CHECK OUT MY OTHER METALLICA REACTIONS! I may have already reacted to what you were about to suggest! ru-vid.com/group/PLG217Y9Pofu5hs4Ged1MNFPt-JVcx_mqq
James Hetfield wrote "Until It Sleeps" in reference to cancer slowly killing his mother, if I remember correctly. But many listeners took the lyrics and applied them to depression or other mental health issues. So, yeah, the songs have different meanings for every one of us. My 2 cents: For me the song Fixxxer paints the picture of someone suffering through a severe addiction to drugs and/or alcohol (James Hetfield has problems with alcoholism.) or maybe depression again. Key words for me is the title "Fixxxer", the "pins" maybe like syringes, the reference of "gin" when describing "the ritual" to break free and interestingly the slurred way James Hetfield sings, like he's in a daze after taking a dose or some narcotic. The situation has its cause in something the parents or at least the father did, that "broke the worlds within". The word Fixxxer with the 3 Xs is interesting. Maybe because it has multiple meanings. A fixer is another word for junkie (the one who's suffering), but a fixer is also someone who provides access to drugs; the one who jabs in the pins, because he doesn't want the addicted to get free. The sufferer asks, if the fixxxer can do more than just jab in pins and instead make all that's broken whole again. But now the sufferer is at the point, where he recognizes, that the fixxxer is unwilling or unable to fix the actual problem and now just wants to perpetuate the suffering forever. The "shine to rust" means to me: At first taking the drugs or whatever felt good and made the pain go away, but now it's just an endless cycle of getting another pin jabbed inside, whenever the sufferer feels like he could get away from it and "fall in love with life again". - The sufferer mentions a ritual to get free with a "shell of shotgun" and a "pint of gin" to "renew our faith" and "fall in love with life again". That seems like something harsh has to be endured to break the vicious cycle. Maybe the sufferer wants to be very drunk when he gets rid of the fixxxer with the shotgun shell, bc otherwise the pins would keep him from going through with it? The verbiage also reminds me of someone being angry at God for continuously dealing out punishment and never letting the sinner go. God is the fixxxer, and for a while the sufferer was accepting the punishment (the "shine") for the sins. But over time the punishment seems more and more like a sadistic game (the "toys"), where the sufferer is lead to believe, he's "pain free", and then the next "pin" gets jabbed in ("to rust"). So to "renew the faith" a special "ritual" has to be done. More than the usual suffering perhaps. The mentioning of the "shell of shotgun" and the "pint of gin" reminds me of someone hitting rock bottom and staring deep into the darkness and even confronting the possibility of killing himself. If he makes it through this phase, maybe there is chance for true salvation.
Th " XXX" I believe is a direct reference to moonshine b/c bootleggers used to mark their bottles w/ XXX , but its probably indicative of alcohol itself since James is an alcoholic🍻
You are the best at reactions. Very refreshing to see others from all walks of life experience metal music. It is created from the soul to feed the soul. Your intelligence: The ability to catch the little details, break the music down and give an insightful and in depth look into the lyrics, and understanding the coloration. Well done sir!
So I’ve been listening to Metallica for well over 20 years now; and this was one of my favorites of theirs. I was embarrassed to say I loved it because the hardcore Metallica fans (at the time I didn’t consider myself hardcore) did not like it. I thought it was so innovative and insightful
Man, the HARDCORE Metallica fans are the one’s that can listen to a new sound with an open mind and appreciate what they’re listening to instead of giving it 10 seconds and saying, “it not thrash, me no like.” Elitists can go kick rocks, both Load and Reload are excellent.
another excellent reaction. This song was never played live, it's too personal a song for James Hetfield (singer) and I think that's the main reason they never played it live.
You are an amazing person and a music reactor!! I knew this song was deep but I needed someone to help me fully understand it. Thank you so much for helping me understand this unique and beautiful song Dave!!!
This song was about James' battle with alcohol. In this case, James is the doll, and alcohol is the pins. Pins, like shots, all lined up one after another just waiting to be pushed into him. He feels like he has no control, that the drink decides whether the has a few, (stumble), or gets blind drunk (fall). He knows alcohol isn't the answer, that it can't "Heal the wounds within", but just when he feels in control, something happens and the "Pins" are there again, lined up and waiting.
