# Best song on Metallica's Ride the Lightning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 17, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147 "2010-09-17T23:40:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/1 "2010-09-17T23:40:54Z")
([**Kill 'Em All**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=578661) poll.) One is all you can choose. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/2 "2010-09-18T03:28:03Z")
I’m just full of concert stories. This was my first Metallica concert. We were somewhere around row 2-4 (once you get that close, the seats really don’t matter anymore and people just shift around). Anyway, the whole show was great but during Creeping Death (you know, where they start to chant "Die Die Die), they turned on all the house lights and I turned around to see what was going on behind me. I saw over 40,000 people with fists in the air chanting in unison “DIE DIE DIE”. Man, I swear I felt like we could take on the Visigoths and make them our bitch. The unity of metal, eh? ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/3 "2010-09-18T03:31:11Z")
For Whom The Bell Tolls — true story. My college has a bell tower which would play CD-sourced carillon tunes every day at 12:30 (our designated lunch hour). My roommate & I snuck into the choir professor’s office, and switched CD’s with one which had every track as For Whom… it. was. amazing. oh, and we never got caught, because SO MANY students wanted to do that exact thing. Hopefully he’s not reading this… ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/4 "2010-09-18T18:08:28Z")
I voted “Fade to Black.” Such a powerful and emotional song. p.s. **fusoya** and **Uncle Brother Walker** love your stories!! ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/5 "2010-09-18T18:42:02Z")
This is, I think, the weakest album of Metallica’s classic first four LPs. It’s a little too heavy on the filler for my tastes. Here’s how I’d rank the songs on this album in descending order: [ol] [li]“The Call of Ktulu”[/li][li]“Fade to Black”[/li][li]“Creeping Death”[/li][li]“Fight Fire with Fire”[/li][li]“For Whom the Bell Tolls”[/li][li]“Escape” (arguably Metallica’s first stab at a more radio friendly sound)[/li][li]“Ride the Lightning”[/li][li]“Trapped Under Ice”[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/6 "2010-09-18T20:39:21Z")
Depends on the context. If it’s just listening to the album itself, I’d probably go with _For Whom…_, although I think the S&M version of the \*Call of Ktulu \*is possibly one of the greatest piece of music they’ve ever recorded. OTOH, \*Creeping Death \*is pure orgasm in concert. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/7 "2010-09-18T21:13:24Z")
True story: At a Metallica concert in 1989, a kid (maybe 14 or 15) was having a questionable drug experience one row ahead of ours. Nothing life-threatening, just something like a hangover. He sat in his seat during “Creeping Death” (no one else was sitting), at which point I managed to get our whole area pointing at him and chanting “Die! Die! Die!” during the relevant part of the song. Having said that, I still voted for “Fade To Black”. That song’s great. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/8 "2010-09-18T22:08:26Z")
Fade to Black. No question. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/9 "2010-09-20T13:42:06Z")
This was a tough one, but Creeping Death just barely beats out Fade to Black for the #1 spot. ---
**Author:** ![pyromyte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@pyromyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyromyte)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/10 "2010-09-20T14:31:37Z")
Again, how can anyone pick, they’re all great! I voted Ride the Lightning simply because I remember thrashing to that like a crazy monkey when I was a kid screaming “BURNING IN MY BRAIN” Does anyone else sometimes hear a bell tolling on the radio, and for a half second think, “Yeah, let’s hear some 'tallica… oh dammit, its AC/DC!” ?? ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/11 "2010-09-20T15:16:01Z")
> [@pyromyte](#): > > Does anyone else sometimes hear a bell tolling on the radio, and for a half second think, “Yeah, let’s hear some 'tallica.. oh dammit, its AC/DC!” ?? That used to be me, years ago. But now my reaction is pretty much “Please let it be ‘Hell’s Bells’! _Please_ let it be 'Hell’s Bells!” Granted, both songs are _wildly_ overplayed and beyond burnt out at this point (but not to the point of “Enter Sandman” and Run D.M.C. & Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”; _nothing_ is currently as overplayed as those two songs, and if I _never_ hear them again in this lifetime, I may just start believing in a higher power of some sort), but to me, “Hell’s Bells” is the superior song. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfyre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfyre/32/9972_2.png) [@Shadowfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfyre)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/12 "2010-09-20T16:15:10Z")
For me, it was a toss up between For Whom the Bell Tolls and Fade to Black. In end I’m just a huge fan of crunchy guitar riffs. _chunkchunk chunkchunk chuuuuuung…_ It’s also, arguably, the easiest Metallica song to play on the guitar. I can always tell the difference between Metallica’s bell and AC/DC’s bell. Metallica’s bell sounds more despondent and melancholy. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-song-on-metallicas-ride-the-lightning/554147/13 "2010-09-20T19:23:45Z")
Hard to choose but I gotta say Creeping Death.