Like Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, who was one of Metallica’s musical heroes, Burton played with his fingers, imbuing the songs with fluidity.
Since Mustaine was no longer in the group when the sessions for Ride the Lightning began, bassist Cliff Burton stepped to the forefront, contributing to six of the eight songs and encouraging his bandmates to experiment with different tempos and structures on songs like “ Fight Fire With Fire' and the cinematic instrumental “ The Call of Ktulu.” Guitarist James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich had written most of Metallica’s first album with Dave Mustaine. As they worked on songs for their second album, Metallica were determined to stay ahead of the pack, and when Ride the Lightning came out on July 27, 1984, they proved that they weren’t just one of the best thrash bands, they were one of the best bands, period. Anthrax put out Fistful of Metal and Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett’s original band, Exodus, had a hot underground demo with a similar sound.
Slayer had released their blinding debut Show No Mercy.
After Metallica’s debut, Kill ‘Em All, became a template for a new style of music, the band realized it was going to have to up the ante on thrash metal.
