The secret message hidden at the end of Metallica song ‘Helpless’
It’s quite funny to think about how subscribers to the Satanic Panic would feel if they saw some of the more modern metal bands making music. Those who believed The Beatles and Led Zeppelin were hiding messages in their songs would likely combust at the sight of bands like Metallica playing heavy, aggressive music on stage, surrounded by fire and demonic imagery.
“The workmanship of thy tabrets and thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.” These are words taken from Ezekiel 28:13, and they essentially say that when we were created by God, we were given our musical talent. This is why so many religious people sing praise songs in a bid to engage more with their faith.
This is also why a lot of people believe that rock ‘n’ roll was the product of the devil, used in a bid to draw people away from their faith and have them worshipping false idols who spread the word of Beelzebub. There are still people out there who condemn rock and other forms of music for being obscene, but the cries of music being a form of religious rebellion have dwindled compared to how strong they were in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
People everywhere believed that music was being used as a front for evil. They swore that bands were hiding messages in their tracks in a bid to get kids to subscribe to the word of the devil. One popular technique that people used to say was used was backward masking, which meant that when a song was played backwards, it revealed a hidden message.
ELO once hit out at the preposterous theories surrounding backwards masking on their track ‘Fire on High’. The song sounded sinister, and the lyrics were clearly reversed. When they were played forward, they said, “The music is reversible, but time is not; turn back, turn back.” Essentially, ELO were trying to tell people to stop wasting their time looking for hidden messages and just enjoy the music.
A lot of other people thought that bands hid messages in their songs that played if the track was left to fade out for long enough. There is certainly some truth to this, as many bands hid songs at the end of CDs that played if people were willing to wait for them. Metallica, who could easily be construed as a devil-worshipping group of metalheads, have put their own messages at the end of songs; however, much to the disappointment of religious conspiracy theorists everywhere, this hidden message doesn’t tell listeners to convert to satanism.
Metallica has very rarely had public fallouts and manages to keep things civil in the band despite constantly playing around with bold and ambitious creative ideas. At the end of their song ‘Helpless,’ a Diamond Head cover, they gave fans a glimpse into what life is like in the studio.
At the end of the track, Kirk Hammett delivers one of his best solos to date, equal parts heavy and chaotic. As things steadily calm down, James Hetfield cuts out the song and yells, “See ya!” If people continue listening, they can hear the subtle instructions that the band give one another when recording, as we heard Lars Ulrich say, “Keep it going and keep it ringing out. Let it ring out… Okay, turn it off now.”
It might not be the satanic message people expected, but it’s still a fun addition to a great song.
