Horror Song of the Day: The Thing The Should Not Be (by Metallica)

Posted on October 14, 2025 by Arleigh

If you’re into heavy music with a dark, spooky vibe, Metallica’s “The Thing That Should Not Be” is a must-listen. The song draws heavy inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories about ancient sea monsters and forbidden gods — you can feel that eerie cosmic horror flowing through the lyrics and music. Unlike their faster, thrashy songs, this one’s slower and heavier, building this oppressive, almost underwater atmosphere that really pulls you into a different world. The sounds perfectly suit a cosmic horror soundtrack, like you’re hearing something ancient waking up beneath the surface.

Every member of Metallica brings something special here. James Hetfield’s vocals nail that storytelling vibe, like he’s warning you about unspeakable horrors. Kirk Hammett’s guitar solo adds a weird, haunting layer with its echoing bends and wild tone, totally fitting the Lovecraftian theme. Cliff Burton’s bass work gives the song a thick, gnarly depth that makes everything feel huge and otherworldly, while Lars Ulrich’s steady drumming drives the mood without rushing it. Together, they craft this dense, crushing atmosphere that feels like it could be the soundtrack to a cosmic nightmare.

If you want to hear the song take on an epic new dimension, check out the S&M version with the San Francisco Symphony. The orchestra adds massive, cinematic power, turning the track into a full-on cosmic horror soundtrack. The strings and brass layer in this grand, haunting sound that makes the whole thing feel even more apocalyptic and intense. It’s like Metallica took their already heavy and spooky song and gave it the kind of scale and depth that only a symphony can provide. Definitely worth a listen if you want to experience cosmic horror in both metal and orchestral form.

The Thing That Should Not Be

Messenger of fear in sight
Dark deception kills the light
Hybrid children watch the sea
Pray for father, roaming free

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

Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea

Timeless sleep
Has been upset
He awakens
Hunter of the shadows is rising

Immortal
In madness you dwell

[Guitar solo]

Not dead which eternal lie
Stranger eons death may die
Drain you of your sanity
Face the thing that should not be

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

Song of the Day: Turn the Page (Metallica)

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Arleigh

Through good times and bad I have always been a huge fan and follower of Metallica. Even as they foolishly went off track following the path Bob Rock set for them throughout most of the 1990’s through the disastrous St. Anger debacle as they tried to return to their earlier sound, I have always followed this band which made up the original Big 4 of thrash metal (Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth).

It was on their 1998 cover album, Garage Inc., that the band released one of their most popular songs. It wasn’t an original, but a cover of the classic Bob Seger hard rock song about the hard road and life of a musician. Seger’s “Turn the Page” is just one of those hard rock tunes that latches onto the listener and forces them to listen and understand. Most such songs tend to be quite pretentious with nothing much to say once the listener really pays attention. The same cannot be said about Seger’s song.

Metallica decided to cover this song for their Garage Inc. album which was all about them covering their own favorite hard rock and metal songs of the past. While Metallica kept the original’s tempo, they added their own heavier and harder edge to song that straddles the line between hard rock and heavy metal. Even James Hetfield’s alcohol and cigarette ravaged vocals lent a sense of the hard road and life the track sings about.

The biggest change from the Seger song to Metallica’s cover has to be the accompanying music video which still remains one of the most controversial in MTV’s music video history (well, when they still played music videos). Seger’s song was released in 1973 when the concept of music video was nonexistent. With Metallica’s cover it was almost a guarantee that it would get a music video and what a video it was and still is.

The video was directed by Jonas Akerlund who had made a name for himself directing some of the most creative and innovative music videos of the day. His take on the song switches from a musician’s hard road and life on the road to that of a single mother trying to make ends meet as an erotic dancer by day and a prostitute by night to provide for her young daughter. The video was banned from receiving any sort of airplay on MTV as it dealt and showed the disturbing side of such a life. The fact that the tamer version of the video (below) still couldn’t make it on the airwaves just showed how much more haunting and controversial the uncensored version turned out to be.

