During a fan Q+A on The Metallica Reportpodcast, James Hetfield named the two deep cuts that Metallica discuss adding to their setlist the most often, but don’t.
The frontman joined the podcast’s host Steffan Chirazi for the latest episode, where he answered fan-submitted questions. One fan specifically asked which of the band’s “rarely played or deep cut songs” come up in discussion to play live the most often, yet fail to make it onto the setlist.
“‘The Frayed Ends of Sanity,’ most of the time, or ‘Dyers Eve.’ Those are the two,” Hetfield responded. “We have played them in the past, and they’ve come up here and there. I think it’s just more of a… I don’t know, a talent check with each other? Like, can you play this song?”
The vocalist added that the tracks are difficult to play, which is likely the reason they get left off the setlist. According to Setlist.fm, Metallica sometimes play part of “The Frayed Ends of Sanity” as a medley with other songs, but it’s only been played in full 12 times total, with the last time being in 2015.
“Dyers Eve,” on the other hand, has been played in full 35 times, last performed by the rockers in 2010. Both tracks, funny enough, are from the band’s 1988 album …And Justice for All.
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The next question Hetfield was asked was whether there are any songs in Metallica’s catalog that they’ll never play live, to which he said no.
“I would love to have played every song besides playing it in the studio. Yeah, I hope there’s a point and a place for every song before we’re done,” he suggested.
Listen to the full podcast episode below.
