The God That Failed
"The God That Failed" is a personal song for James.
Album:
Metallica
The song live:
The first time the song was played during a concert was at May 30th 1994 in Buffalo, NY. The song was only played live during the gigs of '94 and '95.
The background sound:
In the intro and end of the song there is the background sound of James reloading his rifle as it can be seen in the "A Year And 1/2 In The Year Of Metallica" video.
Why James wrote this song:
James wrote about his mother's death by cancer. She believed solely in her faith to heal her that she did not accept any medical aid. She died.
Song Interpretation:
It is about broken promises.
Metallica about "The God That Failed"
Kirk Hammett: I had this whole thing worked out, but it didn't fit because the lead was too bluesy for the song, which is characterized by real heavy riffing and chording. So producer Bob Rock and I worked out a melody, to which I suggested that we add a harmony part. But Bob said it would only pretty it up. So we ended up playing the melody an octave higher, and it sounded great. We basically mapped out the whole solo, picking the best parts from about 15 solos I'd worked out. It's one of my favorite solos on the album.
One thing I did on this album that I hadn't done before was play guitar fills. I filled up holes - like when James stops during the vocal, I put in a little "stab" or, as Bob calls it a "sting". My solos on this album are a little offbeat. Though a lot of guitar players start the solo on the downbeat - the first beat of the measure - I come in on the upbeat of the third measure of a bar, like on "Enter Sandman" and "Don't Tread On Me".
James Hetfield: That's a very nice song. Slow, heavy and ugly. There are a lot of single-note riffs and more open-chrod shit on this album. A lot of the rhythms I came up with were a little too complicated - half-step changes and other weirdo shit that Kirk had trouble soloing over. So we simplified some things. All the harmony guitar stuff on this album is incorporated in the rythm tracks. I played rhythm all the way through, then I over-dubbed harmony guitar things. There are harmony rhythms, but they're very distinct from each other. We found that layering a guitar six times doesn't make it heavy.
Source: GuitarWorld issue of '91.
link
"The God That Failed" is a personal song for James.
Album:
Metallica
The song live:
The first time the song was played during a concert was at May 30th 1994 in Buffalo, NY. The song was only played live during the gigs of '94 and '95.
The background sound:
In the intro and end of the song there is the background sound of James reloading his rifle as it can be seen in the "A Year And 1/2 In The Year Of Metallica" video.
Why James wrote this song:
James wrote about his mother's death by cancer. She believed solely in her faith to heal her that she did not accept any medical aid. She died.
Song Interpretation:
It is about broken promises.
Metallica about "The God That Failed"
Kirk Hammett: I had this whole thing worked out, but it didn't fit because the lead was too bluesy for the song, which is characterized by real heavy riffing and chording. So producer Bob Rock and I worked out a melody, to which I suggested that we add a harmony part. But Bob said it would only pretty it up. So we ended up playing the melody an octave higher, and it sounded great. We basically mapped out the whole solo, picking the best parts from about 15 solos I'd worked out. It's one of my favorite solos on the album.
One thing I did on this album that I hadn't done before was play guitar fills. I filled up holes - like when James stops during the vocal, I put in a little "stab" or, as Bob calls it a "sting". My solos on this album are a little offbeat. Though a lot of guitar players start the solo on the downbeat - the first beat of the measure - I come in on the upbeat of the third measure of a bar, like on "Enter Sandman" and "Don't Tread On Me".
James Hetfield: That's a very nice song. Slow, heavy and ugly. There are a lot of single-note riffs and more open-chrod shit on this album. A lot of the rhythms I came up with were a little too complicated - half-step changes and other weirdo shit that Kirk had trouble soloing over. So we simplified some things. All the harmony guitar stuff on this album is incorporated in the rythm tracks. I played rhythm all the way through, then I over-dubbed harmony guitar things. There are harmony rhythms, but they're very distinct from each other. We found that layering a guitar six times doesn't make it heavy.
Source: GuitarWorld issue of '91.
link