Turn the Page

On a long and lonesome highway,
East of Omaha
You can listen to the engines
Moanin’ out it’s one note song
You can think about the woman,
Or the girl you knew the night before
But your thoughts will soon be wanderin’,
The way they always do
When you’re ridin’ 16 hours,
And there’s nothin’ much to do
And you don’t feel much like ridin’,
You just wish the trip was through

(Chorus)

Here I am, on the road again,
There I am, up on the stage
There I go, playin’ star again,
There I go, turn the page

So you walk into this restaurant,
All strung out from the road
And you feel the eyes upon you,
As you’re shakin’ off the cold
You pretend it doesn’t bother you,
But you just want to explode
Yeah, most times you can’t hear ’em talk,
Other times you can

All the same old cliches,
Is it woman, is it man
And you always seem outnumbered,
You don’t dare make a stand
Make your stand

(Chorus)
Ah But here I am, on the road again,
There I am, up on the stage
Here I go, ah playin’ star again,
There I go, turn the page
Woah

Out there in the spotlight,
You’re a million miles away
Every ounce of energy,
You try and give away
As the sweat pours out your body,
Like the music that you play

Later in the evenin’,
As you lie awake in bed
With the echoes of the amplifiers,
Ringin’ in your head
You smoke the day’s last cigarette,
Rememberin’ what she said

What she said

Yeah, and here I am,
On the road again,
There I am, up on that stage
Here I go, playin’ star again,
There I go, turn the page
And there I go, turn that page

There I go, yeah, Here I go, yeah, yeah
There I go, yeah, Here I go, yeah
Here I go, There I go
And I’m gone

Song of the Day: Fade to Black (by Metallica)

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Arleigh

Metallica.

Love them or hate them there’s really no middle-ground when it comes to one of the Big Four of thrash metal. You either love the band even through their dabbling into hard rock and the Bob Rock-era or you hate them for the perceived selling out and the Bob Rock-era. You ask any Metallica fan and they would pretty much agree that their third album, Master of Puppets, was the band at it’s peak. There would be some debate on whether the Black Album was where the band began to alienate some of it’s earliest fans, but that’s not what we’re here for.

We are here for the latest “Song of the Day” and it’s from their second full-length album, Ride the Lightning. The song is the band’s very first power ballad and follows the album’s theme and exploration of death. Where the album’s title took on the concept of death by electric chair the song chosen this time around is about the band’s exploration of the concept of suicide.

Yes, this was the song that the band had gotten into hot water for it’s suicidal lyrics which purportedly led to teens offing themselves after listening to it constantly. What critics of the song failed to realize was just how much teens at the time the song came out saw the song as therapeutic. They related to the song and used it as an outlet for their own alienation and depression.

Just like it’s subject matter it begins with a melancholy melody that gives a glimpse into the singer’s mindset. It’s not the typical fast playing many have associated with thrash, but that arrives soon enough as the song finishes off it’s vocals with a fade out that leads into Kirk Hammett’s 2-minute guitar solo that ultimately fades out as well…

The song that critics of metal gets wrong then and continues to even now is the classic “Fade to Black”.

Fade to Black

Life it seems, will fade away
Drifting further every day
Getting lost within myself
Nothing matters no one else
I have lost the will to live
Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free

Things not what they used to be
Missing one inside of me
Deathly lost, 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

No one but me can save myself, but it’s too late
Now, I can’t think, think why I should even try
Yesterday seems as though it never existed
Death Greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye

Bye…

(guitar solo)

Great Guitar Solos Series

27 Days of Old School: #21 “One” (by Metallica)

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Arleigh

“Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God, wake me”

Yeah, my taste in music see-sawed back and forth from one end of the spectrum to the other. Yesterday, I reminisced about one of the best R&B ballads from my time as a teenager in high school during the late 80’s. Today, I focus on one of the songs on metal end which remains (in my opinion) one of the best metal songs ever put out there.

“One” was the final single released from Metallica’s fourth album, …And Justice For All.

