Metallica
Creeping Death

THE REVIEW

At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborns in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the underground dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. Pharaoh rose in the night, and with him, his ministers and all the Egyptians; a great cry arose in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not someone dead!

It was a Cliff Burton inspired by a film about the Exodus who came up with the idea for the creation of "Creeping Death," a song written collectively by the whole band, featuring riffs plundered from "Die By His Hand" by Exodus, where, it’s good to remember, Kirk Hammet served before joining Metallica. The famous bridge where James Hetfield sings:

Die by my hand
I creep across the land
Killing first born man

comes directly from Exodus, note the name, who used to perform that song live, as evidenced by a 1982 demo featuring the legendary Paul Baloff on vocals. It must be said that "Creeping Death" has an extra gear with its apocalyptic atmosphere of divine retribution in full force; the influences of classic metal are well present and give that sense of theatricality that bare thrash lacks. And in this, "Creeping Death," chosen as a single, well represents the album "Ride the Lightning," which is precisely the one where there is more trace of NWOBHM compared to the other classics of the band, as well as the one with the greatest involvement of all the musicians in the writing of the pieces, so much so that some riffs are still by the exiled Dave Mustaine. Even the B-sides of the single confirm the connection with English influences: "Am I Evil?" and "Blitzkrieg," covers of Diamond Head and Blitzkrieg, respectively, well-known exponents of the NWOBHM. Moreover, Metallica have always shown great affection for Diamond Head, as demonstrated by the words of guitarist Brian Tatler in an interview: "In the early nineties, we were absolutely broke. We didn't sell a record and weren't even able to recover the money invested in advance years before. We had not existed since 1985, and nothing was moving on that front. We had quite a few problems related to distribution and royalties, so one day Lars Ulrich called me and said that if I was having trouble collecting what was due to me, I could call a guy at Elektra, whose number he gave me. The rest is history. Suffice it to say that I mostly live off that today: royalties." What else to say: well done, Lars!