I have a bit of a love/hate relationship to Metallica. On the one hand, I really like their albums from the 80s, on the other hand, I find they didn't really do anything relevant, or even noteworthy in the last 20-something years. But that's not our topic for today!
Ride the Lightning is one of their records I really love. After a promising and already technically quite impressive, if a bit too simple debut-album, Kill 'Em All from 1983, Ride the Lighting is an enormous leap forward.
Before it came to that though, Metallica went through quite turbulent times. Namely rising tensions with their original vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine, over his violent behaviour and his drug and alcohol consume. This escalated in him being sacked from the band just before recording Kill 'Em All. As a consequence, Mustaine, while not actually playing on the album, got song writing credits on a number of tracks of their first and second album. including the eponymous Ride the Lightning and Call of Ktulu.
Mustaine went on and formed Megadeth, and Metallica found its identity in with Kirk Hammett as new lead guitarist, James Hetfield growing into his roles as vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Cliff Burton on bass and Lars Ulrich on drums. Together both bands became two of the most influential metal bands and biggest rivals of the 80s.
Were changes in tempo and dynamic not a completely new thing in rock/metal, when Ride the Lightning came out, (Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were doing that sort of thing more than a decade before), the way how consequentially Metallica was contrasting clean, almost folky passages with their speed and heavy, brutal riffing to build up a narrative within a song, proved to become highly influential for the genre. Technical excellence is one thing - and there is plenty of that on Ride the Lightning as well - but if you can tell a story with your music, and have some emotional impact, or at least give them time to breathe before the next full-on assault, you can catch your audiences attention on a completely new level.
And the album is bursting with great ideas and songs. May it be thrashers like Fight Fire with Fire or Creeping Death, epic narratives like For Whom The Bell Tolls or Fade to Black, or the brilliant instrumental The Call of Ktulu or the breakneck-speed ride Trapped Under Ice - they all show a masterful level of catchy songwriting, variety and spot on instrumental performances. It is no surprise that this album is still some of their most known and liked ones and part of what defined metal in the 80s.
