{"id":153317,"date":"2025-11-25T18:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/153317\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T18:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:35:12","slug":"metallica-the-story-behind-fade-to-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/153317\/","title":{"rendered":"Metallica: the story behind Fade To Black"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year was 1984 and everything was fast. Metallica<\/a> tore from the Bay Area\u2019s womb with their ripsnorting debut, Kill \u2018Em All, the previous year; Dave Mustaine was complaining about his former bandmates doing so, licking his wounds and shopping Megadeth<\/a>\u2019s demo about; and Exodus<\/a> were sitting on their classic Bonded By Blood, tangled in label nonsense. The path was clear for Metallica to consolidate their gains with Ride The Lightning<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a classic. You know the spiel. It did what it did, expanding US thrash metal\u2019s scope and stature while harbouring a real-life ballad: Fade To Black didn\u2019t just charge with the rage of a divorced hippo, but gave listeners a chance to breathe. In other words, the song was the first proper instance of Metallica $elling Out\u2122 \u2013 well, according to the purists anyway.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember writing Fade To Black [on a friend\u2019s] couch,\u201d singer\/guitarist James Hetfield<\/a> told The Howard Stern Show in 2013. \u201cHe took us in when our manager basically kicked us out of his house\u2026 we were supposed to go to Europe for the first time, and our gear had gotten stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n

An entire U-Haul of Metallica\u2019s equipment had been nicked, including James\u2019 prize Marshall amp \u2013 on Friday 13th January, no less. When Metallica arrived in Copenhagen the following month to meet producer Flemming Rasmussen, it was out of necessity: they recorded at Sweet Silence Studios between 7pm and 4am, when no other bands were booked. They also slept in a half-built B-studio upstairs, which sounds cosy.<\/p>\n

Metallica – Fade to Black (Live, Seattle 1989) [HD] – YouTube
\n\"Metallica<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

But, before anything started, Flemming wanted to right a wrong. Dubbing Kill \u2018Em All\u2019s guitar sound \u201cpretty crappy,\u201d he was a man on a mission. \u201cWe actually started out by getting every single Marshall amp in Denmark at that time and [placing them] in the studio, and James would start fucking around with [them],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

James \u2013 along with drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and late bassist Cliff Burton<\/a> \u2013 set about recording Ride. Despite Fade To Black\u2019s slower tempo, the Four Horsemen were more worried about another track. \u201c[They] weren’t too concerned about fans not liking Fade To Black,\u201d said Flemming, suggesting the band thought Trapped Under Ice was \u201ca bit too poppy\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why the band didn\u2019t baulk at Fade To Black. Sure, it\u2019s not a thrash song, but it\u2019s dark. Minor acoustic guitar chords are picked as an arpeggio, using the same mournful pattern James jammed on his friend\u2019s sofa, lamenting his stolen gear.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was my favourite Marshall amp, man!\u201d Papa Het told Rolling Stone in 1993. \u201cI\u2019m sure I wasn\u2019t really thinking of killing myself. You gotta be pretty bad off to want to take your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the lyrical wallpaper is embellished by James\u2019 declarations: \u201cI have lost the will to live, simply nothing left to give.\u201d The words were hard as nails \u2013 as was required for contemporary metal \u2013 but betrayed a before-hidden vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Kirk noodled, Lars showed a tranche of restraint (Flemming taught him how to actually play the drums) and the song dashed off into a dizzying, twin-lead ode to Cliff\u2019s favourites, Lynyrd Skynyrd<\/a>. Epic and understated at once, it doesn\u2019t even have a chorus.<\/p>\n

Lars cited Cliff and Kirk\u2019s recent recruitment as Fade To Black\u2019s impetus, endowing Metallica with the musical greymatter to try their own Stairway To Heaven or Child In Time. It was a far cry from Hit The Lights \u2013 or, as James once said, \u201cIf we\u2019d been told when we were recording Kill \u2019Em All that we were gonna record a ballad on the next record, I\u2019d have said, \u2018Fuck off!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"James\n<\/p>\n

James Hetfield of Metallica onstage in 1986. (Image credit: Marc S Canter\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Once Ride was released on July 27th, it was time to road-test Fade To Black. The reactions were, um, mixed. \u201cWhen the \u2018metal\u2019 community heard a Metallica song with acoustic guitars, they all lost their fucking lunches,\u201d Lars told Stern. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they played Fade To Black for the first time [in San Francisco] on the Ride tour, some of us waved Kleenex at the band,\u201d said Brian Lew, who\u2019d chronicled Metallica\u2019s ascent in his Whiplash fanzine. \u201cCliff was pissed [off]. They lost some of the original fans over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four decades later, Fade To Black holds up. It unlocked the door to more ambitious tracks like Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and One, and is a regular in Metallica\u2019s setlist for good reason: it\u2019s a beautiful song that resonates with people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBands like Exodus and Slayer<\/a> don\u2019t do ballads, but they\u2019ve stuck themselves in that position we never wanted to do,\u201d James told Guitar World in 1991. \u201cLimiting yourself to please your audience is bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether you love it, loathe it, or are one of those people who pretends to have never listened to Metallica because they\u2019re overrated, Fade To Black is a unique moment in metal history. But calling it a sell-out? Jog on.<\/p>\n

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