For whom the bell tools

Metallica

(Português)

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" é uma canção da banda americana de thrash metal,Metallica. É a terceira faixa do segundo álbum da banda, Ride the Lightning, e foi composta pelo baixista Cliff Burton, pelo guitarrista e vocalista James Hetfield e pelo baterista Lars Ulrich  . Sua letra foi baseada no romance de Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bells Toll  (Por Quem os Sinos Dobram).

A introdução cromática, que é muitas vezes confundido com uma guitarra elétrica, é na realidade o baixo de Cliff Burton tocado através da distorção e wah-wah  . Composta por Burton antes de ingressar no Metallica, a introdução foi tocada pela primeira vez durante uma jam session de 12 minutos numa batalha de bandas com sua primeira banda, Agents of Misfortune.

A canção foi usada para os créditos de abertura do filme Zombieland, de 2009.

Também apareceu no álbum S&M, de 1999, gravado no Berkley's Community Theatre juntamente com a Orquestra Sinfônica de San Francisco.

(English)

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the second promotional single from their second album, Ride the Lightning. Among their most-played songs, it has, as of October 17, 2012, been played 1,253 times, behind only "One" (1,273), "Seek & Destroy" (1,343), "Creeping Death" (1,367) and "Master of Puppets" (1,416).

The song was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel of the same name about the dishonor of modern warfare and the protagonist's imminent doom during the bloodySpanish Civil War. Specific allusions are made to the scene in which five soldiers are obliterated during an air-strike, after taking a position on a hill.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" was released as a promo single with two versions of the song, an edited version on side A and the album version on the b-side.

The chromatic introduction, which is often mistaken for an electric guitar, is in fact Cliff Burton playing his bass guitar through distortion and wah-wah. The intro was written by Burton before joining Metallica. Burton first played it in 1979 in a 12-minute jam at abattle of the bands with his second band Agents of Misfortune (with his old bandmate fromEZ-Street and, futurely, Faith No More guitarist "Big" Jim Martin).

The guitars and bass in the song are tuned slightly sharper than standard on this performance (and sharper than the other tracks on the album). Rumors and speculation abound regarding the reason for the discrepancy, but no definitive explanation has surfaced - one reasoning is the slightly sharpened guitar tuning is used to keep the guitars in line with the song's intro bell chimes.