Just heard the song, and as awesome as the song is, I am just taking a stab at this one. This is my first attempt at interpreting a song, so it might be completely wrong.
I think this song is about the 2016 election year in America, and how most (if not all) the candidates represent [or at least perceived to be] a great danger to the world.
"In the name of desperation... in the name of wretched pain...." speaks about how the parties of the U.S. dislike the current direction America is headed and, out of desperation to get out of the current "pain" they feel, seek some type of resolution. Whether you're a conservative who dislikes the way people are becoming too P.C., or if you're a liberal who believes America is structurally flawed, this line speaks to you.
"We're so fucked, shit out of luck" means how the current candidates (in the most unbiased lens) are not fit to preside over the United States, hence the way Americans are basically screwed no matter who wins.
Meanwhile, the titular line "hardwired to self destruct" could be the way our political system is flawed to begin with, allowing the presidential predicament to occur in the first place; the major example of the current topic being how, in California, the presidential primary should have gone to Bernie Sanders, but was supposedly rigged in Hillary Clinton's favor. This sentiment is also echoed in [what I believe to be the actual] line "doom design", rather than "do design".
"On the way to paranoia... crooked borderlines" is about how the American people are paranoid about the way in which the United States is going to hell, whether it be in the form of mass shootings, Islamic extremism, open borders (hence "borderlines"), police brutality, racism, or class warfare; this may contribute to the following line "on the way to great destroyer", symbolizing Americans resorting to electing the great destroyer as president.
The last verse "once upon a planet burning.... once upon a spirit turning all in vain..." could be a reference to how America was once one of Britain's colonies, which dominated the entire planet, symbolizing how the earth was burning under a [British] flame. The spirit that's turning in vain is how the founding fathers of America would be ashamed at what they had fought for if they realized that the U.S. was about to basically fall under a new tyranny.
With the last lines about hope actually being straightforward from that point, I conclude my very first interpretation. Once again, it could totally be false, but I like to think I wasn't the only one who was thinking this when I first heard this song. Whatever the meaning is, I'm glad to Metallica going back to their thrash roots! \m/
@ThrashAddict I mostly agree, but i think that the "spirit turning" part is wrong, in the song james sings "a fear returning", so it changes the meaning of that part. When my last change applies to the song, i will fix that as well.
@ThrashAddict I mostly agree, but i think that the "spirit turning" part is wrong, in the song james sings "a fear returning", so it changes the meaning of that part. When my last change applies to the song, i will fix that as well.
@ThrashAddict honestly, it is not, it touches on it and references the election, but it is much more a summation that asks if we are hardwired... to self destruct
@ThrashAddict honestly, it is not, it touches on it and references the election, but it is much more a summation that asks if we are hardwired... to self destruct
Just heard the song, and as awesome as the song is, I am just taking a stab at this one. This is my first attempt at interpreting a song, so it might be completely wrong.
I think this song is about the 2016 election year in America, and how most (if not all) the candidates represent [or at least perceived to be] a great danger to the world.
"In the name of desperation... in the name of wretched pain...." speaks about how the parties of the U.S. dislike the current direction America is headed and, out of desperation to get out of the current "pain" they feel, seek some type of resolution. Whether you're a conservative who dislikes the way people are becoming too P.C., or if you're a liberal who believes America is structurally flawed, this line speaks to you.
"We're so fucked, shit out of luck" means how the current candidates (in the most unbiased lens) are not fit to preside over the United States, hence the way Americans are basically screwed no matter who wins.
Meanwhile, the titular line "hardwired to self destruct" could be the way our political system is flawed to begin with, allowing the presidential predicament to occur in the first place; the major example of the current topic being how, in California, the presidential primary should have gone to Bernie Sanders, but was supposedly rigged in Hillary Clinton's favor. This sentiment is also echoed in [what I believe to be the actual] line "doom design", rather than "do design".
"On the way to paranoia... crooked borderlines" is about how the American people are paranoid about the way in which the United States is going to hell, whether it be in the form of mass shootings, Islamic extremism, open borders (hence "borderlines"), police brutality, racism, or class warfare; this may contribute to the following line "on the way to great destroyer", symbolizing Americans resorting to electing the great destroyer as president.
The last verse "once upon a planet burning.... once upon a spirit turning all in vain..." could be a reference to how America was once one of Britain's colonies, which dominated the entire planet, symbolizing how the earth was burning under a [British] flame. The spirit that's turning in vain is how the founding fathers of America would be ashamed at what they had fought for if they realized that the U.S. was about to basically fall under a new tyranny.
With the last lines about hope actually being straightforward from that point, I conclude my very first interpretation. Once again, it could totally be false, but I like to think I wasn't the only one who was thinking this when I first heard this song. Whatever the meaning is, I'm glad to Metallica going back to their thrash roots! \m/
@ThrashAddict I mostly agree, but i think that the "spirit turning" part is wrong, in the song james sings "a fear returning", so it changes the meaning of that part. When my last change applies to the song, i will fix that as well.
@ThrashAddict I mostly agree, but i think that the "spirit turning" part is wrong, in the song james sings "a fear returning", so it changes the meaning of that part. When my last change applies to the song, i will fix that as well.
@ThrashAddict honestly, it is not, it touches on it and references the election, but it is much more a summation that asks if we are hardwired... to self destruct
@ThrashAddict honestly, it is not, it touches on it and references the election, but it is much more a summation that asks if we are hardwired... to self destruct