Metallica
Ride The Lightning

Listening notes

Metallica's Ride the Lightning appears here in a 2016 vinyl pressing issued through the band's own Blackened label, carrying catalog number 00602547885241. The album is classified under rock, speed metal, and thrash, and spans eight tracks spread across two sides.

Side A opens with "Fight Fire with Fire" at four minutes and forty-four seconds, followed by the title track at six minutes and thirty-six seconds. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" runs five minutes and ten seconds, and "Fade to Black" closes the side at six minutes and fifty-six seconds. Side B begins with "Trapped Under Ice" at four minutes and three seconds, then "Escape" at four minutes and twenty-three seconds. "Creeping Death" runs six minutes and thirty-six seconds, and the album concludes with "The Call of Ktulu," the longest track on the record at eight minutes and fifty-two seconds.

The total runtime across both sides is considerable, with Side B's closing instrumental accounting for nearly nine minutes alone. The sequencing places the album's two longest tracks at the end of each side, giving the record a structural weight toward its conclusions. Side A carries just over twenty-three minutes of music, while Side B's runtime is shaped significantly by that final track.

This pressing was released under Blackened, the label Metallica controls, which places it among the reissues the band has managed directly rather than through a major third-party imprint. The catalog number format is consistent with standard international distribution coding.