Metallica fans have long debated the band’s greatest album, with 1986’s Master of Puppets often getting the slight nod over 1984’s Ride the Lightning. For Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe, Ride the Lightning gets his vote “all day long.”
In a recent interview with 96.7 KCAL-FM host Radioactive MikeZ, Blythe was asked to pick between Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning. The Lamb of God frontman quickly responded, “Ride the Lightning, all day long!”
Blythe went on to say [as transcribed by Blabbermouth], “I think Master of Puppets overall, it sounds better as a record, and they were better players by then. But I think Ride the Lightning is more ferocious, particularly the opening track, ‘Fight Fire With Fire,’ which I did at the Dynamo Festival, I believe it was, with Craig [Locicero] from Forbidden and a bunch of other guys from the Bay Area. He did the Bay Area thrash attack thing.”
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He added. “It’s so aggressive, Ride the Lightning; it’s just so incredibly aggressive and at times breakneck, whereas I think perhaps Master of Puppets is — that’s kind of the classic album, more well-rounded, I think, but as far as my favorite, it’s definitely Ride the Lightning. And as far as aggressive straight-up thrash, I think it’s more aggressive, dude. I just love it. I love that album to this day.”
The Lamb of God singer went on to bring up one of his favorite bands, Bad Brains, when further compounding on the comparison between the two Metallica albums.
To me, it’s kind of like the difference between the first Bad Brains record, the ROIR cassette, and I Against I,” remarked Blythe. “I Against I sounds better, it’s mixed better, they were better musicians by then, but the first Bad Brains album is so fast and furious… Ironically, I like I Against I better. I don’t know. It’s kind of an inverse thing. But it’s kind of that same thing. I just like the rawness of Ride the Lightning. And it’s undeniable.”
A few years ago, Blythe credited Metallica frontman James Hetfield with helping him on his path to sobriety. “James is a cool dude,” the singer told I Ask No One with Kevin Re LoVullo. “I got sober on a Metallica tour in Australia. And I’ll just say that James Hetfield helped me out a lot with that.”
Lamb of God have a handful of dates left on their co-headlining “Ashes of Leviathan Tour” with Mastodon. Pick up tickets here.
Listen to Randy Blythe discuss his favorite Metallica album in the radio interview below, followed by his recent appearance on Consequence‘s Kyle Meredith With… podcast. See how Heavy Consequence ranked Metallica’s albums by clicking here.
