7. Creeping Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO_84C3fpuI A set-closer and one of the signature songs that defined Metallica over the years, Creeping Death is two parts ferocious riff and one part rollickingly-brilliant solo. As we noted with the Ride the Lightning solo Kirk loves to assemble his solos from an armoury of bulletproof licks, the combination of which always lends itself to greatness. Death's solo is meticulously crafted, but follows a couple of the same beats as that of Ride - those being a middle section where you're allowed to breath for a second, only for the final run of notes to be an exercise up and down the high E string. It even features the first on-record example of Kirk doing some sweep picking (a technique where you move between strings with your left hand as fast as you can strum with your right) as well as an element of pre-cognition near the end of the piece when a slower set of notes come in that these days are chanted along to by the millions worldwide. It's almost like he knew they were onto something special, even back then.