Trapped Under Ice - Metallica

Artist: Metallica
Song: Trapped Under Ice
Year: 1984
Album: Ride The Lightning

This has to be one of my favorite Metallica tracks. It seems to get a bum rap compared to the more popular songs, but I think that just adds to the song. I remember listening to my cassette copy of Ride The Lightning and marveling at this song. The lyrics are solid and the music is at its thrashing best.

I think it may have connected with me a little more because I was almost trapped under ice during one winter in Chicago, as a kid. I was walking on the ice with a friend and the ice started to crack. I did everything right and came close to making it onto the concrete walkway. As Don Adams would say, I missed it by that much. Suddenly, the ice broke and I went plummeting through.

Luckily, my friend had made it safely and found something to pull me to safety. I had a long, wet, cold bike ride home. I'm lucky that I was close enough to the edge. If I had been further out, who knows what my survival rate would have been.

On a positive note, I think this is the only song that can be synced up to Batman & Robin and make it look good.

Lyrics:

I don't know how to live through this hell
Woken up, I'm still locked in this shell Frozen soul, frozen down to the core
Break the ice, I can't take anymore

Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm trapped under the ice

Crystallized, as I lay here and rest
Eyes of glass stare directly at death
From deep sleep I have broken away
No one knows, no one hears what I say

Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm trapped under the ice

Scream from my soul
Fate, mystified
Hell, forever more
No release from my cryonic state
What is this? I've been stricken by fate
Wrapped up tight, cannot move, can't break free
Hand of doom has a tight grip on me

Freezing
Can't move at all
Screaming
Can't hear my call
I am dying to live
Cry out
I'm trapped under the ice

Fuel - Metallica

Artist: Metallica
Song: Fuel
Year: 1997
Album: ReLoad

This song was one of the first songs that I heard from ReLoad. I thought that I had first heard it during a 1995 concert recording, but looking over setlists, I cannot find a record of that. It wasn't played at the June 30, 1996 Lollapalooza concert I saw them at or the February 7, 1997 concert I witnessed either.

I'm not sure how I heard this song early, but I did, and I loved it. I thought it had the right edge to be old school Metallica merged with their newer sound. I liked the Load album, but for all the wrong reasons. It didn't sound like Metallica in most places. The ReLoad album was a return to form, but the songs weren't all strong. They were essentially leftovers from Load.

"Fuel" stood out from the rest of the songs. It could be thought of as a death song, but the surface was mostly about fast cars. All I know is that the song rocks. Metallica even performed the song on Saturday Night Live, which was odd to see. Their first single, "The Memory Remains" did not seem like a song Metallica should be singing. Change is fine, but this was another oddity. Metallica seemed to lose their way a bit in the late nineties.

For all the duets with outsider music artists and genre hopping, Metallica couldn't stray far from the speed metal that got them there. This showed me that they still had a pulse. They still could rock and the life had yet to be fully sucked out.

Lyrics:
Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire,
oh

Turn on, I see red
Adrenaline crash and crack my head
Nitro junkie, paint me dead
And I see red

I run across through black and white
War horse, war head, fuck 'em, man
White knuckle tight
Through black and white

Oh, when I burn
Fuel is pumping engines
Burning hard, loose and clean

And then I burn
Turning my direction
Quench my thirst with gasoline

So gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I
desire

Turn on beyond the bone
Swallow future, spit out hope
Burn your face upon the chrome

Take the corner, going to crash
Headlights, headlines
Another junkie, who lives too fast
Lives way too fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast

Oh, when I burn
Fuel is pumping engines
Burning hard, loose and clean

And then I burn
Turning my direction
Quench my thirst with gasoline

So gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I
desire

White knuckle tight

Gimme fuel
Gimme fire
My desire

Oh, when I burn
Fuel is pumping engines
Burning hard, loose and clean

And on and on
Turning my direction
Quench my thirst with gasoline

Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I
desire, oh
On I burn

The Day That Never Comes - Metallica

Artist: Metallica
Song: The Day That Never Comes
Year: 2008
Album: Death Magnetic

Metallica comes back with their boldest statement in years, but it's ultimately too late. There are great songs to be discovered on this album, but most of it is run of the mill Metallica. The focus seems to be on recapturing their older sound, which it does to a degree, but it never quite captures the same magic.

"The Day That Never Comes" is a decent song. It will be in my playlist from now on. It just lacks something that puts it over the top. The song starts off slow and ballad-like, like the Metallica of late. Then it degrades into an older style of Metallica. Thrashing guitars and poppy drums, which sound a little too tinny. The old growl of James Hetfield slowly creeps in toward then end, but it never fully emerges.

The beginning of the song is nothing special, but the last half of the song redeems it, in my eyes. My first taste of Metallica was the Ride The Lightning album. Despite what many think, Metallica has always gravitated towards the slow, melodic songs. The Kill 'Em All album would be the only album that doesn't really have a slower song.

The video for "The Day That Never Comes" is supposed to be a serious statement about the horrors of war. The video turns unintentionally funny in parts. A soldier drags a wounded soldier around like Linus drags around his blue blanket. The unharmed soldier also props up the wounded soldier against a military vehicle, only to see him slowly slump towards the ground and drool, when his attention is focused in another direction.

This song is not their best, but it certainly beats a lot of what's out there already.

Lyrics:
Born to push you around
Better just stay down
You pull away
He hits the flesh
You hit the ground

Mouth so full of lies
Tend to black your eyes
Just keep them closed
Keep praying
Just keep waiting

Waiting for the one
The day that never comes
When you stand up and feel the warmth
But the son shine never comes, no

No, the son shine never comes

Push you cross that line
Just stay down this time
Hide in yourself,
Crawl in yourself,
You’ll have your time

God I’ll make them pay
Take it back one day
I’ll end this day
I’ll splatter color on this gray

Waiting for the one,
The day that never comes
When you stand up and feel the warmth
But the son shine never comes

Love is a four-letter word
And never spoken here

Love is a four-letter word
Here in this prison

I suffer this no longer,
I’ll put an end to this I swear
This I swear

The son will shine
This I swear
This I swear
THIS I SWEAR!!!