"Some Kind of Monster" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica from their studio album '' St. Anger''. The song was released as a single on July 13, 2004. "Some Kind of Monster" was Nominated for

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2005 but lost to

Velvet Revolver Velvet Revolver was an American hard rock supergroup consisting of Guns N' Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals), alongside Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar) formerly of pun ...

for the song " Slither". The Metallica documentary of the same name – '' Metallica: Some Kind of Monster'' – was released in 2004, and the single appeared in several developing forms on the film's soundtrack, along with other songs.

Information

The name "Some Kind of Monster" came from vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield describing the lyrics to producer

Bob Rock Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, sound engineer and musician, best known for producing rock bands and music artists such as Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, The Tragically Hip, the Cult, ...

being about a

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

creature or "some kind of monster". Thus, it was also used as a title for the 2004 documentary about the recording of ''St. Anger'' and the turmoil surrounding it. Hetfield has previously described the entity that is Metallica - the burden of fame and life in general - as monstrous. The song's birth and development are well detailed in the homonymous documentary as well. It was one of the first songs put together for the album. It would later be released as the final single and music videos of ''St. Anger'', and would be shortened considerably from the album version. The video contains old footage of Metallica concerts as well as a performance of the song in Metallica's San Francisco headquarters which is included in its entirety on the ''St. Anger'' DVD. In some regions, such as the US, the EP was bundled with a T-shirt featuring the artwork. During the "clean" intro, Lars Ulrich's snare drum can be heard rattling in the background. On the documentary's DVD extras there are a couple of sections entitled "Tough Riff", that show Hetfield teaching one of the song's main riffs to

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, ...

, who appeared to have trouble figuring it out.

In popular culture

* A copy of the soundtrack is featured in the ''

Criminal Minds ''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was revived in 2022. It ...

'' episode called "Extreme Aggressor". The song "

Enter Sandman "Enter Sandman" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. It is the opening track and lead single from their self-titled fifth album, released in 1991. The music was written by Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Vocalist an ...

" is also mentioned. *

Dean Winchester Dean Winchester is one of the two protagonists from the American drama television series '' Supernatural'', along with his younger brother Sam. He is portrayed primarily by Jensen Ackles. Other versions of the character having been portrayed b ...

, a character from the American TV show '' Supernatural'', is heard humming the song in " Phantom Traveler", the series' fourth episode.

Track listing for soundtrack

All live tracks recorded live on June 11, 2003, in Paris, France.

Personnel

;Metallica * James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm guitar * Lars Ulrich – drums *

– 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 band Metallica since 2003. He first rose to prominence as the bassist of crossover thrash ban ...

– bass (tracks 2-7) ;Additional musician *

– bass (tracks 1 & 8) ;Production, tracks 1 and 8 * Produced by Bob Rock and Metallica * Engineered and mixed by Bob Rock, assisted by Mike Gillies and Eric Helmkamp * Digital engineering by Mike Gillies *

Mastered Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

by Vlado Meller *Track 8 remixed by

Randy Staub Randy Staub is a Canadian recording engineer. He has been nominated for the Juno Awards' " Recording Engineer of the Year" award 12 times. He won in 2002 for the songs " How You Remind Me" and "Too Bad" by Nickelback.Peebles, Frank (April 4, 2008 ...

and Bob Rock, remastered by

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Biography T ...

;Production, tracks 2-7 *Recorded and mixed by Mike Gillies *Mastered by George Marino ;Packaging * Illustration by

Matt Mahurin Matthew S. Mahurin (born January 31, 1959) is an American illustrator, photographer and film director. Mahurin's illustrations appear in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', '' Mother Jones'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''Esquire'', ''Forbes'', and ''The New York Tim ...

*Design by Kathleen Philpott

Chart performance

References

{{Authority control Songs about monsters 2003 songs Metallica songs Songs written by Bob Rock Songs written by James Hetfield Songs written by Kirk Hammett Songs written by Lars Ulrich Song recordings produced by Bob Rock Elektra Records singles