Metallica – Disposable Heros

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

“Disposable Heroes” is a song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It is the fifth track on their 1986 album Master of Puppets.

With “Disposable Heroes”, Metallica continued their tradition of having a war-themed song on every album. Previously such tracks were “No Remorse” on Kill ‘Em All and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” on Ride the Lightning. This “tradition” would carry itself over in the band’s next cd, … And Justice for All as well, with the tune “One”.

The lyrics work with a soldier’s ideas, actions and experiences at the war front and are sung in the first person, except for the chorus, which reflects the words of the soldier’s commanding officers, and is in the 2nd person. The soldier briefly describes the dehumanizing conditions of war, the death of those around him and the helplessness that includes the understanding of his life’s shortage of meaning, but he additionally questions the madness of which he is part.

During the chorus, we hear the domineering and abusive words of the individual at the top of the military command, the perceived “puppet master”: “You will do what I say / when I say ‘Back to the front!’” At the end, the soldier has actually given up, emotionlessly accepting his fate and soon-to-come death.

The lyrics fit well with the recording’s basic theme of feeling helpless and imprisoned, and shortage of control over one’s very own actions. In fact, the album cover, illustrating an apparently endless war cemetery, with each gravestone attached to the hands of the puppet master using a string (reference to title track), relates more closely to this tune than to any other song from the album.

Bodies fill the fields I see, hungry heroes end
No one to play soldier now, no one to pretend
Running blind through killing fields, bred to kill them all
Victim of what said should be
A servant `til I fall

Soldier boy, made of clay
Now an empty shell
Twenty one, only son
But he served us well
Bred to kill, not to care
Just do as we say
Finished here, Greeting Death
He’s yours to take away

Back to the front
You will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
You will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
You coward
You servant
You blindman

Barking of machinegun fire, does nothing to me now
Sounding of the clock that ticks, get used to it somehow
More a man, more stripes you wear, glory seeker trends
Bodies fill the fields I see
The slaughter never ends

Soldier boy, made of clay
Now an empty shell
Twenty one, only son
But he served us well
Bred to kill, not to care
Just do as we say
Finished here, Greeting Death
He’s yours to take away

Back to the front
You will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
You will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
You coward
You servant
You blindman

Why, Am I dying?
Kill, have no fear
Lie, live off lying
Hell, Hell is here

I was born for dying

Life planned out before my birth, nothing could I say
Had no chance to see myself, molded day by day
Looking back I realize, nothing have I done
Left to die with only friend
Alone I clench my gun

Soldier boy, made of clay
Now an empty shell
Twenty one, only son
But he served us well
Bred to kill, not to care
Just do as we say
Finished here, Greeting Death
He’s yours to take away

Back to the front
You will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
You will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
You coward
You servant
You blindman

Back to the front.

Live in Switzerland, 1993

From the album Master Of Puppets

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