METALLICA: Pro-Shot Footage Of 'Moth Into Flame' Performance From Zurich

May 17, 2019

Professionally filmed video footage of METALLICA performing the song "Moth Into Flame" on May 10 at Letzigrund in Zurich, Switzerland can be seen below.

"Moth Into Flame" is taken from METALLICA's latest studio album, "Hardwired...To Self-Destruct", which was released in November 2016 via Blackened Recordings.

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield spoke to Guitar World magazine about the lyrical inspiration for "Moth Into Flame", which describes a Britney Spears-like pop queen that crashes and burns. Asked if he had someone specifically in mind when he was writing the track, James said: "The 'pop queen' in the song is not really female or male. It's about how people think popularity or fame is going to solve their problems. Or whether fame should even be a goal for a musician. For us, fame has sometimes been a burden, like, how do we get rid of this thing? [Laughs] It's a Pandora's box that often makes you wonder, Okay, how do I become un-famous? Some people have felt that urge so strongly they've taken their own lives to escape it."

He continued: "The song was somewhat inspired by the Amy Winehouse documentary, 'Amy'. When I watched it, it really made me sad that a talented person like that fell for the fame part of it. But, to some degree, I see that mentality reflected in everyday life — people obsessively taking selfies and sending them to friends for validation."

Hetfield also talked about how "autobiographical" "Moth Into Flame" is, considering that the members of METALLICA were "pop queens" for a while during the "Black Album" period. "The 'Some Kind Of Monster' film is a prime example of believing that people need you in a certain way, and if you don't deliver, they'll hate you," he said. "I've experienced some aspect of that almost all my life. If you're not aware of it enough, the monster that is fame can swallow you up. During that period, we were being swallowed. We stopped caring about each other. We didn't care what METALLICA meant to us and other people. We could only see the ugly side and we wanted to get away from it. We couldn't see what was beautiful about our lives. Whatever you focus on, you start working toward, and at that point in our lives we were thinking, this is a hell for us. We lost perspective. Eventually we realized it wasn't about the fame and that we needed to care for the band and each other· That was a hard lesson to learn."

METALLICA's "WorldWired" tour has played more than 130 shows across the world since its 2016 kick-off.

Last November, drummer Lars Ulrich told The Mercury News that the trek could last through early 2020.

Find more on Metallica
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).