METALLICA Discuss 30th Anniversary Of Ride The Lightning; "We Were Obviously Still Into The Thrash Type Of Stuff... But We Were Realizing You Had To Be Careful That It Didn't Become Too Limiting Or One-Dimensional", Says Lars Ulrich

July 28, 2014, 9 years ago

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METALLICA Discuss 30th Anniversary Of Ride The Lightning; "We Were Obviously Still Into The Thrash Type Of Stuff... But We Were Realizing You Had To Be Careful That It Didn't Become Too Limiting Or One-Dimensional", Says Lars Ulrich

In a new interview with RollingStone.com's Kory Grow, Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett, along with production assistant Flemming Rasmussen, discuss the band's sophomore album, Ride The Lightning, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this week.

"We were really broke," drummer Lars Ulrich says, reflecting the state of Metallica as they were making Ride the Lightning. "We had to live day to day. A friend literally gave us his apartment to stay in while we recording. James and I slept in the bedroom, Kirk and Cliff shared his couch."

An excerpt from the interview follows:

Q: How complete were the songs when you began recording?

Kirk Hammett: "Three or four months prior to recording Ride The Lightning, we would do these small, theater shows where we would play were "Creeping Death". "Ride the Lightning", "Fight Fire With Fire" and "The Call of Ktulu". Those songs were about 90 percent complete, in terms of arrangement and the guitar solos were already written."

Lars Ulrich: "We were hovering in New York in December and January of '83 and '84, and we wrote quite a bit of "Fade To Black" in New Jersey in the basement of our friend Metal Joe [Chimienti]."

Q: Songs like "Fade To Black", "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "Escape" were more melodic and slower than the songs on Kill 'Em All. Were you trying to do something different, musically?

Lars Ulrich: "It was the first time that the four of us wrote together and we got a chance to broaden our horizons. I don't think it was a conscious effort to break away from anything musically. Obviously, listening to songs like "Fight Fire" and "Trapped Under Ice", we were obviously still into the thrash type of stuff. But we were realizing you had to be careful that it didn't become too limiting or one-dimensional.

All four of us were so into so many different things. And Kill 'Em All was primarily written with James and I and Mustaine; so Kirk and Cliff didn't really contribute to any of the songs on Kill 'Em All. Ride The Lightning was the first time that both Cliff and Kirk got a chance to add what they were doing. They just came from a different school, especially Cliff, who came from a much more melodic approach."

Read more at RollingStone.com.

 



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