Top 10 Facts About Metallica's Album Ride the Lightning

The owner of Sweet Silence Studios is Flemming Rasmussen, who also served as the mixer, producer, and engineer for the album.

(I made a list about him and his studio - Top 10 Music Albums Recorded, Mixed, or Produced by Flemming Rasmussen)

The only things they had were their guitars. Thank God the other metal bands helped.

Flemming Rasmussen:
"James had this special Marshall amp that had been modified when he recorded Kill 'Em All. We had to get all the Marshall amps from some of the metal bands that were in Denmark at that time, so like nine Marshall amps, and spent the first day testing them. We actually recreated James' guitar sound on Kill 'Em All, but just beefed it up. He was really pleased with that."

We, the metal fans, also like the sound of James's guitar in this album. Many fans would agree that James probably got his best tone ever.

Flemming Rasmussen:
"They were young kids. We didn't have any problems with them staying at the studio. But you know, they were like kids are, I enjoyed it. We'd start recording at 7 at night and go on 'til 4 or 5 in the morning. So they'd just crash and sleep all day."

It's strange that Flemming Rasmussen was only 26 years old and he was only 4 years older than Kirk and Cliff, and 5 years older than James and Lars. But he talked about Metallica as if he was much older than them.

Kirk Hammett:
"It wasn't a particularly fun or happy time. But we were glad to be at a great studio in good working conditions. Everything else outside the studio was a struggle."

Rainbow's Difficult to Cure came out in 1981.

Kirk Hammett:
"We were really excited to be at Sweet Silence Studios because that's where Rainbow did Difficult to Cure. We were excited because we liked the sound of that album, and we were looking to get a similar sound for our album, using that studio and the same engineer, Flemming."

(Flemming is Flemming Rasmussen, the owner of the studio, mixer, and engineer.)

Lars Ulrich:
"Flemming was completely in tune to what we were doing. He was recording us with lots of ambiance, and we wanted heavy sounds and big drums."

Lars Ulrich:
"Mercyful Fate's rehearsal room was right next to Sweet Silence Studios. We actually finished the last couple of songs we did for Ride the Lightning - like 'Fade to Black,' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' and 'Escape' - in their rehearsal room. We were obviously huge fans of theirs, but we also became friends and they were our peers."

Kirk Hammett:
"It was a trip meeting Mercyful Fate because their music makes you think the guys are a bunch of evil, satanic, human-sacrificing devil worshippers. But in reality, they're all a bunch of goofy Danish guys. King Diamond had a bit of an aura about him, but you couldn't find a sweeter, more funny guy than him."

Flemming Rasmussen:
"I'm pretty sure Cliff didn't - well, it was Cliff or Kirk - but one of them just stood there moving his mouth. At one point, the other three decided not to sing, just to check it out, and either Cliff or Kirk didn't say a word."

Kirk Hammett:
"I was reading The Stand by Stephen King, and there was this one passage where this guy on death row said he was waiting to 'ride the lightning.' I remember thinking, 'Wow, what a great song title.' I told James, and it ended up being a song and the album title."

Kirk Hammett:
"We didn't really have anything else to do besides work on music and drink Carlsberg beer. We collected absolutely every single beer bottle in our friend's apartment, because you were able to take in four six-packs of empty beer bottles and get one six-pack of full beer bottles back. Once we figured that out, that was a little thing that we did. Being homesick gave us the right amount of, I don't want to say 'depression,' but a little bit of longing that I think made its way into the recording process."