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Rating:
Since I was a bit fed up with always reviewing unknown records, now, like many bands do, to gain fame I am decidedly throwing myself into the commercial.
Ride the Lightning: Metallica's second album.
It seems unnecessary to recall who they are, their career, the style, and all the facts-curiosities about a band: for those, there's the internet.
It introduces us to the 46 minutes of this CD with the arpeggio of Fight Fire With Fire, a typical thrash metal song: aggressive, straightforward but perhaps even a bit (too) simplistic in songwriting. It should be noted that the feeling of "already heard" comes from the fact that almost twenty years have passed since this album was released, and much water has flowed under the bridge in the meantime. At the time, every single riff must have been a groundbreaking novelty for those listening to this album, while nowadays all that progressively faded away.
It continues with Ride the Lightning, whose initial riff is worth twenty years of Metallica, reaching what is very likely the most covered song by beginner metal bands due to its simplicity: For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Four chords or a little more, very few variations, Ulrich's continuous, almost epic mid-tempo, just enough to create a masterpiece with a unique emotional charge.
Then it proceeds with Fade to Black, a classic Metallica-style ballad, really very beautiful and never predictable or banal in melodic solutions or solos, and with a really very heartfelt and profound lyric.
After the quite negligible Trapped Under Ice and Escape, two really unforgivable missteps by Metallica, it closes beautifully with Creeping Death, a headbanging song that has become one of 'Tallica's most famous, and with The Call Of Ktulu, a splendid instrumental whose title, like the lyrics of The Thing That Should Not Be, is inspired by the tales of Providence's genius, H.P. Lovecraft.
Ultimately this record represents a step in the natural evolution of Metallica, and the antechamber to worldwide fame. It's a pity that a perfect album is ruined by the qualitative void left by Trapped Under Ice and Escape.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Fight Fire With Fire (04:45)
Do unto others as they've done to you
But what the hell is this world coming to?
Blow the universe into nothingness
Nuclear warfare shall lay us to rest
Fight fire with fire
Ending is near
Fight fire with fire
Bursting with fear
We all shall die
Time is like a fuse, short and burning fast
Armageddon's here, like said in the past
Fight fire with fire
Ending is near
Fight fire with fire
Bursting with fear
Soon to fill our lungs the hot winds of death
The gods are laughing, so take your last breath
Fight fire with fire
Ending is near
Fight fire with fire
Bursting with fear
02 Ride the Lightning (06:37)
Guilty as charged
But damn it, it ain't right
There's someone else controlling me
Death in the air
Strapped in the electric chair
This can't be happening to me
Who made you god to say,
"I'll take your life from you"
Flash before my eyes
Now it's time to die
Burning in my brain
I can feel the flame
Wait for the sign
To flick the switch of death
It's the beginning of the end
Sweat chilling cold
As I watch death unfold
Consiousness is my only friend
My fingers grip with fear
What am I doing here?
Flash before my eyes
Now it's time to die
Burning in my brain
I can feel the flame
Someone help me
Oh please God help me
They are trying to take it all away
I don't want to die
Time moving slow
The minutes seem like hours
The final curtain all I see
How true is this?
Just get it over with
If this is true, just let it be
Wakened by horrid scream
Freed from this frightening dream
Flash before my eyes
Now it's time to die
Burning in my brain
I can feel the flame
03 For Whom the Bell Tolls (05:11)
Make his fight on the hill in the early day
Constant chill deep inside
Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey
On they fight, for the right, yes, but who's to say?
For a hill, men would kill, why? They do not know
Stiffened wounds test their pride
Men of five, still alive through the raging glow
Gone insane from the pain that they surely know
For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls
Take a look to the sky just before you die
It is the last time he will
Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry
Stranger now, are his eyes, to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be
Now they see, what will be, blinded eyes to see
For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls
04 Fade to Black (06:54)
-Solo-
Life it seems, will fade away
Drifting further, everyday
Getting lost, within myself
Nothing matters, no one else
I have lost the will to live
Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free
-Solo-
Things not what they used to be
Missing one inside of me
Deathly loss, this can't be real
I cannot stand this hell I feel
Emptiness is filling me
To the point of agony
Growing darkness, taking dawn
I was me, but now he's gone
No one but me
Can save myself
But it's too late
Now I can't think
Think why I should even try
Yesterday seems as though
It never existed
Death greets me warm
Now I will just say goodbye
Bye.........
