All Nightmare Long

in my understanding this song is about some truma that you might have suffered and the memories of such tragedy come back and haunt you. this song is awesome metallica is amaizing

As MetallicA guys say, it's about historic 1908 Tunguska event and the Video Clip shows this.

but my analysis about this song : i think it's about REINCARNATION. MetallicA is destructing the reincarnation thesis.

Crawl from the wreckage one more time ==> reviving Horrific memory, twisting the mind, dark, rugged & . . . . ==> properties of reincarnation

And by then the reincarnation is just a HALLUCINATION, is just INFAMY … why???? Cause we hunt you down without mercy, hunt you down all nightmare long ==> dying, reviving, dying, reviving &. . . . Your somehow endless circulating life is compared to a NIGHTMARE.

Try to read it once again with this point of view. That’ll work…;)

Do you people know that this song is actually based on a novel... "the Hounds of Tindalos" of the cthulhu mythos. Their other mythos-inspired songs are (as you probably know) "The Call of Ktulu" and "The thing that should not be" James have said that he wanted to return to the mythos with this song.

To me this song is about those who have chosen the path of destruction:

Dark, rutted, cold and hard to turn Path of destruction, feel it burn

The memories of what they have done hunt them down but since they have already chosen their ways:

Then you crawl back in Into your obsession Never to return This is your confession

So they need to keep running forever fearful, thats the nightmare they forever have to live.

It's about the Cthulhu mythos, about these hounds that chase you through your nightmares and can kill you from angles.

The song may refer also to the trauma the animals in wild life suffer when the hunter is chasing.

This is James's way of expressing his feelings to that bus driver that caused that tragic "accident" killing Cliff and injuring several others, back in 1986. James says you won't get away with this. You'll never get away. Eventually, your luck will run out. You'll get tormented by remorse, and if you ultimately kill yourself, we'll hunt you even into your dreams.

Inspired by a short story called 'The Hounds of Tindalos,' Hetfield says the lyrics are "about these wolves that hunt through their nightmares." Apparently, as the singer explains, the only way to get away from the wolves is to "stay with angels. You can't even escape through sleep." It only makes sense that a song as crushing and brutal as 'All Nightmare Long' would be based on a story that is equally terrifying as it is mythical.

I think that this song is about running away and trying to escape horrific past experience. The thought of what happened haunts your nightmares for the rest of your life until you confront it.

i think this song is about drugs. also how life is like a bowl of cereal...you may be able to choke on the clusters if you let the milk slide through your teeth ya know? this song rocks rock on