Metallica

From the Source

The lead track from the Death Magnetic album, Metallica's 'The Day That Never Comes' marked an impressive achievement: the band's fortieth single release. It's a slow-burning ballad that builds into a sequence of guitar solos, in the mould of 'One'.

While the video for 'The Day That Never Comes' showed scenes of Middle East conflict, Metallica were keen to distance themselves from such a literal interpretation of the track. James Hetfield commented: 'That's the beauty, I think, of writing vague but powerful lyrics - someone like a movie director can interpret it in his own way. The main (theme) is forgiveness: someone doing you wrong, you feeling resentment and being able not to take your rage out on the next person and keep spreading the disease of that through life. The one thing that I wasn't keen on here was Metallica plugging into a current event (that) might be construed as a sort of political statement on our part. There are so many celebrities that soapbox their opinions, and people believe it's more valid because they're popular. For us, people are people - you should all have your own opinion.'