The song also had the distinction of being the first ever Metallica song which was accompanied by a music video shot for it. Metallica had avoided making music videos of their songs for years. Their success as a band never needed the assistance that MTV could provide. They saw it as a badge of honor that they’ve never made a music video, but that change in January 1989 when the single for “One” was released and a music video followed soon after.

A music video that combined elements from the 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun and the band playing inside a warehouse. It was an effective video that more than convinced many skeptics that when done properly a metal music video was possible. This wasn’t a video using garish colors, over-the-top imagery of hair metal music videos. It was a video that was just as heavy and through-provoking as the song it was made for.

Review: Metallica: Through the Never (dir. by Nimrod Antal)

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Arleigh

“And the road becomes my bride”

Concerts have been a major part of a teenager’s transition into adulthood. Often have we begged our parents to get us tickets to our favorite band’s concert as they toured straight into our hometowns. We’d beg, cajole, promise whatever just to be able to attend that big show that we thought everyone we knew would be attending. Rock concerts have been a huge part of this coming-of-age journey. It’s the show that our parents dreaded (especially the metal shows) and the ones that pulled in the outcasts kids.

We would either outgrow this youthful event because it’s not something that interests us, but most often it’s just because we either do not have the time to attend rock concerts due to work and other adult responsibilities. While we would still go to a concert of our favorite band when time and money affords for it in the end it’s something that’s become more of a past-time to reminisce about.

Metallica: Through the Never is the latest concert film that could change all that. Filmed during Metallica’s latest world tour, the film was directed by Nimrod Antal (Armored, Predators) and turns what could’ve been just your typical concert film into a surreal mixture of excellent concert footage and an apocalyptic narrative involving one of the band’s roadies. The latter felt like an extended music video and the lack of dialogue by the film’s narrative lead in Dane DeHaan does give this part of the film it’s surreal vibe. This part of the film could easily come off as one of Metallica’s music videos. It has mayhem involving nameless rioters battling an equal number of police right up to a nameless, gas-masked horseman who ends up paying particular attention to our beleaguered roadie.

Yet, while this apocalyptic-like narrative makes for a nice sideshow the main reason to see Metallica: Through the Never is the concert footage. While Antal does a good job with the story going outside the concert it’s inside where he shines. Making use of over 20 cameras on cranes, dollies and handhelds, Antal is able to make the concert footage feel like one was actually at the show. He uses every trick in the book from close-ups of each band member to sweeping crane shots that gives a bird’s-eye view of the concert.

It’s this part of the film that may just be one way for those of us who grew up going to concerts but have lost the time to return to such events to finally experience them again. It helps that the 3D used helps give the feel of not just being there but an enhanced experience that one may not find while actually attending the show live. But it doesn’t end in just the visuals.

A concert film can only go so far on how it looks. In the end, if the film doesn’t do a great job capturing the audio of the event then why even bother watching. Metallica: Through the Never doesn’t skimp on the audio assault. It is just exactly what I mean when I say audio assault. The audio in this film brought me back to attending past metal shows from my youth in near-perfect volume and clarity.

Metallica: Through the Never needs to be experienced in as big a screen as possible and if one’s able to see it on IMAX then I recommend they do so, but if that’s not possible then I still say go out and see this unique take on the ubiquitous concert film. It might not be the same as attending a Metallica concert, but it’s the next best thing to actually attending one.

Song of the Day: Orion (by Metallica)

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Arleigh

Been more than a bit listless and tired of late so what do I do to fix that than listening to some classic metal. One can’t get any more classic metal than one of the best metal instrumentals ever: Metallica’s “Orion” off of their Master of Puppets full-length album.

“Orion” would mark one of the the last great works by Metallica’s great bassist, Cliff Burton. He would pass away while on tour to promoting this album. Details of his passing could be read anywhere so will bypass that to instead celebrate one of his great achievements with this extended instrumental which just showed how great a metal bass player he was, but also just one of the greatest metal musicians of his time.

Fans of metal always wonder just how much more he could’ve contributed to Metallica’s success if he had lived. Would their later albums have been up and down in quality? Would he have gone along with the changes wrought by the band’s producer after his death, Bob Rock, whoguided the band out from their thrash metal roots and into a more pop-friendly hard rock sound. Metal will never know the answer to these questions, but if Burton had lived and remained with the band it’s more than likely that Metallica wouldn’t be the one we know now after their many stylistic changes, but probably still considered by their early, loyal fans as being pure thrash.

