1983 was a monumental year for hard rock and heavy metal. Quiet Riot became the first metal band to top the Billboard album chart in America with their Mental Health album, Van Halen along with a pretty amazing list of supporting acts, including Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest played to 375,000 head bangers at the Heavy Metal Day, ZZ Top and Def Leppard released Illuminator and Pyromania, two of the decade’s biggest selling albums and Metallica released their debut album, Kill ‘Em All.
Metallica Premieres New Songs in Palo Alto
In late 1983, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Cliff Burton turned their attention to writing their second album. Excited by the progress they were making, the quartet premiered 3 stunning new songs including “Fight Fire With Fire”, “Creeping Death” and the title track, “Ride the Lightning” at the Keystone Club in Palo Alto on Halloween night.
Ride the Lightning was recorded over the space of about three weeks from February 20 – March 14, 1984. The band took a break to do some touring before recording the album at Sweet Sound Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark with producer Flemming Rasmussen.
Metallica Records Ride the Lightning in Denmark
When the group arrived in Denmark, Flemming Rasmussen was impressed by the group’s professionalism and Ulrich’s ability to keep time. Rasmussen helped shape 3 new songs including “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “Trapped Under Ice” and “Escape”.
When the album was finally completed, Metallica headed to England for the first time as a band for two shows at London’s famous Marquee Club. The band treated the fans to the first live rendition of the title track in the UK.
Ride the Lightning is Officially Released
Ride the Lightning was released on July 27, 1984 on Music for Nations in the UK and Megaforce Records in the US.
Krang magazine would gush over the record saying that it was “nothing short of breathtaking”. Ride the Lightning represented an evolution for the band and offered a more diverse record than their debut album Kill ‘Em All.
“I’m sure I wasn’t really thinking of harming myself but it was my favourite Marshall amp.” – James Hetfield
The most drastic departure for the group was the dark ballad, “Fade to Black”. Metallica dealt with themes of suicide, helplessness and despair. It was written by a broken-hearted James Hetfield following the theft of the band’s gear in Boston. He’d go on to say, “I’m sure I wasn’t really thinking of harming myself but it was my favourite Marshall amp.”
The album still had something for thrashers as well, including “Fight Fire with Fire” and “Creeping Death”, which proved that the group hadn’t forgotten its roots.
The closest thing the band had even come to writing a commercial hit was the song “Escape”. The band didn’t even perform the track live until 2012 when Metallica performed Ride the Lightning in its entirety for the first time at their own Orion Festival.
“Escape”, almost seemed out of place on the record but Rasmussen provided some background on the track, “I remember talking to Metallica about that because they were on the small independent label so that was their way of pleasing a major label so they could get signed.”
“Playing that song was more of a novelty than anything else but we loved playing all the other songs.” – Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett would say, “When we played ‘Escape’ at the Orion fest, we collectively agreed why we never played that song. It’s not really a great song to play live… Playing that song was more of a novelty than anything else but we loved playing all the other songs.”
In 2017, James Hetfield revealed “Escape” was never intended to be on Ride the Lightning. He gave an interview to Sopitas where he said, “Ride the Lightning was the first time that we wrote a song in the studio. I remember we had all these songs and Lars Ulrich said, ‘They want us to record one more,’… I was like, ‘You didn’t tell me that,’ so we had to write and it was our very last minute so ‘Escape’ was one of those songs that was written in the studio.”
“It was the first time that the four of us really wrote together and we got the chance to broaden our horizons.” – Lars Ulrich
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lars Ulrich was asked, “Songs like ‘Fade to Black’, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ and ‘Escape’ were, you know, more melodic and slower than songs on Kill ‘Em All. Were you guys trying to do something different, musically?”
Lars Ulrich said, “It was the first time that the four of us really wrote together and we got the chance to broaden our horizons. I didn’t think it was a conscious effort to break away from anything immediately but obviously listening to songs like ‘Fight Fire’ and ‘Trapped Under Ice’, we were obviously very much into the thrash type of stuff but we started to realize that you have to be careful that it didn’t become too limiting or one-dimensional.
All four of us were so into so many different things and Kill ‘Em All was primarily written with James and I… Ride the Lightning was the first time both Cliff and Kirk really got a chance to add what they were doing and they just came in from a different school…”
“It’s become folklore that I hate ‘Escape’ and it’s not true.” – Lars Ulrich
In a separate interview, Lars talked a bit more about “Escape”, saying, “It’s become folklore that I hate ‘Escape’ and it’s not true. It was the last song that was written for Ride the Lightning sessions and was purposely kept a little shorter than the other songs. We thought of it in the spirit of Iron Maiden’s ‘Run to the Hills’ or Judas Priest ‘Living After Midnight”. Dare I use the words ‘radio songs’? … Then it got a bad rap and I don’t know why. I don’t have a particular problem with it but it never became a live staple like the other songs on the record…”
While the album didn’t have a hit single, the album succeeded on almost every other level. Before the year was done, the band secured a major label deal in America with Elektra Records, major league management with Q Prime Management and a first Kerrang cover feature which showed Lars Ulrich sprayed silver as a striking cover image and a silver disc for 60,000 European sales of the record which would be presented to the band after their sellout show in London on December 20, 1984.
“Cliff Bernstein, who signed us to our new management deal in the states, has this big belief that we will be doing the next big thing in heavy metal.” – Lars Ulrich
The band didn’t allow this string of successes to get too into their heads. They soon turned their attention to what was going to be coming next. Lars would confidently say at the time, “Cliff Bernstein, who signed us to our new management deal in the states, has this big belief that we will be doing the next big thing in heavy metal. I also believe that the kids who are into Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Kiss and Twisted Sister will take on what we’re doing. I’m not saying it’s something that’s going to be happening overnight but it could start developing and Metallica could be the front runners of a new branch of heavy metal.”
While the band was poor and living a pretty simple life at the time of recording Ride the Lightning, the album has since been certified 6 times Platinum.
Metallica truly had their breakthrough album with their follow-up record, Master of Puppets in 1986, which would see them reach a whole new set of heights and attract a new legion of fans.
Like this story? Check out The Tragic Death of Ratt Guitarist Robbin Crosby
Check out our YouTube channel