Ah nice, this was definitely on my list of requests to come. I loved this song when I was like 15 and blasting it through terrible earbuds, it's wild to hear it in higher quality now
i appreciate your reaction and commentary, i can tell you actually just love music and arent just farming views. its really fun seeing you enjoy music i grew up with and love
I don't give a fuck what anybody says Metallica is the shit and they have no bad albums except lulu maybe but that's just a side project conceptual album
St Anger was crap tbh. With better production the songs on the album would probably be amazing but unfortunately compared to their other albums. It's a shambles
@@mitchand9 I disagree. Saint Anger Album has its purpose. Sometimes when I’m having a messed up day, Saint Anger releases plenty of stress. It’s definitely a crazy album and all over the place musically. But it has its purpose.
@@Lowrentfilms it had its purpose to them certainly but it doesn't change the fact that it was terrible. You can be polite about it and call it crazy and all over the place. They're for me the best metal band ever. But I wouldn't be a true fan if I liked the album simply because I love the band. The album made a lot of sense to me for them at that time. All bad shit they were going through spilled out on the album. And not in a positive way for the metallica music lover.
Lulu without Lou's vocals has some crazy decent riffs that are not heard on any Metallica album! There is a version on YT without his vocals - listen to it all and you should be able to hear the bits I mean...they could easily recycle some of those into their future albums like they did when the recycled Memory Remains demo outro for the song Halo On Fire. It is not plagiarism when they wrote and performed it! lol
@@mitchand9 dude, I love St. Anger to death. It's frantic (sorry), it helped me through tough times. Still listen to it now and then. Yeah, now I can see all the weaknesses, i.e. it could have shorter and tighter songs, some production decisions are meh, hooks and lyrics here and there are cheesy. But overall it's a great album that happened to occur in messed up times. Would it be fixed, it'd be on par with their '80s stuff. That's a *fact.* Well, not really *fact*, lol. It's all subjective, man
Wow what a journey. Enjoyed listening to this with you as I’ve not heard it for 20 years. Recalled some of it but so much I’d forgotten. What a great song! Back when this was out we never had the lyrics. So I’d gotten a lot of stuff wrong from Load and Reload. Bob Rock really produced these albums well. If I had to pick the 5 best songs off both albums I’d say 1. Bleeding Me, 2. House that Jack Built, 3. Hero of the Day, 4. Low Mans Lyric, 5. The Memory Remains
I don’t remember what albums these were on but Load and Reload were meant to be a double cd set and Metallica decided at the last minute to separate them. House that Jack Built, Carpe Diem, Price Charming and Bad Seed were my shiiiiiit
Fun fact they wanted it to be one album but the label wouldn’t let them, so they broke it in two, named it load and re load in reference to jerking off while saying go fuck yourselves and made the album covers a electron microscopic image of semen and then an Infrared image of some balls to emphasize how much they can screw themselves lol
Every Metallica album is at least a 7 if you ask me. I had their whole discography as early as 9 years old and listening to everything up to Death Magnetic together showed me that Metallica did amazing work all over the genre and exposed a lot of fans as not being able to grow along with their bands. I can’t name a bad Metallica song and I know them all... they’re not my favorite band and I don’t throw them on much anymore but the ground floor of thrash metal was paved by these men and when they got past the thrash only stigma the world opened up to them. Load and Reload were on play constantly even over black album or KEA. The bluesy vibe on these albums is why I love them. Also James (the singer) started out not liking his own voice and has said that he only really “poured himself” into lyrics after their 3rd album on.
Load and ReLoad got so much unnecessary hate when they came out and even til this day. They honestly might be two of my favorite albums... is it traditional Metallica? Hell no... but they're SOLID AS FUCK and I feel they really tapped into a different side of themselves on those two releases that I thoroughly appreciated and loved.
Both albums have some of Metallica's best songs, but so much filler. They could have made 1 album full of masterpieces if they cut the weaker songs from both albums.
Load and ReLoad was how i discovered them as a kid in the 90s going through my dads CDs, the first Metallica song i was obsessed with was Fuel and then as i got older i just loved all their music
Thank you fo reacting to this lesser known songs, as a real metallica fan i really appreciate it. Dont change your video style format. Please do LOW MANS LYRIC!!
Thank you What it Do Dave! I absolutely love your reaction to this kick ass Metallica tune! I have loved this since it was new on ReLoad. This song is deep! I love your view on this. I will subscribe to you now. Thanks Dude.
