Song analysis: One - Metallica

Metallica's song "one" is probably the most iconic song of this group, not just because of the moment when it was released, It has many aspects that might be considered to conclude that this is their best job until now.

This song talks about the agony of a man who has just come back from Vietnam's war. He has some fatal wounds that don't let him be alive in the sensorial meaning. In fact, the song says "Darkness is prisioning me, absolut horror, I cannot see, I cannot talk, I cannot live let me please lie in hell". This caused a lod of polemic because it was a critical song against government's on marine actions. Another sentence that shows desesperation would be the chorus: "Hold my breath as I wish for death, please God save me". These would be the lyrics meaning.

Then if we look at this song and we try to see how was it composed, we see many other aspects that are pretty relevant. The intro has 3 chords "B5", "G3" and "A5sus". This progression is very strange, but it's usually used in Vietnam for folklore songs. Then, if we study the 2nd part of the song, the guitars, and the drums try to make a sound which is similar to a machinegun shooting, this is for making people feel anxious, scared a little bit, this is sensitive emulation. The last part we can analize is the solo. Kirk Hammett (the composer of the solo and lead guitarist) said that this solo has 2 parts: The first one tries to emulate life going away from the body and the second one the last struggle against death.

Well, hope you learned a little bit from this song, and I encourage you to listen some more metallica stuff!