You're Wrong About Ride the Lightning
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- Опубліковано 20 чер 2024
- In this video, I dive into the timeless debate of whether Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" truly outshines "Master of Puppets." With so many fans claiming "Ride the Lightning" as their favorite, I felt compelled to challenge this notion. Exploring both albums track by track, I dissect their strengths, weaknesses, and impact on Metallica's legacy.
From the iconic opening riffs to the final crescendos, I analyze each song's composition, lyrical depth, and live performance statistics. Using a revamped evaluation process, I blend subjective opinion with objective data, aiming for a fair comparison.
As the battle unfolds, it becomes clear that while "Ride the Lightning" has its high points, "Master of Puppets" emerges as the true heavyweight. With tighter songwriting, impeccable composition, and unmatched streaming and sales numbers, "Master of Puppets" solidifies its place as Metallica's pinnacle.
But don't just take my word for it. Join me on this musical journey as we explore the nuances, complexities, and enduring appeal of two legendary albums. Whether you're a die-hard Metallica fan or simply curious about the debate, this video promises to spark lively discussion and challenge your preconceptions.
Chapters
Intro: 0:00
History Behind Ride the Lightning: 0:39
History Behind Master of Puppets: 1:35
Rules: 2:03
Comparison: 2:35
My Thoughts: 9:01
Conclusion: 10:19
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Let me know some more comparisons you would want me to do?
slipknot debut vs iowa
@@GullySlayss I like that idea!
Call of Ktulu > everything else especially live. Cliff is God.
We need both albums.
For sure! I do love them both
Your playing is super crisp and clean. Keep up the good work sir!
Thanks a lot!
i very much respect your opinion on fade to black and sanitarium, though me personally, as someone who was in psychiatric care for 6 months (hospital) for suicidal thoughts and depression, knows exactly the place and the feeling of both songs. there’s so much to talk about with both of them. but for me i have to say sanitarium because it’s not just one kind of mood, its not only the suicide but the thinking that you’re more sane than everyone else and how you just want to leave. i rarely comment on videos but this is something i have to share my thoughts on. if you know sanitarium, then you know. but i completely see why the majority of people like fade to black more. this was a good video though and i agree MoP is the better album as well.
Thank you for sharing your story. Its amazing how much our emotions can get tied into certain songs. James is a special lyricist and has a way with connecting people to his lyrics.
Your wrong because an justice for all is their best album hand's down
Hey i mean your opinion is yours man. But if you wanna see mine i made a video on it too
Bass players have entered the chat 😂😂
Ok dude. I love that album. I’m a first four loving Metallica fan, but really? It’s absolutely their most technical album. Def their most progressive album. Everyone was firing on all cylinders. But again, put a gun to my head and force me on a desert island… for me it’s RTL, then MOP, then, AJFA, then Kill ‘em All
It's my second favourite after Ride, even if it sounds like shit. As a bassist myself, that mix is unacceptable.
As a longtime fan, everything that they did in the 80s was absolutely fantastic. Really difficult to pick between the four albums. They all shine in their own way. Ride the Lightning is my personal favorite, but the impact of the first four albums cannot truly be measured with their influence on a generation.
Completely agree. They are an unreal band
Great video, really enjoyable 👏
Hey thank you!
Love the breakdown even though I prefer RTL. I’m curious your issues with Escape, that is one of my sleeper favorite songs by Metallica. The soaring major chorus has always hit my ear so beautifully and is a departure from the norm. Also we MUST acknowledge the boost MOP got from stranger things while considering the numbers. Love the content!!
Thank you! I have a whole video on Escape if you are interested. For me it falls flat
Agree. The way in you introduce the discussion it's relevant in the interest of an objetive view of Metallica without disrespecting the legacy. Keep up the good work!
Hey thank you!
Love your videos. You found a solution to the sounds, and your playing is awesome.
Maybe post tabs or videos for the real way to play some Metallica songs. Old tab books had people learn a lot incorrectly.
Maybe start with the last third / harmony part of Orion.
Great suggestion!
Always had this take as well
My fav. Is And Justice For All
What a great video and nice comparasion, direct to the point.
