Metallica - The Thing That Should Not Be.

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"The Thing That Should Not Be" is the third song from Metallica's 1986 album Master of Puppets. It was composed by Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. It is the first Metallica song written in an alternate guitar tuning; it has every guitar string tuned down a full tone, from E standard to D standard.

The song, like "The Call of Ktulu", was inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, particularly the novella "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", on which the lyrics of "The Thing That Should Not Be" are predominantly based. Otherwise, the song borrows heavily from the general Cthulhu Mythos lore, including references to (Cthulhu) beneath the sea, the Crawling Chaos Nyarlathotep, and an adaptation of the mad Arab's couplet from the fictional Necronomicon ("Not dead which eternal lie/Stranger eons death may die").

"The Thing That Should Not Be" fits in with the theme of the album by having the person whom this song is about going mad because the inablity of the human mind to comprehend The Things That Should Not Be.

On the album S&M, the track is finished off with the funeral march played by Kirk Hammett on his guitar, which leads directly into the next track.


Covers * This song was covered by the band The Sins of Thy Beloved for their Perpetual Desolation album. * This song was covered by the band Mendeed for Kerrang!'s Master of Puppets: Remastered. * This song was covered by the band Primus for their Rhinoplasty album. * This song was mixed with the Beatles song Let It Be by Beatallica and named "The Thing That Should Not Let It Be". * This song was covered live by the band Deadsy. * This song is the fifth song of Disc One on Metallica's live album S&M with the San Francisco Symphony. For an unknown reason, it has a stanza of the lyrics removed. * This song was covered by the heavy/thrash metal band Diesel Machine, and was included in their album "Torture Test". * This song was covered by John Garcia, Kurdt Vanderhoof, Jeff Pilson, and Jason Bonham for Metallic Assault: A Tribute to Metallica. * Adema covered the song as a hidden track on their third album Planets, and released it on the album's first single: "Tornado". * This song was covered by Dream Theater on their official bootleg CD of Master of Puppets

THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE

Messenger of fear in sight
Dark deception kills the light

Hybrid children watch the sea
Pray for father, roaming free

Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Great old one
Forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell

Crawling chaos underground
Cult has summoned twisted sound

Out from ruins once possessed
Fallen city, living death

Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Timeless sleep
Has been upset
He awakens
Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell
In madness you dwell


Not dead which eternal lie
Stranger eons, death may die

Drain you of your sanity
Face the thing that should not be

Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Great old one
Forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell

Words and Music by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett
Copyright © 1986 Creeping Death Music (ASCAP)
International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved (less info)