Metallica - The Call of Ktulu (Pianist continues his exploration of heavy metal) 

His face when that first bass growl comes in 😂. Cliff was a maniac, a genius musician

War pigs by Black Sabbath next!!

The part aafter the intro is the exact same triads used in Hangar 18. Another borrowed Mustaine riff from his Metallica days.

It's amazing how he can just hear the entire songs and recreate them like he does on the piano! Highly trained ear and highly skilled musician! Awesome!!!!

In this song Cliff plays his craziest bass parts, I've ever heard of him. It's so unique and amazing. And think about it, they where about 21, when they wrote this Masterpiece

This song delivers that Lovecraftian feel like no others. Cliff truly understood both the menace and grandeur of Cthulhu emerging from the depths (at least this is how I perceive it).

I like how these instrumentals can tell a story. Lead you through. The guitars speak, sing, cry and scream. Build the whole landscapes you immerse into

You guys are killing it. Love the awkward energy.

The otherworldly bass parts are what make this song stand out above anything else. It's like the fabrics of time and space disintegrating musically and spawning forth the end times. I listen to this song and it just always evokes this feeling of reality unraveling. I absolutely love it.

To me Cliff is the highlight of this track. This is one of Kirk's best solos as well.

It’s interesting that you interpreted the opening as feeling like a detective story, when that is basically how the written story by Lovecraft is structured. In it, a man finds a clay bas relief in his great uncle’s belongings, after the man’s death, and the man reads his great uncle’s earlier investigation and sets out to follow the clues and investigate further into this being known as Cthulhu.

Imagine being 20- something and composing masterpieces like this.🤯

The acoustic intro was written by Dave Mustaine. He uses these chords later on in his songs Hangar 18 and When. I also believe he re-used a chromatic section of this song in the chorus for Public Enemy No. 1.

I have long felt that the rest of the band is the sea and the travelers upon it, while Cliff’s bass is the hidden cosmic horror lurking under the surface, perceives mostly by the ripples on the surface, with the occasional snarling acting as a brief moment when some part of the great old one breaks the surface.

If you show him Master of Puppets, please show him the S&M 1 version. 👌

Should have played the S&M version with the orchestra in the background. Missed opportunity.

I was fortunate enough to hear Metallica play live this past weekend. This song gives me goosebumps every time.

In this song, Cliff plays his craziest bass parts I've ever heard of him. It's so amazing. And think about it, they where about 21 , wenn they wrote this Masterpiece

Glad you guys did this song, such a masterpiece. FYI, they just put up a live version of this song from their European tour in Germany, May 26th 2023 - a must see! Maybe you guys could do a couple live songs from the current tour? "Sanitarium" is up on their YTube page, and a handful of others. "One" would be great too! They are really killing it live these days! Thanks for another great reaction, looking forward to more! Love the piano work!

I heard Ktulu live for the first time two weeks ago. I damn near cried.

" who dunnit " lol 😂. I like that guy

Love the reaction of both of you of course, but i must say Judson's got a pure talent of listening to the new music, absorbing it inside and then showing it to rest of the world in his own way without any time to learn. Huge respect.

So, as a bass player, I’ll let you know the technical stuff that is behind some of the wild sounds Cliff got. Most of the song is played with a Morley Power Fuzz Wah, so he has both a fuzz type distortion and a wah pedal to accentuate certain parts. Single note runs accentuated with the wah make that wailing sort of sound, and the snarls that come out of the mix on a regular basis in the first half are an A with an A and octave up and an E a fifth above that (so, a 13th over the root, I think?) while really pushing the wah down hard and fast. With distortion and wah, a chord on a bass comes out like that. Forgive the question coming from a bass player who is trying to catch up his long neglected theory, but that chord would be an inversion of a power chord, yes?

As a musician who likes to learn by ear, you my friend are impressive and fun to watch.

