It was from the Metallimansion that the band planned their campaign for world domination, led from the back by the relentlessly go-getting Ulrich. Everyone was so poor, they were lucky if they could afford Smirnoff.” “They couldn’t even spell Stolichnaya, let alone afford it. “Anyone who would bring good, hard alcohol to the house was worshipped,” recalls Ron Quintana, founder of Metal Mania fanzine and another friend of the band. Hetfield and Ulrich shared adjacent bedrooms, while a stained couch in the living room acted as a extra place for anyone who needed to crash. The inside story of the show that scored Metallica a major label deal (opens in new tab)įar from being a mansion, the house was only a few steps up from a hovel.Kill ’Em All: the story behind the debut album (opens in new tab).At one point, they had to line the ground with milk crates and stand on those because whenever it rained the water leaked in and they didn’t want to get electrocuted.” They practised out in the back in a one-car garage that barely had enough room for a vehicle. “Of course, it was the furthest thing from that you could imagine – a total dive. “Before I went over there for the first time, I thought it was going to be this really nice place,” recalls photographer Harald Oimoen, an early friend and champion of the band. Onlookers could have been forgiven for thinking Metallica were rolling in it. They even had their own base of operations – a house with its own garage-cum-studio, affectionately dubbed the ‘Metallimansion’, located north of San Francisco, in El Cerrito, California. They had been the first thrash band to bag a record deal (with up-and‑coming US indie label Megaforce), they had already supported NWOBHM stars Venom at a one-off show, they were in the middle of a tour with another British band, Raven, and they were being fêted as heroes by the metal underground. Metallica were already way ahead of the pack by the time Kill ’Em All was released in July 1983. Spotify vs Apple Music vs Tidal: which streaming service is best for rock and metal?.Best headphones 2020: supercharge your music listening.On a budget? Here are the best budget turntables.But Ride The Lightning was the album that made them. Master Of Puppets would be the album that broke Metallica two years later. Ride The Lightning proved Metallica were more than the American metal movement’s brightest stars - they were now its leaders.Both the song and the album it appeared on were hugely significant for Metallica, putting clear water between them and the scene they had created, and pointing the way to a future where anything was possible. To reiterate for their fans that they weren’t going soft, the second side of Ride the Lightning is lined with three of the band’s most devastating jolts: “Trapped Under Ice,” “Escape,” and “Creeping Death.” The album ends with “The Call of Ktulu,” an intricate eight-minute epic that points the way towards Master of Puppets and …And Justice For All. Their ambition is confirmed by “Fade to Black,” a ballad that refuses to sacrifice attitude for sentiment. Opening with the punishing combination of “Fight Fire With Fire” and “Ride the Lightning,” Metallica provide an immediate reminder of why they are the reigning kings of thrash metal, but with the slow, steamrolling riff of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” it becomes clear that the band is growing beyond the speed metal parameters of Kill ‘Em All. Over the course of the eight tracks on Ride the Lightning the listener can detect the beginnings of the cataclysmic shift occurring in metal.
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