10 Hard Rock Albums With Only One Bad Song
4. Escape - Metallica
Every single Metallica recorded in the '80s felt like they were reaching one step closer to their final form. While Master of Puppets is widely agreed to be one of the finest metal albums ever made, Ride the Lightning was certainly no slouch, having the same kind of firepower to put them in the leagues of the greatest metal acts of all time. Then again, even with only 8 tracks, most fans would have probably settled with 7 if they could have.
During the recording of the album, the band thought they had the album in the can, when Lars Ulrich got a message from their management saying that they needed one more song for the record. Despite already making modern classics like Fade to Black and Creeping Death, Escape was just thrown together in just a couple of hours in an attempt to cater to the AOR style crowd.
Even the weird turn into a major key for the chorus does this song absolutely no favors, almost sounding like James Hetfield is trying to do a hardened metal version of something you'd find on an REO Speedwagon record. Aside from a decent heavy bridge, it's far too little too late when the chorus fades everything out. As much as Ride the Lightning might be an inch towards perfection, this is the one instance where the record could afford to lose some of its fluff.