My favorite is RTL, i love how frenzy and straight the album is from start to finish, Master starts strong but kinda loses its momentum in the middle and gets back strong with Damage Inc. to end the album, also the guitar and bass tone from RTL is unmatched.
I find myself loving RTL's guitar tone a lot more now, def on par for me with MOP
@@BrianWGuitar i like the guitars in MOP too, but it dont have that “loose thrash” vibe, btw the drums is on another level, the best sound Lars ever had
@@luuanlive I can see that side, I know lars isnt technically sound but he does a lot of fun stuff I think he should get credit for. He is one of my favorite drummers
I generally agree with your assessment. These are my two favourite albums, but I think Puppets is just that little bit better due to the title tracks MOP vs RTL, the weaker tracks Leper vs Escape, and has slightly better production and songwriting.
@BrianWGuitar First off! Since you made the switch as to stack "The Call of Ktulu" up against "Orion", comparing "Creeping Death" to "Disposable Heroes", and "Trapped Under Ice" to "Damage Inc.", would have been a better/more fair match, too!
It did however inspire me to make my own, totally subjective, comparison. But I chose to hold each song up against each track on the other album; Like, I find "Fight Fire With Fire" to be better than x amount of tracks on "Master...", or how many on "Master.." do I think are better than "Fight Fire...", and so on.
I ended up with a draw, confirming that I really don't know which album I like better 🤷♂ "Master..." having the highest highs, but also the lowest lows, IMO!
Going into every small detail, I will ultimately agree that "Master..." is by a hair, the better album, but likewise by a hair, "Ride..." is my fave!
I think a lot of people here agree with that. I personally dont see an extremely weak track on MOP
@@BrianWGuitar I wouldn't go as far as calling it extremely weak, but IMO 'Leper Messiah' is the weakest track of any on the first 4 albums.
'The Thing That Should Not Be' never really "hooked" me quite like the rest.
And while they're in no way bad tracks, I personally don't find them as strong as 'Escape' or 'Trapped Under Ice' (the weakest of "Ride...").
Was it contraversial tho? Master is the better album and IMO most listenable Metallica album in terms of composition sound and songs. What I mean is that the album has really good balance. But that’s thanks to the experiences in KEA and RTL era
Both are amazing albums! In my opinion, MOP has better song writing and complexity, but RTL has a way better guitar tone.
I do find myself loving the RTL more now but MOP will always have my fav tone
@BrianWGuitar to me, RTL is more clear, dynamic, and sits in the mix better. Just my personal preference, both are great, tho.
@@drock55551 You are spot on and thats because its more of a mid focused guitar tone, sitting the guitars exactly where they need to be. MOP is technically wrong because it has too much lows and muddies up the low end.
@BrianWGuitar on MOP, they were also able to cut the mids even more with the mesa's parametric eq. Sounds great by itself, but not in a mix. I think they should've stayed with the JCM800 and tubescreamer.
As a prog metal listener I love when you say things here are ”too long”. I’ve grown accustomed to listening to 15 min songs and thus these metallica songs feel short for me 😂
O I bet. Prog isnt my jam but I can see why people love it. Metallica songs are the longest for me.
This might sound silly but I like comparing the Rasmussen trilogy to Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Not just in quality but how Ride the Lightning and ...And Justice for All revolve around Master of Puppets the same way Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises revolve around The Dark Knight in ways of precursor and post accomplishment.
Ride the Lightning is still my favorite album. Its also the first Metallica and metal album i ever heard and got into, before that i was mostly listening to movie scores. But Master of Puppets is their most accomplished album and subtly better as a whole experience.
I think thats a really good comparison for sure, I can see it.
I feel the same way with comparing it to Star Wars. Ride the Lightning and Return of the Jedi are my two favorites. Both are in my top 3 favorite movies and albums of all time but undeniably Master of Puppets and Empire Strikes Back is their magnum opus.
Ride is my favorite, but master is the best
I think on the whole Master is better (there best), but the best songs on ride are better than the best on master.
I respect it but there is no way Master of Puppets the song gets beat by anything on RTL
ride the lightning is the best because of Kirk’s “WHERES RIDE THE LIGHTNING 😧”
Of course Máster Is better
Truth!
