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Track Listing: Fight Fire With Fire Ride The Lightning For Whom The Bell Tolls Fade To Black Trapped Under Ice Escape Creeping Death The Call Of Ktulu

Metallica released their second studio album 26 years ago, on this day. It was a masterful epic incredibly far ahead of its time, and I am more than thrilled to have a look back at it.

'Fight Fire With Fire' kicks off the album with the brutality and anger that was typical of Metallica in their early days. It sort of carries on with the foundation laid down by Kill 'Em All but takes it a step further with the twin guitar harmony, a timeless piece of music that blows your fucking mind, whether you are listening to it for the first time or the five hundredth. Even though the title song starts off as a typical mid-tempo thrash tune, it makes sure you don't get a chance to pick up your dropped jaw from the floor. As James sings the words, "Someone help me ... oh please God help me! They are trying to take it all away ... I don't want to die", the song picks tempo and induces your head into a windmill motion that doesn't cease for pretty much the rest of the song. In addition, it is interspersed with solos that display not only the raw energy they had at the time, but also the creativity that was beyond belief.

Cliff Burton mesmerizes you with his bass solo in 'For Whom The Bell Tolls'. Who needs guitar solos when you have a bassist that is greater than God? This song is all about Cliff and reminds me of his magic every time I listen to it. For that and for every other reason, it remains my favorite Metallica song of all time. If only they hadn't had that fucking bus accident. Anyway, the band showed how to combine the terms 'thrash metal' and 'ballad' and came up with 'Fade To Black', perhaps the first and best ever attempt at such a creation. No amount of words can do justice to describe this song, so I would just keep it to one word: blissful.

After that soul-touching diversion, the thrash vibe is back with 'Trapped Under Ice'. One of the 'thrashiest' Metallica songs till date, these four minutes invoke into the listener the same level of relentless madness with which the song was composed and recorded. This song represents a young, raw, passionate Metallica at their angriest best. 'Escape' is much more relaxed and more the kind of track you would sit back and enjoy for it's brilliant musicianship, which makes it every bit as good as any of the thrash assaults on this record.

If someone asked me to name one song that always makes me sing, scream, pump my fists, bang my head all at the same time, no matter what, my answer would always be 'Creeping Death'. And well, if you don't do any of the above while listening to it, you're a fucking failure in life. The album comes to a rather dark and thought-provoking end, with a 9 minute instrumental, 'The Call Of Ktulu', a track that was ground breaking not only according for Metallica's own standards, but for metal in general at the time. The music is powerful enough to take you deep into thoughts, so deep that you might actually lose yourself.

This was the last album to feature Dave Mustaine as a songwriter for Metallica, and he stamps his genius on the two tracks he's credited for, the title song and the instrumental.

Overall, for me this remains Metallica's finest, most ground-breaking effort till date and the most powerful metal album ever, along with Iron Maiden's Powerslave. Whenever you listen to this album, you can feel the nostalgia, it has that uniqueness about it. I would sum it up as 47 and a half legendary minutes of mind-bogglingly intricate yet immensely brutal and passionate metal.