Metallica - One
(7:54)1,852,559 plays (282,058 listeners)
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About this track
“One” was written in November 1987 by Metallica’s principal composers — rhythm guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich. The song was released in 1989 as the second single taken from the album (the first being “Harvester of Sorrow”).
For the first 20 seconds of the song there is a series of sound effects with a battle theme; an artillery barrage is heard and continues slightly over a clean tone guitar intro by Hetfield before Kirk Hammett comes in over the top with a clean-toned solo. The song speeds up after Ulrich’s drums come in and continues until each chorus, when the guitars become heavy and distorted before returning to clean. There is a second solo by Hammett halfway through the song, before lyrics cut out and the song gradually gets more heavy and distorted until the “machine gun” guitar build up (played alongside two bass drums) before the final, often highly praised, guitar solo by Hammett, and a final dual solo by Hammett and Hetfield.
“One“‘s opening A-G modulation was written by Hetfield based on an idea prompted by the song “Buried Alive” by the band Venom.
“ I had been fiddling around with that A-G modulation for a long time. The idea for the opening came from a Venom song called “Buried Alive”. The kick drum machine-gun part near the end wasn’t written with the war lyrics in mind, it just came out that way. We started that album with Mike Clink as producer. He didn’t work out so well, so we got Flemming to come over and save our asses.”
- James Hetfield, Guitar World 1991
For the first 20 seconds of the song there is a series of sound effects with a battle theme; an artillery barrage is heard and continues slightly over a clean tone guitar intro by Hetfield before Kirk Hammett comes in over the top with a clean-toned solo. The song speeds up after Ulrich’s drums come in and continues until each chorus, when the guitars become heavy and distorted before returning to clean. There is a second solo by Hammett halfway through the song, before lyrics cut out and the song gradually gets more heavy and distorted until the “machine gun” guitar build up (played alongside two bass drums) before the final, often highly praised, guitar solo by Hammett, and a final dual solo by Hammett and Hetfield.
“One“‘s opening A-G modulation was written by Hetfield based on an idea prompted by the song “Buried Alive” by the band Venom.
“ I had been fiddling around with that A-G modulation for a long time. The idea for the opening came from a Venom song called “Buried Alive”. The kick drum machine-gun part near the end wasn’t written with the war lyrics in mind, it just came out that way. We started that album with Mike Clink as producer. He didn’t work out so well, so we got Flemming to come over and save our asses.”
- James Hetfield, Guitar World 1991
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Shouts
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CourtneyPooh wrote:
Amazing song. I'm going to be reading Johnny got his gun soon :)
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Kryze wrote:
Powerful song. Some of you should see "Johnny got his gun" This song is about that movie. But I warn you it's not for the fainthearted.
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LiaValanthe wrote:
awesome(: what else can i say(:
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PhenomV2 wrote:
Damn! Im really getting into Metallica!!
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caiexrox wrote:
S&M version is great (:
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dalgis_nx wrote:
awesome
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kflorence wrote:
damn, this is good shit !
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Lamppari wrote:
I love this song! :)
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emmanuelvictor wrote:
pongan la original, no ma......en, asi es mejor
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evilhexx wrote:
can we have the album version please ? the strings really suck.
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souleater1 wrote:
This song took my soul!
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Rainbow_Sky wrote:
i love S&M version the best
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CherFanGay wrote:
taken my armz,taken my soul,taken my legs..and this song taken my heart...
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Yossarian1986 wrote:
Best Metallica song for me... unique.
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phenom804 wrote:
One is the greatest metallica song of alltime!
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Rainbow_Sky wrote:
im in love with this song.
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nds76 wrote:
It's no doubt a powerful song, the video coincides with it as well. But the song seems kinda slow.
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panamakev63 wrote:
One word " Awesome "
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Gish- wrote:
awesome.my favourite metallica's song.
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LiveWireMark wrote:
The darkness riff almost sounds fimiliar to the the riff in the four horseman.
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Recent Activity
- egm202 and butter_head added Metallica – One to their libraries. 1 hour ago
- gerberad added One to the playlist. 2 hours ago
- Haphasto loved One. 2 hours ago
- emancera777, Crodhmac and Zent1 added Metallica – One to their libraries. 2 hours ago
- twistedhausfrau, Lara_76 and axlindgren666 loved Metallica – One. 4 hours ago
- segadu added One to segadu’s library. 6 hours ago
- Andromedary and Incubo1986 loved Metallica – One. 7 hours ago
- fingold, diego916, Bockmann and 1 other person added Metallica – One to their libraries. 7 hours ago
- leonardomoyar, S-Emp and gownocieto loved Metallica – One. 8 hours ago
- Sweet__Creep added One to Sweet__Creep’s library. 8 hours ago
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