@@BrianWGuitarno it's actually their third best behind ride the lightning and an justice for all
Not ofcourse. Why ofcourse ? People could have different opinions. This is no place to say ofcourse
the objective ranking in my eyes will always be
1. Mop
2. Ride
3. Ajfa
4. Black
5. Kill Em' All
6. the rest
I respect that! Id move AJFA up one and ride down one but that's just me.
Agree completely.
@@BrianWGuitarafja is kind of like a reskin of ride the lightning in a way... i can see why you'd rank it higher, but I'd have to disagree
i think one and to live is to die are some of the best metallica songs, but there's a few reasons why ride is better.
for one, the production of ajfa kind of sounds stale in a lot of songs like blackened, and not even justice fans bring up the s/t track. blackened sounds a lot like battery too to me. i think ride just has a better style with a production sound that isn't super dry and crusty.
there's also more memorable tracks in ride. fight fire with fire, for whom the bell tolls, fade to black, the call of ktulu, ride the lightning, creeping death... it's simply a much more consistent listen that i feel captured a lot of lightning in a bottle with it's music ideas (pun not intended), whereas justice has quite a few mid tracks that are quite forgettable or even overrated (harvester of sorrows and shortest straw are good, but so many fans overrate the crap out of it)
when i first read your comment, i thought you were actually right, but as i looked into each album, i gotta say ride the lightning is a much better album, and was even vastly a more evolutionary step for metal when you compare it to other releases around the same time. they redefined the standards for heavy.
it's gotta be rtl in 2nd for me still...
Master
I prefer MoP but I think it mainly comes down to the production quality. They are pretty similar overall but Master of Puppets just sounds better to me. Both are all time classics.
I can get behind that
I only like hetfield's vocals on fight fire with fire, they're low and aggressive. Battery and damage inc have such high vocals that it sounds a bit too corny for me lol
Both are great but I honestly prefer RTL over MoP
I respect that, Hetfield was still finding himself vocally this album. I was surprised how long into their career that he was still searching for a vocalist to take over. I wanna say up until MOP he wanted to find a vocalist to take over for him.
@@BrianWGuitar I honestly don't like Hetfield's main vocal style, its just too poppish for me. His verse vocals on Frantic where he has that angry snarl "IF I COULD HAVE MY WASTED DAYYS BACK!" and in Fight fire with fire should've been his main vocal style
@@Itsshaunbewarned I love them all but I understand your side for sure. I think peak Het was MOP and AJFA, but Im in the majority there
I'm pretty sure his vocals on MoP are higher than Battery and Damage Inc.
@@drock55551 those are just a few examples but yeah, I don't like the vocals on MoP either
I think MoP is better [because it's deeper or smth], but I like RtL more because of its atmosphere [raw energy, less depressing]. So, as it already said, we need both albums
O for sure having both is amazing
Trapped under ice and escape are way better than disposable heroes and leper messiah. I also prefer for whom the bell tolls over the thing that should it be. I agree that welcome home is a better composition than fade to black though
Definitely a bold statement for escape to be better than anything but i respect it
I love both albums. Honestly, I can't really say I'd put either as my #1 Metallica album definitively. It depends on my mood of the day. Some days, I say Lightning is my #1, and others I say Puppets is my #1.
Thats how I feel about MOP and AJFA but RTL is an easy third for me.
What were people wrong about with Ride the Lightning? I think most every Metallica fan would come to this conclusion in a comparison, with most loving both albums.
On the other Metallica comparison video I did, people were commenting that Ride the Lightning was their best album so I decided to make a video comparing these two. Its kinda click baity but Im just playing the youtube game
Ride the lightning is the better thrash album, but not the better album
I think that is exactly it
I think the best songs on RTL are better than the best songs on MOP, but MOP is more consistently good
Fight Fire With Fire is less cheesy than Battery???!!!
NO FRIKKIN WAY😅
I respect your opinion though.👍
For me Battery just reminds me of being in high school, its just so tied to that I dont take it seriously anymore. Ive never really been a big fan of FFWF but between the two it feels less cheesy.
