Metallica: Kill ‘Em All - Ranking Every Song Worst To Best
4. Whiplash
At the start of their career, Metallica weren't really known to be the most intellectual of bands. Although songs like the Unforgiven and One later down the line are some of the most brilliant stories in metal music, you don't really have to scratch your head to understand the meaning of a song like Hit the Lights. And now we explore the joys of the age old concept of...headbanging.
Yeah, even though the lyrics to Whiplash are a bit more amateurish than the rest of their catalog, it makes up for it by having some of the greatest riffs on the entire record, with James Hetfield's right hand being a practical machine gun with its accuracy bouncing off the strings. Since the subject matter isn't all that deep, the instrumentation really takes center stage here, pulling out all the stops and bringing the adrenaline level to 100 throughout all 5 minutes.
It turns out that this tried and true song has had a great shelf life as well, becoming a live staple almost immediately and Metallica throwing it in every now and again to remind us how much they can really kick ass. And why not? This is a testament to what metal is all about and will probably go down as one of the greatest songs that was actually written around metal music.