Metallica - Ride the Lightning poll

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Needed to step up my game, especially since this is a tribute to Ozzy. Crossing the pond all the way to California.

every track is a banger but it's hard to look past "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

What an album! Hard not to go with Fade but I think it's going to be Creeping Death.

Creeping Death. my wife first misheard it as "I'm creepy death" and laughed out loud, so I now prefer that title/lyric

Not heard this in some time but Call Of Cthulu is top 5 Metallica for me

Fight Fire with Fire is still insane.

I put on Escape bc I couldn't remember what it sounded like, it's so weird to hear the major chorus. Guessing they haven't played that one for at least 40 years.

it's the title track, and only the title track, for me. such a ratcheting up of intensity, the lyrics are amazing, the solo is one of Kirk's best, it's really a sign of how much they leaped forward. Fight Fire with Fire also shows maturity but it's much more evident on this track.

this is the best Metallica album also

To me it's a very transitional album, still haven't quite shed some of the things that don't 100% sound like Metallica, but you start to hear elements that point toward MoP. I never reach for it tbh.

My favourite Metallica album

i love this albummmmm

agree that the title track is monstrous and kirk's solo is completely epic, i would give it the edge slightly over "for whom the bell tolls", which is like the rocking-ist waltz ever with the most perfect riffage. "creeping death" completely rules too, of course.

i think it’s the title track for me — it’s not the best but it’s my favorite because it goes so hard

my favorite album of theirs. perfectly sequenced. "The Call of Ktulu" was the track that reawakened my interest in them from my younger days when they were all over MTV in the 90s, so that.

based on what I can sing in my head unprompted this would be "Fight Fire" or "Creepy Death"

I put on Escape bc I couldn't remember what it sounded like, it's so weird to hear the major chorus. Guessing they haven't played that one for at least 40 years.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Thursday, October 2, 2025 10:17 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Once!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUyzqq4wbJk

I love this song, though, fr.

Gotta listen to it again (oh, the hardship!) to make a final choice. I only know it won't be "Escape" or "Trapped Under Ice."

Fight Fire goes hard live. especially that harmonized lead.

it was my second album after the Black album and I was like "good lord this is much faster"

From memory wasn't Escape a last minute 'please add a hit' from the label they always regretted? Probably the first point some of the fans said "these boys now sadly SOLD OUT PoSERS"

Good call on that live vid! Also love that they reference never having played Frayed Ends of Sanity either in the beginning, and they later buckled down and started doing that and Dyer's Eve.

I think as a kid I really liked the idea that a band would write and record a song that they couldn't actually pull off live, very humanizing, bands are too good now.

For me it’ll always be Fight Fire With Fire, the way the drums fit into that off-kilter rhythm will never get old in this lifetime.

I've said this on other threads but I have so much trouble not hearing the upbeats as downbeats in that song, the speed + the fact that the vocals, guitar, and drum accents are all pounding those upbeats. So the only downbeat landmark you have is an occasional cymbal crash.

hahaha SAME! it's easier to hear it properly live, but on disc, it messes w/ my head

like Roll Out

I looped and made a sticking exercise out of it which helps, but it's hard locking in at the beginning. It doesn't help that the second riff following the verses is also so weird and syncopated, the rhythmic tension doesn't release until the chorus. So good, it actually relates more to Charlie Parker/Max Roach bebop tempos than anything else in my head.

Bump for Friday night

"Escape" is Hetfield's most disliked Metallica song

I couldn't pick just one, so this was the tiebreaker.

If you were 14 and miserable 1984-85, Fade to Black was everything.

it still rules pretty hard

In high school, there was an officially (school)-designated "senior section" in the cafeteria, where only the fourth years were allowed to sit. Third-years would try to sneak in during off-hours but if caught, would get looked down on SO HARD. It wasn't always worth it. But what made the temptation great was that that's where the stereo was (this was 2003-2007, so you'd be plugging in your iPod AUX) and the seniors controlled the music. One day I came down there and Fade to Black was rolling through that dinky little basement cafeteria like thunder.

I grew up with a "Metallica that doesn't suck" cassette mixtape my older brother made and played all the time. I don't think I've ever heard this record start to finish. Well, it's TIME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oMczzhAojE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSI4zK0x6BU

The other one cut off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMeus3t0cfs

All I can think, looking at those, is that it's such a shame they have to play those gross, soulless venues. They sound fucking great, obvs.

Thats a pretty small venue for them - about 40,000; last tour most venues were 3 times that size!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I voted "The Call of Ktulu" partly because it has no vocals.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The intrepid Trapped Under Ice voters made me relisten and I had totally forgotten what a banger it is.

nice spread of votes!

Glad Ktulu got a few votes. Maybe a direct influence on Emperor's "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk"?

bass all over Ktulu so amazing. RIP cliff!

Ktulu is amazing, my favorite of their instrumentals easily. I do feel like live that James/Kirk slightly changed how to play the main riff to make it easier (the original fingering required frequently hand placement changes, where the way they do it live now, the hands can stay in the same chord shape throughout).

this was kind of one of the first metal instrumentals of its kind. instrumentals in general weren't new to metal, Iron Maiden had already done "Transylvania", Black Sabbath did a lot of short 2-3 minute interludes, Slayer even had "Metal Storm/Face the Slayer" on Show No Mercy, which the first half was essentially a Maiden-esque instrumental. but these were different in style. Sabbath's were more palate cleansers, and the two other examples were more riff salads that jumped from riff to riff quickly.

Ktulu was an intense, baroque piece with simple repeated ideas that were focused on mood more than shredding and built granularly to a deliberate, spectacular finish. certainly not the thing you'd expect from a band whose first album was NWOBHM-inspired, primordial thrash with a bass solo thrown in for good measure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X61Jofq9OPg