Metallica is an American thrash metal band whose music has repeatedly referenced the Cthulhu Mythos. The band was reportedly turned on to the work of H. P. Lovecraft by Cliff Burton, its bassist from 1982 until his death in a tour bus accident in 1986; Burton has been described as "an HP Lovecraft-reading, piano-playing homebody who loved beer, Mexican food, pot and acid."[1] When guitarist Kirk Hammett joined the band in 1983, he and Burton bonded over a mutual interest in the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.[2]
The Lovecraft influence first emerged on the 1984 album Ride the Lightning, which closes with a nearly nine-minute instrumental, written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Burton and Dave Mustaine, called "The Call of Ktulu". The song is said to be inspired not only by "The Call of Cthulhu" but by "The Shadow over Innsmouth" as well.[3] The variant spelling was reportedly intended to make the song title easier to pronounce.[4]
Cover of Metallica's album Master of Puppets.
The following album, Master of Puppets (1986), features "The Thing That Should Not Be", whose lyrics (written by Hetfield) contain multiple Mythos references.[3] The title comes from At the Mountains of Madness, where a shoggoth is described as "the utter, objective embodiment of the fantastic novelist's 'thing that should not be'". Many of the lyrics seem to describe Cthulhu, a "Great Old One" who "watches, lurking beneath the sea", whose "timeless sleep has been upset". The song condenses the "much discussed" couplet attributed to Abdul Alhazred in "The Nameless City" and "The Call of Cthulhu":
| “ | Not dead which eternal lie, Stranger aeons death may die! |
„ |
The lines "Hybrid children watch the sea/Pray for father roaming free!" seem to refer to the human/Deep One hybrids of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". The song also refers to "Crawling Chaos underground," using a common epithet for Nyarlathotep.
The video for Metallica's "All Nightmare Long" takes the form of a Soviet documentary that tells the story of a spore from outer space that arrived with the Tunguska meteor, with the power to reanimate the dead.
"All Nightmare Long", the second single from Metallica's 2008 album Death Magnetic, is another song that drew inspiration from the Cthulhu Mythos, as Hetfield explained in an interview:
| “ | It was an attempt to get back to the H. P. Lovecraft mythos with 'Thing that Should Not Be', 'Call of Ktulu'. This was about the Hounds of Tindalos, which was...about these wolves that hunt through their nightmares, and the only way you can get away from them is stay within angles (120 or less). You can’t even escape through sleep.[5] | „ |
The lyrics take the point of view of the Hounds:
| “ | 'Cause we hunt you down without mercy Hunt you down all nightmare long Feel us breathe upon your face Feel us shift, every move we trace[6] |
„ |
Cover of Metallica's album Hardwired...for Self-Destruction
The most recent Metallica song with a Lovecraftian theme is "Dream No More", on 2017's Hardwired… to Self Destruct. Like "The Thing That Should Not Be", the lyrics evoke the Great Old One Cthulhu:
| “ | He sleeps under black seas waiting Lies dreaming in death He sleeps under cosmos shaking Stars granting his breath |
„ |
The allusion is made explicit with the repeated refrain of "Cthulhu awaken" (rhymed with "Sanity taken", "Seething damnation", "Winged salvation" and "Death by creation").[7]
External Links[]
- "Metallica's Lovecraftian Songs" at Monster Legacy
- "Cthulhu in Metallica" at Black Gate
References[]
- ↑ Metal Hammer, "Cliff Burton: The Life and Death of the Ultimate Metalhead", by Mick Wall, September 20, 2022.
- ↑ Rock Celebrities, "Kirk Hammett Reveals Cliff Burton's Favorite Film", by Serra Ozturk, October 28, 2022.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Monster Legacy, "Metallica's Lovecraftian Songs", by the Monster Philologist, March 4, 2013.
- ↑ Black Gate, "Cthulhu in Metallica", by Mick Gall, May 1, 2017.
- ↑ Canoe Jam!, "Interview with James Hetfield", December 8, 2008; quoted in Wikipedia, "All Nightmare Long".
- ↑ AZ Lyrics, "Metallica Lyrics: All Nightmare Long".
- ↑ AZ Lyrics, "Metallica Lyrics: Dream No More".