@@BrianWGuitar I just think FFWF has incredibly cliche lyrics. And that laugh in the last verse... ugh.😒
Thank you for explaining yourself😆Maybe I shouldn't bother reading the lyrics for Battery😅Bye Bye Good Chat
Which one wins if you only count your subjective points? I think it’s Ride the Lightning, which has my heart. It’s more raw. I love Trapped Under Ice. Escape is underrated. The guitar tone on Puppets is like pure noise pulses where you can’t actually hear the sound of guitar strings. It makes it really tight but sort of antiseptic and sterile. Whereas on RTL you can hear the guitar tone and it’s glorious. Fight Fire with Fire is legendary. It was the first Metallica song I heard back around 1982 and I was already a metalhead but I thought dang this might be too intense even for me. Then I fell in love.
Yes Kthulu gets long but I don’t get the hype about Orion. Don’t get me wrong; I love both albums.
On my subjective points alone its RTL:6 and MOP: 10. And thats just counting which songs I like more and which songs I think are the better tracks. I love both albums as well. I know MOP from a technical standpoint has a guitar tone thats not good for a mix at all but I love it and I find myself loving RTL guitar tone more now.
@@BrianWGuitar thanks for your response. I guess I meant the “like more” points but I can see “better song” is also subjective! Not sure I can see how a song could win one but not the other subjective category…but I reckon that’s also a subjective judgement! 🤓
I'm still on the RTL wagon. The B-side of MOP is entirely forgettable, and on the A-side only Master and Sanitarium are truly great songs. I find Kirk's leads a bit inconsistent on MOP, some of them are fantastic but others are ehhh. And what can I say, I think Ride the Lightning and Trapped Under Ice are underrated songs.
I absolutely love Orion and Leper Messiah but I can see your side. I also absolutely love Ride the Lightning
I like the Ride The Lightning song far more than the Master Of Puppets song. But the Master Of Puppets album is far better overall
I get the comparison, and can appreciate your scoring, put me on a desert island and make me pick one, gotta go RTL. I love the song Master of Puppets (and the album), but my top three songs are MOP, Creeping Death, and Fade to Black (in that order). So, even though MOP is probably my favorite song, I gotta go with the album that has two of the three of my top three Metallica songs. Yeah if I could have a few songs switched between the albums I’d have my perfect Metallica album (of course I’d have to also add a few from Kill ‘em All and AJFA), but if you have to select the albums as they are, personally gotta go RTL.
I totally get that. Fade to Black is my all time favorite song but as you already know I chose MOP as their best album.
I prefer Ride the Ligtning but Master of Puppets is also a very good album
my personal opinion
fight fire with fire vs battery: definitely battery. i don't like the low vocals on fight fire with fire to be honest and i prefer the riff and intro on battery (my favorite james riff by the way)
ride the lightning vs master of puppets (self title tracks): this is gonna come as a shocker but i prefer ride the lighting. the studio version of master of puppets is not as good as live (especially seattle 89 in my opinion the best sounding version) and ride the lighting has kirk's best solo if you say anything else you are wrong (one's solo is not good sorry)
bells vs thingy: the more i listen to thingy the more i like it (especially live). bells sounds better live (expect for day at the green because they played it fast plus it gets old) and i find the chorus pretty weak compared to the rest of the song. oh yeah and thingy is heavier (especially in C#)
fade to black vs sanitarium: even though fade to black is emotional i honestly gotta go with sanitarium.i prefer the harmonies on sanitarium but both are great.
trapped under ice vs disposable heroes: i don't really find disposable heroes underrated but almost perfectly rated. trapped under ice doesn't really hit me so because of that i prefer disposable heroes
escape vs leper messiah: leper. escape is not bad but it's just so weak compared to the rest
creeping death vs damage inc.: creeping death is good but it sounds better live for sure. but i prefer damage. i find creeping death overrated don't know why but yeah
ktulu vs orion: both are masterpieces but i prefer orion.
Yea I think we were pretty much on the same page. I do love RTL more like you but objectively MOP is better and thats okay honestly.
Damage Inc. shits on Creeping Death.
I mean hey you are entitled to your opinion
No I'm not
😂
I've always found this debate so damn funny, they're both great albums. Metalheads truly can't agree on anything can they? But I guess I'll throw in my two cents in, if only to stoke the fire even more.
