As part of the twenty record thing that I did - I started listening to the albums I listed and as I got to track 3 on Master of Puppets it occurred to me that 'The Thing that Should Not Be' is a total Lovecraft tribute.
So it took me twenty two years to realize it - though I think it occurred to me once before a while ago - I must have let it slip - the mind is not what it once was.Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Great old one
Forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell
Crawling chaos, underground
Cult has summoned, twisted sound
I know, I know, obvious!
Anyway, the Encyclopedia Metallica has a much more fleshed out story:
The inspiration:
The song is based upon the short story "Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft which has been written in 1936. "Shadow Over Innsmouth" was Lovecraft's sole story which has been released as a book when he was alive. His further short stories only appeared in his lifetime in a magazine called "Weird Tales".
A close similarity:
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
- H.P. Lovecraft
"Not dead which eternal lie stranger eons death may die"
- Metallica (The Thing That Should Not Be)
Yes, I checked this after my realization.
