Metallica: 10 Most Brutally Heavy Songs - Ranked
3. Spit Out The Bone
When the band started rolling out promotions for their latest record Hardwired to Self Destruct, many fans were expecting something on par with Death Magnetic. The songs would be the same Metallica we knew and loved, but nothing as mind-blowing as their early years. No one could have predicted just how heavy this closing song would be though.
The song's opening riff puts you right in the center of the pit before Lars's drums kick the whole song into high gear. From there, the song goes through various moods from aggressive anger to more subdued and straightforward lines like when Hetfield sings "Stop breathing and dedicate to me." The solos from Kirk are a bit more erratic than on the band's early tunes, but the time passes by so quickly that it doesn't even seem to matter very much.
The lyrics also feel real, with the core theme being paranoia surrounding the outgrowth of technology and its potential to consume the fabric of human existence. From the blistering guitars to the heavy drums, the entire song feels like a hodgepodge of everything great about the band's glory years condensed into one track. In that respect, while other songs from the 80's hold up as masterpieces, the mix of influences on "Spit Out the Bone" make it feel like the ultimate Metallica song.