METALLICA – Ride The Lightning [Deluxe Box Set remastered]

METALLICA has its own label now, Blackened Recordings, and the band seems like it’ll be putting it to good use as has been releasing their own catalog, and some seriously heavy duty box sets as happened with this “Ride The Lightning [Deluxe Box Set remastered]“.
This is a mammoth box including 4 vinyl LPs, 6 CDs and a DVD.

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 even warrant a deluxe repackaging?
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 2016 remaster is very, very good, and brings new life to it.

But… this “Ride The Lightning [Deluxe Box Set remastered]” includes the album remastered on CD and vinyl LP, a live show in 2 LP, a picture disc, a CD with interviews (?) and other 5 discs with different live shows playing the same songs…
Do you need these? I don’t think so…
Unless you are a rabid fan collector or want to spend over $ 150.

So it’s such a crime that if you want the latest remaster of “Ride The Lightning” you gotta purchase this Box. If you see on sale a separated CD claiming to be the 2016 Remaster, avoid, it’s a false reproduction.
So this “Ride The Lightning” remaster is great, but the rest into the Box not necessary for most people, except the excellent picture disc of the “Creeping Death” EP featuring the now legendary non-album tracks ‘Am I Evil?’ and ‘Blitzkrieg’.
“Ride The Lightning” is a landmark album that must be part of your Rock collection.

RIDE THE LIGHTNING (REMASTERED):
1 – Fight Fire With Fire
2 – Ride The Lightning
3 – For Whom The Bell Tolls
4 – Fade To Black
5 – Trapped Under Ice
6 – Escape
7 – Creeping Death
8 – The Call Of Ktulu

CREEPING DEATH ep (REMASTERED):
1 – Creeping Death (EP Version)
2 – Am I Evil?
3 – Blitzkrieg

James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm & acoustic guitar
Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
Cliff Burton – bass guitar, backing vocals
Lars Ulrich – drums

BUY
www.amazon.de/Lightning-Limited-Remastered-Deluxe-Boxset/dp/B01BUX7YPO