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Until It Sleeps

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"Until It Sleeps"
Song
B-side"2 X 4 (live)/ F.O.B.D (Demo)./ Kill/ Ride Medley (live)/ Until it Sleeps (Herman Melville Mix)/ Overkill (live)"

"Until It Sleeps" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica from their 1996 album Load.

Versions

The song was performed with orchestral accompaniment on the album S&M. It was the band's first number one song on the US Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, as well as their first and only song to hit the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 10.[1]

An early demo version of this song was entitled "F.O.B.D" (recorded on December 8, 1995), because it reminded the band members of the Soundgarden song "Fell on Black Days," in that the "It grips you...It stains you..." refrain is in the same 6/4 time signature that "Fell on Black Days" is in. The band can be heard saying "Fell on Black Days" on the fanclub-only Fancan 1 CD just prior to jamming on a portion of "Until It Sleeps." The 10" vinyl version of the single is red in color.

Lyrics

The lyrics of the song, written by Hetfield, address his mother's battle with cancer, to which Hetfield's "it" refers. They can be seen as either describing the emotional pain he feels for the loss, or the physical pain his mother was feeling while she was ill. Both of his parents were Christian Scientists, and did not believe in medicine. The lyrics are also interpreted as dealing with anger issues. Hetfield's father, Virgil, died in late 1996, during Metallica's Load tour.

Music video

The song also has a music video directed by Samuel Bayer (Nirvana, Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins). It was shot in various locations around Los Angeles on May 6 and 7 in 1996. It was premiered by MTV on May 23.[citation needed] The video depicts surreal concepts dealing with fall of a human, taken from various paintings by Hieronymus Bosch. Apart from the general forms inspired from Bosch's paintings, the prominent figures in the video are the human-eating monster from The Garden of Earthly Delights, the fall of Adam and Eve from Haywain and Christ in the Crucifige Eum (Crucify Him) scene of Ecce Homo.

Awards

The video of the song won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 1996.

The song won a 1996 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Award for Song of the Year.[2]

Track listing

US single
No.TitleLength
1."Until It Sleeps"4:36
2."Overkill"4:08
International Single Part 1
No.TitleLength
1."Until It Sleeps"4:33
2."2 X 4" (Live)6:06
3."F.O.B.D." (aka Until It Sleeps - early 'writing in progress' version)4:56
International Single Part 2
No.TitleLength
1."Until It Sleeps"4:36
2."Kill/Ride Medley" (Live)10:19
3."Until It Sleeps" (Herman Melville Mix)4:20
Japanese EP
No.TitleLength
1."Until It Sleeps"4:35
2."Until It Sleeps" (Herman Melville Mix)4:22
3."Kill/Ride Medley" (Live)10:19
4."2 X 4" (Live)6:08
5."Overkill" (Live)4:11
6."F.O.B.D." (aka Until It Sleeps - early 'writing in progress' version)4:56

Chart positions

Release history

Region Date
Worldwide (except North America) May 20, 1996
United States May 21, 1996

References

  1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 421.
  2. ^ Metal Edge, June 1997
  3. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  4. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  5. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  6. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps" (in French). Ultratop 50.
  7. ^ "Top Singles - Volume 64, No. 2, August 26 1996". RPM. Retrieved October 10, 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ "Rock/Alternative - Volume 63, No. 21, July 08 1996". RPM. Retrieved October 9, 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ "Metallica: Until It Sleeps" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat.
  10. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps" (in French). Les classement single.
  11. ^ Italian peaks
  12. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Metallica" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  13. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps". Top 40 Singles.
  14. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps". VG-lista.
  15. ^ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  16. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps". Singles Top 100.
  17. ^ "Metallica – Until It Sleeps". Swiss Singles Chart.
  18. ^ "Billboard Top 100 - 1996". Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  19. ^ "Top Singles - Volume 64, No. 18, December 16 1996". RPM. Retrieved October 10, 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
Preceded by Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks number-one single (first run)
June 8, 1996 – July 19, 1996 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
"Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" by Stone Temple Pilots
 Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks number-one single (second run)
August 3, 1996 		Succeeded by
"Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" by Stone Temple Pilots
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