Metallica: 10 Best Hard Rock Songs
8. Until It Sleeps
After The Black Album sold 80 bajillion copies around the world, diehard Metallica couldn't have been prouder. Sure, the band had stripped down their sound, but now metal was more of a household name than ever before. At this point, there was no reason to believe that Metallica's next album would be anything but spectacular.
Than "Until It Sleeps" was released as a single and metalheads got scared as hell for what was to come. But...why? From a pure musical perspective, this song seems like the logical next step from the band's more hard rock predecessor, with a slinky bass riff and demented chorus melody. Yeah, the band may have cut their hair, but that didn't mean they had forgotten how to write great songs.
The song's detuning also gives it a unique character, with all the band's previous records almost always being done with traditional tunings. Instead of being the dark sign of selling out, this was the point where Metallica became all the more intriguing.
They may have been pulling from more alternative sounds, but the idea of Metallica doing a song that sounds like Alice in Chains is the kind of unusual pairing just crazy enough to work.