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All The Songs
Metallica All the Songs
This is the most in-depth exploration of Metallica's songs ever written.
From their widely circulated demo, No Life 'til Leather, all the way to their 10th studio album Hardwired... to Self-Destruct - Metallica have earned the title of the biggest heavy metal band on the planet. Their albums, including the hugely influential Master of Puppets, are now considered classics of rock and metal, while singles such as Enter Sandman, Fade to Black and For Whom the Bell Tolls have stood the test of time. Follow the epic journey of the godfathers of thrash metal, song-by-song, and see how they became one of the biggest selling bands in the world.
No stone is left unturned across more than 500 pages, illustrated with incredible photography throughout, from the inspiration behind the lyrics and melodies to the recording process and even the musicians and producers who worked on each track.
Uncover the stories behind the music in this truly definitive book - a must-have for every Metallica fan.
- GenresMusic
528 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 7, 2023
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79 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 28, 2024
There’s a lot to like about this book. It’s huge (500+ pages), slick, packed with photos of the band, and canvasses an extensive selection of Metallica recordings. And there are many, many valuable snippets of information (my favourites are the stories of how Cliff Burton helped Kirk Hammett with the solo for “Ride the Lightning”, and how Hammett unwittingly helped Burton with his bass solo on “Orion”). But for an “All the Songs” book about Metallica, this is ultimately a slightly missed opportunity. There are two main problems.
First, the mistakes. Some of these are minor and typographical (for instance, the phrase James Hetfield hated as a description of Metallica’s music was presumably “thrash”, not “trash” as per p. 48; and the singer Hetfield wanted to emulate in “Nothing Else Matters” was Chris Isaak of “Wicked Game” fame, not “Wicked Games” as it states on p. 196). But other mistakes betray a fundamental unfamiliarity with the band. For example, in describing the mellow intro to “Fight Fire with Fire,” the author Benoît Clerc writes that it “surprises the listener before giving way to Kirk Hammett’s thundering six-string.” Any Metallica fan worth their salt knows that the thundering riffage in these early albums is all recorded by Hetfield, not Hammett. Another example: Clerc writes that the music in Reload’s “Fuel” “reconnects with the riffs of the past, to the great delight of fans, who had to be content with this introductory number to satisfy their appetite for palm-muting....” But save for a few bars of mid-paced chugging in the middle of the song, there’s hardly any palm-muting in it at all (the main riff is a pedal riff, and the verses are open chords). Other songs on Reload (e.g., Better than You) have way more palm-muting.
The second major problem with the book is the absence of key details for so many of the songs. This is supposed to be a book for the die-hard fan, and the die-hard fan wants minutiae. Too often in this book, the relevant details are missing, and irrelevant details are foregrounded. Or often generic production details that apply to a whole album stand in for specifics of the supposed story behind individual songs.
I’ll give an example. “Blackened” is, in my estimation, one of the greatest of all Metallica songs. As a die-hard fan of the band, here are some things I would like to know about the song:
First, who came up with that intro? And more specifically, whose idea was it to flip it so that it played backwards? And how did that conversation go down? The idea of reversing it is pure genius: it turns an epic, heroic progression into something altogether more menacing and ominous. Soaring, multilayered, guitars steal in from the silence, growing louder and more threatening until at 00’37 they are annihilated in a cacophony of percussion, and that blistering staccato riff explodes out of the gate. This is one of the greatest song introductions ever recorded, but Benoît Clerc doesn’t mention it at all.
Second, the riffs. This song contains at least three all-time classic Metallica riffs. I have so many questions. For instance, the main riff. After Kirk’s guitar solo, the beat Lars lays down over this riff messes with our perception of it in the most exciting way (5’33-5’41; for an excellent analysis see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRQXV...). Was this by accident or design? And what about the second riff, the one that the main riff transitions to at 1’13 (one of the most thrilling moments of the album). This riff seems to recapitulate elements of the tail of the main riff, providing unconscious continuity. Was that deliberate? Were the two riffs written independently? Clerc does tell us that the main riff originated with Jason Newsted, but his story about how Newsted presented the riff is incorrect; or, at least, it’s contradicted by multiple interviews with Newsted himself. Clerc writes that the song “was born during a jam session among the band’s members”, but the way Newsted tells it, he played the riff to Hetfield alone, in the bedroom of Newsted’s one-bedroom apartment (e.g., see https://blabbermouth.net/news/jason-n... or https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interv...).
The most striking thing about Clerc’s passage about “Blackened” is that he barely mentions the music in the song at all. Apart from misinforming us about the genesis of the main riff, literally the only thing he tells us about the music is that Kirk’s solo is “stunning – and a touch ostentatious”. In a book about Metallica’s songs that is more than 500 pages long, we only get two measly paragraphs about this song (one of their greatest), and Clerc wastes precious words in these paragraphs to inform us that Joe Satriani’s album Surfing With the Alien “is full of instrumental gems such as Crushing Day and Satch Boogie.”
