Amazon.co.uk Review: Don't let that classical-guitar opening to "Fight Fire with Fire" fool you--Ride the Lightning packs a heavy-metal wallop. While not as ambitious as the subsequent Master of Puppets, this early Metallica album is indubitably one of their best. Thematically, it explores death and dying from myriad points of view: nuclear war ("Fight Fire with Fire"), electric-chair execution (the title track) and drowning ("Trapped Under Ice"). Interestingly, the best track on this album is probably "Fade to Black", a slower, more introspective song about suicide. There's also "Creeping Death", which remains a concert favourite. An excellent mix of rapid-fire guitar riffs, rip-roaring solos and singer James Hetfield's trademark growl, this is thrash metal at its finest. --Genevieve Williams
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Classic
Great album. I still listen to it on a regular basis and it is definitely one of the top thrash albums to purchase. This is the best place to start with the music for this band as not all the: production, musicianship or songwriting on the albums is of the same standard.
Rating: - Sheer Genius
ok who,s " A customer " who gave this 1 star and said it wasn,t even Metallica,s material ? .. it was you dave wasn,t it ?
This album is a classic , still i sit spellbound when i listen to this , their finest imo
Rating: - The classic Thrash album, absolutely perfect!
This is my personal favourite. One of the most important albums in Metal, a standard upon which it's peers were measured, and has influenced more modern metal bands that I can list here. The fact that it was a second effort froma bunch of kids barely out of their teens only cements the genius that is this album. There are 8 out and out classics on this album - or put another way the ENTIRE album. From the genre defining opening of 'Fight Fire With Fire' with it's classical guitar opening, right into ... Read More
Rating: - Metal perfection!!!!
Jesus how can an album now nearly a quarter of a century old still sound so fresh and exciting! Yep before metallica lost the plot and released mediocre albums (ie St Anger) they were producing monsters like these.
Now I have owned this album for over 15 years and when I still listen to it today it still thrills as much as the first time I heard it. Songs such as For Whom The Bell Tolls and Creeping Death are as devastatingly crushing and the quality of material on this album has rarely ... Read More
Rating: - Ride the Lightning... No, No Really Ride the Lightning
Now I want to star by saying that I am completely honest in my ratings off albums and don't let blind loyalty to my favourite bands cloud how I rate them. I very rarely rate albums 5 stars simply because to be a 5 star album it has to be nearly perfect. I can hand on heart though say that this is one of them albums. There are problems with this album of course there are, I have yet find an album with no faults but they are small and not really big enough to affect it overall.
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