And finally arrived this 2023 Japanese release of METALLICA‘s mighty second album ”Ride The Lightning”, a very Limited Pressing, priced-down reissue featuring the album’s remaster originally only available into the Deluxe Box Set from 2016.
Released past April, this Limited Pressing is already sold out.
The expensive “Ride The Lightning Deluxe Box Set” included the album newly remastered but you gotta buy the whole package including the CD, 2 LP, many live shows playing the same songs, a CD with interviews (?) a very expensive – and honestly, not interesting – box. There was no standalone album remastering available.
Well, now this Japanese reissue finally featured ”Ride The Lightning” latest remastering at a very good price. And the refreshing, revitalized sound quality really worth to have it.
While Metallica’s first album in many ways created a new musical sub-genre, lyrically it was a bit childish. But on “Ride The Lightning” the band no longer comes across like a street gang but like a group of frightened young men using their hellacious sound as a shield against life’s unsettling realities.
It addresses capital punishment, death, suicide, and nuclear annihilation—basically, the array of concerns that would become metal’s standard lexicon.
Musically, the album represents the moment where thrash metal intersected with prog, thus raising the bar on technicality, structure, chops, and ambition.
Its combination of broadened perspective and elevated musicianship arguably mark it as the point where metal as a whole graduated from goofy adolescent expression to an artform that could speak to thinking adults and nourish listeners long after they grew out of its primary demographic age group.
In short, “Ride The Lightning” is the moment where metal developed a worldview. After “Ride The Lightning”, thrash metal turned into an arms race of ever-increasing technical proficiency.
Though, did an album of such iconic stature that has gone multi-platinum needed a remastering?
Well, fans have been asking for a fresh remaster on “Ride The Lightning”, an album recorded with a tiny budget and one deserving a ‘refresh’. This remaster is very, very good, and brings new life to it.
HIGHLY Recommended
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【ＵＩＣＹ～ 80301】
01 – Fight Fire With Fire (Remastered)
02 – Ride The Lightning (Remastered)
03 – For Whom The Bell Tolls (Remastered)
04 – Fade To Black (Remastered)
05 – Trapped Under Ice (Remastered)
06 – Escape (Remastered)
07 – Creeping Death (Remastered)
08 – The Call Of Ktulu (Remastered)
James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm & acoustic guitar
Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
Cliff Burton – bass guitar, backing vocals
Lars Ulrich – drums