In the absence of relevant details about the music of Blackened, surely he provides some incisive analysis of the lyrics? Wrong. He says the lyrics “deal with the singer’s fears about the state of the planet, and tackle ecology”. He completely misses the obvious fact that the song is about nuclear warfare (“millions of our years, in minutes disappears”) and the ensuing nuclear winter (“winter it will send”). To substantiate his interpretation, he quotes drummer Lars Ulrich, but Lars is on record as saying he never understands Hetfield’s lyrics.
To be fair to Clerc, the book is subtitled “The story behind every track” rather than “a detailed analysis of every track”, and maybe there just isn’t much of an available story behind certain Metallica tracks (Clerc could hardly provide answers to my questions above if the band have never addressed them). And maybe it’s unfair to criticise Clerc for taking quotes from the band members themselves at face value. But for my money, a truly incisive book would not uncritically accept what the band themselves have to say. For instance, Clerc quotes Hetfield as saying that the song “Ride the Lightning” was about “being accidentally found guilty and put to death”, but the opening lyrics of the song are literally “guilty as charged”!
Bottom line: it’s a good book, and I’m glad I bought it. If you’re a fan of Metallica, it’s worth the purchase. But it’s not the ultra-pedantic navel-gazing analysis of every Metallica song that I was hoping for.
First, the mistakes. Some of these are minor and typographical (for instance, the phrase James Hetfield hated as a description of Metallica’s music was presumably “thrash”, not “trash” as per p. 48; and the singer Hetfield wanted to emulate in “Nothing Else Matters” was Chris Isaak of “Wicked Game” fame, not “Wicked Games” as it states on p. 196). But other mistakes betray a fundamental unfamiliarity with the band. For example, in describing the mellow intro to “Fight Fire with Fire,” the author Benoît Clerc writes that it “surprises the listener before giving way to Kirk Hammett’s thundering six-string.” Any Metallica fan worth their salt knows that the thundering riffage in these early albums is all recorded by Hetfield, not Hammett. Another example: Clerc writes that the music in Reload’s “Fuel” “reconnects with the riffs of the past, to the great delight of fans, who had to be content with this introductory number to satisfy their appetite for palm-muting....” But save for a few bars of mid-paced chugging in the middle of the song, there’s hardly any palm-muting in it at all (the main riff is a pedal riff, and the verses are open chords). Other songs on Reload (e.g., Better than You) have way more palm-muting.
The second major problem with the book is the absence of key details for so many of the songs. This is supposed to be a book for the die-hard fan, and the die-hard fan wants minutiae. Too often in this book, the relevant details are missing, and irrelevant details are foregrounded. Or often generic production details that apply to a whole album stand in for specifics of the supposed story behind individual songs.
I’ll give an example. “Blackened” is, in my estimation, one of the greatest of all Metallica songs. As a die-hard fan of the band, here are some things I would like to know about the song:
First, who came up with that intro? And more specifically, whose idea was it to flip it so that it played backwards? And how did that conversation go down? The idea of reversing it is pure genius: it turns an epic, heroic progression into something altogether more menacing and ominous. Soaring, multilayered, guitars steal in from the silence, growing louder and more threatening until at 00’37 they are annihilated in a cacophony of percussion, and that blistering staccato riff explodes out of the gate. This is one of the greatest song introductions ever recorded, but Benoît Clerc doesn’t mention it at all.
Second, the riffs. This song contains at least three all-time classic Metallica riffs. I have so many questions. For instance, the main riff. After Kirk’s guitar solo, the beat Lars lays down over this riff messes with our perception of it in the most exciting way (5’33-5’41; for an excellent analysis see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRQXV...). Was this by accident or design? And what about the second riff, the one that the main riff transitions to at 1’13 (one of the most thrilling moments of the album). This riff seems to recapitulate elements of the tail of the main riff, providing unconscious continuity. Was that deliberate? Were the two riffs written independently? Clerc does tell us that the main riff originated with Jason Newsted, but his story about how Newsted presented the riff is incorrect; or, at least, it’s contradicted by multiple interviews with Newsted himself. Clerc writes that the song “was born during a jam session among the band’s members”, but the way Newsted tells it, he played the riff to Hetfield alone, in the bedroom of Newsted’s one-bedroom apartment (e.g., see https://blabbermouth.net/news/jason-n... or https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interv...).
The most striking thing about Clerc’s passage about “Blackened” is that he barely mentions the music in the song at all. Apart from misinforming us about the genesis of the main riff, literally the only thing he tells us about the music is that Kirk’s solo is “stunning – and a touch ostentatious”. In a book about Metallica’s songs that is more than 500 pages long, we only get two measly paragraphs about this song (one of their greatest), and Clerc wastes precious words in these paragraphs to inform us that Joe Satriani’s album Surfing With the Alien “is full of instrumental gems such as Crushing Day and Satch Boogie.”
