Cyanide (song)

"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.

"Cyanide"
Single by Metallica
from the album Death Magnetic
Released	September 2, 2008 (2008-09-02)
Recorded	March 12, 2007 – May 11, 2008
Studio	Sound City, Van Nuys, California Shangri La, Malibu, California HQ, San Rafael, California
Length	6:39
Label	Warner Bros.
Composer(s)	James Hetfield Kirk Hammett Robert Trujillo Lars Ulrich
Lyricist(s)	James Hetfield
Producer(s)	Rick Rubin
Metallica singles chronology
"My Apocalypse" (2008) "Cyanide" (2008) "The Judas Kiss" (2008)

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.^[1]

Track listing

iTunes single^[2]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Cyanide"	6:38

Personnel

Metallica

• James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm guitar
• Lars Ulrich – drums
• Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
• Robert Trujillo – bass

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.^[3]

"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)[4]	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	48
Canadian Hot 100	19
Danish Singles Chart	23
Finnish Singles Chart	3
Irish Singles Chart	48
Italian Singles Chart[5]	61
Norwegian Singles Chart	15
Swedish Singles Chart	14
UK Singles Chart	48
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	50
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	19

See also

• List of Billboard Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 2000s

References

1. "Later with Jools Holland - Metallica". Metallica. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
2. "Cyanide - Single". iTunes. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
3. Metallica chart history Billboard.com. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
4. "Metallica - Cyanide - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2011-08-14.
5. "Hit per Interprete". HPI.