As I've mentioned in a previous review, Live Shit: Binge And Purge was the first Metallica anything I ever owned. I recieved it for my birthday, which is quickly followed by Christmas and gift cirtificates for music stores. So, that was quickly followed by the Black Album and ...And Justice For All. None of these albums have ever been favourites of mine. However my first favourite Metallica album was Ride The Lightning. It's changed since, but let me take you back to when it was my fave still.The album opens with this beautiful accoustic piece, that is just amazing. I mean it sounds brilliantly classical. Then these riffs slam you into a wall like The Hulk in a full out rage. All of this is being done with the blinding speed of Thrash Metal, but it sounds too well thought out and produced to be a song of that genre. Listen to Kirk work in the solo, it's not all high speed spreading. He busts out that pretty classical stuff instead to create this amazing counter point sound.
After that it's on to Ride The Lightning. "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 pain / 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 / Consciousness 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 pain / Someone help me / Oh please, God help me / They're trying to take it all away / I don't want to die". Then the solo kicks in, and it's all just electrifying. The thing with the Ride The Lightning album is that I can't say I like one song more than another to any extent. I can say that there is a song that I don't care for, but that's personal opinion only, not a reflection of the music. Musically this album is pure elation.
The third track on the album opens up with a thundering church bell ringing. It's clearly For Whom The Bell Tolls. If there is one song off this album that was going to be called my favourite it would be this one. Cliff Burton's bass playing is just astounding. I know it's nothing super crazy, but he knew it didn't have to be. The guitar work in both the opening and closing of the song is fantastic. The fact that the lyrics are dramtically profound, with only a total of thirty six lines being sung, and only six of those are chorus. Then personally as a drummer I like to play Lars' parts.
Fade To Black is the song on the album I care for the least. Long story short, the band had their instruments stolen, and James wrote these lyrics. Now, we're all depressed and suicidal after listening to them and it's all because Metallica had their instruments stolen. I understand the pain. If I was James I would have felt the same way, and wrote the same stuff about it. He's a great poet full of angst and despair, which I respect but don't want to hear. My life is depressing enough, without needing extra help bringing me down. Oh, and since the music matches the content so perfectly, I can't even just ignore the lyrics and listen to the music. It is also very depressive.
I am so thankful for the pick me up of Trapped Under Ice. Now I guess I should say that the lyrical content on this entire album is pretty much about dying, and in horrific ways. "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". Doesn't sound very fun to me, but the high speed, heart racing pace of this song gets me pumped, and feeling lively.
If this album has any song that I would consider skipping it would be Escape. It's the only song from this album I don't go out of my way to listen to. If I upload the entire album on to my Mp3 player I'll generally skip this song, unless I'm riding my bike at a good clip.
I consider myself very lucky to have seen Metallica live twice, the Load and Reload tour. Say what you will, but getting to see Creeping Death performed live during the Load tour was fantastic. I actually prefer the newer live versions to the studio version because James just sounds too young for this song. In fact this song just sounds too young the whole way around. The production doesn't have the thunder, the dark ambience of the creep, or the true fear factor.
That makes it sound like I don't like Creeping Death, but that's not true at all. This is a fantastic song, and one of the most briliantly written and arranged songs on this album. I also love the content and how something as simple as The Ten Commandments (okay I know it wasn't simple) would inspire a song so worshipped by millions of people around the world.
The album ends with one hell of an instrumental. The Call Of Ktulu is just shy of nine minutes of pure orgasmic instrumentation. This is a song that is so well put together that it caught the eye of the music world, and made them stand up and show respect. This song can easily be put on the same level as Rush's YYZ, Pink Floyd's One Of These Days, or Iron Maiden's Transylvania. Those songs can't be used to describe this one ethier. The only thing any of those songs have in common with The Call Of Ktulu is that they are all amazingly written and produced instrumentals.
I find this album amazing. The production borders on stellar. The writing and arrangments are top notch. The weakest parts in the album come from Lars' acceptable, but very typical drumming and Cliff's bass not having the luxury of today's technology. Which leads to his awesome sound sometimes being a bit lost in the mix.
This is the Metallica album I would suggest to a new fan before any other. This is the best place to start, from a band that has such a diverse selection of music to offer.
9/10 - content
9/10 - production
9/10 - personal bias
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