Lyrics of the song number 3 of Metallica latest album, Hardwired… To Self Destruct are referring to a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, according to James,
“Maybe it started out as wanting to be more of a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. We’re in this together. Helping each other through life”
Basically this song is all about living forever in the afterlife. When playing this song live, Hatfield sometimes says to the audience: “If you want to live forever, then first you must die.”
A fun fact is that the final version of this song was taken from a rehearsal take. Lars Ulrich said in an interview that they were being too perfectionist with the song, and actually preferring an old version because of its natural vibe.
“With ‘Now That We’re Dead,’ we recorded it and everything kept getting tighter and precise, and all of a sudden you go, wait a minute, I think we just beat all the life out of this thing [laughs]. We went back and listened to the preproduction floor takes – almost like the last rehearsals – and it’s like, ‘Hey, wait a minute. There’s a completely different vibe there. It sounds like a living, breathing entity rather than something put together by a drill sergeant.’ [Laughs] So we went with a version that was a little bit looser.”
I’ve been a Metallica fan for so many years. I’ve seen them live a few times, I have tons of their CDs, DVDs, and vinyl. With that said, I’ve invested a considerable amount of money for enjoying their art. I think that all that money was worth it just to hear the beginning of this song. It’s amazing how Metallica can sound similar but doing something slightly different. The first time I heard this song it was like I’ve listened to it several times in the past. For some reason, it was familiar to me. By the way, we were waiting for quite a while for Metallica to compose an intro that would be as headbanger as this one… right?
Let’s see why this part is so cool (see video)
It’s very obvious that the structure of the songs was made by James and Lars. I would like to point out all the riffs that are in this song. (see video)
This transition is very cool, check out how the guitar solo ends and we’re back to the drum fill from the start. This makes the song to have more groove, a thing that characterizes it very much (see video)
The second guitar solo was performed by James and in my opinion, it has the perfect flavor for the song itself (see video).
Before we finish let’s raise one flor once again, shall we?