In a new interview for “Wired In The Empire”, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares was asked which METALLICA album he thinks is better – “Ride The Lightning” or “Master Of Puppets”. He answered:
“The first time I saw METALLICA was during the tour in support of ‘Ride The Lightning’. I was very inexperienced at the time and I was living in Los Angeles. I was 18 years old and the concert was right across the street from where I worked. I was working at Togo’s sandwiches cafe right across the street from the Hollywood Palladium. I met MEGADETH leader Dave’a Mustaine’a and met MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson. I met all the members of MÖTLEY CRÜE and all the local LA bands.
During my shift, the guys from METALLICA came to see me. I made them sandwiches and, of course, asked a bunch of questions. And then I went to a concert that was literally across the street from my work, and it was awesome. I was blown away. They were playing before ARMORED SAINT. I love the hell out of ARMORED SAINT. But that day METALLICA with “Ride The Lightning” outdid ARMORED SAINT. Half the audience left and everybody was like, “Wow.” I was just blown away. And I think that to see the band in its original form, tearing everybody to shreds and blowing the roof off the audience, you have to listen to “Ride The Lightning”.
Of course, “Master Of Puppets” is a great album, don’t get me wrong, it’s a masterpiece, but there’s something harsh about “Ride The Lightning”. “Fight Fire With Fire” just rips it to shreds. But a year or two later I saw them perform in front of Ozzy, and at that point Ozzy had sort of gone glam. He had curly hair, and he was wearing sequined clothes, it was like a dress. And I thought something like, “Oh my God.” But this was in a bigger arena, and I was far away. So that experience was much more diverse. So I would choose “Ride The Lightning.” Of course, on “Master Of Puppets” the production got better. There are longer songs on that record; there were only eight songs on that record. But I would still choose ‘Ride the Lightning’.”
