10 Great Rock Songs Inspired By Death

As Metallica first started to write their songs, there was always one caviat that came with it: no songs that had to do with demons and dragons. There were enough songs in the metal community that had to do with the occult, so it was definitely time for a change. After all, why would you want to write about these magical creatures of evil when there's so much darkness already out there?

Granted, the OG fans of Metallica were probably beyond pissed off when they first heard Fade to Black, shellshocked that the band had the gall to write a song with an acoustic guitar. When you actually sit down to listen to the lyrics, this is a topic that you really need to slow things down for, centered around a man who is getting more and more depressed and eventually contemplates suicide by the end of the song.

While the first chapter of the song is in ballad form, the heaviness does return in the back half as well. At this point, the narrator has come to his senses and changes his mind about suicide, only to find out that it's too late for him and he has nothing left but the void. Even though One may have gotten the ball rolling on MTV, this was the first time we got to see the more sensitive side of Metallica rear its head. Before we got the hard rock and bad haircuts of the '90s era of the band, this was the ultimate version of how to write something a bit more morose and still keep your metal cred intact.