Recorded at Flemming Rasmussen’s Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, (which the band would return to two years later for Master Of Puppets), Metallica’s sophomore album was more progressive and stylistically greater in scope than the all-out thrash assault of Kill ’Em All. Fade To Black features acoustic guitars, melodic solos and a non-standard structure more akin to the Stairway To Heaven school of songcraft.
The song moves between B minor, A minor and E minor. The B minor intro and outro are arpeggio/riff based, and, though James plays only two or three notes at a time, we’ve shown the full chord shapes for context here (Bmb6, Dadd11/A, A/C#, Bm, Bm/A and Bm/G). Verses 1 and 2 are in A minor and use the open Am, C, G and Em shapes in a classically-tinged arpeggio style. The choruses and later verses are mainly based on simple powerchords.
GET THE SOUND