beast of a song, The Call Of Ktulu furthers the albums theme of writing songs based on novels, or in this case, a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. It opens with a beautifully clean progression from Kirk and builds up steam from there. This is another track that allows every member of the band to shine brightly. Somehow, without the use of lyrics, one walks away with the feeling that this is the musical equivalent to an H.P. Lovecraft story. The world famous Cthulhu that Lovecraft wrote about in multiple stories is an ancient and horrific sea creature that is captivating to read about. The reason for the difference in spelling (Lovecraft's Cthulhu vs. Metallica's Ktulu) is unknown, but what is known is that the song is impressively arranged and plays like a metal symphony. In fact, when the song was arranged with Michael Kamen for Metallica's performance with the San Fransisco Symphony, it won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and certainly deservingly so. With this song we begin to see the depth of Metallica's writing ability and their willingness to stray from the pure thrash metal music they were so adored for. If Beethoven ever had access to an electric guitar, he would have written a song like The Call Of Ktulu. It's an absolute testament to the professional mastery that both James and Kirk had over their guitars and it heavily features Cliff Burton's world renowned bass prowess. The drums are ever-changing and interesting and add plenty to the texture of the song. It wanders, builds, breaks down, repeats riffs, and closes out exactly as it started, taking the listener on a full circle ride that, despite its imposing nine minute length, never gets boring. A truly masterful and confidant way to end a record.


And that's Ride The Lightning folks. You'd be hard pressed to find a metal band today that isn't acutely aware of it, if not directly influenced by this album, and as I've stated, I'm more than willing to say that it's the single greatest sophomore metal album of all time, and one of the greatest sophomore albums in all of rock history.