In the absence of relevant details about the music of Blackened, surely he provides some incisive analysis of the lyrics? Wrong. He says the lyrics “deal with the singer’s fears about the state of the planet, and tackle ecology”. He completely misses the obvious fact that the song is about nuclear warfare (“millions of our years, in minutes disappears”) and the ensuing nuclear winter (“winter it will send”). To substantiate his interpretation, he quotes drummer Lars Ulrich, but Lars is on record as saying he never understands Hetfield’s lyrics.
To be fair to Clerc, the book is subtitled “The story behind every track” rather than “a detailed analysis of every track”, and maybe there just isn’t much of an available story behind certain Metallica tracks (Clerc could hardly provide answers to my questions above if the band have never addressed them). And maybe it’s unfair to criticise Clerc for taking quotes from the band members themselves at face value. But for my money, a truly incisive book would not uncritically accept what the band themselves have to say. For instance, Clerc quotes Hetfield as saying that the song “Ride the Lightning” was about “being accidentally found guilty and put to death”, but the opening lyrics of the song are literally “guilty as charged”!
Bottom line: it’s a good book, and I’m glad I bought it. If you’re a fan of Metallica, it’s worth the purchase. But it’s not the ultra-pedantic navel-gazing analysis of every Metallica song that I was hoping for.
November 26, 2023
"Ein Tribut an die Könige des Metalls"
Metallica hat mich durch meine Jugendzeit in den 90ern begleitet und Songs wie "My friend of misery", "Wherever I may roam" und natürlich "Enter Sandman" verbinde ich mit ganz speziellen Ereignissen der damaligen Zeit.
Ich selber bin ein Fan der Musik, aber kein klassischer Band-Fan, daher waren mir die meisten Hintergrundgeschichten völlig unbekannt. Beim Stöbern durch die Seiten findet man vielerlei Anekdoten und zahlreiche Bilder von den Anfängen der Band bis in die Gegenwart. Es ist eine kleine Zeitreise, die mich mehrmals schmunzeln und in alten Erinnerungen schwelgen lies.
Das Buch ist sehr hochwertig und großformatig gestaltet. Es hat schon fast was von einem Katalog, so dick und schwer ist es. Die Songs werden steckbriefartig vorgestellt, immer mit der gleichen Maske ( Musiker, Aufnahme, technisches Team, Vorgeschichte, Aufnahme) ergänzt mit einem großformatigen Bild.
Metallica hat mich durch meine Jugendzeit in den 90ern begleitet und Songs wie "My friend of misery", "Wherever I may roam" und natürlich "Enter Sandman" verbinde ich mit ganz speziellen Ereignissen der damaligen Zeit.
Ich selber bin ein Fan der Musik, aber kein klassischer Band-Fan, daher waren mir die meisten Hintergrundgeschichten völlig unbekannt. Beim Stöbern durch die Seiten findet man vielerlei Anekdoten und zahlreiche Bilder von den Anfängen der Band bis in die Gegenwart. Es ist eine kleine Zeitreise, die mich mehrmals schmunzeln und in alten Erinnerungen schwelgen lies.
Das Buch ist sehr hochwertig und großformatig gestaltet. Es hat schon fast was von einem Katalog, so dick und schwer ist es. Die Songs werden steckbriefartig vorgestellt, immer mit der gleichen Maske ( Musiker, Aufnahme, technisches Team, Vorgeschichte, Aufnahme) ergänzt mit einem großformatigen Bild.
January 22, 2024
A fully comprehensive telling of every Metallica song which includes the genesis of the song and the gear used.
They break down every studio album and most of their live albums. However, I think S&M 2 deserved more than a single sentence.
This book got me to give “lulu” another listen. It’s still a tough album to like though.
You will learn where the band gets their musical influences and ideas for the last 40 years.
If you are a fan, read this book.
They break down every studio album and most of their live albums. However, I think S&M 2 deserved more than a single sentence.
This book got me to give “lulu” another listen. It’s still a tough album to like though.
You will learn where the band gets their musical influences and ideas for the last 40 years.
If you are a fan, read this book.
February 9, 2025
The detail on each song wasn’t as in-depth as I was hoping (I was expecting more like Bono’s “Surrender”); however, they also have a massive catalogue of work and too much minutiae would result in a 5000 page book. Nonetheless, it serves its purpose as a beautiful addition to my ever growing collection, and a nice reference should I ever want to look up specifics.
March 10, 2025
I did enjoy this book but some of the information was incorrect and there were a lot of typos. Considering how much the book cost and the amount of work that would have gone into putting it together it was disappointing. I enjoyed learning more about my favourite band.
December 25, 2024
It is an interesting book that teaches more about Metallica's albums and songs. It included the last record, 72 Seasons.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews