2. One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw These days using a tapping technique can be a cheap and easy way to make something sound far faster than it actually is, dazzling those who aren't aware of what's being done to create the sounds, and folding the arms of those that do. For One though, Kirk's opening series of tapped notes would go down in the genre as how you use them for maximum effect, first because of the sheer speed of the song, but also because it was the first taste a mainstream audience got of the band. Inspired and based on the novel 'Johnny Got His Gun' by Dalton Trumbo, both song and novel tell the story of a soldier whose limbs, face and ears are blown off - leaving him trapped inside his own mind. It's a truly terrifying concept that fascinated a young James Hetfield, and so following a beautifully acoustic intro and verse, a brutally heavy chorus reminds us of the weight of the subject matter before the buildup to the solo takes the cake. Conceptually the instrumental break that gives way to the solo is meant to represent this persons' descent into madness, so it's fitting that the abundance of notes that pleasurably assaults the listener should represent it. That's not to mention following this there's everything from scorching high bends to runs down the neck, and a perfect segue back into the other half of that chugging break that finishes everything in style.