Album of the Week #4 - Metallica - Ride The Lightning

Karl Hungus · 27-08-2007 07:59PM #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G63YItfPDG4

Absolute classic thrash album. Personally, I prefer Master Of Puppets, but there's no denying Ride The Lightning is an absolutely blistering album aswell.

GhostInTheRuins · 27-08-2007 08:01PM

My favourite Metallica album. One of the first (Metal) albums I bought and one that really got me into metal. Christ it's been years since I've listened to this.

Léan · 27-08-2007 08:15PM

Yuuusss!!
Fantastic classic thrash album! Woop

cournioni · 27-08-2007 08:32PM

Reasonable enough album. Wouldn't say its a classic really as there is only three or four good songs on it. Love the title song, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Fade To Black and Kthulu. Creeping Death is ok, the rest are meh.

It wasn't me! · 27-08-2007 09:01PM

A stonking album. Has something Puppets doesn't, in my opinion. That said, I prefer Puppets, but this album has something unique in it.

Malice · 27-08-2007 09:09PM

I am delighted this won. Appetite last week and now this one. Ride The Lightning is one of my favourite albums of all time. I remember hearing this first when a friend played me a dodgy taped version. He told me I had to hear this album and then proceeded to put on "Fight Fire with Fire". I was most definitely underwhelmed by the acoustic guitar intro but I think my jaw hit the floor when I heard what came next! I don't think I'd ever heard guitars played so fast. That was it for me, I had been chosen as a devotee by the Metal gods

Love the title song, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Fade To Black and Kthulu. Creeping Death is ok, the rest are meh.

"The rest" is just two songs - Escape and Trapped Under Ice. Both of these are solid songs in their own right but I suppose they aren't quite up to the standards set by the rest of the album. I think they work well in the context of the album as a whole as they set the scene nicely for the evil-sounding instrumental - Call of Ktulu. The title track, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Creeping Death and Fade to Black are absolutely timeless classics. I will always like Fight Fire With Fire just for the intro alone even if the rest of the song is a bit limited in comparison.
Anyway, it's an absolute masterpiece of an album. No self-respecting metal fan should be without this in their collection. Forget the Metallica of the 90s onwards, this was them at their best!

CarefulNow · 27-08-2007 10:10PM

Great album but I prefer Master of Puppets.

Schism · 27-08-2007 10:51PM

Top notch album alright, prefer this to puppets but ...And Justice For All tops the two of them for me. :eek:

Ph3n0m · 28-08-2007 07:00AM

First Metallica album I bought, listened to...and the one that I will play more then any other Metallica album

Malice · 28-08-2007 07:19AM

CarefulNow wrote:

Great album but I prefer Master of Puppets.

Any particular reason why?

Earthworm Jim! wrote:

Top notch album alright, prefer this to puppets but ...And Justice For All tops the two of them for me. :eek:

Now this one I don't understand, the sound on Justice For All is terrible. Does the complete lack of bass tone and the horrible squelchy drums not annoy you?

buck65 · 28-08-2007 08:33AM

Ride the lightning - classic, remember when this came out my cousin from the US brought it over and I listened to it and absolutely loved it and it got me into metal in a big way. Puppets was probably a better produced and slicker release but for sheer attitiude this was the one , a massive forward step after the well dodgy Kill em All.

senordingdong · 28-08-2007 08:57AM

Classic album indeed.
Opens up well and just keeps on ploughing through you.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 28-08-2007 09:31AM

awesome album, and whoever it was that was talking smack about AJFA... stop it

stop it, now.

Mushy · 28-08-2007 09:53AM

Surprised this won...hadnt looked at voting lately. But what can I say?

Most definately a classic album, my favourite Metallica album by a bit. Actually like all the songs on it, easy to listen to. Remember buying it for my bbrother for his birthday, I didnt know who Metallica were really(I wsa in my pop-years ya know, Eiffel 65 that crap). Little did I know I'd grow to love this album and it be one of my favourites. FFWF is brilliant, and it gets better as the album moves on. Loved hearing RTL(song) this year.

