10 Greatest Ever Story Songs
4. One -Metallica
Metallica has always been known for their dark lyrics. Throughout the band's 80's output, their approach quickly shifted from songs about demons to tales of injustice, addiction, and even the mentally ill. However, when it comes to setting up a scene in the lyrics, "One" is in a class by itself.
The song opens with the sounds of war while a melancholy guitar softly plays the initial riff. As the lyrics enter, we see a man who has been badly injured in battle, but is unable to voice his sorrow. In the breakdown, he pleads for God to wake him from his coma but is met with resistance. The song builds to its chugging outro as the layers are revealed and we realize just how bad this soldier's condition is. The man has no limbs, and is unable to speak, hear, or see anything.
With the loss of all these basic functions, the man is trapped in a never-ending exile as he pleads for death but can only live in pain due to the life support he is attached to. Metallica's way of detailing this man's inevitable grim fate takes the song from being a sad lament to a modern day Greek tragedy.