Fight Fire With Fire vs Battery: I think most will agree that Battery is objectively a better song. Though I think as far as an opener goes, Fight fire with fire sends chills down my spine when the main riff kicks in, its so unbelievably heavy to me for whatever reason. I like it better as a "thrash metal opener". Though Battery stomps it in a 1v1.
RTL vs MOP: I mean, is this even a contest? MOP absoluley mops RTL in every single way except the Solo which I think most people would agree its arguably Kirk's best solo of all time.
Bells vs Thing: They're both slower, more sludgy songs. I personally don't really like Thing, its a tad too repetitive with the run time it has. I think Bells is an objectively better song and does a lot more with less run time. That and its got inarguably Cliff's most famous part.
Fade to Black vs Sanitarium: This is really, really hard. I love both. Though I think as an overall song I like Fade to Black more. I think from a technical point of view Sanitarium is superior and takes you on more of a journey but I think Fade to Black is SO perfectly written. Its just a little more coherent. The way the into leads you into that amazing verse riff is so good, the contrast with the heavy "chorus" is really powerful, I think the fact it's vocal-less makes it even more powerful. The bridge really good, very iconic. And the harminzied outro and the way to solo comes in makes me physically shiver every time I listen to it. Sanitarium has a lot more going on but I think the rather straight forward simplicity of Fade to Black works in its favor. I think this song more than any of the others go down to personal preference. But I think Fade to Black just has a better intro solo, a better verse riff, a better "chorus" and as FAR better outro, and is over all far more iconic
Trapped Under Ice vs Disposable Heroes: Disposable Heroes takes Trapped Under Ice out to the shed and promptly old yeller's it. The only thing trapped under ice really has going for it is that great bridge riff, but beyond that it doesn't hold a candle to Disposable Heroes.
Escape vs Leper Messiah: By default Leper wins. No contest. I actually like escape but it's inarguably the weakest song of either of the albums
Creeping Death vs Damage Inc.: Listen, everybody's favorite bridge riff is Damage inc's but its no contest in the slightest. In-fact if it wasn't for that bridge riff I'd say it's the weakest song on MOP by far, and I doubt many people would disagree. Creeping Death is about as Iconic as you can get.
Call of Ktulu vs Orion: I love both, but Call really does feel like their first attempt at an instrumental. Its not bad but it drags on nearing the end, I think it could've done with less run time or more parts to fit in hat run time. Meanwhile Orion is I think inarguably their best instrumental, its well and truly a proper journey and I think more than any other song, shows their improvement from RTL to MOP.
Anyways, from a technical and musical point of view MOP was a step up in every regard. However, I actually listen to RTL more, but only really for Fade to Black, Creeping Death, and like 3/4th of RTL itself before I get bored of the song, while I listen to MOP less frequently but listen to a lot more tracks from it. I think I like the rawer production of RTL more, its I think the best tone they had for a "thrash metal album" Kill 'em all's tone was kinda meh and while MOP 's tone is amazing, I prefer the RTL tone for what they were going for. All in all, both albums are great, can we all just learn to like good albums for the sake of being good and quit comapiring?
This has been my wall of text, feel free to say "too long, didn't read".
We both had basically the same opinions! Except for The Thing which I think is the better song. I enjoyed making this video, purely for the debate, Metallica is my favorite band so of course I love both. Thank you for sharing all that!
@@BrianWGuitar The Thing is the one song that just never clicked with me, and I'm a big fan of sludgy/doomy type stuff. But by the end if the solo, I just want it to end. I think it drags on just a little too much.
But yeah, I imagine that's how most people see the album comparison. RTL is pretty much carried by 3 songs (Fade, Bells and Creeping) in the grand scheme of things. I think the whole "RTL is better" comes from it having those 3 super popular songs, while MOP really only has 1 (MOP itself). I think overall the songwriting is better on MOP but RTL has more classics.
Puppets is superior in every way. Better technique, riffs, vocals, drumming, production. Plus, Lighting has Escape and Trapped Under Ice, which are both filler imho
Master will always be the better album, there’s no denying that. But RTL will always be my favorite. That icy tone is instantly recognizable.
They do a good job at creating a tone for the album
It’s not even close between Ride The Lightning, and MoP, in my opinion. The song writing, musicianship, harmony, and production are all improved drastically in MoP.
