Commentary - Death Magnetic And METALLICA's Redemption
September 20, 2008, 16 years ago
The Morning Call has published the following commentary from William Irwin, Ph.D. editor of Metallica And Philosophy: A Crash Course In Brain Surgery and professor of philosophy at King's College in Wilkes-Barre:
In 1985 Metallica saved my life. Listening to the suicide song, 'Fade To Black', while rain fell on hopeless high school nights, I felt I wasn't alone, that someone else knew my pain.
Listening to 'Creeping Death',' I knew I had brothers in rage. The music was not easy to listen to and the lyrics provided no easy answers.
In an age of whiney political rock stars, Metallica challenged me to think for myself, to focus on the ''struggle within.''
Last week Metallica's most anticipated album ever, Death Magnetic, was hailed with acclaim as it went straight to No. 1 the Billboard charts, iTunes and amazon.com, and sold nearly 500,000 copies in the first three days.
But the title begs the question - if Metallica is so life affirming, why is it so obsessed with death? The existentialist philosophers understood this paradox well.
To acknowledge death is to accept freedom and responsibility. ''Through black days/through black nights/through pitch black insights'' we must all decide whether, why and how to live.
''Death is the elephant in the room,'' frontman James Hetfield muses. We're all terminal, but most of us don't act like it.
Read more here.
