Song · Metallica
“Hardwired” by Metallica
From the album Hardwired… to Self‐Destruct (2016)
“Hardwired” by Metallica appears on 4 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 2016 and 2021. It was first released in 2016 on the album Hardwired… to Self‐Destruct. Its best result is #2 on the SiriusXM Octane Big 'Uns Countdown Songs of 2016. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #2 hard rock song of 2016 and #48 of the '10s.
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"Hardwired" was the first single from Metallica's tenth album, Hardwired... to Self-Destruct, unleashed on August 18, 2016, and it was the last song made for the record: James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich wrote and recorded it in four days, then co-produced it with Greg Fidelman. The rush pays off. At about three minutes it's one of the shortest, fastest things they've done, a snap back to the thrash of their earliest records, with Hetfield barking and Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Ulrich going flat out.
The words picture a world eaten alive by paranoia, pain and madness; Ulrich said it's about how mistakes are unavoidable and make you who you are, while plenty of listeners heard 2016's politics in it. It topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song, losing out to David Bowie's "Blackstar".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2 | SiriusXM Octane National (SiriusXM satellite radio) | SiriusXM Octane Big 'Uns Countdown Songs of 2016 | 30 |
| 2017 | 48 | 98KUPD Phoenix, AZ | 98KUPD Top 98 of 2017 | 98 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 62 | 93X | 93X Top 93 Songs of the Decade (2010s) | 93 |
| 2021 | 19 | KISW | KISW 25 Greatest Rock Songs from the '10s | 25 |
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