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    19. FADE TO BLACK

    Nov 16, 2021 2 minutes

    Metallica

    GUITARIST: KIRK HAMMETT (1984)

    Metallica’s first ballad features some of Kirk’s most epic playing.

    Recorded at Flemming Rasmussen’s Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen in February and March 1984, , Metallica’s sophomore album, was more progressive and stylistically greater in scope than the all-out thrash assault. That change is evident on “Fade to Black,” which features acoustic guitars and a nonstandard structure more akin to the “Stairway to Heaven” school of songcraft. But it is the song’s timeless melodic solo that most vividly signals a stylistic shift in guitarist Kirk Hammett’s playing. And the signature element he employs for the last solo is arpeggios.

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