RIDE THE LIGHTNING

Ride the Lightning is the second effort of Metallica. The music is about the eye for an eye princinple, electrocutions, suicidal patients, batlefields, being trapped under ice and the seven plaques in Egypt. These fine young lads of Metallica surely had some negative worldview, but this music brought trash-metal to a higher level. The songs were written more carefully and the guitarsolo's even got better then in Kill 'em All. No rock'n roll anymore, but just metal.

So, this record is in all aspects the better one? No, Kill 'em All was more agressive and the vocals might have been naief, but these were really convincing. And in my opinion the rock 'n roll influences were realy great on Metallica's debut.

The first track "Fight fire with fire" is IMO the weakest track of the record. The riffs are fast, but I am not convinced by it. I do only like the solo's on this track. The other three track of the first side however are realy showing some quality. "Fade to Black" may be the finest track of the first side with it's acoustic parts and trash parts.

The second side ends with IMO the most brilliant track Metallica ever made: the progressive trasher "Call of the Ktulu": an instrumental-only composition with nice progression and nice wah-wah guitarsound effects. It's dark and exciting and shows the things Metallica was realy good at: guitarsolo's and riffs at it's best.

IMO this is Metallica's most steady effort with some of Metallica's best songs. 4,5 stars.

p.s. the title of this review is a quote of Ride the Lightning's inner cover!

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