#Metallica ride the lightning drum full#

Hammett: We recorded Kill вЂEm All, at this local studio in Rochester, New York, and I think the biggest artist that might have used that place was the singer of Foreigner for some demos or something. He was recording us with lots of ambiance, and we wanted heavy sounds and big drums. Lars Ulrich: Flemming was completely in tune to what we were doing. My mentor was really into jazz, and he pulled me aside one day and said, вЂњWhatвЂ™s going on with these guys? They canвЂ™t play.вЂќ And IвЂ™m like, вЂњWho cares? Listen to the energy.вЂќ The studio I worked at, Sweet Silence, was renowned in Denmark. ThatвЂ™s what we did.ДЇlemming, what were your first impressions of Metallica?ДЇlemming Rasmussen: I had never heard of them, but I really liked them as people. And part of our thing is we would wake up in the morning, pick out a music video to watch. He had a huge videotape collection of all these bands, live on video. Hammett: We totally destroyed our friendвЂ™s house where we were staying. Being homesick gave us the right amount of, I donвЂ™t want to say вЂњdepression,вЂќ but a little bit of longing that I think made its way into the recording process. Once we figured that out, that was a little thing that we did.

#Metallica ride the lightning drum full#

We collected absolutely every single beer bottle in our friendвЂ™s apartment, because you were able to take in four six packs of empty beer bottles and get one six pack of full beer bottles back. Hammett: We didnвЂ™t really have anything else to do besides work on music and drink Carlsberg beer.

We were experiencing culture shock a little bit. It was easy for the Danish guy to fit in, but it wasnвЂ™t so easy for the three American guys to fit in. It was three American guys and a Danish guy. Hammett: It was great when we started there, but we were homesick after three or four weeks. Was recording in Copenhagen fun at that stage in your life? Kirk Hammett: I was reading The Stand by Stephen King, and there was this one passage where this guy was on death row said he was waiting to вЂњride the lightning.вЂќ I remember thinking, вЂњWow, what a great song title.вЂќ I told James, and it ended up being a song and the album title. Where did the title Ride the Lightning come from? On the eve of the 30th anniversary of Ride the Lightning, Rolling Stone caught up with Ulrich, Hammett and production assistant Flemming Rasmussen, who recorded the group in CopenhagenвЂ™s Sweet Silence Studio, to find out how the album was made and what it means to them now. But when Metallica were making it, they were poor, young headbangers, trying to stretch their dollars. The record has since gone on to be certified six times platinum. The single вЂњCreeping Death,вЂќ has become a concert staple, thanks to the way it can get 10s of thousands of metalheads at a time to chant вЂњDie! Die! Die!вЂќ along with its outro. Songs like the heavy ballad вЂњFade to BlackвЂќ and the crushing вЂњFor Whom the Bell TollsвЂќ would serve as blueprints for later Metallica hits like вЂњNothing Else MattersвЂќ and вЂњSad But True,вЂќ and the eerie, nine-minute instrumental вЂњThe Call of KtuluвЂќ demonstrated their range. Thirty years later, Ride the Lightning stands out in the groupвЂ™s catalog as the album that introduced melody to its arsenal. Now they were working on the album that defined Metallica. Less than a year earlier, they had kicked out guitarist Dave Mustaine, who went on to form Megadeth, recruited Hammett and released their speed-limit-breaking debut, Kill вЂEm All, the record that defined thrash metal. At the time, Ulrich and vocalist-guitarist James Hetfield were both 20, guitarist Kirk Hammett was 21 and bassist Cliff Burton was the old man of the group at 22. It was the spring of 1984, and the Bay Area thrash-metal quartet was holed up in Copenhagen, Denmark вЂ“ UlrichвЂ™s home country вЂ“ recording at a studio they had picked for two reasons: hard rockers Rainbow had recorded their Difficult to Cure album there, and more urgently, it was cheap.

Look Back at MetallicaвЂ™s Ferocious Career in Photos James and I slept in the bedroom, Kirk and Cliff shared his couch.вЂќ A friend literally gave us his apartment to stay in while we recording. вЂњWe were really broke,вЂќ drummer Lars Ulrich says, reflecting the state of Metallica as they were making their second album, Ride the Lightning.