Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
After the huge splash created by their debut thrash classic Kill ‘Em All, Metallica effectively continued moving through the high gears for the equally impressive sophomore Ride the Lightning. Most thrash bands at this time would’ve been contented to try and issue out a Kill ‘Em All mk.2, but Metallica showed that when it came to thrash they were far more ambitious than was possibly expected (even though parts of the previous album showed where they were going anway) on Ride the Lightning and were now ready to push the boundaries of the genre to the max. Kill ‘Em All had demonstrated how Metallica had taken their Diamond Head template and had turned it into something less melodic but far meaner sounding, Ride the Lightning would now take the band into improved compositional expression, greater progression, controlled experimentation and the band’s lyrics now delved into even more personal subject matter, such as death by electrocution on “Ride the Lightning” a man's eventual suicide on "Fade to Black" and being in a cryonic state on “Trapped Under Ice” and overall the band display great maturity for a band that were from such a young sub-genre. The album still has two writing credits that were partly written by the ex-guitarist Dave Mustaine, which all shows that recordings for this album took place not long after Kill ‘Em All. The album name Ride the Lightning despite being suggested by Kirk Hammett, could also be attributed to the fact that the band were riding the lightning streak created by their thrash sound and also how Metallica had possibly stolen Diamond Head’s thunder, but of course that is just supposition on my part. The band also started their tenure with producer Flemming Rasmussen who would stay with the band for their ultimate masterpiece in Master of Puppets and then onto their most contentious album ….. And Justice for All. The album is loaded up with a cascade of metal epics that start with the seminal “Fight Fire with Fire” which has the band starting the song with a pseudo-classical intro that has a slight Led Zep tinge to it. The song then explodes into a speed merchants dream and progresses through several notable stages, it’s also a Metallica track that has been covered multiple artists. The song then practically leads into the title track “Ride the Lightning” which has an awesome groovy intro that permeates throughout the rest of the song and at times the whole thing sounds like one long song from the previous track, but as title tracks should always be something special this song fits the bill nicely and is literally 6.35 mins of pure progressive thrash metal from the band. “For Whom the Bells Toll” which now in hindsight sounds like the slower archetypal Metallica song title, is a more ponderous affair that kind of reminds me of those dark Judas Priest tracks from the late 1970s and at 5 mins it’s actually one of the shorter tracks on the album. Next track “Fade to Black” kind of starts the band’s affair with balladry and basically the band show here that they had been listening to a whole load of Wishbone Ash albums, which of course shows that they had immense musical taste anyway in choosing their influences. Given that the song is almost 7 mins the second longest on the album, the track is a masterful representation of the band’s musical talent. The second side of the album starts with “Trapped Under Ice” which turns out to be the most one dimensional track on the album and also one of the album’s lesser tracks, which is surprising given its pure thrash credentials. I’m not exactly enamoured with the following track “Escape” either which tries to work some melody into proceedings and give us an easier on the ear approach, and in many ways these two tracks let the album down a notch or two. “Creeping Death” deals with the subject of plague and basically sounds like a b-side composition, and in my mind drags on a bit too much. A less than brilliant b-side is then saved by the epic “The Call of Ktulu” an awesome instrumental which just seems to glide by and hardly feels its almost 9 mins. Finally one thing that strikes me again as with the best tracks on “Kill ‘Em All” the two tracks that are written here with Dave Mustaine “Ride the Lightning” and “The Call of Ktulu” are yet again some of Metallica’s best tracks from this period, which leads me to believe if Dave Mustaine had remained. Metallica could’ve been even better than they were, but then of course we would never have had Megadeth. Overall Ride the Lightning clocks in several minutes shorter than Kill ‘Em All and is the perfect link between that album and the even more seminal Master of Puppets, personally I believe had Metallica not recorded Ride the Lightning, then the band would’ve never have reached the heights on the Master of Puppets.

James Hetfield- Rhythm/Vocals
Kirk Hammett- Guitar
Cliff Burton- Bass
Lars Ulrich- Drums

Production- Flemming Rasmussen

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