This is cool. Fade to black or anything from S&m would be cool. If you venture off from Metallica maybe do Diary of a Madman by Ozzy

S&M no leaf clover would an awesome reaction, being that it has a whole orchestra

This is feeling like some serious kismet for me. These three Metallica instrumentals have been some of the most important pieces of music in my life. Almost exactly 24 hours ago, I found a new one, when I randomly decided to finally watch Hi Ren. It floored me to the extent that I proceeded to spend the rest of the day doing almost nothing but watching dozens of reactions to it. When I woke up the next day, an hour ago, the first thing I saw was the Hi Ren reaction by this channel. When it finished, what do I see - this channel just happens to have completed the Metallica trilogy of instrumentals the day before. This is a 'classical musician reacts' channel. Metallica is in my top 5 favorite bands, even though I don't care for metal - as a kid, my favorite music was classical. That's what drew me to Metallica as a teenager - their songs (on these three albums in particular) sounded to me like the classical compositions I had grown up listening to. Because of this, when I was 17 and their S&M album came out, a performance with my hometown's own symphony, I was completely blown away by how perfect of a fit it seemed to me. So, yeah, considering my wild day yesterday of being completely consumed by a new intensely personal musical discovery, that it should wind up leading me here, with such perfect timing, seems pretty special.

YES!!! I was hoping you would do this one!!

One of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

As Mustaine co-wrote THE original composition/version of this song before he was booted, he wrote something similar in the opening of Megadeth “Hanger 18”.

I have read somewhere the reason they spelled Ktulu with a "k" is because the lore is if you speak the name of cthulhu, he will draw nearer. So they mispelled it on purpose to play on that.

Maybe "The Greatest show on Earth" by Nightwish live would be interesting? Tampere or Wembley.

One of my favorite elements of this instrumental is Lars’s use of the cymbals. Every instrument accompanied by constant cymbal crashes reminds me of a violent storm with surging waves crashing against jagged rocks, lightning, and thunder. Then a reprieve followed by a dramatic end. It totally goes with the Cthulhu theme.

This is turning into one of my favourite reaction sites.....👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🤘🏼🤘🏼

You ought to take a crack at Ne Obliviscaris - And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope (Live in Colorado 2016). Six peerless musicians and a song so complex that it's taught at the Sydney Conservatorium For Music, as part of the Compositions coursework

I love the part when he plays the song on the piano after listening to it just once! Amazing talent!

I absolutely love this channel and hearing thoughts from a classical musician on metal music! If ever you decide to dive into Iron Maiden, I have six fun recommendations: Rime of the Ancient Mariner Phantom of the Opera Fear of the Dark Hallowed be thy Name El Dorado Caught Somewhere in Time

Early Metallica was a lot like a symphony. Harmony and flow of the music twist your emotions. If you want more of an Opera experience might I suggest Iron Maiden. Hollowed Be Thy Name would be a good start.

The "t" is silent in Ktulu, the "Kt" is pronounced as "khal", the first "u" is "ah" and the "lu" is "loo", altogether pronounced "Khal-AH-Lu". The original spelling is "Cthulhu" H.P. Lovecraft wrote the story in 1928. It's a fictional word in a fictional language called R'lyehian and is based on The Kraken in Scandinavian mythology.

This song is WILD when it comes to bass. It's as if Cliff was playing his own bass solo the entire time. It's a shame that he's barely heard outside of the wild wah swells. Edit: if you'd like to react and hear audibly EVERYTHING that Cliff plays extremely accurately, check out the bass cover from Djobassful. It's CRAZY what's hidden in the mix.

17:15- you say “we get it,” but I actually really like hearing him play the piano version after hearing it only once. Having an ear for music, while being able to play it on an instrument like the piano, I’m completely fascinated with. You can tell he’s been playing for quite sometime and I respect that a lot. Let him play that piano of some riffs man! Lol 🤘🏼☕️

Might as well do the instrumental (or bass solo) from kill ‘em all

Please do Suicide and Redemption next.

Just saw them last night, they did an ode to this and while Robert Trujillo is NOT Cliff Burton, he is still an excellent bassist who sounds great in concert...

One of the greatest rock masterpieces ever recorded.

I love this kind of content! It's always very interesting to me what a classically trained musician thinks of some of these metal classics!

Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica because he was an angry and violent drunk, and would constantly get in fights. Also...Awakening by Unleash the Archers.

Always reminds of "Hall of the mountain king". That evil thing lurking behind you, trying to catch you. Music gets faster/louder and more intense.

Thanks for your reaction. Metallic performed and produced a live album with a full orchestra, could you please do a reaction to any of the songs of your choosing. Also the orchestral musicians comments about the music is very interesting.

