Ride the Lightning

by

Metallica

Edit

When I first bought this album, it instantly became my favorite. I thought it was incredible, and that nothing could ever touch it. Well, since then I have changed my mind. I have found a lot (but not a whole lot) of albums that are just as good as this one, and even better. But, make no mistake, this is one of the greatest albums ever made, for sure. When the acoustic intro to "Fight Fire with Fire" starts out, you might think you bought the wrong album, but then the heavy guitar hits you like a ton of bricks, and before you know it, you're thrashing around, destroying everything in sight. The guitars are very tight, and awesome solos abound. Cliff's bass is very menacing (if not a bit hard to hear). Lars doesn't stand out much, but he does a pretty decent job. There isn't a bad moment on here, but the highlights would have to be the classic "For Whom the Bell Tolls", the amazing ballad "Fade to Black", and, one of the greatest thrash songs ever, "Creeping Death". It all amounts to what is simply one of the greatest thrash metal albums ever made. There is a great deal of argument as to which Metallica album is the best. Many seem to think that "Master of Puppets" is the best, but I am very adamant in my decision that this is their finest moment. If pressed, I would say that this one and MOP are close to equal. I certainly prefer this one to "Kill Em All" and "And Justice for All", but MOP is a very close call. Anyway, if you love great metal, this is one album you should definitely buy. If you like this album, and want to hear more great metal, I would recommend "Powerslave" by Iron Maiden (which came out in the same year as RTL, by the way), "Reign in Blood" by Slayer, "The New Order" by Testament, "Among the Living" by Anthrax, "Peace Sells..." by Megadeth, "Cowboys from Hell" by Pantera, and anything by Iced Earth. Man, this was great metal. I wish more people did stuff like this today.

Metallica is boldly and appropriately named as it's virtually impossible to have any meaningful discussion about the Heavy Metal genre without any mention being made about the vast impact that this band has made over the 80s and up to the mid 90s. They lifted up the genre from mindless, juvenile topics of wild sex, drugs and fast cars to discussions about serious topics from the meaninglessness of war to environmental disasters and so forth. What U2 did for pop/rock, Metallica did for Metal in blending intelligent topics with very, very good musicianship and hence making the genre more accessible to a much wider audience than ever before. In doing so, they extended the life of Metal and ensured an audience at a time when people were more interested in synth-pop ala Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Howard Jones etc. Metal owes a great debt to this band for ensuring the endurance and evolution of the genre to what it is to this day.

This version of the 1984 album comes in a mini-lp replica sleeve (mlps) design which is very, very well executed and is one of the best that I've ever seen. The gatefold sleeve is made from very good quality thick cardboard and assembled so well that you don't fear it coming apart easily once the glue starts to get old. Also included is a 12 page booklet with all the lyrics in Japanese. For the English ones you'll need a good magnifying glass to read it from the gatefold sleeve itself which very faithfully replicates the original lp design.

Unfortunately, the sound quality is the same as it was in the original release and hence has not been remastered. Although good by 1980s standards, the quality is not as good as what we have become used to with all the releases that have been well remastered these days. For this reason, although the content is very good, I cannot give this version 5 stars as it's hard to justify the value proposition here as you are effectively paying for the mlps design only if you already have the album. I suppose if you don't already have this or if you are a big fan of well-designed and executed mlps sleeves then you may be tempted to cough up the mulah for this. If the sound had been remastered and hence improved over the original cd, I would have no hesitation to give this the full 5 stars and to recommend that you part with your hard-earned dough for this. With "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Fade To Black" you are getting two of Metallica's best ever tracks here and again contentwise you can't fault this album but you'll have to decide if the overall value proposition of this version of the album is worthy of the upgrade.