The Ride the Lightning Tour was the second tour by heavy metal band Metallica, supporting their second album Ride the Lightning.
Tank supported in Europe, as did WASP and Armored Saint in North America. "Half [the audience] was theirs, half was ours," recalled WASP frontman Blackie Lawless. "It didn't matter what we were doing onstage. It looked like two opposing armies. Sometimes we just stopped what we were doing and watched. It was a war."
Metallica performed for the first time at Monsters of Rock in front of 70,000 people.
It was Metallica's last full tour to feature bassist Cliff Burton, as he was killed in a bus accident in Stockholm, Sweden, during the Damage, Tour.
