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His Hand’. There was no question, he admits, ‘that the riffs were [Kirk’s]’. Nevertheless, it caused bad blood between the two for a while. ‘I remember calling Kirk up and giving him a great deal of grief,’ says Holt, ‘and he said, “Ah, I thought I asked you if it was okay.” I’m like, “No, you didn’t.” So I’ve had the pleasure – and I use the term loosely – of watching sixty-thousand people chant that shit [at subsequent Metallica shows over the years] yet I’ve never received a penny for it. I’ve had many people say, “Man, you should have sued.” But I’m like, yeah, whatever, you know? It is what it is. I laugh about it now. I had one conversation with Kirk about it then I let it go for ever.’

But then, as Holt also points out, while both Metallica and Exodus had become known for ‘playing like real furious shit’, Kirk’s taste was always ‘a little more leaning towards the Maiden route, you know?’ And if James lifted a lyrical phrase from Kirk’s Exodus-era songbook, he certainly added to it in ways nobody else would have done. Inspired by the band catching a TV showing of the movie The Ten Commandments, the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic starring Charlton Heston, the lyrics of ‘Creeping Death’ were based on the Bible story of the tenth plague bestowed upon the Ancient Egyptians – the Angel of Death sent by God to kill every first-born child. When Cliff, in a cloud of weed, exclaimed, ‘Whoa, it’s like creeping death’ the rest of them laughed so much they decided they had to write a song with that title. That James so cleverly wove the convoluted lyric together said much for his rapidly improving songwriting skills. Musically, it was also a revelation; a brutal rock monolith built on incredible finesse, from its juddering riff to the mesh of vocal and guitar harmonies in its chorus, Hammett’s concluding double-tapped solo a masterclass in itself. ‘Creeping Death’ remains an all-time rock anthem, the thrash generation’s very own ‘Paranoid’ or ‘Smoke on the Water’.

The writing credits were also more evenly shared this time. The two most important tracks (‘Fade…’ and ‘Creeping…’) were credited to all four members. Two to Hetfield, Ulrich and Burton (‘Fight…’ and ‘For Whom…’); two to Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton and Mustaine (‘Ride…’ and ‘…Ktulu’) and the least significant two to Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett (‘Trapped…’ and ‘Escape’). Ride the Lighting also codified a format for Metallica in the 1980s: manic opener, monumental title track, at least one death march, one big ballad and a fistful of all-out thrash crowd-pleasers. If anything, it was progressive rock Metallica were now leaning towards, making virtues of musicianship, long solos, complicated time changes; above all, lengthy numbers, Lars sitting there, as he told me, timing the recordings, ready to ‘build more stuff in’ if they weren’t sufficiently long enough. The question remained: what would the die-hard thrash fans make of it? According to Flemming, the band ‘weren’t too concerned about fans not liking “Fade to Black”, they were more worried about “Trapped Under Ice”, which they thought was maybe a bit too poppy. That was the only concern during the recording. They joked about it almost being a single song.’

They wouldn’t have to wait long to find out. Within a week of completing recording, the band was in London rehearsing for their first UK performance, headlining what would be the first of two shows in two weeks at the Marquee club in Wardour Street. Presented as an apologia for those fans who had bought tickets for the aborted Rods tour, Music for Nations made sure the venue was packed with media and industry faces. Hopes were high, the band nervous. Things could go either way; triumph or disaster. Fortunately, recalls Martin Hooker, ‘They were just fantastic.’ By the time of the second show on 8 April, ‘It was really starting to get a buzz going.’ Recalls Malcolm Dome: ‘They were very, very good. You still didn’t think, good grief, this band is gonna be huge. But it was clear they could really pull it off live. The line-up just looked right, felt right and sounded