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Until It Sleeps
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Until It Sleeps
| cover = Metallica - Until It Sleeps cover.jpg
| alt =
| border = yes
| type = single
| artist = Metallica
| album = Load
| B-side =
| released =
| recorded = 1995
| studio =
| genre =
| length = 4:30
| label =
| writer =
| producer =
| prev_title = Sad but True
| prev_year = 1993
| next_title = Hero of the Day
| next_year = 1996
| misc =
}}
"'Until It Sleeps'" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on May 20, 1996, as the lead single from their sixth studio album 'Load'. "Until It Sleeps" reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 making it Metallica's highest charting single and only top ten hit in the United States. The song was also their first number-one on the 'Billboard' Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, peaked in the top five in the United Kingdom, and reached number-one in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, and Sweden. The song's music video, directed by Samuel Bayer and inspired by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, won the Best Hard Rock Video award at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards.
Versions
An early demo version of this song was entitled "F.O.B.D." (recorded on December 8, 1995) because it reminded the band members of the Soundgarden song "Fell on Black Days", in that the "It grips you...It stains you..." refrain is in the same 6/4 time signature that "Fell on Black Days" is in. The band can be heard saying "Fell on Black Days" on the fanclub-only Fancan 1 CD just prior to jamming on a portion of "Until It Sleeps". The 10-inch vinyl version of the single is red in color. Moby, credited as "Herman Melville", did an industrial-sounding remix used as a B-side.[https://books.google.com/books?id=HpC1D--hcoAC&pg=PA30 Thump 'n Grind]
"Until It Sleeps" became the first "officially" pirated MP3 when it was released by Compress 'Da Audio (a piracy group and spinoff of the Warez scene) via an Internet Relay Chat network on August 10, 1996. An EFnet member on the #mpeg3 IRC channel named Coyote666 was responsible for creating the first mp3 ripping software.
Moby produced a remix of the song, titled "Until It Sleeps (Herman Melville Mix)". The song was performed with orchestral accompaniment on the album 'S&M'.
Lyrics
The lyrics of the song, written by Hetfield, address his mother's battle with cancer, to which the "it" in the title refers. They can be seen as either describing the emotional pain he feels for the loss, or the physical pain his mother was feeling while she was ill. Both of his parents were Christian Scientists, and did not believe in medicine. The lyrics are also interpreted as dealing with anger issues. Hetfield's father, Virgil, died in late 1996, during Metallica's Load tour.
Music video
The song also has a music video directed by Samuel Bayer (Nirvana, Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins). It was shot in various locations around Los Angeles on May 6 and 7 in 1996. It was premiered by MTV on May 21.[https://books.google.com/books?id=pw0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9 Metallica In For a Lollapalooza of a Summer] The video depicts surreal concepts dealing with the fall of man, taken from various paintings by Hieronymus Bosch. Apart from the general forms inspired from Bosch's paintings, the prominent figures in the video are the human-eating monster from 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', the fall of Adam and Eve from 'Haywain' and Christ in the 'Crucifige Eum' (Crucify Him) scene of 'Ecce Homo'. The video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 1996.
Awards
The song won a 1996 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Award for Song of the Year.Metal Edge, June 1997
Track listings
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
Category:1990s ballads
Category:1996 singles
Category:1996 songs
Category:American hard rock songs
Category:Elektra Records singles
Category:Hard rock ballads
Category:Metallica songs
Category:Music videos directed by Samuel Bayer
Category:Number-one singles in Australia
Category:Number-one singles in Denmark
Category:Number-one singles in Finland
Category:Number-one singles in Hungary
Category:Number-one singles in Sweden
Category:Song recordings produced by Bob Rock
Category:Songs about diseases and disorders
Category:Songs based on real people
Category:Songs inspired by deaths
Category:Songs written by James Hetfield
Category:Songs written by Lars Ulrich
Category:Vertigo Records singles
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