Metallica: Fade to Black (Live in Sydney)

Part of the key to full understanding the Metallica conundrum is realizing that, in spite of their heavily influential role in shaping thrash metal, they never really fully left the NWOBHM influences that they first began toying with at their inception. There have always been a few slower songs here and there that have hinted that while they played a little too fast for heavy metal most of the time, that said style had at least as equal of an impact as the faster, grittier punk tendencies that they picked up from Motorhead. This is ultimately why you can have widespread adoration for Metallica and a few other melodically driven acts such as Megadeth and Anthrax, while much of the less consonant sounding bands (save Slayer) are seen more as a cult phenomenon.

“Fade To Black” is revealing of this as it contains very little in way of a thrash riff assault, relying more on a sort of folksy acoustic theme with a hint of metallic sorrow and fatalism. The guitar line that shapes the verse would later be recycled in various formats in the famous/infamous “Unforgiven” series, none of which really carry the same level of charm. It also introduces a quirky notion of a voiceless chorus, perhaps at the behest of the band’s Diamond Head influences where riff work was given a prominent role independent of either vocal or lead guitar work.

As things progress, the song pulls out a variation on the famed “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” riff from out of nowhere, until ultimately things settle into a seemingly perpetual lead break where Kirk seems to be channeling “Free Bird”, though thankfully for a shorter duration. The lead playing on here is actually one of the better moments for Mr. Blues Box with a few occasional minor scales, as a keen sense of structure keeps things familiar. Ultimately where this song succeeds is that it is actually a song, albeit a long one, and the lyrical content tends to come off as a genuine assertion of misery, rather than a bunch of witty quotations and analogies that would tickle the stunted intellects of a generation of culture zombies (*cough* “The Unforgiven 2”).

The strange thing about this song is that although it was received with mild reservations by the metal community upon the release of “Ride The Lightning”, it didn’t really rise to the level of being an addictive radio play favorite until more recently. This has 80s clichés written all over it, along with a few 70s ones to go along, and the only thing that probably prevented it from becoming an all out hit was its time length. But regardless to whether it’s a hit, or more important from a thrash metal standpoint, whether it’s thrash, it is an excellent song that provides a nice 7 minute respite from all of the neck wrecking going on during the rest of this band’s greatest studio creation.