My personal take is this is James shaking his fist at God and how he made him suffer, basically. The father and mother lines are references to his actual life and he's not happy about it.
Prince charming is also an unknown. This is mullet hetfield. His addiction was eating him at this point. You can hear the pain he delivers vocally. I've only found a few reacting to this. What a gem of a tune
My favorite Metallica song right now...Load and reload are amazing...long time fan seen them 20 times...musically great albums even if they aren't fast. They still have alot of feeling to all the songs
Instant excitement when this is the first thing I saw when I opened the RU-vid app. Awesome reaction to a criminally underrated song. Sadly this song has never been played live.
Fantastic job on analyzing the lyrics, Dave. I love watching your reactions here. I just wanted to give my two cents one of things you asked about: “Just when all seems fine and I’m pain free, You jab another pin in me” Family, and this song is about family, can hurt you. You can get an apology (or maybe not), and they can hurt you again the same way. Or call you up out of the blue and lay down the hurt and the pain and the guilt. For some, it never ends.
This is one of 4 epic album closing masterpieces! The other 3 are Call of The Ktulu (Ride the Lightening), Outlaw Torn (Load) and Inamorata (72 Seasons).
That stutter is a guitar note held and swtching pickups back and forth rapidly. I feel the rust means becoming numb to the control and taking you're life back.
Dave, if you haven't already, check out "Where The Wild Things Are" from the ReLoad album. :) Edit: the "stutter" effect that you hear is a "kill switch" on one of the guitars, usually from having one of the guitar pickups disconnected and toggling back and forth between them with the selector switch on the guitar.
Somehow the newer Metallica (after 1990, haha) is the deep cut stuff you never see on reactions. There's a LOT of good content there, happy to see this pop up. Personal favorite from these is "King Nothing".
That part around 13:05, it's a toggle switch on the guitar, used to change the position between two humbucker pickups of the guitar, moving it quickly high and low or left and right produces that effect you heard, it's fun ! 20:32 Kirk is litteraly using a Cry Baby wah, it produces that Waahooowaw effect. By the way, awesome reaction, Fixxer, Where the wild things are, Thorn within, and many more on Load a,d ReLoad are hidden gems ! Thanks you for the reaction, peace out from Morocco
Needless to say Hetfield was fucked up from childhood yet he was able to find an outlet in music and give us 40yrs of musical expression and enjoyment. Love that sumbitch! lol \m/
Amazing song. I have loved it for decades ... for me the lyrics are relates to emotional abuse that parents can do their sons... all you suffered when you was a child has repercussions on your whole life...
i love this song, i love your review too. thank you for this video. i think you forgot to interprete the title itself, fixxxer and how it relate to those pins and jabs. btw, how to pronounce fixxxer?🤔
Regarding the pins, there's parts through the entire song there the guitar strings are muted and are being hit, it creates a nice scratching sound. I'd be interested to know what you think of how Metallica have progressed throughout the years, how the later songs compare to the old Thrash albums.
Reload is frankly my favorite Metallica album. I love how cynical this song is. It feels like a hateful conversation between oneself and their personal god. The needles turning into rust are the traumas that we carry with us, too scared to face those issues, turning us into the bitter creature that causes us to cling to the vibe of a song like this, oof
Great reaction and breakdown, Dave. Do yourself a favour and react to Metallica "Moth into Flame" off their latest album. It's phenomenal. I really think you'll dig it
Also the "shell of a shotgun, pint of gin" verse is pretty fucked up. Numb us up to shield the pins meaning he's gonna get drunk to amplify his negative thoughts and anguish and also give himself the courage to take his own life. The "no more pins in me" is basically saying if I'm dead, I can't hurt anymore. Super deep song.
@@randygarrett6279 That outro with the tempo change, how frantic it is with the "no more no more" you could almost interpret it as the adrenaline rush he feels as he's about to self delete and then the song comes crashing to an end is pulling the trigger.
About manipulation, Fixxxer about something higher, dyers EVE like parents say, i think this is not manipulation, but shawshank redemption: institutionalized.
U R the Man,even more, like a Huuuge Man, U R the Master, Master but Master without fear in our veins. Peace. Next please : Carpe diem baby by Metallica.
This is one thoughtful reaction, totally amazing. For me Load and Reload are Metallica’s Pink Floyd moments. The metal elitists have totally tarnished these masterpieces, so unfortunate. Thanks for being open minded.