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Metallica - Blackened

Metallica - Blackened Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: ...And Justice For All
Released: 1988

Blackened Lyrics

Blackened

This is about the end of the world as written in The Bible. It also deals with pollution, deforestation and other social problems. (thanks, Ryan - Ireland)

The Intro was recorded by reversing the guitars and using several overdubs. (thanks, JT - Tullahoma, TN)

This is one of three Metallica songs (along with "My Friend Of Misery" and "Where the Wild Things Are") that was co-written by Jason Newsted, who was their bass player from 1986-2001. ...And Justice for All was the first studio album he played on with the band, and "Blackened" was the first track he helped write.

Composing the song with James Hetfield was a special moment for Newsted, as he was still a bit starstruck and thrilled to find himself kicking around ideas with the Metallica frontman. In our interview with Jason Newsted , he told the story:

We were in my one-bedroom apartment. I had my little four-track Tascam set up in the corner of the bedroom, and we were jamming on our guitars, just playing through some riffs. I played that "Blackened" riff, and he goes, "Dude, what is that?" Because it was really pretty crazy. The original thing is a very fast alternating thing. Man, it's pretty tricky, actually. I mean, the one that ended up on the record is pretty tricky, too, but the original one is really tricky.

He picked up on that and we recorded that bit. And he goes, "Let's build it to this, and build it to this." It was a moment. I was actually composing a song with James from Metallica and he was approving my riffs and saying, "This is going to be a Metallica song." That was a big, big moment for me. We had already been on tour together, and so I had a giant Damage Inc. tour poster on my bedroom wall right above my little station where I had my speakers and my little four-track and the two or three guitars in my collection.

And there we were, I could paint that picture for you very plainly. It was a very, very big moment for me, because I was getting approved from The Man to have my first chance on having one of my compositions on a Metallica record. So that was a very special time.

Metallica - To Live Is To Die

Metallica - To Live Is To Die Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: ...And Justice For All
Released: 1988

To Live Is To Die Lyrics

To Live Is To Die

This song is a tribute to Metallica's bassist Cliff Burton, who died in a tour bus crash. It is instrumental except the spoken word piece near the end - this was a poem that Cliff wrote before he died (thanks, Toke - Stoke, England)

The line, "These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives" comes from the book Lord Foul's Bane, Book One of the series "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" by Stephen R. Donaldson. In the book, the main character decides to write a poem to amuse himself. The full poem is as follows:
These are the pale deaths
which men miscall their lives:
for all the scents of green things growing,
each breath is but an exhalation of the grave.
Bodies jerk like puppet corpses,
and hell walks laughing.
(thanks, Evan - Columbus, GA)

Metallica singer James Hetfield explained to Mojo magazine December 2008 that this song is an "homage to Cliff without going over the top." He added: "It's about realizing how grateful we were to have that time with him."

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett on the first part of the "To Live Is To Die" solo (Guitar Player, April 1989): "That's a very straight blues box. It was the very last solo I did on the album. It was recorded at 5:00 in the morning, just a few hours before we had to leave for the Monsters Of Rock tour. I just played off the top of my head. On the other solos I carefully figured out the most appropriate scales for the chord changes." (thanks, Olli - Finland)

Metallica - One

Metallica - One Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: ...And Justice For All
Released: 1988

One Lyrics

I can't remember anything
Can't tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me

Now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
That there is not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Back to the world that's much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can't look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I'll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, wake me

Now the world is gOne, I'm just one
Oh God, help me
Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, help me

Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Landmine has taken my sight
Taken my speech
Taken my hearing
Taken my arms
Taken my legs
Taken my soul
Left me with life in hell

Writer/s: Bailey, Philip James / White, Maurice / Shocklee, Hank / Ridenhour, Carlton Douglas / Harris, Clifford Joseph / Alexander, Phalon Anton / Callaway, Thomas Decarlo
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

