Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" Released 35 Years Ago Today

[Riff Ranger]

From a musician's, and specifically a bassist's, perspective: what do you think of this one 35 years later?

 

[rickster4003]

Arg, nothing like making me feel old.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I absolutely loved it back then & still do.
At the time we thought Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax were changing the face of Heavy Metal.

My friends were more into Slayer & Anthrax, while I was loving Testament & Exodus more.
Testament came under our radar first, so I led the drive out to see them, but I digress.

We would later see Metallica at the same venue we saw Testament & the opening act gave all the members of Metallica their band's shirts, Nosferatu. James can be seen wearing his in the Nothing Else Matters Video:

Link Removed

not such a great photo, but there are others of him in that shirt:

 

[RyanOh]

I still love Trapped Under Ice even though they don't play it anymore. Love that album.

 

[Riff Ranger]

Arg, nothing like making me feel old.

Yeah ... I was not quite four years old when this came out, and I'm now parent to a teenager, and I was not a teenage parent. Sorry, man

So ... that means I discovered this one, and all of Metallica's landmark '80s albums, after first knowingly hearing them on The Black Album a bit before I started playing (which was summer 1993). When I started working backward (and recognized material from ... And Justice for All as something I had heard my brother spin before), I shunned The Black Album and just listened to those for years.

I still love Trapped Under Ice even though they don't play it anymore. Love that album.

I think I'm unusual in my opinion on that one and "Escape," but I skip those pretty much every time I spin Ride the Lightning. I've read that "Trapped Under Ice" was largely a recycled Exodus song, which might explain why it sounds so different to me and also why I never took to it (I never really took to Exodus, either). Metallica doesn't even like "Escape" that much—I have read that it was essentially filler added in a (failed) attempt to get the attention of radio. I also never understood why the title track wasn't right up there with "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Fade to Black," and "Creeping Death" in most fans' estimations, so I guess I just hear things a bit differently when it comes to this one.

Despite all that, and despite the fact that Cliff Burton's greatest influence and best sound would arguably come on the album that followed (and I love every track on Master of Puppets), I keep thinking of Ride the Lightning as my favorite Metallica album. The high points on this one are so high, but I think it's the sound more than anything; nearly as raw as that of Kill 'em All, but more mature and focused. It still takes my breath away when the wordless "chorus" first hits in "Fade to Black." They were still coming together as a band, still using material Dave Mustaine had written before he got the boot, and still using material Kirk Hammett had come up with in Exodus, still (in their own words) "bashing things out," and that energy really comes through.

It would be years before I realized that the opening riff on "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (and so many of the crazy sounds on "Call of Ktulu" and [later] "Orion") were played on bass, and I'm still discovering the amazing flourishes Cliff's playing added to so many great songs more than 30 years after he died at age 24. I'm also still discovering just how much he contributed beyond what he did on bass. I might yet get a black Aria Pro II something or other just because of that (and Billy Gould, but that's another NorCal bass story!).

 

[Killed_by_Death]

27-Jul-84
RTL is released (the first time) on MegaForce records: