Battery
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"Battery" is the opening track of Metallica's 1986 album Master of Puppets. As with the opening track from Ride the Lightning (titled "Fight Fire With Fire"), Battery begins with a slow, clean guitar part. In this case, three acoustic guitars are layered harmonically before the drums and bass come in with distorted guitars playing a more melodic version of the acoustic part. This lasts until 1:06, when the guitars cut into a very fast minimalist thrash metal riff that is the basis for the rest of the song, the song also features a heavy bass line by Cliff Burton and a wild and difficult drum beat by Lars Ulrich. In live concerts, the beginning is not played by the band but instead the actual recording is used (recently dropped 1/2 step in key, since the band tunes 1/2 step down).
In keeping with the general "control" theme of Master of Puppets, the lyrics of "Battery" discuss the control that anger can have over one's behavior. The title refers to "battery" in the sense of "assault and battery", as shown by these lyrics: "Smashing through the boundaries / Lunacy has found me / Cannot stop the battery". In addition to the thematic interpretation of "battery" as control, the song is an homage to the Old Waldorf Club on Battery Street, San Francisco.Encyclopedia Metallica
"Battery" used to be a constant part of the band's live set list, frequently as the opening or closing song. In some cases, it is also used as a song before the intermission. Since 2008 the song has usually been dropped from setlists. When played, the song may stop before the interlude, and James Hetfield asks the crowd "Are you alive?... How does it feel to be alive?" (this can be heard on the live album S&M) and followed by the solo played by Kirk Hammett.
As seen in the documentary Some Kind of Monster, the auditioning of future bassist Robert Trujillo started, on his request, with "Battery".
In the live version of the song played on the Live Shit: Binge & Purge album, intros to the songs "No Remorse", "Ride the Lightning", and "So What?" are played in the song. When performed with the San Francisco Symphony in 1999, the intro up to the thrash riff was instead played by string players in the symphony, utilizing pizzicato in the beginning (the original acoustic) then with bows for the rest.
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