• Do unto others as they have done to you
  But what in the hell is this world coming to?
  Blow the universe into nothingness
  Nuclear warfare shall lay us to rest

  Fight fire with fire
  Ending is near
  Fight fire with fire
  Bursting with fear

  We shall die
  Time is like a fuse, short and burning fast
  Armageddon is here, like said in the past

  Fight fire with fire
  Ending is near
  Fight fire with fire
  Bursting with fear

  Soon to fill our lungs the hot winds of death
  The gods are laughing, so take your last breath

  Fight fire with fire
  Ending is near
  Fight fire with fire
  Bursting with fear

RIDE THE LIGHTNING
An epic which graphically details death by electrocution, written by Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton and Dave Mustaine.

• Guilty as charged
  But damn it, it ain't right
  There is someone else controlling me
  Death in the air
  Strapped in the electric chair
  This can't be happening to me
  Who made you God to say
  "I'll take your life from you!"

  Flash before my eyes
  Now it's time to die
  Burning in my brain
  I can feel the flames

  Wait for the sign
  To flick the switch of death
  It's the beginning of the end
  Sweat, chilling cold
  As I watch death unfold
  Consciousness my only friend
  My fingers grip with fear
  What I am doing here?

  Flash before my eyes
  Now it's time to die
  Burning in my brain
  I can feel the flames

  Someone help me
  Oh please God help me
  They are trying to take it all away
  I don't want to die
  Time moving slow
  The minutes seem like hours
  The final curtain call I see
  How true is this?
  Just get it over with
  If this is true, just let it be
  Wakened by the horrid scream
  Freed from the frightening dream

  Flash before my eyes
  Now it's time to die
  Burning in my brain
  I can feel the flames

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
Driven by Burton's bass, this war song was inspired by a film of the same name.

• Make his fight on the hill in the early day
  Constant chill deep inside
  Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey
  On the fight, for they are right, yes, by who's to say?
  For a hill men would kill, why? They do not know
  Suffered wounds test there their pride
  Men of five, still alive through the raging glow
  Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

  For whom the bell tolls
  Time marches on
  For whom the bell tolls

  Take a look to the sky just before you die
  It is the last time you will
  Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
  Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry
  Stranger now, are his eyes, to this mystery
  He hears the silence so loud
  Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be
  Now the will see what will be, blinded eyes to see

  For whom the bell tolls
  Time marches on
  For whom the bell tolls

FADE TO BLACK
Metallica's first ballad, it's about the grim contemplation and execution of suicide.  Although with anti-final solution, the song has been singled out, with Ozzy Osbourne's 'Suicide Solution'. The band maintains that they have received letters from fans who were dissuaded from taking their lives by this song.

• Life it seems, will fade away
  Drifting further every day
  Getting lost within myself
  Nothing matters no one else
  I have lost the will to live
  Simply nothing more to give
  There is nothing more for me
  Need the end to set me free
  Things are not what they used to be
  Missing one inside of me
  Deathly lost, this can't be real
  Cannot stand this hell I feel
  Emptiness is filing me
  To the point of agony
  Growing darkness taking dawn
  I was me, but now He's gone
  No one but me can save myself, but it to late
  Now I can't think, think why I should even try
  Yesterday seems as though it never existed
  Death Greets me warm, now I will just say good-bye

TRAPPED UNDER THE ICE
This nightmarish epic uses a person simultaneously drowning and freezing to death to symbolize a person living zombie-like, burnt out and perhaps a drug addict.

• I don't know how to live trough this hell
  Woken up, I'm still locked in this shell
  Frozen soul, frozen down to the core
  Break the ice, I can't take anymore

  Freezing
  Can't move at all
  Screaming
  Can't hear my call
  I am dying to live
  Cry out
  I'm trapped under the ice

  Crystallized, as I lay here and rest
  Eyes of glass stare directly at death
  From deep sleep I have broken away
  No one knows, no one hears what I say

  Freezing
  Can't move at all
  Screaming
  Can't hear my call
  I am dying to live
  Cry out
  I'm trapped under the ice

  Scream from my soul
  Fate, mystified
  Hell, forever more
  No release from my cryonic state
  What is this? I've been stricken by fate
  Wrapped up tight, cannot move, can't break free
  Hand of doom has a tight grip on me

  Freezing
  Can't move at all
  Screaming
  Can't hear my call
  I am dying to live
  Cry out
  I'm trapped under the ice

ESCAPE
The story of an absolute loner, it is the album's shortest track at 4:33, hinting at the style the band would eventually embrace.

• Fell no pain, but my life ain't easy
  I know I'm my best friend
  No one cares, but I'm so much stronger
  I'll fight until the end
  To escape from the true false world
  Undamaged destiny
  Can't get caught in the endless circle
  Ring of stupidity

  Out of my own, out to be free
  One with my mind, they just can't see
  No need to hear things that they say
  Life is for my own to live my own way

  Rape my mind and destroy my feelings
  Don't tell my what to do
  I don't care now, 'cause I'm on my side
  And I can see through you
  Feed my brain with your so called standards
  Who says that I ain't right
  Break away from your common fashion
  See through your blurry sight

  Out of my own, out to be free
  One with my mind, they just can't see
  No need to hear things that they say
  Life is for my own to live my own way

  See they try to bring the hammer down
  No damn chains can hold me to the ground

  Life is for my own to live my own way

CREEPING DEATH
Classic Metallica, although parts of this song is borrowed from a rarely heard Exodus song 'Dying By His Hand'. The lyrics to Metallica's version are based on the second half of the film 'The Ten Commandments' more so than the Bible.

• Slaves, Hebrews born to serve, to the pharaoh
  Heed, To his every word, live in fear
  Faith, Of the unknown one, the deliverer
  Wait, Something must be done, four hundred years

  So let it be written
  So let it be done
  I'm sent here by the chosen one
  So let it be written
  So let it be done
  To kill the first born pharaoh son
  I'm creeping death

  Now, Let my people go, land of goshen
  Go, I will be with thee, bush of fire
  Blood, Running red and strong, down the nile
  Plague, Darkness three days long, hail to fire

  So let it be written
  So let it be done
  I'm sent here by the chosen one
  So let it be written
  So let it be done
  To kill the first born pharaoh son
  I'm creeping death

  Die by my hand
  I creep across the land
  Killing first born man
  Die by my hand
  I creep across the land
  Killing first born man
  I, Rule the midnight air the destroyer
  Born, I shall soon be there, deadly mass
  I, Creep the steps and flood final darkness
  Blood, Lambs blood painted door, I shall pass

  So let it be written
  So let it be done
  I'm sent here by the chosen one
  So let it be written
  So let it be done
  To kill the first born pharaoh son
  I'm creeping death

THE CALL OF KTULU (INSTRUMENTAL)
With lead bass by Burton, this song was inspired by the Necronomicon and H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulu. Originally called 'When Hell Freezes Over'.