Do Nightwish - Ghost love score (LIVE VERSION with Floor Jansen) from Wacken

Dave Mustaine is indeed credited as one of the co-writers of “The Call of Ktulu” by Metallica themselves on the cd insert for the album. He got co-writing credit for the song “Ride The Lightning” too.

Ride the lightning was thr best metallica Album and pretty much put them on the map. It was there 1st full Album with all original songs. Master of puppets is Amazing ofcorse and kille em All was great. Ride was just more polished and you can hear Cliff burtons base growl in a few songs,

The musician guy (Justin) is cool as hell! 😊

The more you listen the bass line, The more you'll amazed. This song is a masterpiece!

15:51 YOU SHOULD DO SOME COVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the piano version!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1:35 - Nope, that is why they spelled it Ktulu not Cthulhu , they didn't want to summon him! Fun fact, 'The thing that should not be' is also about him and the bass on 'The call of Ktulu' does noises that sounds like his call! There is also another song about him called 'Dream no more'.

A friend of mine gave me this album on my 17th birthday, I listened to it and was blown away... since that day I was a deeply metallica fan . They are legends of creative music creators on my top list , such as Pink Floyd, Deep Purble, Queen, Bee Gees, Steve Wonder and many others . ' Cliff asked an instrument shop owner who also repaired guitars and knew him well if it would be possible to install a guitar pickup into his bass to get a sound that would allow him to combine bass and lead/solo guitar playing '. This man did and It was a magical moment in the history of metal music. RIP Clifford Lee Burton

There are riffs written by Dave on the Ride the Lightning album. Some in The Call of Ktulu. They were written while he was still a member of Metallica and simply repurposed later (which he didn't like at all actually).

The reaction at 15:35 is our reaction as well! For Judson to be able to capture the essence of the piece and get it right after one listen is absolutely incredible. And no matter how many times you experience it, it's always amazing!

You guys should check out the version of this song they did for the S & M concert. Really good.

Your guys dynamic is so funny 😂. Super excited for this one. So much interesting stuff going on in this one. It’s insane to think of how young they were when they came up with this.

You gotta check out the 1999 S&M version! It is gonna blow your mind!!!

Hearing it played on a piano makes it sound a lot like Ennio Morricone. Metallica plays his "The Ecstacy of Gold" as the intro to their live shows.

You guys should react to the call of katulu live with the San Francisco orchestra

Use better headphones please! Sundara or HarmonicDyne Zeus or Beyerdynamic PRO version............. i hear ALL the bass clearly on my HarmonicDyne Zeus Elite!

The 'grand finale' when seeing this song played live certainly hyped me up a few weeks back & wow, Judson is one talented musician to play different parts of the song after just one listen. Great video guys.. Keep em' coming 🤘🤘

I would love a mirror series of this where classical musician plays classics to metal musician

These are great, but there's one instrumental you're missing. The bass solo, Anesthesia-pulling teeth. Not as long as of a song but a highlight of Cliff's playing.

According to Dave mustaine he wrote everything up until load lol

Thank you! Another banger from you guys, much appreciated :D

What's your musical background. I've really enjoyed your videos thus far.

This channel has potential. By the way I have the album in cassette tape. In the backpage of the cover, the credits for the song is as following; Hetfield, Ulrich, Burton & Mustaine

Oh, you like big endings? What we used to call "ape shit" endings (cause everyone just goes ape shit).... Let me tell ta about a little band called Iron Maiden. I saw Maiden play a 4 minute song and tack on 3 minutes of ape shit ending live. Becaue each of their songs deserve to be the end of the night song. 🤘🧙‍♂️🤘

Whiskey in the jar, slane castle ❤

I had the pleasure of seeing this very tour in January 1985. Cliff stole the show...

That main riff back and forth back and forth- sounds like a straight up horror movie!! Ever seen Psycho the movie? The build up? You know something is lurking- that’s what it sounds like- just brilliant!!!

I'm writing this comment prior to it being listened to, but I hope he can hear how much of a bass solo this song is since the bass isn't that prevalent. Edit: I know he was listening to the song as a whole and not just Cliff, but was hoping he would caught that aspect of it. Overall love how he seen/felt the song.

