Meh, in BRTD's defense I was never really the biggest fan of Ride the Lightning as a whole. While his observations are indeed
extremely hyperbolic his points of criticism on "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is actually kind of valid. Now sure, this is Metallica and a lot of proper Metallica songs don't begin until about a minute of playing or something, but I just found it to be a bit excessive for "Bell Tolls" for some reason and the overall musical timing seems weird for some reason.
As for the rest of the album? Meh, there is something about the production that I am not just a huge fan of. Tone sounds a little too "heavy" in some places (which I guess makes a lot of sense given the lyrical theme dominant throughout the album
), though I'm not sure if that was just the production (Metallica didn't exactly have the best resources in their early career) or if there were a lot more parts I mistook for guitar playing that was actually Cliff Burton's bass playing. I mean yeah, obviously I would prefer Ride over anything from the Load and Reload eras and after (I just could not get behind Death Magnetic, even if it was structurally a lot better than the preceding decade and a half), but next to the more "progressive" sound of Puppets (there is just something that sounds I dare say downright Floydian about the song structures and lyrical themes) the album seems to stand out like a sore thumb. Really, the worst offenses of the first two Metallica albums are James's hoarse screaming, which in the grand scheme of things isn't that horrible (you don't exactly go into a thrash metal album expecting Rob Halford or Geoff Tate levels of vocalosity). Far more forgivable than wtfness that was the Load-St. Anger era or the Rubinic production found on Death Magnetic (I don't dislike Rick Rubin, he's a mighty good producer, I just found his work on Magnetic to be a bit awkward).
Overally, probably a B on Bells Tolls. Good riffs, nice dark and scary sounds, but jut a little bit too pretentious at some points. If it was a school paper I'd probably give it an 87.
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