- Orion (Metallica song)
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"Orion" Song by Metallica from the album Master of Puppets Released March 3, 1986 Recorded September-December 1985 at Sweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark Genre Thrash metal, progressive metal, space rock Length 8:22 Label Elektra Writer James Hetfield / Lars Ulrich / Cliff Burton Producer Metallica, Flemming Rasmussen "Orion" is a song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It is the seventh track and is the only instrumental from its third studio album, Master of Puppets (1986). The song features bassist Cliff Burton in his "lead bass" approach, meaning he plays his bass guitar in a prominent and melodic role in addition to holding down the rhytmic and harmonic foundation. It contains two bass solos, which are often mistaken for guitar.
It was named after the star constellation, Orion, due to the song’s spacey sounding bridge. "Orion" was played over a speaker at Burton's funeral.
Structure
The song is more progressive than the band’s previous work. There are three main parts of the song: the heavy beginning, the spacey interlude, and the ending recapitulation that brings back the heaviness. The song features several solos:
- a bass solo by Cliff Burton (1:42 - 2:12)
- a guitar solo by James Hetfield (2:57 - 3:44)
- another one by Kirk Hammett (6:22 - 6:35), leading in the second bass solo (6:35 - 6:54)
- and the last by Hammett (7:02 - 7:32)
Covers
- The song was covered by the acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela on their self titled album
- Mastodon
- Dream Theater
External links
http://www.last.fm/music/Metallica/_/Orion
Categories:- Song stubs
- Metallica songs
- Heavy metal songs
- 1986 songs
- Songs written by James Hetfield
- Songs written by Lars Ulrich
- Songs written by Cliff Burton
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