“All Nightmare Long” by Metallica

"All Nightmare Long" was the third single off Death Magnetic, Metallica's 2008 album, and it arrived on December 15 of that year: thrash with the throttle wide open, the guitars tuned down to drop D. All four members share the writing credit, and James Hetfield wrote the words. Rick Rubin produced, Greg Fidelman recorded it and mixed it with Andrew Scheps, and Hetfield sings lead and plays guitar alongside Kirk Hammett, with Robert Trujillo on bass, Lars Ulrich on drums, and Hammett and Trujillo on backing vocals.

The video, directed by Robert Schober as Roboshobo, premiered on December 7, 2008, and leaves the band out entirely. It's a grainy fake documentary in which Soviet scientists find alien spores after the 1908 Tunguska event, learn that they bring dead tissue back to life and turn anyone exposed violent, and, in a cartoon interlude, scatter them over America from balloons. The song was also up for a Kerrang! Award for Best Single.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.