Fight Fire With Fire: Metallica’s Ride the Lightning Turns 40
Looking back on the band’s revolutionary second album
While not every band falls victim to a “sophomore slump,” few make the evolutionary leap that Metallica did when they released their second album Ride the Lightning on June 27th, 1984.
It’s not that their debut, Kill ‘Em All, isn’t a classic in its own right but it was rough around the edges, glorious in its combination of Motörhead and Venom’s rawness with the memorable songwriting of New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands such as Tygers of Pan Tang and Mantis. But Ride the Lightning proved to be much more ambitious without losing the memorable charm of its predecessor.
They brought in producer Flemming Rasmussen to elevate their sound, working at his own facility Sweet Silence Studios. Ride the Lightning retains the heaviness of Kill ‘Em All, but Rasmussen brought a clarity that was unique in the burgeoning thrash metal world. He worked on the band’s next two albums, 1986’s Master of Puppets and 1988’s …And Justice for All, and his production was an important element in their sound during this period.
The album begins with an introductory guitar harmony that would prove to be a signature sound for the next couple of records. As the harmony fades away though, the Metallica launches into one of the most devastating riffs in their entire discography. One can argue that this is James Hetfield’s first evidence of being one of the best rhythm guitarists in metal.
“Fight Fire with Fire” begins a tradition of starting their album with some of the fastest material, a tradition that would last the next two records as well, with “Battery” and “Blackened.”
If “Fight Fire with Fire” showed the refinement of Metallica at their most aggressive, the title track openly displayed the true evolutionary leap they had taken. The pounding introductory riff is iconic but the quick turnaround before the verse is perfection. Hetfield takes the listener on a harrowing, first-person journey of the thoughts of a man wrongly condemned to death. The second half of the verse finds the guitar harmony change beneath the vocals, revealing a newfound acquaintance with music theory that was not evident previously.
The quartet works through a succession of riffs and tempo changes before reaching the guitar solo, yet the song never feels bloated. And the solo is a thing to behold. Kirk Hammett can shred with the best of them, but he utilizes melodies to give his solo a narrative flow, creating tremendous tension that reflects the lyrics of the song.
Another classic song follows, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Beginning with the massive tolling of a bell, they then run through a progression of crushing yet somber instrumental work. Bassist Cliff Burton plays a melody over the top of the music. The guitars then bring their own melody. Two full minutes of music pass before the vocals arrive, which is rare for such a fan favorite.
If the first three songs left Kill ‘Em All fans shocked by the band’s newly acquired complexity, Metallica closed side A of the record with a truly unexpected maneuver. “Fade to Black” pulled back on the tempos and opened with acoustic guitars, far from anything expected by the fan base. While surely some cried “sellout,” the powerful composition easily thwarts detractors.
“Trapped Under Ice” is the earliest song written for the record and does bear more of a resemblance to Kill ‘Em All than most the other songs here, yet some of the new refinements are present as well, especially in the bridge.
Another important contrast, though, are the lyrics throughout Ride the Lightning. If their debut reveled in the sort of self-aggrandizing metal lyrics common for the era, this album tackles much headier subject matter. “Trapped Under Ice” conveys a similar dread to the title track, this time the protagonist is a cryogenically frozen person realizing no one is going to be around to wake them.
Hetfield often employs a first-person point of view to drive home the emotions of the material. The consideration of one’s own mortality threads together many of the songs, whether in the context of war, capital punishment or biblical plague.
“Escape” is a tune much-maligned by the group and has only been performed live a few times over Metallica’s long existence. Apparently, it was an early attempt at writing something more commercial, a direction they would take much more seriously later in their career. Here, they accidentally just wrote a fantastic vocal melody over the top of one of the album’s progressive thrash tunes. Any thoughts of commercial compromise are overcome by fiercely individualistic lyrics and strongly metallic sound. While the first half of the song does employ a more traditional verse-chorus structure, everything from the bridge onward possesses the same nuance as the rest of the album. There are probably many fans who would’ve preferred this “commercial” approach versus the one they would adopt later in their career.
VIDEO: Metallica “Fade to Black (Live 2018)
Much like “Trapped Under Ice”, “Creeping Death” bears a closer resemblance to their sound on Kill ‘em All. The song was the lead single released prior to the album and was a good bridge into the newer material. It has always been a fan favorite, probably due to the massive “Die By My Hand!” refrain that is tailor-made for crowd participation.
The album closes with the haunting instrumental, “The Call of Ktulu.” The opening riff was a holdover written by Dave Mustaine and later reused on Megadeth’s “Hangar 18.” While it certainly is a strong riff, the rest of the material proves its equal, the entire nine-minute composition a masterclass in songwriting.
Songwriting is the key to the brilliance of Ride the Lightning’s success. Bassist Cliff Burton became more involved, contributing material and introducing his bandmates to a deeper understanding of music theory. And while there is a greater complexity to these songs, they don’t lose their accessibility. Each progression of riffs and each twist and turn of the compositions feel inevitable as if any other songwriting choice would sound unnatural. Everything here sounds like it was written and performed in a “flow state”.
Ride the Lightning represents not only an evolutionary step for Metallica, but for heavy metal as a whole. The album is intensely heavy yet progressive and quickly found a large audience despite virtually no radio play. It raised the bar for fledgling metal musicians worldwide, encouraging the genre to explore deeper topics and make sure the music held the gravitas to match. One could arguably trace many of metal’s more experimental acts back to this era in Metallica’s discography which provided the blue print for broadening the possibilities of the genre.
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