Sephiroth_dude · 28-08-2007 10:45AM

great album,first metallica album i got.Timeless classic,And justice for all is a classic too as is master of puppets and kill em all!:cool: i love them four albums

Degag · 28-08-2007 11:37AM

malice_ wrote:

Any particular reason why?
Now this one I don't understand, the sound on Justice For All is terrible. Does the complete lack of bass tone and the horrible squelchy drums not annoy you?

I actually like the sound of the drums in this. I think it is by far their most technical album and the ulrich bashers should listen to it and realise that he was once a world class drummer whatever about his current capabilities.

Sephiroth_dude · 28-08-2007 12:08PM

Tackle69 wrote:

I actually like the sound of the drums in this. I think it is by far their most technical album and the ulrich bashers should listen to it and realise that he was once a world class drummer whatever about his current capabilities.

I agree with you there.The drums on that album are very technical and sound cool.

A Primal Nut · 28-08-2007 01:25PM

Great album - but I'll always prefer Master Of Puppets where almost every song is a classic. Still this album has three of my favourite songs ever (For Whom The Bell Tolls, Fade To Black and Creeping Death) and for them alone its a classic. Ride The Lightning is awesome too. Escape and Call of Ktulu are quite melodic and good songs but wouldn't call em classics. Fight Fire With Fire and Trapped Under Ice are pure trash metal but I don't consider them great songs.

Undergod · 28-08-2007 06:32PM

Got a taxi home the other night - the driver was playing this on the way. Best Taxt Driver Ever.

cournioni · 28-08-2007 09:36PM

malice_ wrote:

"The rest" is just two songs - Escape and Trapped Under Ice. Both of these are solid songs in their own right but I suppose they aren't quite up to the standards set by the rest of the album. I think they work well in the context of the album as a whole as they set the scene nicely for the evil-sounding instrumental - Call of Ktulu. The title track, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Creeping Death and Fade to Black are absolutely timeless classics. I will always like Fight Fire With Fire just for the intro alone even if the rest of the song is a bit limited in comparison.
Anyway, it's an absolute masterpiece of an album. No self-respecting metal fan should be without this in their collection. Forget the Metallica of the 90s onwards, this was them at their best!

Correction, the rest is three songs. Fight Fire With Fire is the other. Personally I think it is an over rated album from an over rated band.

The hype surrounding Metallica is just silly, they have a few good songs but nothing to put them on a par with the likes of Sabbath as alot of Metallica fans seem to think is the case.

mc nuggets · 28-08-2007 10:30PM

What an album. I'm never sure whether i prefer this or Master of Puppets, it really is close. MoP just edges ahead because its got Orion on it

Schism · 29-08-2007 12:46AM

malice_ wrote:

Any particular reason why?
Now this one I don't understand, the sound on Justice For All is terrible. Does the complete lack of bass tone and the horrible squelchy drums not annoy you?

Ye sure its different and not what you'd expect and at first it did annoy me but the quailty of the songs on this album is fantastic.

In my opinion if it was produced differently in the first place there would be a lot more people singing its praises now.

Malice · 29-08-2007 07:30AM

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Correction, the rest is three songs. Fight Fire With Fire is the other.

You're dead right, sorry about that. I must have gotten confused looking at the track listing.

Either way, for the intro alone Fight Fire With Fire is a great song.

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Personally I think it is an over rated album from an over rated band. The hype surrounding Metallica is just silly, they have a few good songs but nothing to put them on a par with the likes of Sabbath as alot of Metallica fans seem to think is the case.

I for one wouldn't put Metallica anywhere near Black Sabbath. As far as I'm concerned Metallica's early stuff is legendary and puts them far above Black Sabbath.

buck65 · 29-08-2007 08:55AM

Pornapster - very controversial, but you do make a good point. If you look at Metallica's back catalogue they have some fantastic songs 3 or 4 on RTL, most of Master, 4 from AJFA and maybe 3 from the next few albums at most.
So IMO they have maybe 20 great songs, that is probably still better than most metal bands but the hype is just waaaaay too much.
They have been abysmal since 1991, at least we have 3 great albums though, their music is formulaic now, much the pity.

Diarmuid · 29-08-2007 08:59AM

buck65 wrote:

They have been abysmal since 1991, at least we have 3 great albums though,

Just goes to show how great those 3 (to 5) albums were. Still the biggest metal act 20 years after their magnum opus

senordingdong · 29-08-2007 09:24AM

No way, Puppets is untouchable from start to finish.

