10 Things You Didn't Know About Metallica
3. Fade to Black's Borrowed Guitar
It might not seem like it today, but Ride the Lightning was an initially polarizing listen for most Metallica fans.
Some of the band’s greatest songs like “Creeping Death” and “Fight Fire With Fire” are on this album, but the one slow track “Fade to Black” left many fans questioning what kind of band these thrash legends really were. Though it has become a staple of the band’s set nowadays, actually recording the song ended up being a real struggle.
The song’s dejected and suicidal themes were very poignant, but the actual inspiration came from the band’s gear being stolen from their practice space. With nothing from the prior session, James started to strum a new idea where he reflected on the band’s morbid situation. Even with the song’s massive potential, the band didn’t have a proper acoustic guitar to record the song.
Instead of just investing in a new acoustic, Hetfield ended up borrowing an acoustic from one of his friends the night prior to recording. It may have just been a one-off, but this one track went onto become the precursor to future ballads like “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” and “Nothing Else Matters.” “Fade to Black” has been a fan favorite for years, but the days of recording is something that the band might not want to revisit.