I know a title like the one above is glaringly obvious and possibly redundant, but has Metallica recently made a subtle statement about their pro-freedom views on the current state of the world? It seems they’ve done just that in their choice of songs to include on their set lists at the recent Bridge School Benefit in late October, an event where Metallica played two nights back-to-back. In a surprising move, they opened each night by playing four covers of songs they had never performed before. However, the selection of songs that they felt were important enough to play, gives an indication of what they may be thinking about the war, the state, and life in general in these United States of America today.

Metallica have been writing songs with anti-war messages for more than two decades. An obvious example, which they played at the Bridge School Benefit, is “Disposable Heroes”, from their Master of Puppets album released in 1986. With lyrics like “Bodies fill the fields I see, hungry heroes end / No one to play soldier now , no one to pretend” and “Raised to kill, not to care / Do as we say / Finished here, saluting death / It’s yours to take”, the emphasis is clearly on the disconnect soldiers have with killing people. they don’t know for reasons given to them by people who care more about winning than any moral or personal consideration. Similar thoughts are echoed in songs like “One” about the plight of a soldier left with no limbs to move, senses to use, or way to communicate with the world, and therefore no real reason to survive, but he also lacks the ability to end his life.

The distrust of being controlled and manipulated has also been a stable message from Metallica going back at least to the album Ride the Lightning and the song “Escape.” However, the song played at the Bridge School Benefit is a clearer example. “The Unforgiven” is the story of an ordinary man who, shortly after birth, is controlled for his entire life. Though he swears “Never from this day / his will be taken from him”, his only reaction to a lifetime of being controlled is to label his controllers as unforgivable. His battle, though fought throughout his life, results in his complete lack of care and a sorrowful death. Those who control the man are never named, but certain characteristics point to a style of “Brave New World” status that conditions the man’s individuality: “The young man learns his rules”, “This whipping boy done wrong”, They dedicate their lives/ To running all of his”, and other lyrics, while not eliminating the possibility of influences other than the State, seems to point to a system that aims to train and control people against their will in order to eradicate their own tendencies to better serve to the state.: “He tries to please everyone.”

So, Metallica have demonstrated an attitude, through songs that span both the old and new era of the band, of being consistently anti-war and anti-state. Their image, of course, took a huge hit in the anti-state position with their battle against file-sharing software like Napster, when they relied on state institutions to defend their intellectual property rights claim. Having examined Metallica’s position on this in great detail, but without much exploring the other side of the argument, I will not attempt to defend either side in this essay. But moving on from this divisive event in the band’s history, we can now explore the statements the band may have been making in their choice of cover songs to play at the 2007 Bridge School Benefit.

The first song played on both nights was “I Just Want to Celebrate” by Rare Earth. This song contains a number of pro-freedom statements, such as “I put my faith in the people / But the people let me down / So I turned the other way / And I keep going, anyway.” Of course, this may be a defense of the charge against the band every time an album comes out that’s out of print, but it still illustrates Metallica’s emphasis on individual freedom and not caring what the mob thinks. But more so, is the line “I had my hand on the dollar bill / And the dollar bill flew” another in a series of celebrities decrying the falling value of the US dollar? This is obviously a more subtle message than models wanting to get paid in other currencies and rap stars flashing euros in music videos, but it’s a message, especially since Metallica has deep roots in Europe, with drummer Lars Ulrich originally from Denmark. .

Nazareth’s “Don’t Judas Me” is a clearer example of being pro-liberty, and may even contain some accurate assessments of the media and its effects on the American population. “Treat me how you like to be treated” is a seemingly simple statement that has been scrutinized in its various guises for centuries. The choice of this song, amid media propaganda about the threat from Iran and an out-of-control police state with daily electric shocks and intrusive airport searches, is especially interesting. “Please don’t shrug my head / Don’t cover your innuendo / Don’t lie to me” and “Please don’t tell me / Don’t betray my promise of trust / Please don’t make me angry / I find it hard not to stand justice / Don’t frustrate me, manipulate me,” could be Metallica’s subtle warning to fans to do some research on their own and not trust anyone who uses a position of power as a bully pulpit. This would fit well with Metallica’s own statements that they feel it is inappropriate to use their fame to defend overtly political views, and may indicate a distrust of a government that used their recordings as a tool to torture enemies detained in Iraq, which they were not used to heavy metal. music.

