Watch Metallica Transfer Ride the Lightning Cassette Tape Demos

Did you guys know about Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All and Ride the Lightning re-releases that are dropping this Friday? This stuff normally flies by my content feed because I rarely see bands actually take advantage of a rerelease to do something interesting, and I haven’t spent enough time with the tracks they’ve teased to give us a sense of the remaster.

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But even more interesting than the new master is the Frank Zappa-style vault material the band unearthed from Lars Ulrich’s archives for these releases. Live performances, European TV interviews, rare photos, essays, and demos, all of which sound like they’ve never seen the light of the day. The albums drop on April 15, and you can check out the full list of release specs here.

Part of the band’s process for these reissues was transferring old cassette tape demos to digital formats so they could be prepped for release. Someone in the Metallica camp was kind enough to film that going down, for “Fight Fire With Fire,” and you can watch it below.

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Max is managing editor of Gear Gods.