The year was 1984 and everything was fast. Metallica tore from the Bay Area’s womb with their ripsnorting debut, Kill ‘Em All, the previous year; Dave Mustaine was complaining about his former bandmates doing so, licking his wounds and shopping Megadeth’s demo about; and Exodus were sitting on their classic Bonded By Blood, tangled in label nonsense. The path was clear for Metallica to consolidate their gains with Ride The Lightning.
It’s a classic. You know the spiel. It did what it did, expanding US thrash metal’s scope and stature while harbouring a real-life ballad: Fade To Black didn’t just charge with the rage of a divorced hippo, but gave listeners a chance to breathe. In other words, the song was the first proper instance of Metallica $elling Out™ – well, according to the purists anyway.