Sephiroth_dude · 29-08-2007 09:39AM

Can't believe ye left out kill em all,thats a great thrash album!

Malice · 29-08-2007 11:58AM

buck65 wrote:

the hype is just waaaaay too much

You are the second poster to mention this and I have to ask. What hype are you talking about? If you're talking about the sense of anticipation in the run up to each time they release an album or the buzz of discussions each time it's announced they are in the studio that's not hype. That's their fans hoping for a return to form to the Metallica of the mid to late eighties.

Schism · 29-08-2007 12:05PM

buck65 wrote:

They have been abysmal since 1991, at least we have 3 great albums though, their music is formulaic now, much the pity.

Firstly I dont know if your including black in this since it was released in 1991. That's far from an abysmal album either way imo.

After that they haven't made anything with the same sound/tempo of their previous releases. Albums like Load and Reload aren't abysmal they're just not what people wanted to hear from metallica.

It wasn't me! · 29-08-2007 04:33PM

Earthworm Jim! wrote:

Albums like Load and Reload aren't abysmal

Ah, let's be honest now...

mc nuggets · 29-08-2007 07:36PM

It wasn't me! wrote:

Ah, let's be honest now...

At least they were better than St. Anger. Thats not saying much though is it

Civilian_Target · 29-08-2007 08:23PM

I wish they'd created an album called Ride The Puppets

It would have been the greatest metal album ever, with Battery, MOP, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Fade To Black, and turn over to Creeping Death, Sanitarium, Orion and Damage Inc. (And you can possibly drop the "metal" in that last sentence

)

For me, Ride The Lightning is all about For Whom the Bell Tolls and Creeping Death. Particularly the latter is a stonking track.

Degag · 30-08-2007 02:26AM

buck65 wrote:

Pornapster - very controversial, but you do make a good point. If you look at Metallica's back catalogue they have some fantastic songs 3 or 4 on RTL, most of Master, 4 from AJFA and maybe 3 from the next few albums at most.
So IMO they have maybe 20 great songs, that is probably still better than most metal bands but the hype is just waaaaay too much.
They have been abysmal since 1991, at least we have 3 great albums though, their music is formulaic now, much the pity.

I cant think of any band past or present who have 20 "great" songs, if great is the quality of the likes of one or mop.

cournioni · 30-08-2007 07:00AM

buck65 wrote:

Pornapster - very controversial, but you do make a good point. If you look at Metallica's back catalogue they have some fantastic songs 3 or 4 on RTL, most of Master, 4 from AJFA and maybe 3 from the next few albums at most.
So IMO they have maybe 20 great songs, that is probably still better than most metal bands but the hype is just waaaaay too much.
They have been abysmal since 1991, at least we have 3 great albums though, their music is formulaic now, much the pity.

Personally I can only think of a few good songs which I don't really care to list. 20 is way way over the top.

malice, the hype I'm talking about is the "Metalikuh are dee best band in the wurrld" type of hype. The over exposure in the media that they get when there are clearly better bands out there than them. Especially the fact that they haven't released a half decent album since the late 80's early 90's.

To be honest, if I was to be given two blank cd's and asked to make a best of Metallica album, I would struggle to fill it with "great songs".

Malice · 30-08-2007 07:31AM

PORNAPSTER wrote:

malice, the hype I'm talking about is the "Metalikuh are dee best band in the wurrld" type of hype. The over exposure in the media that they get when there are clearly better bands out there than them. Especially the fact that they haven't released a half decent album since the late 80's early 90's.

I understand what you're saying and I can't argue about the quality of their releases since the Black album that's for sure. As for overexposure in the media, when you're the one of the most entities in your area, that's what people want to hear about. It's a bit like the way football headines are all about Man Utd/Chelsea/Liverpool rather than say Exeter City

I agree with you that there are better bands than Metallica out there but any list that I came up with would probably be very different to yours and I doubt many of the bands that I list would be capable of putting on as exhilarating a live show as Metallica still does.

PORNAPSTER wrote:

To be honest, if I was to be given two blank cd's and asked to make a best of Metallica album, I would struggle to fill it with "great songs".

