There are many agruements of what the best Metallica album was. I have to say that Ride the Lightning was easily their best effort, and might be one of the top 10 metal records ever made. Every single song on this CD is a perfect 10, and every single tune is heavy as hell (except for Call of the Katula, but it does some crunching at the end) There is no way that Metallica will ever give us a release like this again. True the Master of Puppets is great to, but I don't think it quite measures up to Ride the Lightning. Master has really been worn out since I listened to it soooo much, that it really doesnt do it for me anymore. I still love Ride the Lightning as they day I bought it in 1986. ENJOY!