Metallica has hardly ever made a mistake in their 40-year career. Throughout this period, they have led the heavy metal movement and helped it achieve unprecedented commercial heights without sacrificing their morals.
The metal legends have performed in enormous stadiums all over the world for decades, but they have never made an effort to please the general public. Rather, Metallica has remained loyal to its values and achieved success in its own way, becoming the world’s largest underground band.
Their 1991 release was no accident, even if their self-titled album is the most well-known from their back catalog. They regularly produced albums that were as brilliant throughout several decades, including Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning. But Metallica was still getting used to the studio when they released the aforementioned record. According to James Hetfield, the band’s singer, there is a serious mistake on the record, which was only their second and helped boost heavy metal’s image.
Fans of Metallica might debate the band’s greatest album for hours on end and never come to a conclusion, but Ride The Lightning would undoubtedly be brought up. Although Hetfield shares this viewpoint, a significant obstacle undermines his view on the LP.
When the aforementioned song was written, Metallica was certain that they had finished recording Ride The Lightning and that they had done so to the best of their creative skills. However, their label had different plans and unexpectedly insisted on one more song, much to their annoyance. They quickly came up with a new song in the studio, which ended up being “Escape.” Metallica had little say in the situation, even though they didn’t want it to be on Ride the Lightning.
Even without “Escape,” the album would have only included seven tracks, even though it ran for more over 40 minutes. Therefore, it seems sense that the label wanted to include one more song from Ride The Lightning. Later, Hetfield told Ultimate Guitar about their rushed approach to “Escape,” saying, “It was the first time we wrote a song in the studio.” Lars remarked, “They want us to record one more, they need one more for the album,” after we had all the songs.
The lead singer went on: “I thought, ‘You didn’t tell me that.'” As a result, we had to write at the last minute. Consequently, “Escape” was one of those songs that was composed in a recording studio.
Metallica steadfastly denied the existence of “Escape” for many years. However, the heavy metal giants unexpectedly performed the song live at the Orion Festival in 2012, more than 10,000 days after it was first released. Hetfield revealed his genuine feelings about “Escape” to the audience during the song’s introduction, saying, “The song that we never wanted to play live, ever, is now on the setlist.”
This turned out to be an isolated incident, and Metallica hasn’t played “Escape” since. “When we played ‘Escape’ at the Orion Fest, we collectively agreed why we never play that song: It’s not really a great song to play live,” guitarist Kirk Hammett later told Rolling Stone.
He went on to explain why “Escape” doesn’t work in a live situation, saying, “It’s in the key of ‘A,’ like ‘The Call Of Ktulu’ and ‘Metal Militia,’ but for some reason the key of ‘A’ doesn’t really work well for us.” We enjoyed playing all the other tunes, but playing that one was more of a novelty.
Hammett’s remarks demonstrate that Hetfield is not the only band who dislikes “Escape” and wants to remove it from their back catalog. Fortunately, the singer’s disdain for material hasn’t prevented him from enjoying Ride The Lightning’s grandeur. He told Newsweek in 2018 that the Metallica album was his favorite as “it was the first time we got to be part of it
In the end, Metallica’s recordings are meant to capture the same unadulterated passion as their live shows, particularly from the time they formed Ride The Lightning. They abandoned their conventional songwriting techniques for “Escape,” but it backfired. The group was not yet well-known enough to disregard their label’s request, even though it was a violation of their instincts.