Metallica: 10 Most Brutally Heavy Songs - Ranked

Despite the grand tradition of demonic chants in metal music, Metallica were never ones to just write odes to Satan. Whenever Metallica got serious with their lyrics, the actual subject matter would leave you with chills though. Even in a song as intense as "Disposable Heroes," the band's brutal recount of a soldier's experience in war felt way more real than any other metal song coming out at the time.

The whole thing starts off like a war march, almost as if to prepare us for the bludgeoning we are about to receive. Sure enough, the hyperspeed riff from Kirk Hammett sends the listener into a frenzy before settling into a killer half time groove. Hetfield then starts us on our journey, as we follow this soldier's disturbing sights of the fallen soldiers before him.

While initially afraid, this character begins to grow accustomed to the death around him and ends up being completely brainwashed into a killing machine who only finds solace in war.

The band had already started to incorporate more melodic material into their sound by the time they were making Master of Puppets, but this song is as thrash as it gets from these metal gods. Metallica never really play this song live as often as their classics, but every time they do, you'd better believe a sea of metalheads will be chanting "BACK TO THE FRONT" every single time.