For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica song)
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a song by Metallica, the third track from their second album Ride the Lightning. The song is composed by Cliff Burton, James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich. The chromatic introduction (which is usually mistaken for an electric guitar) is in fact Cliff Burton playing his bass guitar through distortion and wah-wah. After the introduction, the bass settles into a steady triplet rhythm.
The song is about a section of the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, where five republican soldiers of the Spanish Civil War attempt to escape the fascists with their stolen horses and are killed by enemy aircraft on a hill on which they were surrounded.
The main riff was lifted from Angel Witch's "Angel of Death", where the title of that song is sung in the same rhythm Metallica uses to sing the line "Time marches on".
It also appeared on Metallica's live 1999 Album "S&M" Live, in which Metallica performed with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
A remix by DJ Spooky appears on the Spawn soundtrack.
A song by W.A.S.P. which appears as a bonus track on "The Headless Children" also shares the same name.
A song by The Blood Hound Gang called "Mope" features the chromatic introduction riff in a part of the song.
Dronesters Sunn O))) recorded a loose cover of the song on their album Flight of the Behemoth, entitled "F.W.T.B.T (I Dream of Lars Ulrich Being Thrown Through the Bus Window Instead of My Mystikal Master Kliff Burton)."
