Metallica
Ride The Lightning

THE REVIEW

To analyze this masterpiece, one must start from the cover: an electric chair amidst a dark and mortuary atmosphere, with a gritty and well-accentuated writing complete with lightning. On this cover, a name: MetallicA.

Metallica: "RIDE THE LIGHTNING"

This is indeed Metallica's darkest album, a mix of death, despair, war, and suicide. Musically, it is one of the finest episodes of thrash metal; the sound is powerful, dark, and very fast (one of the best ever achieved), and the lyrics are largely focused in the first person. Of particular note is Hammet's outstanding performance, offering touching and fast solos.

The first is "Fight fire with fire", one of the band's fastest and most violent tracks. The song starts with an acoustic guitar intro, preparing for Hetfield's intense riffs, along with his instigating voice advocating fighting fire with fire (exactly so). After this, the title track follows, again featuring great riffs and perfect tempo changes, especially noteworthy is Kirk's solo (2 minutes long) which makes the song's atmosphere even more desperate and gloomy. The third track, "For whom the bells tolls" is the most "Heavy" song on the record, with mid-tempo, more extensive riffs but not as fast as the others, still stunning thanks to a good melodic delivery by Hetfield and the legendary solo by Cliff Burton. Notably, the lyrics of The Four Horsemen are inspired by numerous books and movies, like the aforementioned one, which is taken from the namesake novel by Ernest Hemingway, and beyond him, 'Tallica is heavily inspired by the books of Lovercraft, a writer loved by Cliff Burton.

Returning to the songs, the fourth track presents what is considered the ultimate masterpiece of the four horsemen: "Fade to Black." This work deals with the theme of suicide, and it is one of the most beautiful and saddest ballads ever written. Composed of acoustic guitars and distorted and heavy strumming serving as a chorus, the song ends with a fast riff and a noteworthy solo deserving a top spot in metal history. Nothing more needs to be said about this...

For the second part of the album, "Trapped under ice" comes forward. Although this is the only slightly underwhelming part of Ride, it still manages to capture attention with fast riffs and solos. It is followed by "Escape", a track I believe is too underrated, with good melody by Hetfield in a chorus that manages to maintain the style and continuity of the others alongside Hammet's excellent solos. The band wants to address the desire for freedom in the mentioned track. The penultimate track is another classic by Metallica, "Creeping death", which deals with the massacres of the Pharaoh of Egypt, a piece with melodic riffs produced by a very fit James Hetfield, also vocally, with perfect tempo changes and solos. To culminate this masterpiece grandly, the instrumental "The Call of Ktulu" based on a Lovercraft story. Another artistic and compositional masterpiece by the group, among the most successful in their discography.

This work clearly defines what Metallica indeed was. The entire album has a fascinating and complex compositional structure, in both sound and lyrics.