With bassist Ron McGovney and lead guitar Dave Mustaine, Metallica played their first live show in Anaheim, California in 1982. Before recording their first album, Metallica replaced Mustaine with the band’s third ongoing member, guitarist Kirk Hammett, while McGovney was replaced by a succession of bassists—Robert Trujillo most recently.
But whatever the composition of Metallica, Hetfield’s lyrics have remained one of the band’s anchor points. Most Metallica songs are credited to Hetfield and Ulrich (with Hammett also frequently credited)—who often begin with instrumental licks, riffs and bars, then refine them into furiously-paced arrangements—but almost all Metallica lyrics, across ten studio albums, were penned by Hetfield.
It wouldn’t be metal without the omnipresence of death, but Hetfield’s lyrics often write about our last moments as a confrontation with something dark and terrible. Hetfield’s lyrics have also long been focused on powerful forces that burn down the lives of soldiers and young people, who are often only compensated with the final, sublime truth of their destruction.
In “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” off Metallica’s second studio album Ride the Lightning (1984), Hetfield writes of five soldiers who charge a hill and find their deaths:
“Take a look to the sky just before you die It’s the last time you will Blackened roar, massive roar fills the crumbling sky Shattered goal fill his soul with a ruthless cry Stranger now are his eyes to this mystery Hears the silence so loud”
Some of Hetfield’s most famous lyrics also describe the body’s decay, or the sensation of feeling alienated from our own forms—a recurring theme from a songwriter who once seemed haunted by his mother’s death from cancer when he was 16, and the Christian Science beliefs that disallowed treatments. While several Metallica songs are more explicitly inspired by the loss of Hetfield’s mother Cynthia Bassett, the theme was more often expressed through Metallica’s repeated invocation of soldiers, buffeted by powers larger than themselves.
In “One,” their third single from their fourth studio album, 1988’s …And Justice for All, Hetfield described a soldier whose limbs and face were blown off by a landmine, who wishes for death from inside the prison his body has become. The music video famously used scenes from Dalton Trumbo’s 1971 anti-war movie Johnny Got His Gun, in which the terribly wounded soldier eventually learns to communicate with his doctors and nurses, signaling “kill me” in Morse code over and over with movements of his head.
“Darkness imprisoning me All that I see, absolute horror I cannot live, I cannot die Trapped in myself, body my holding cell Landmine has taken my sight Taken my speech, taken my hearing Taken my arms, taken my legs Taken my soul, left me with life in Hell”
Here are 11 more reminders of what’s coming, and that one year’s birthday will be your last.
“Ride the Lightning” - Ride the Lightning (1984)
“Guilty as charged, but damn, it ain’t right There’s someone else controlling me Death in the air, strapped in the electric chair This can’t be happening to me
Who made you God to say ‘I’ll take your life from you?’
Flash before my eyes Now it’s time to die Burning in my brain I can feel the flame”
“Fade to Black” - Ride the Lightning
“Things not what they used to be Missing one inside of me Deathly loss, this can’t be real Cannot stand this hell I feel Emptiness is filling me To the point of agony Growing darkness taking dawn I was me, but now he’s gone”
“The Unforgiven” - Metallica (The Black Album) (1991)
“New blood joins this Earth and quickly he’s subdued Through constant pained disgrace, the young boy learns their rules With time the child draws in this whipping boy done wrong Deprived of all his thoughts, the young man struggles on and on He’s known, ooh, a vow unto his own that never from this day His will they’ll take away, yeah
What I’ve felt, what I’ve known Never shined through in what I’ve shown Never be, never see Won’t see what might have been What I’ve felt, what I’ve known Never shined through in what I’ve shown Never free, never me So I dub thee ‘Unforgiven’”
“Creeping Death” -Ride the Lightning (lyrics with Kirk Hammett)
“So let it be written So let it be done I’m sent here by the chosen one So let it be written So let it be done To kill the first born Pharaoh son I’m creeping death
Die, by my hand (Die) I creep across the land (Die) Killing first born man Die, by my hand (Die) I creep across the land (Die) Killing first born man
“I rule the midnight air The destroyer Born, I shall soon be there Deadly mass I creep the steps and floor Final darkness Blood, lamb’s blood painted door I shall pass”
“The Thing That Should Not Be” - Master of Puppets (1986)
“Fearless wretch Insanity He watches lurking beneath the sea Great old one, forbidden site He searches, hunter of the shadows is rising Immortal In madness, you dwell
Crawling chaos, underground Cult has summoned, twisted sound Out from ruins once possessed Fallen city, living death”
“The Outlaw Torn” - Load (1996)
“The more I search, the more my need for you The more I bless, the more I bleed for you You make me smash the clock and feel I’d rather die behind the wheel Time was never on my side So on I wait my whole lifetime
I’m Outlaw torn”
“Just a Bullet Away” - Beyond Magnetic (2011)
“Eternal borderline All the faces intertwine Oh God… now I see mine In the shine of the midnight revolver”
“Eye of the Beholder” - …And Justice for All
“Doesn’t matter what you see Or into it what you read You can do it your own way If it’s done just how I say
Independence limited Freedom of choice is made for you, my friend Freedom of speech is words that they will bend Freedom with their exception”
“Disposable Heroes” - Master of Puppets
“Bodies fill the fields I see, hungry heroes end No one to play soldier now, no one to pretend Running blind through killing fields, bred to kill them all Victim of what said should be, a servant ’til I fall
Soldier boy, made of clay, now an empty shell Twenty-one, only son, but he served us well Bred to kill, not to care, do just as we say Finished here, greeting death, he’s yours to take away
Back to the front You will do what I say, when I say Back to the front You will die when I say, you must die Back to the front You coward, you servant, you blind man”
“Frantic” - St. Anger (2003)
“If I could have my wasted days back Would I use them to get back on track? Stop to warm at Karma’s burning Or look ahead, but keep on turning? Do I have the strength to know how I’ll go? Can I find it inside to deal with what I shouldn’t know? Could I have my wasted days back Would I use them to get back on track?
You live it or lie it, you live it or lie it (You live it or lie it, you live it or lie it) My lifestyle determines my death style My lifestyle determines my death style”
But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are compensations, such as the life on the road described in “Wherever I May Roam,” off their 1991 self-titled Black Album.
“And the Earth becomes my throne I adapt to the unknown Under wandering stars I’ve grown By myself but not alone I ask no one And my ties are severed clean The less I have the more I gain Off the beaten path I reign Rover, wanderer Nomad, vagabond Call me what you will”
Happy birthday, James. Keep rocking until that blackened, massive roar fills the crumbling sky.
