Metallica frontman James Hetfield contributed to the creation of countless lyrics of a few of the most iconic tracks of the band over the past four decades such as ‘Creeping Death,’ King Nothing,’ ‘The Unforgiven,’ and many more. While each and every one of these tracks represent a story within themselves which awes the band’s fans whenever they hear these masterpieces, there’s one track, ‘Until It Sleeps’ written by Hetfield that stands out the most with its emotional meaning as it’s a tribute act to Metallica singer’s late mother.
As many of you might know, ‘Until It Sleeps’ was released on May 21, 1996, as the lead single of Metallica’s sixth studio album, ‘Load,’ and became the band’s first number-one song on the US Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in addition to hitting the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100 as well as topping the numerous charts in a number of other countries.
Just like most other song written by James Hetfield, ‘Until It Sleeps’ is about his family and the projections of his feelings during the battle of her mother, Cynthia Bassett since she had cancer and was physically in incredible pain due to the fact that both of his parents were Christian Scientists, meaning that they refuse to get treatment including any type of medicine.
Unfortunately, his mother passed away because of cancer in 1979 when James Hetfield was only 16 years old and the legendary musician had to deal with his anger issues and the pain he felt for losing his mother while her sickness may have been treated. Years after, the iconic Metallica vocalist portrayed the feeling of losing his mother, Cynthia’s pain during her illness, and the inability to cope with it with the track, ‘Until It Sleeps.’
Fans Think It’s The Most Underrated Song Of Metallica
Despite the fact that ‘Until It Sleeps’ was a major success when it first released in 1996 and made it to the Metallica classics being one of the fans’ favorite tracks of the band, it’s often underrated by the bigger majority of fans and overshadowed by other iconic songs of the band including ‘Fade to Black,’ ‘Harvester of Sorrow,’ and ‘The Outlow Torn’ from the same album, ‘Load.’
The music video for the song on the band’s official YouTube page has a rather low number of views with a little over 10 million views, however, fans left thousands of comments under the track stating the same opinions over and over again by revealing that ‘Until It Sleeps’ is one of the most underrated songs of Metallica, especially by the band’s all-time fans who followed Metallica from the time they released their debut studio album, ‘Kill ‘Em All’ back on July 25, 1983.
Here is what a fan said and received nearly 1k likes:
“What a criminally underrated song!”
Here is what another commented:
“As a Metallica fan who holds their 80s records in high regard: this is without a doubt one of their best songs. Load and ReLoad are criminally underrated records that, if compressed to one album containing the best material from both albums, would be an outstanding work of art.”
Here is what a fan said like others:
“The Most underrated Metallica song ever. Next to Escape.”
There’s no doubt that some Metallica songs are greater than others and they often may be underrated and only valued by true fans of the band who listen to every great track released by Metallica rather than the most famous ones which are what makes songs such as ‘Until It Sleeps’ so special among the band’s fans as well as its tragic and touching story related to James Hetfield’s personal life.
You can listen to ‘Until It Sleeps’ down below.
