The lyrical content of the song refers to a specific chapter in the book, which details El Sordo and four soldiers are killed while attempting to fight on a hilltop. Metal fans hear the name For Whom the Bell Tolls and immediately think of the Metallica song, but it was actually inspired by Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel with the same name, which was about the Spanish Civil War. Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls inspired the song of the same name. 'Metallica were doing well, but it wasn’t like it was Metallica in 1987. “Do I regret turning that down? What I always tell people is that Armored Saint was developing and we were doing well, and these guys were my buddies, you know?' Bush told Metal Hammer of his decision to turn Metallica down. He declined the opportunity because his band was doing well at the time, so Hetfield just decided to do both again. Hetfield didn't want to play guitar and sing on the album, so the band offered the vocalist duties to Armored Saint singer John Bush. 'My mentor was really into jazz, and he pulled me aside one day and said, 'What’s going on with these guys? They can’t play.' And I’m like, 'Who cares? Listen to the energy.'” 7. 'I had never heard of, but I really liked them as people,' the producer later said during the Rolling Stone interview. In Denmark, the band worked with producer Flemming Rasmussen at Sweet Silence Studios because Ulrich was a fan of his work on Rainbow's 1981 album Difficult to Cure. Rasmussen had not even heard of Metallica before working with them, but ended up producing Master of Puppets and. 'Being homesick gave us the right amount of, I don’t want to say 'depression,' but a little bit of longing that I think made its way into the recording process. 'We didn’t really have anything else to do besides work on music and drink Carlsberg beer,' he continued.

We were experiencing culture shock a little bit,' Hammett admitted to Rolling Stone.

'It was easy for the Danish guy to fit in, but it wasn’t so easy for the three American guys to fit in. After a couple of weeks, they started to feel a bit homesick. Thanks to Lars Ulrich's connections, the band was able to record the album in Denmark. Cliff also inspired James greatly on counterpoint and rhythmic concepts.”ĥ. He made it his thing, but it was originally Cliff’s.

James really absorbed the dual-harmony thing and took it to heart. 'Cliff went the whole length and learned musical theory and everything,' Hammett reflected in an interview with Guitar World. Kill 'Em All was often criticized for lacking complex musical composition, so Cliff Burton, who wasn't very involved in writing their debut, taught his bandmates about music theory when it came time to work on its follow-up. The bassist had a formal background in music from studying it in college. The composition of the music was more complex, thanks to Cliff Burton. In addition, it's the first Metallica album to feature songwriting credits from Mustaine's replacement, Hammett. Ride the Lightning was the last Metallica album to feature songwriting credits from Dave Mustaine, who went on to form Megadeth after he departed. 'I remember thinking, 'Wow, what a great song title.' I told James, and it ended up being a song and the album title.' 3. 'There was this one passage where this guy was on death row said he was waiting to 'ride the lightning,'' the guitarist told Rolling Stone. The name was inspired by a passage in Stephen King's The Stand, which Kirk Hammett had been reading around that time.

100 on the Billboard 200 without any radio exposure at all, and was eventually certified six times platinum. It sold 85,000 copies across both markets, and then Metallica signed with Elektra Records, who reissued the album. Ride the Lightning was initially released through the independent label Megaforce Records in the U.S. Here are 10 facts you may not have known about Ride the Lightning. All these years later, Metallica are still on top of the world. James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Cliff Burton and Lars Ulrich shared their second creation with the world on July 27, 1984.

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