One thing for sure, we probably would’ve been given more extended instrumentals like “Orion”.

Song of the Day: Master of Puppets (by Metallica)

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Arleigh

Latest “Song of the Day” comes courtesy of one of the Big 4 of thrash metal. I think anyone who is remotely a fan of metal music has heard of this song and whether it’s a favorite of theirs or consider it one of the best thrash metal songs out there there’s no denying that this song has more than earned all the praise heaped upon it.

This song has consistently been mentioned by metal aficionados everywhere to be one of the genres torchbearers. It has set a standard for the genre that many try to match and surpass and usually fail to do so. It’s a song that drives itself into ones brain and only gives the listener a brief respite in the song’s middle section which also happens to be an eargasm-inducing guitar solo.

What song do I speak of?

Well, if you’ve clicked on this post you already know since it’s in the title. But just in case you’re still confused as to the song. It’s Metallica’s greatest song: “Master of Puppets”.

Considered by the legendary Cliff Burton (may his great bass soul rest in peace in Valhalla) as his favorite song from the band’s third full-length album, “Master of Puppets” has become a staple of Metallica live performances worldwide. Even in their lost years under the guidance of Bob Rock this song was the light at the end of the tunnel that still brought out the band’s legion of fans.

The song also featured in one of the funniest scenes in one of my favorite comedy films of all-time: Old School.

But enough rambling…just sit back, grab yourself a glass of Jack and enjoy some epic thrash.

Master of Puppets

End of passion play, crumbling away
I’m your source of self-destruction
Veins that pump with fear, sucking darkest clear
Leading on your deaths’ construction

Taste me you will see
More is all you need
You’re dedicated to
How I’m killing you

Come crawling faster
Obey your master
Your life burns faster
Obey your master
Master

Master of puppets I’m pulling your strings
Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
Blinded by me, you can’t see a thing
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
Master
Just call my name, ’cause I’ll hear you scream
Master
Master

Needlework the way, never you betray
Life of death becoming clearer
Pain monopoly, ritual misery
Chop your breakfast on a mirror

Taste me you will see
More is all you need
You’re dedicated to
How I’m killing you

Come crawling faster
Obey your master
Your life burns faster
Obey your master
Master

Master, master, where’s the dreams that I’ve been after?
Master, master, you promised only lies
Laughter, laughter, all I hear or see is laughter
Laughter, laughter, laughing at my cries

Hell is worth all that, natural habitat
Just a rhyme without a reason
Never-ending maze, drift on numbered days
Now your life is out of season

I will occupy
I will help you die
I will run through you
Now I rule you too

Come crawling faster
Obey your master
Your life burns faster
Obey your master
Master

Song of the Day: Nothing Else Matters (by Metallica)

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Arleigh

For only the rare times when we get more than one “Song of the Day” posted in the same day. This time it’s for that special day we call Valentine’s Day. Resident editor of all things art and photography Dazzlin’ Erin posted earlier tonight a song that tells one and all to love the one we’re with. It’s a celebratory song.

To help close out 2013’s Valentine’s Day I’ve chosen a much more intimate ballad that speaks of the love that survives the trials and tribulations of distance and being far apart. The song is Metallica’s power ballad from their Black Album and has become one of their signature songs. “Nothing Else Matters” remains one of the more popular power ballads and, coming from the band’s pre-rock era which most younger listeners know them more nowadays, quite a lovely song from the kings of thrash.

I’ve chosen the live and symphony-backed version of the song conducted by the late Michael Kamen. Part of the set-list for their metal and symphony show, S&M, the song takes well to the addition of a 100-piece symphony orchestra that doesn’t just repeat the same notes, but adds so much more nuances to the song. This could be heard quite clearly when the song reaches the guitar-solo part. This time around we get the string section, especially the violins, giving voice to the emotional aspect of the song. It’s my favorite part of the song and can listen to it over and over.

