METALLICA: Ride The Lightning Vinyl LP

Before the black album made them unavoidable, before the haircuts and the therapy sessions, Metallica made Ride The Lightning and basically ended the argument about what heavy metal could be. Released in 1984 when James Hetfield was 21 years old, this is the record where the riffs got smarter, the songs got longer, and the band figured out that thrash metal didn't have to be stupid to be brutal.

From the galloping dread of "Fight Fire With Fire" to the acoustic grief of "Fade to Black," this is Metallica operating at a kind of creative urgency they spent the next four decades chasing. The title track still sounds like it was recorded inside a storm. "Creeping Death" is a crowd ritual disguised as a song. If you're only going to own one Metallica record on vinyl, it probably shouldn't be the black album. This 2016 pressing does the original recording justice, loud and uncompressed the way it was always meant to be heard.

Vinyl LP. Thrash metal, speed metal, heavy metal. USA. Originally released 1984, this pressing 2016. Available at ALT CVLT, Frankston, Victoria.

Fans of: Slayer, Megadeth, Exodus, Diamond Head, early Anthrax.