Music

Retro Review: Going To ’84 To Check Out Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’

Published

13 years ago

May 2, 2011

Sure, I could’ve chosen to do ‘Master Of Puppets’, but what’s the fun there? That album has been pored over and loved since its release. I wanted to do ‘Ride The Lightning’ for a couple of reasons. First of all, some of my favorite Metallica tracks are on here. Second of all, the album was released when I was a month old, so I feel a strange connection with it. So, join me readers, as we head back to 1984 to check out Metallica’s sophomore album.

I remember seeing Metallica for the first time at the Pontiac Silverdome. The concert began December 31st, 1999 and ended on January 1st, 2000. The opening acts were Sevendust, Kid Rock, and Ted Nugent. I remember Kid Rock sharing the stage with Joe C. I remember Nugent riding out on a buffalo and later shooting his guitar with a flaming arrow. And I remember Metallica melting my face off with songs ranging from the classics to their (relatively) latest hits from the Load and Reload albums. It was a show that was full of pyrotechnics, amazing light displays and a massive stage set-up. However, for those of you who have seen Metallica, you know that the real reason to see them is the energy and presence that they give off. They command the audience and play them as finely as their instruments. It would be another 10 years until I saw them again at the Joe Louis Arena.

‘Ride The Lightning’ played a vital role in my musical upbringing. While ‘Kill ‘Em All’ was a brutal onslaught of metal and ‘Master Of Puppets’ arguably fueled by need for more progressive metal, it was ‘Ride The Lightning’ that made me realize that metal could have beauty and deep emotion. Tracks such as ‘Fade To Black’ and ‘The Call of Ktulu’ stand out as examples of this kind of melodic metal. It’s easy to see how bands such as Dark Tranquility, At The Gates, Opeth, and more credit early Metallica as one of their biggest influences.

However, it would be remiss of me to not state that Metallica still rocked as hard and as furiously as they did on ‘Kill ‘Em All’. ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ and ‘Creeping Death’ are fast paced behemoths that go straight for the jugular, teeth bared and claws extended. It is because of this variety in the music that ‘Ride The Lightning’ stands out as one of the best Metallica albums.

The Final Word: 27 years old. Five times platinum as of 2003. ‘Ride The Lightning’ still commands as much intensity and immediacy as when it first came out.

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…