Metallica: 10 Awesome Lyric Meanings You Totally Missed
The World According to Hetfield.
Metallica have always been about the music first and foremost. Regardless of whatever James Hetfield is singing about, most of the band's work relies on blowing you away with their music rather than sitting down and telling you a story. I mean, one of the band's first big songs ("Whiplash") didn't have a deeper meaning other than headbanging.
On the other side of things, James Hetfield took a huge leap as the years went on to become one of the most underrated wordsmiths in the history of heavy metal. While there is occasionally a meaningless song or an instrumental on the records, there are just as many songs whose stories leave you absolutely gutted.
While people all know the stories behind tracks like "One" and "Enter Sandman," it's sometimes more interesting to look through the lowlights of the band's catalog to find the real introspective cuts. These songs may be centred around familiar topics like pain, war, and suffering, but the actual scenarios behind the tunes will leave you in shambles.
They may not be on the level as say, Bob Dylan, but these lyrics have the certain X-factor that can shake a metalhead to their very core. Have a listen and see the true pain lying within.
10. Moth Into Flame
Most fans going into Metallica's latest record Hardwired to Self Destruct knew what to expect. Though this would be the band's first ever double album of new original material, the new singles pretty much saw Metallica back in their thrash comfort zone they had revisited on Death Magnetic.
At the same time, the lyrics of Moth Into Flame seem to break into new territory for the band. The entire track seems to have a bit of a theme callback to the track "The Memory Remains", which dealt with fame withering someone away to nothing. Rather than seeing the fame hungry wannabe at the end of their run, this song goes backwards to show them as a young hopeful who will do anything to be noticed on a grand level. The way that Hetfield compares this person to the titular moth is pretty accurate considering their blind star-studded eyes.
The single did pretty well all things considered, but more unintended circumstances led to people muddying the message. This was the breakout song that the band were supposed to collaborate with Lady Gaga on at the Grammys, but the infamous cut plug on Hetfield's mic led to the song being known for the goof than the actual lyrics.
Regardless of technical flubs, this song is still one of the band's most merciless indictments of shallow attention chasers.