"Lords of Summer" is a song by American heavy metal band

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

. It was first released as a

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in its

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

form on March 19, 2014, with a 12-inch single for it being released as part of Record Store Day Black Friday later that year. In 2016, a re-recorded version was included on the

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of the band's tenth studio album, '' Hardwired... to Self-Destruct''.

Recording

In February 2014, Metallica began recording a new song at their HQ studio in

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, with the working title "X-Dust", planning to premiere it at a March 16, 2014, show in

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, Colombia. They finished it in March and premiered it at the show with the official song title "Lords of Summer". The band re-recorded the song in May and June 2015 for their tenth studio album, '' Hardwired... to Self-Destruct'' (2016), including it with the deluxe edition of the album. It is over a minute shorter in length than the demo and first pass versions.

Content and style

According to drummer Lars Ulrich, the song was inspired by the band's then upcoming 2014 tour, as he explained in an interview given to ''

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'' magazine: "It's about being outdoors and festivals and here we are again." Being an uptempo thrash metal song much in the vein of Metallica's earlier works from the 1980s and being self-referential in nature in terms of its lyrical content, the song alludes to a number of now 'classic' tracks from that particular period, most notably "The Four Horsemen" and "No Remorse" (both from 'Kill 'em All', 1983): "Pounding, pounding, no remorse / Lords of summer set on course / Pushing, pushing horsemen ride / Lords of summer undenied".

Release

The band released the song digitally through the

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on March 19, 2014, in its demo form. They eventually released the song in a more refined state, dubbed the "First Pass Version", digitally in June. Later that year, they gave the song a physical release for Record Store Day Black Friday as a

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

, with a live version of the song recorded in

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being used as the B-side. The single was limited to 4,000 copies. A remix of the song by

The Glitch Mob The Glitch Mob is an American electronic music trio from Los Angeles, California. It consists of edIT (Edward Ma), Boreta (Justin Boreta) and Ooah (Josh Mayer). Chris Martins of '' LA Weekly'' noted that they "have undoubtedly found the largest ...

was released on May 13, 2015, through YouTube.

Track listing

Personnel

James Hetfield James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, co-founder and a main songwriter of heavy metal band Metallica. He is mainly known for his intricate rhythm playing, but occasionall ...

– vocals, rhythm guitar *

Kirk Hammett Kirk Lee Hammett (born November 18, 1962) is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist and a contributing songwriter for heavy metal band Metallica since 1983. Before joining Metallica, he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003, ...

– lead guitar *

Robert Trujillo Roberto Agustín Miguel Santiago Samuel Trujillo Veracruz (; born October 23, 1964) is an American musician, best known as the bassist for Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Metallica since 2003. He first rose to prominence as the bassist of cr ...

– bass guitar *

Lars Ulrich Lars Ulrich (; ; born 26 December 1963) is a Danish musician best known as the drummer and co-founder of American heavy metal band Metallica. The son and grandson respectively of tennis players Torben and Einer Ulrich, he played tennis in his ...

– drums

References

{{authority control 2014 songs Metallica songs 2014 singles Songs written by James Hetfield Songs written by Lars Ulrich Songs written by Robert Trujillo