His previous band, Flotsam and Jetsam, performed a song called 'Fade to Black' on their 1986 album Doomsday for the Deceiver before he left to join Metallica. It was one of his favorite Metallica songs, and was said to be of great sentimental value to him, although it had been written before he had joined the band. It was also the last song that Metallica performed live with former bassist Jason Newsted before he left the band, of which occurred at the VH1 Music Awards on November 30, 2000. Since its release, 'Fade to Black' has been a fixture in Metallica's live performances. Ī review by Gina Boldman described 'Fade to Black' as 'one of the few Metallica tracks to get radio airplay in the mid- to late '80s.' But we also got hundreds of letters from kids telling us how they related to the song and that it made them feel better. It's a suicide song, and we got a lot of flak for it, as if kids were killing themselves because of the song. I was pretty depressed at the time because our gear had just been stolen, and we had been thrown out of our manager's house for breaking shit and drinking his liquor cabinet dry. I wrote the song at a friend's house in New Jersey. You could hear every squeak, so I had to be careful. Recording that song, I learned how frustrating acoustic guitar can be. It was pretty much our first ballad, so we knew it would freak people out. James Hetfield commented on the song in a 1991 interview with Guitar World:

It begins with an acoustic guitar introduction and becomes progressively heavier as the song goes on, similar to their future songs, 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)', ' One', and ' The Day That Never Comes'. The song's lyrics address suicidal feelings. Hetfield later admitted that a break-in to their gear truck resulting in the loss of his favorite Marshall amplifier also contributed to the mood of the song. In an interview on the set of the production MTV Icon: Metallica in 2003, drummer Lars Ulrich recalls how he and vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield were 'obsessed with death' at the time the album and song were produced. In March 2023, Rolling Stone ranked 'Fade to Black' at number 35 on their '100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time' list. The song is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The song peaked at number 100 on Swiss Singles Chart in 2008. The song was ranked as having the 24th best guitar solo ever by Guitar World readers. ' Fade to Black' is a song and the first power ballad by American heavy metal band Metallica, released as the first promotional single from its second studio album, Ride the Lightning.

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