Grammy winning S&M version of this is required reading friend. Live and in their prime Metallica with a full symphony behind them, right up your alley correct?

Wait, you heard that just once... and were able to play it from memory on one play? :O You are seriously talented, sir!

this guy is hilarious, impossible not to laugh

What cliff does in this song with his bass is so tasty and genius

Very well done analysis! Thank you guys and just subscribed!!!

I love this guy on the piano, thank you kind sir for your thoughts

Wow! I've watched a lot of reaction channels but you guys might be the best. He doesn't hear the music, he feels it. That's awesome to see someone else react as I would. Does that make sense? Lol

Dude's face when the huge tom crescendo in the end happened. :D :D :D :D Loved it. And I haven't listened to the album version for a while. Didn't remember how atrociously HARD Lars hits that drum. Also, I love how Judson learned the damn song from the first listen! You gotta do the symphonic version. :D

We all need to hear the song played on piano by him.

This song and Orion are just awesome, can totally escape into the music.

Yes... Cliff could make the bass scream. He was so freakin amazing. THE GOAT!!!

He should really listen to the s&m version from 1999! That's an awesome piece of music

I would love to to hear a symphony orchestra redo these songs. No band...

their best song, and by far

cant wait to see the reaction for (Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth off of Kill Em All

Quick recommendation for your channel… I’ve seen a lot of reaction channels (and I mean A LOT) react to rock/metal songs. Especially Metallica songs. I know of all the biggest complaints that the overwhelming majority of viewers make with these reactors. So far I’ve seen two things you guys should or shouldn’t do based on these complaints… 1. When you pause the song for whatever reason, make sure to rewind it like 5 seconds before you resume. A pause can really throw off the gained mood and momentum, so rewinding it a little will help get that momentum back 2. Never pause a Metallica song during a solo! Lol Other than that it seems everybody, including myself, are really enjoying your reactions. Keep it up! Oh I almost forgot to mention another complaint that I see a lot against reactors. You guys clearly haven’t done this yet but I’ll tell you ahead of time…Don’t listen to a live version of the song the first time around. Always listen to the studio version first and then react to the live anytime after. A big part of the reason we like a live song is because we fell in love with the sound and magic of the studio one first and now get to see the band themselves finally perform it. Obviously you can do whatever you want. Again, these are just very common gripes I’ve seen with several other channels. Just giving you an outside perspective!

Very nice reaction again guys. OMG... It would be incredibly perfect if you reacted to the latest live version of Call of Ktulu now right after you heard the album version. They just played it and recorded it in Germany earlier this year. Superb high class filming like no other bands do it. Also it is on their new live stage setup. You will love it. You can find the original video in Metallicas own RU-vid Channel. Or in this link. I would be very very happy if you do this in the very near future. I am sure a lot of the other subscribers and fans also would like that. Cheers, Keep on doing your great reactions. :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GHaAsolqvX4.html

Should've given him a snippet of the enhanced bass version afterwards, Cliff plays some wicked stuff that you barely/don't hear

That was great, i was hoping for you to do this track too... hope you channel grow up fast! I already subcribed.. more metallica will be awesome, maybe some opeth "burden" or "windowpane" etc, greetings from Chile!

So one night I was listening to the radio and they used to have a program called mandatory Metallica, which means that two requested songs by Metallica would be played at a certain hour. And I heard this. And my respect for them was catapulted to a whole Nother level, because I never knew that they had the capability to write this sort of song. Because I was only shown before then what my brother liked. But it was this one that I think truly drew me into Metallica. It took me a while to get really hooked on those guys, but it was this song and I wish they would write more like it.

I used to fall asleep to this song every night as a kid. It always gave me the feeling of flying upwards through the clouds, in the middle of a lightning storm, in a battle with some unknown force of darkness. And it still does 😎

OK kids, here's a little secret I want you all to keep alive. If you place your distortion/gain pedal BEFORE your wah pedal in your effects loop, your bass/guitar will scream like a demon being assraped by Cliff Burton. Now you just gotta learn to fucking play. The Cliffest of Burtons! 🤘🧙‍♂️🤘 Rich the Ancient Metal Beast

You should listen to the 1999 S&M live album if you liked the end of this song and listen how they tie Ecstasy of Gold into Ktulu into Master of Puppets with the Orchestra.