Ride the Lightning is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on July 27, 1984, by the independent record label Megaforce Records.
Kill 'Em All is regarded as a groundbreaking album for thrash metal because of its precise musicianship, which fuses new wave of British heavy metal riffs with hardcore punk tempos.
In 2016, the album became the first metal album to be added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, an honor granted to works deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
