Composition
The song is noted for its extremely fast tempo and aggressive, sixteenth-note machinegun-like riffs, and a length of more than 8 minutes. The song opens aggressively, with an extensive instrumental section, featuring James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett abruptly switching between several complicated fast guitar riffs, complemented by simpler gloomy chords by Cliff Burton and matching drumming by Lars Ulrich. Following this introduction, Hetfield begins to sing, going into the verses and choruses, the riffs behind which are just variations of the aforementioned machine-gun riffs.
The song soon enters a midsection which features a less speedy, yet a heavy and punctuated riff. This short reprieve from the brutality of the fighting allows for an introspective look by the soldier, who asks himself "Why am I dying?". Hammett then begins a lengthy solo with Hetfield joining in a couple of times to harmonize. After the solo, the soldier reaches the realization "I was born for dying", but it is much too late now and the song mercilessly returns to the fast riffs and the battlefield again. After the last verse and a few more repetitions of those riffs, the song seems to have come to an end, but after a short pause, the fast riff is played one final time.
Read more about this topic: Disposable Heroes
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)