One Song Chart

This song is about a soldier fighting in a war and a mortar blows off in his face. He can't hear, see, smell, taste and he doesn't have arms or legs. He comes out of a coma in a hospital. During the time he is in the hospital he reflects on his life and things his father told him. Eventually the doctors get worried because he's having spasms all the time, but he doesn't seem to be dying. They call in the general and he can't figure it out either but the soldier with the general recognizes it. "Its Morse code," he says. The general asks what he is saying and the soldier looks for a minute and then says, "He is saying K-I-L-L- M-E over and over again. (thanks, Paul - Anacortes, WA)

The lyrics are based on the novel Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, which is about World War I. A specific passage that inspired the song is: "How could a man lose as much of himself as I have and still live? When a man buys a lottery ticket you never expect him to win because it's a million to one shot. But if he does win, you'll believe it because one in a million still leaves one. If I'd read about a guy like me in the paper I wouldn't believe it, cos it's a million to one. But a million to ONE always leaves one. I'd never expect it to happen to me because the odds of it happening are a million to one. But a million to one always leaves one. One."

James Hetfield was introduced to the book by his older half brother, David Hale, who was also in a band. (thanks Vesa - Tampere, Finland and Bertrand - Paris, France)

In 1971, Johnny Got His Gun was made into a movie which was directed by Trumbo. The video for the song uses images and monologues from that movie.

This was the first single released by the band to feature bassist Jason Newsted, who continued playing with Metallica until 2001. You have to listen very carefully to hear his playing, however, since the bass was buried in the mix.

In our 2013 interview with Jason Newsted , we asked him if he would like to see the album re-released with a more prominent low end. He replied: "There's been so much hubbub over this thing and people make so much out of it, but whatever it is that they make out of the blend of the whole thing, to me the album is perfect. Kill 'Em All isn't perfect, but it's perfect. And Van Halen I isn't perfect, but it's perfect. ...And Justice For All isn't perfect, but it's perfect. Because it captured that time for those people. Going back and re-recording albums that were already classics, I'm just not sure about all that stuff."

Metallica performed this at the Grammy awards in 1989. This was the first year a Grammy was awarded for Hard Rock/Metal Performance, and it went to Jethro Tull. This was a bit of a joke, since few people consider Jethro Tull to be Hard Rock or Heavy Metal. The next year, this won the award for Best Metal Performance and the year after, Metallica won again for "Stone Cold Crazy."

In 2014, Metallica once again performed "One" at the Grammy Awards, this time joined by the Chinese piano player Lang Lang.

Metallica guitarist James Hetfield wrote this with drummer Lars Ulrich. It is a fixture at their live shows.

This was included on the 1999 live album S&M, which they recorded with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

KoRn performed this on MTV Icon in 2003. (thanks, Nick - Paramus, NJ, for above 3)

The name of the statue with the scales on the album cover is "Doris." (thanks, Ali Sadeghi - Scottsdale, AZ)

Hetfield has said he lifted the intro from Venom's "Buried Alive," a song about being trapped in a casket while being buried alive, similar to the predicament of the character in this song. (thanks, Michael - North Adams, MA)

This was the first video Metallica made, and it expanded their fan base by giving them a presence on MTV. Many fans got mad at Metallica for selling out, but the band said it felt right. (thanks, Josh - East Longmeadow, MA)

Hammett told Kerrang! September 13, 2008 that this track has one of his favorite Metallica guitar solos. He explained: "Specifically, this is the middle solo of the song. Much like 'Enter Sandman' it's a solo that everybody can pretty much sing along to, and it definitely gives me a really good feeling every time I play it."

This song is featured in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and is considered the second hardest song on the game. (thanks, matt - Langhorne, PA)

When Metallica appeared on The Howard Stern Show in September, 2013, James Hetfield explained that this was not so much an anti-war song as an observation. "War is a part of man," he explained. "We're just writing about it. It's not good or bad, it's just a thing."

Hetfield also revealed that he could relate to the character in the song because of his difficult childhood. He said that he often felt like a "prisoner in his own body," with no means to escape. His father left when he was 13, and his mother died a few years later.