Orion

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"Orion" is a song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It is the seventh track and is the only instrumental from its third studio album, Master of Puppets (1986). The song features bassist Cliff Burton in his "lead bass" approach, meaning he plays his bass guitar in a prominent and melodic role in addition to holding down the rhythmic and harmonic foundation. It contains two bass solos, which are often mistaken for guitar.

It was named after the star constellation, Orion, due to the song’s spacey sounding bridge. "Orion" was played over a speaker at Burton's funeral.

Structure

The song is more progressive than the band’s previous work. There are three main parts of the song: the heavy beginning, the spacey interlude, and the ending recapitulation that brings back the heaviness. The song features several solos:

• a bass solo by Cliff Burton (1:42 - 2:12)
• a guitar solo by Kirk Hammett (2:57 - 3:44)
• harmonized guitar solo after bass interlude, by James Hetfield (4:17 - 6:17)
• another one by Hammett (6:17 - 6:35)
• second bass solo (6:35 - 6:54)
• and the last by Hammett (7:02 - 7:32)