"Cyanide" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica, the first promotional single taken from their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic. On September 1, 2008, it was made available for streaming on the band's official website, as well as a download (for Platinum Members only) from the Death Magnetic website Mission: Metallica. It has since been made available for purchase as a digital single in the iTunes Store.
The song was played live for the first time on August 9, 2008 at Ozzfest in Dallas, Texas, and was the first song from Death Magnetic to be performed live in its entirety. An audio recording of the performance is featured on the band's MySpace page. The song was also performed live on Later... with Jools Holland in 2008.
Track listing
Personnel Metallica James Hetfield – rhythm guitar, vocals Lars Ulrich – drums Kirk Hammett – lead guitar Robert Trujillo – bass guitar
Production Rick Rubin – producer Ted Jensen – mastering Greg Fidelman – mixing
Chart performance In March 2009, "Cyanide" became Metallica's seventh number-one hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. It is their second consecutive number one on the chart from Death Magnetic, making the album only the band's second to spawn two number-one hits on the chart (1996's Load being the first). It is also the band's fifth top twenty hit on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, peaking at No. 19. The song peaked at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 due to being released as a digital single prior to Death Magnetic's release.[ Metallica chart history] Billboard.com. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
"Cyanide" has been successful worldwide as well, reaching the top twenty in Canada, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and the top fifty in Australia, the UK, and Ireland.
Charts Chart (2008) Peakposition Australian ARIA Singles Chart48Canadian Hot 10019Danish Singles Chart23Finnish Singles Chart3Irish Singles Chart 48Italian Singles Chart61Norwegian Singles Chart15Swedish Singles Chart14UK Singles Chart48U.S. Billboard Hot 10050U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks1U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks19 See also List of Billboard Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 2000s
References