Music Monday: Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” by Metallica

For Music Monday this March, I wanted to focus on the theme of madness. As we enter spring, a period of rebirth, madness seems to come first. It has been a rather wet and rainy winter, and things feel a bit mad at the moment due to that and other factors. Being stuck inside sucks.

I wanted to write about “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” by Metallica. It’s a song about patients unjustly put into a mental hospital, where madness serves as a metaphor for honesty and truth. It’s rather fitting considering how things are right now.

I admit I did miss that meaning at first, mostly just enjoying how it sounded. It starts out slow before building and building. The lyrics always spoke to me about being trapped, but I never fully understood them. It is a thrash classic from the excellent Master of Puppets album. I used to have “Welcome Home” at the top of the site as a reference to this song, but we lost that when the theme changed.

Anyway, back to the song. It is a song I originally liked for its riffs, but now I’m really paying attention. The music mirrors the story being told. It captures the feeling of being just a number in the system, or being watched at every turn. It’s about finding ways to cope with your environment. It’s a brilliant bit of songwriting from a group not often credited for their writing skills. When the lyrics stop, the whole song feels different, like you’re slipping into something else. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the lyrics, but I think it’s talking about honesty here.

Build my fear of what’s out there Cannot breathe the open air Whisper things into my brain Assuring me that I’m insane

These lines take on a new meaning in the modern age. That’s when you know you have good lyrics, and that’s why this song is a classic. It can take on new meanings but still work perfectly.

With that, here is the music video if you want to listen to it.