Happy Valentine’s Day…til next year.

Nothing Else Matters

So close, no matter how far
Couldn’t be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don’t just say
and nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn’t be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don’t just say

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they say
never cared for games they play
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
and I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn’t be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters

Song of the Day: The Outlaw Torn (by Metallica and S.F. Symphony)

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Arleigh

The latest entry in my “Song of the Day” feature is from one of my favorite bands ever, Metallica, and from one of their live albums: “The Outlaw Torn” feat. the S.F. Symphony Orchestra.

This song was part of their 6th album, Load, and was picked by classical composer Michael Kamen to become part of the set list for the band’s live collaboration with the S.F. Symphony Orchestra. One of these days I’ll review that live album with all its great entries and some so-so ones, but for now it’s all about “The Outlaw Torn” and how the band’s attempt at trying a hard rock sound instead of their original thrash metal beginnings ended up becoming pretty great once paired with a full symphony orchestra adding their own voices to the song.

Unlike some of the other songs picked for the S&M album (as this one was called Symphony & Metallica), this particular track benefited from the added melodies and arrangements that only ranks upon ranks of strings, brass and percussion sections an orchestra could bring to the table. The orchestra didn’t just mimic the very sound and notes the band was playing but added different layers of sounds and with this song one could hear those additions.

This version of “The Outlaw Torn” gets continuous play on my computer and iPhone that I know by memory just when certain sections of the orchestra comes in and just what sort instruments would be coming in. It’s that good.

The Outlaw Torn

And now I wait my whole lifetime
For you
And now I wait my whole lifetime
For you

I ride the dirt I ride the tide
For you
I search the outside search inside
For you

To take back what you left me
I know I’ll always burn to be
The one who seeks so I may find
And now I wait my whole lifetime

My whole lifetime
My whole lifetime
My whole lifetime
And I’m torn

So long I wait my whole lifetime
For you
So long I wait my whole lifetime
For you

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 long I wait my whole lifetime

My whole lifetime
My whole lifetime
My whole lifetime
And I’m torn

HEAR ME
And if I close my mind in fear
Please pry it open

SEE ME
And if my face becomes sincere
Beware

HOLD ME
And when I start to come undone
Stitch me together

SEE ME
And when you see me strut
Remind me of what left this outlaw torn

HEAR ME
And if I close my mind in fear
Please pry it open

SEE ME
And if my face becomes sincere
Beware

HOLD ME
And when I start to come undone
Stitch me together

SEE ME
And when you see me strut
Remind me of what left this outlaw torn

Song of the Day: For Whom the Bell Tolls (by Metallica)

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Arleigh

It took awhile but Metallica has finally made another appearance in the “song of the day” feature. This time around they return with one of their best songs. A song which has become iconic of early-Metallica amongst their most die-hard fans. The song is “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.

This track comes in third on the band’s second album and was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. It is also the song which contains one of the best opening riffs in metal history. A riff not born from lead guitarist Kirk Hammett’s axe, but from it’s bassist Cliff Burton. This opening riff shows Cliff Burton at his best and the fact that people continue to mistake the riff as guitar instead of bass just shows how talented the man was.

This song is all about Burton’s work on the bass with Hetfield supplying the vocals and Hammett’s lead guitar work almost behaving like an accompaniment. It is no wonder that whenever talk comes around as to who is the best metal bassist (or just rock bassist) ever no discussion could ever be considered credible if Cliff Burton’s name was not included.

While Burton died just two years after the single’s release while th eband was on tour in Sweden his contribution as both writer and composer to this song will forever cement his legacy amongst metal and music fans for countless generations.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Make his fight on the hills in the early day
Constant chill deep inside
Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey
On they fight, for they are right, yes, but who’s to say?

For a hill, men would kill, why? They do not know
Stiffened wounds test their pride
Men of five, still alive through the raging glow
Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls

Take a look to the sky just before you die
It is the last time you will
Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry

Stranger now, are his eyes, to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be
Now they see, what will be, blinded eyes to see

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls