HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Ride The Lightning – Metallica
Ride The Lightning isn’t the biggest or most famous album in metal history. In fact, it’s not even the biggest or most famous in the history of METALLICA. But it might be the most important. They may not have realised it at the time but as Messrs. Hetfield, Burton, Ulrich, and Hammett stood nigh on penniless and freezing in a Copenhagen recording studio they shivered on the edge of greatness.
Although METALLICA exploded onto the scene a year earlier with their debut album Kill ‘Em All, they were still a work in progress. Guitarist Dave Mustaine was fired on the eve of recording and replaced by Kirk Hammett, while bassist Cliff Burton was yet to be involved in the creative process. And even after the album’s release, James Hetfield tried to replace himself as lead singer. In time, the album would be credited with establishing thrash metal. But that was little consolation as the quartet struggled to survive.
In February 1984, the band headed to Denmark to record what would become Ride The Lightning. The title was chosen by Hammett who lifted the phrase from the Steven King novel ‘The Stand.’ The group travelled to link up with Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen after being impressed with his work with RAINBOW on Difficult To Cure in 1981. But, crucially, the studios were relatively cheap, unlike those in the United States. Ulrich being Danish also didn’t hurt.
Powered by Carlsberg – and nothing much else, the band quickly got to work. However, there was one pretty major problem in the eyes of Rasmussen. Ulrich‘s drumming was “absolutely useless.” Or at least that’s how he described it to Mick Wall in his book ‘Metallica: Enter Night.’ This led to the slightly unusual task of Rasmussen and roadie Flemming Larsen teaching Ulrich to drum to a consistent beat.
Once Ulrich was up to par, the band set about finessing Fight Fire With Fire, Creeping Death, Ride The Lightning, The Call of Ktulu, and Fade To Black. The latter became the band’s first-ever ballad, penned by Hetfield after much of their gear was stolen the night before a gig in Boston in January. This resulted in the frontman testing a series of Marshall amps after Rasmussen put the call out to the record shops of Denmark.
Those songs were written across time spent in El Cerrito, California, and New Jersey, before For Whom The Bell Tolls, Escape, and Trapped Under Ice were added in Copenhagen. While the album was the first METALLICA record to feature creative input from Hammett, it was Burton‘s involvement in the creative process that changed the game. The bassist composed the acoustic intro to opening track Fight Fire With Fire while channeling his understanding of music theory and melodic sensibility into the rest of the rest of the record. In a 2016 interview with Guitar World, Hammett recalled Burton creating the riffs on a detuned acoustic guitar.
The album marked a departure from the thrash belligerence that characterised the band’s debut. And that desire for evolution in every album would become a METALLICA staple. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2014, Ulrich admitted the band was already wary of becoming boxed in and limited. Not that the changes went down with everyone. Some fans dismissed the band as sell-outs, seemingly forgetting BLACK SABBATH had been writing ballads since pioneering the genre.
When the album was released on July 27th, 1984 it didn’t hit shelves as much as gently tap them. It would take two months for it to debut on the Billboard 200 eventually landing at number 188 on September 29th. Things picked up after the band signed with Elektra in September, and the label re-released the album on November 19th. It went on to peak at 100, but not until March 9th, 1985. Not helping matters was a complete lack of radio play.
Ride The Lightning is often pigeonholed as a stepping stone, but it’s so much more than that. METALLICA finally nailed down who they wanted to be, and delivered some incredible music in the process. Fade To Black, For Whom The Bell Tolls, and sprawling instrumental The Call Of Ktulu remain live staples 40 years after their creation, with Creeping Death considered by many one of the greatest metal songs ever written. Inspired by The Ten Commandments, the song chronicles plague and destruction against a series of ferocious rhythms and guitar solos, with chants of “Die, Die Die!” sending tingles down the spine. Incidentally, it was that song along with Trapped Under Ice that landed Hammett in hot water with his former band EXODUS after reusing sections of Die By His Hand and Impaler.
For all the album’s greatness, it isn’t quite flawless. Escape was an unabashed attempt to get signed by a major label and sounds like it. For those wondering just how cynical the track is, the band has only ever played it live once. And even then, they vowed never to do it again.
Against a musical landscape dominated by the likes of PRINCE, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, and VAN HALEN, METALLICA offered an exciting alternative. And with Ride The Lightning, they’d given a glimpse into the future. While SLAYER was looking for ways to reduce their sound, METALLICA was looking to expand theirs. For better or worse, the band would spend the next four decades on a quest for reinvention. When it worked, the results became the stuff of legend, and when it didn’t, well… St. Anger has a snare for you. But, the key, is that it all started here.
If Kill ‘Em All was a pilot for a new TV show, Ride The Lightning is an award-winning season one, when producers have recast a couple of roles. It’s fantastic. But remember, it’s only chapter one. There’s so much more to come.
Ride The Lightning was originally released on July 27th, 1984 via Megaforce Records.
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