Metallica Perform on Jimmy Fallon, Reveal Meaning of New Album

Metallica’s media juggernaut continued last night with an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The group performed their latest track, “Moth into Flame,” which was released earlier this week, on September 26. The song is from their upcoming album, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, which comes out November 18.

On Tuesday, September 27, Metallica gave an exclusive interview to BBC 6 Music where they discussed Hardwired…to Self-Destruct. James Hetfield provided some insight into the album’s title and theme,

“It’s dealing with fame,” he said, “and for everyone, that’s their goal: ‘I want to be famous!’

“And there’s also the topic of, ‘Man, are we really doing this right?’ In the timeline of history, man has been around for a nanosecond and [I’m asking]: ‘Are we done now? Have we had our time?’ There’s a lot of polarization going on in the States, and I see it other places as well. But it just seems like you have to get more extreme to balance out the other extreme. We’ve got to find some balance in the middle here somewhere.

“We stay away from politics from religion. That just seems to polarize people even more. We all have our own beliefs but, at the end of the day, we’re trying to connect with people and it seems like political views don’t do that as much as music does.”

Metallica recently revealed the new album’s track listing and song lengths, shown below. The overall album length is 77:26.

Disc One: 37:10
Hardwired (3:09)
Atlas, Rise! (6:28)
Now That We’re Dead (6:59)
Moth Into Flame (5:50)
Dream No More (6:29)
Halo on Fire (8:15)

Disc Two: 40:16
Confusion (6:41)
ManUNkind (6:55)
Here Comes Revenge (7:17)
Am I Savage? (6:29)
Murder One (5:45)
Spit Out the Bone (7:09)
Deluxe Edition Bonus: Lords of Summer (7:10)