Artist: Metallica Album: And Justice For All Song: One Year: 1989 Top Chart Position: #35

I can't remember anything cant tell if this is true or dream deep down inside I feel to scream this terrible silence stops me now that the war is through with me I'm waking up, I cannot see that there's not much left of me nothing is real but pain now hold my breath as I wish for death oh please God, wake me back in the womb it's much too real in pumps life that i must feel but can't look forward to reveal look to the time when I'll live fed through the tube that sticks in me just like a wartime novelty tied to machines that make me be cut this life off from me hold my breath as I wish for death oh please God, wake me now the world is gone I'm just one oh God, help me hold my breath as I wish for death darkness imprisoning me all that I see absolute horror I cannot live I cannot die trapped in myself body my holding cell landmine has taken my sight taken my speech taken my hearing taken my arms taken my legs taken my soul left me with life in hel

There is a pretty simple concept behind this Metallica song. A severely wounded veteran lies in a hospital bed waiting to die. The land mine that he stepped on in Vietnam took away everything he had, including his decency. People with "good" intentions will not "unplug" him, when all he wants is to end his life with decency and stop the pain and suffering. Here we see a couple angles of technology. First, the crude technology which blew him to pieces and secondly the nearly inhumane technology which now forces him to live. In one short song, this heavy metal band attacks the land-mine and the right to die issues all at once.