-Solo-
05 Trapped Under Ice (04:04)
I don't know how to live trough this hell
Woken up, I'm still locked in this shell
Frozen soul, frozen down to the core
Break the ice, I can't take anymore
Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm trapped under ice
Crystallized, as I lay here and rest
Eyes of glass stare directly at death
From deep sleep I have broken away
No one knows, no one hears what I say
Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm trapped under ice
(Scream!) from my soul
(Fate!) mystified
(Hell!) forever more
No release from my cryonic state
What is this? I've been stricken by fate
Wrapped up tight, cannot move, can't break free
Hand of doom has a tight grip on me
Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm trapped under ice
06 Escape (04:24)
Feel no pain, but my life ain't easy
I know I'm my best friend
No one cares, but I'm so much stronger
I'll fight until the end
To escape from the true false world
Undamaged destiny
Can't get caught in the endless circle
Ring of stupidity
Out for my own, out to be free
One with my mind, they just can't see
No need to hear things that they say
Life is for my own to live my own way
Rape my mind and destroy my feelings
Don't tell me what to do
I don't care now, 'cause I'm on my side
And I can see through you
Feed my brain with your so called standards
Who says that I ain't right
Break away from your common fashion
See through your blurry sight
Out for my own, out to be free
One with my mind, they just can't see
No need to hear things that they say
Life is for my own to live my own way
See them try to bring the hammer down
No damn chains can hold me to the ground
Life is for my own to live my own way
07 Creeping Death (06:36)
Slaves
Hebrews born to serve
To the pharaoh
Heed
To his every word
Live in fear
Faith
Of the unknown one
The deliverer
Wait
Something must be done
Four hundred years
So let it be written
So let it be done
I'm sent here by the chosen one
So let it be written
So let it be done
To kill the first-born pharaoh son
I'm creeping death
Now
Let my people go
Land of Goshen
Go
I will be with thee
Bush of fire
Blood
Running red and strong
Down the Nile
Plague
Darkness three days long
Hail to fire
So let it be written
So let it be done
I'm sent here by the chosen one
So let it be written
So let it be done
To kill the first-born pharaoh son
I'm creeping death
-Solo-
Die by my hand
I creep across the land
Killing first-born man
Die by my hand
I creep across the land
Killing first born man
I
Rule the midnight air
The destroyer
Born
I shall soon be there
Deadly mass
I
Creep the steps and floor
Final darkness
Blood
Lambs blood painted door
I shall pass
So let it be written
So let it be done
I'm sent here by the chosen one
So let it be written
So let it be done
To kill the first-born pharaoh son
I'm creeping death
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Other reviews
By metaldiablo
"Ride the Lightning" is an authentic pillar of metal destined to rise and become a sort of bible for up-and-coming bands.
‘Fade to Black,’ the first poignant ballad from Metallica with equally tear-jerking lyrics: the highlight of the package that alone is worth the price of the CD.
By Sir Psycho Sexy
Ride The Lightning can be listened to by both those who are not genuine fans of the genre and by the most convinced metalheads.
Metallica manages to construct decidedly beautiful and full of character songs with only three or four riffs, not impossible to reproduce, but then they insert guitar solos worthy of the best Kirk.
By AR (Anonima Recensori)
In this second album, Metallica come into play with all their technique and fury.
'For Whom The Bell Tolls' and 'Fade To Black' are indisputable masterpieces of the Four Horsemen discography and the history of metal.
By Alvaro Il Metallaro
Ride The Lightning, released in 1984, in my opinion is a masterpiece in the history of music, mainly thanks to the genius of Cliff Burton, the bassist.
In my opinion, it is Hetfield’s best vocal performance.
By FedeHetfield
This is indeed Metallica's darkest album, a mix of death, despair, war, and suicide.
'Fade to Black'... one of the most beautiful and saddest ballads ever written.