This focus on out-of-control media and glorifying negative messages is carried out in the next song from the first night, “I’m Only Happy When it Rains” by Garbage. Lyrics like “You know I love it when the news is bad / And why does it feel so good to feel so sad” indicate a vision that revels in bad news and a misery-loving attitude for company. Is this song choice Metallica’s statement that only receiving news through state-influenced media will make listeners willingly complicit in negative messages? Without a direct statement from the band, of course, the conclusion is left to speculation, but the general tone of these first three songs seems to show a focus on individuality and a distrust of labels and easy answers given by a controlled source. centrally. like Old Media or the State. Of course, singer-guitarist James Hetfield was himself briefly a subject of the negative news machine, when he was stopped at an airport and reported as a possible terrorist suspect, due to his beard. If someone who sells 100 million records worldwide can be considered a terrorist and stopped at the airport, who is immune? Of course, the message is that no one is not a suspect.

The last two songs are more openly anti-war than the others described above. The first is “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” by Blue Oyster Cult. this can also be a dual statement about media manipulations and the war itself. Obviously, the psychic wars going on here at home are just as important as the actual war in trying to convince people that war is useful and going well. The weariness of a war that goes on too long, coupled with an attack on personal freedom and privacy, is the message of lines like “But the war goes on my dear / And there is no end that I know of / And I can’t say if it ever will.” we are… / I can’t tell if we’ll ever be free”, and “It’s time we took a break / It’s time we got a furlough”. Metallica have covered BOC before on the 1998 album “Garage, Inc.”, but they didn’t use an anti-war song. Again, the band’s own personal involvement in the war, through the use of their songs as an “enhanced interrogation” technique, and reports that Hetfield was detained at an airport, may indicate their awareness of the need to to make a declaration. as possible by opposing big war and big government. When the song finally asks, “Did I hear you say this is a win?”

The final version of the song Metallica chose to play at the Bridge School Benefit is “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits. Although the song, for the most part, seems to glorify the camaraderie of being soldiers for a common cause, the emphasis on this concept of “brothers in arms” is reversed in the closing lines. The song emphasizes the strength of the bonds that are formed “Across These Fields of Destruction”, “As the Battles Intensified” and “In Fear and Alarm”, which may indicate that strength lies in approaching those allies with whom one fights a battle. But, the final lines of the song are “We’re fools to make war / About our brothers in arms”, using the same “brothers in arms” line to show that all humans have common bonds, no matter what “There are so many different worlds / so many different suns”. When individuals go to war for a state, they are making war on their own brothers. Individuals, the song goes, have more in common with each other than they ever will with an abstract state. This message is emphasized in the concert itself when James Hetfield repeats the final lines (“We are fools to make war / On our brothers in arms”) several times until the end of the song.

So have Metallica’s experiences since the war on terror began affect their views on war, freedom, or the state? It certainly sounds like they have, based on their choice of songs to cover the Bridge School benefit concerts. Although these ideas have been expressed in several Metallica songs throughout their history, never before have they played a set with such consistent messages. In fact, that’s the aspect of the shows that caught my attention right away, having read a lot about Metallica’s history and their personal views on issues plaguing the world. It is primarily through an artist’s work that we are and can communicate with them, and every concert a band plays is an expression of their own communications with their work and the work of others. In their choice of cover songs, Metallica seem to have presented a subtle message about their current world view and an anti-war, anti-state stance that has only been reinforced in recent years by public events, such as the issue of torture. . and the airport, and his own personal reflections.