As for my unpopular opinion, Escape is one of the better tracks on Ride The Lightning. It has a genuinely good hook in the chorus, and it’s doesn’t have all the useless fat Metallica has cultivated as their musical identity, and started much earlier than a lot of people might realize.
I’ll offer an example of one of their tracks that are too long, which has always been my favorite Metallica song. Master of Puppets. If the song ended after the bridge section following the second solo, it would not change its impact. It has a completely useless third verse that doesn’t add to the song dynamically. So, I would end it 20 seconds after that high E note in the second solo.
Thats always one of my biggest criticisms of Metallica. Im pretty sure I mention it in a lot of videos but they do have put way to much into some songs and for other songs it can work so perfectly. Sometimes its a blessing and sometimes its a curse. Other people have told me they like Escape too, its not that I hate it I just think it could have been a bit better.
@@BrianWGuitar That’s fair. And honestly, had it not been a filler to please the label, and they developed it with the love and care of the other tracks, maybe it would be one of their more beloved songs. I respect your opinion. I don’t get bothered when someone feels differently than me. I thought you gave Ride The Lightning a fair shake and due credit as a precursor to what would eventually skyrocket them to success.
Eh, this old stuff they did when they were kids. I'd rather listen to 72 Seasons or Load.
Thats an opinion Ive never heard but I respect it.
@@BrianWGuitar Which is actually insane when you think about it, but then again it says a whole lot about the general mindset of most metalheads.
@@honigdachs. I completely agree on that. I listen to way more outside metal now and a diverse amount of metal genres I want to talk about.
No kill ‘em all is the best, it’s the hardest and fastest, and it have dave mustain
I am not a huge fan of early dave mustaine but I respect the opinion.
yep, yep, yep
Spoken like a true cave man
oh yeah, if you dont care about silly and unnecessary things as a lyrics and songwriting and just want to listen some loud noices and solos :\
Im gonna tell you a secret, on this record you hear Kirk Hammet. Dave Mustashe is not a god, his presence doesn't make the song ten times better btw, especially when we're talking about old Kirk, not the new one
(And actually Kill em all is easy, even my dog can play songs from this album
Fast alternative zeros is much easier than fast downpickin zeros. Solos is not really hard too. If we're talking about first 3 albums, KEA is the easiest one)
Lol no it isn't the hardest, it's far more simple, isn't anywhere near as heavy as RtL or MoP. But Mustaine is the man.
I actually liked Ride better. It's sonically heavier. That said, Puppets is a masterpiece as well.
Its fucking hard to choose for sure.
@BrianWGuitar My actual favourite is Justice-only problem is, it sounds like shit-plus I'm a bassist.
@@ferox965 You cant go wrong with either of the three. There being no bass does suck 🤣
In my opinion, master of puppets is just ride the lightning but more cocaine and more polishing
Thats an interesting way to put but it makes sense
Ride The Lightning is the better album for me. The sound, the atmosphere...unequaled. And I think that MOP only has three good songs on it while RTL doesn not have one bad song on it. Maybe the best hard metal album of all time. And I am NOT a big Metallica fan.
I can respect that, I just see it the opposite way.
What a really weird and unique take......I hope your high mate..........
I still hope at some point in the future people will realize the song Master of Puppets isn't really that good. It's the worst song on the album besides maybe Damage Inc. The verse riff is awful and they kill the pace in the middle of the song.
That is a take Ive never heard
Fade to black and creeping death honestly carry the entire lightning album imo
They are two of my favorite songs so I totally agree.
For whom the bell tolls is super iconic...... So many GIs claim they blasted that crap during their duty. Call of Katulu is a straight up classical composition.......RTL has one crappy song........
@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo Escape isn't that bad
It's a fun song to play but it honestly lacks better writing
Puppets is the better album. It's their best album.
Hardwired is better than both.
💀💀💀its good but not better, anyways its the question of taste
Honestly Ive never heard anyone ever say that. Massive respect honestly. I think it has some strong pieces and some not so strong pieces that kind of hold it back.
Oof. I love hot takes like that. HW is my friend's favorite Metallica album.
Hw has some straight up dog shit lyrics. "What doesn't kill you makes you more strong"...... cringe
AJFA is the best. PERIOD