I tried this before and had to give up because I couldn't decide what songs to leave out

Mordeth wrote:

awesome album, and whoever it was that was talking smack about AJFA... stop it

Was that aimed at my comment about the sound? If so, I still stand by it

That's not to say that the songs on the album aren't excellent because they are!

Fozzy · 30-08-2007 12:04PM

Ride The Lightning is a great album, I haven't listened to it in about two years though. Every song except Escape is excellent, the best being Fade to Black and Creeping Death I think

The overexposure they get in the media when they come over here is nothing to do with their music, it's because so many people want to see them. A band like Opeth might have been making better music recently, but they just don't have the same amount of fans as Metallica, so there's no reason for the media to cover them at all. Plus, Metallica know how to promote themselves very well

Alter-Ego · 30-08-2007 06:28PM

I just jumped on the bandwagon when i voted for this. I think its a fantastic album but puppets is better imo.

Some great tracks on it and it does have a certain sound that i've never heard on any other metallica album. Deserves album of the week status.

A Primal Nut · 30-08-2007 06:41PM

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Personally I can only think of a few good songs which I don't really care to list. 20 is way way over the top.

malice, the hype I'm talking about is the "Metalikuh are dee best band in the wurrld" type of hype. The over exposure in the media that they get when there are clearly better bands out there than them. Especially the fact that they haven't released a half decent album since the late 80's early 90's.

To be honest, if I was to be given two blank cd's and asked to make a best of Metallica album, I would struggle to fill it with "great songs".

Saying they don't have at least 20 great songs is your subjective opinion and the fact is that almost all metal fans disagree with you. What makes them wrong and you right? Hype? Don't be rediculous. For one thing, the Black album is the most hyped Metallica album yet very few fans list it as their favourite album.

I hate the way certain people think "oh well I don't like a band, therefore they must be popular for other reasons than music because there's no way I'm wrong - oh yeah, hype, that's a good one!" :rolleyes: There's no basis for it. I've listened to lots of bands of different genres (including Black Sabbath) and Metallica are one of my top 3 favourite bands of all time. You'll just have to take my word for it that its purely because of the music and not other reasons. I actually take offence that you think I can't make up my mind about a band based on their music - I'm not a ****in' sheep.

As for they don't have 20 great songs, well lets see, pretty much all of Kill 'Em All and Master Of Puppets are classic metal songs - about 14, so well over halfway there already. I'd personally add in half of RTL and AJFL, another 9 - so there's 23 - then i'd say 4 or 5 from the Black Album. It's definately close to 30 and that's talking about classics that could make the best of album - there's still loads of other great songs. IMSO of course.:rolleyes:

Amazing live too.

gucci · 30-08-2007 07:22PM

the first metallica album i owned and boy does it still soudn great to this day!! sure i may admit i prefer MOP, but this album is brilliant, for whom the bell tolls is a great song and fade to black was the first metallica song that i could make a decent go of on a guitar so for that reason i always enjoy listening to it.
infact i havent been listening to it enough these times.....right im out of here to go look for it

Malice · 30-08-2007 07:33PM

I think it's funny how there are so many replies on this thread saying that Master of Puppets is better. If that's the case then how did Ride The Lightning end up as album of the week before it?

Devious · 31-08-2007 03:31AM

malice_ wrote:

I think it's funny how there are so many replies on this thread saying that Master of Puppets is better. If that's the case then how did Ride The Lightning end up as album of the week before it?

Im sure we'll see MOP on here at some stage, its just that RTL deserves a lot of recognition as being the stepping stone to MOP so maybe thats why we all voted for it first. I prefer MOP as wll but still voted for RTL.

Ph3n0m · 31-08-2007 05:39AM

Devious wrote:

Im sure we'll see MOP on here at some stage, its just that RTL deserves a lot of recognition as being the stepping stone to MOP so maybe thats why we all voted for it first. I prefer MOP as wll but still voted for RTL.

plus a lot of people were just too damn lazy to actually vote for their preferred Metallica album. As one poster said "just jumped on the band wagon" :rolleyes:

Devious · 31-08-2007 06:47AM

Ph3n0m wrote:

plus a lot of people were just too damn lazy to actually vote for their preferred Metallica album. As one poster said "just jumped on the band wagon" :rolleyes:

Its not really a case of "jumping on the bandwagon", its just that a lot of people saw this as an opportunity to get RTL recognised as the fine album that it is and so voted for it.

