Metallica weren’t just expanding their musical boundaries on their game-changing second album. Lyrically they were rising above the juvenile concerns of Kill ’Em All, engaging with political and literary topics. They tackled the destructive potential of the arms race on Fight Fire With Fire, and capital punishment on Ride The Lightning itself; Call Of Ktulu wore the influence of horror author HP Lovecraft, while For Whom The Bell Tolls took its title and subject matter from Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 Spanish Civil War novel of the same name. Metal Militia it wasn’t.
Metallica’s Ride The Lightning album was released on July 27, 1984. The majority of their fans were thrilled by the growth that had taken the band from the adolescent thrash of the debut to this newer, more complex sound. Importantly, it also attracted the attention of some influential people. One was Michael Alago, a rising young A&R guy at Elektra Records, the hip label that had once been home to The Doors, The Stooges and The MC5. Alago was so impressed with the album that he persuaded his superiors to let him try to sign Metallica.