Theres no particular order to this album of the week thing i.e. its not "week 1: best album ever, week 2: second best album ever" etc. so it doesn't matter that RTL has appeared before MOP.

Malice · 31-08-2007 07:52AM

That makes sense I suppose. I for one intend to vote for Master of Puppets starting next week. Then I can hopefully post all over it's Album of The Week thread saying how Ride The Lightning is much better

Het-Field · 03-09-2007 02:00PM

It is my favourite Tallica album.

-First off the bat, I would never put trapped under Ice in the same catagory as "Escape". Escape is a song Iv listened to about 10 times since i got the album in 2002. Trapped Under Ice, is a song iv listened to hundreds of times. Its a quintessential Trash metal track. I know people who have seen it played live, and they would say metallica should play it more.

-Creeping Death is my favourite song. I love the intro, the crowd interaction, and the lyrics are biting. Its a song people forget all too quickly when talking about Metallica's best

-Ride The Lighting, has one of those bone crunching solos which only Metallica can deliver. Its a song iv never seen live, but I want it now.

-Saw both Fight Fire With Fiew, and Kutulu live. They are amazing pieces of music, however, I would concede that I perfer Orion.

-Fade to Black and For Whom The Bell Tolls are Metallica classics. I neednt say more.

Ride The Lightining is a `10/10 Album.

Buy It

ec18 · 05-09-2007 06:07PM

i'm fairly meh about this album tbh...I like the album but it is by no means one of the best albums i ever heard........it would at a push make it into my top 10......Its good just not great...doesn't compare to kill em all imo......Saying that though the title track is one of my favourite songs

Dragan · 06-09-2007 11:41AM

This was the first ever tape that i actually bought, as opposed to copied!

Got it on a trip to Dublin with my auld lad when i was but a tiny D! I love this album, some absolutely fantastic songs on it.

Malice · 06-09-2007 12:02PM

ec18 wrote:

i'm fairly meh about this album tbh...I like the album but it is by no means one of the best albums i ever heard........it would at a push make it into my top 10......Its good just not great

You like it but say it's not great? Then you say it would make it into your top ten? Is that not a bit contradictory?

ec18 wrote:

doesn't compare to kill em all imo

I agree with you here but probably from the opposite viewpoint

I think it stomps all over Kill 'Em All. With dirty great Paratrooper boots!

ec18 · 06-09-2007 09:05PM

malice_ wrote:

You like it but say it's not great? Then you say it would make it into your top ten? Is that not a bit contradictory?

I meant that it would struggle to make it into my top ten if at all, And its a good album but its no paranoid or master of reality, I'd find it hard to compare it to most of my "classic" rock collection....

malice_ wrote:

I agree with you here but probably from the opposite viewpoint I think it stomps all over Kill 'Em All. With dirty great Paratrooper boots!

Well thats your opinion kill em all is probably my favourite metallica album ( yes i prefer it to puppets)

SirLemonhead · 06-09-2007 09:47PM

I like it a lot. I don't listen to it very often anymore mind, but it's a great album. The guitar tone is nice and crunchy and Kirk played some of the best leads of his career on this, I think.

Miles better than Master of Puppets (awful guitar tone and mindless kirk hammet noodling solos...it's like he's guessing what notes to play next on some of the songs)

Malice · 07-09-2007 07:47AM

ec18 wrote:

I meant that it would struggle to make it into my top ten if at all, And its a good album but its no paranoid or master of reality, I'd find it hard to compare it to most of my "classic" rock collection....

Fair enough, the top ten comment makes sense now. Why would you compare a thrash metal album to a classic rock album though? They are very different genres. You might as well compare it to The Lord of The Rings soundtrack and complain that it doesn't have as much choral singing

ec18 wrote:

Well thats your opinion kill em all is probably my favourite metallica album

Don't get me wrong, Kill 'Em All is an excellent album in places. Songs like No Remore, Four Horsemen are classics.

Album of the Week #4 - Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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