Songfacts®:

• Metallica's 72 Seasons album delves into the darkest corners of the human experience, offering a powerful exploration of the struggles that plague us all. Just as all hope seems lost, frontman James Hetfield's searing vocals deliver a message of hope on the closing track, "Inamorata."
  
  My misery
  She's not what I'm living for
  
  With this electrifying declaration, Metallica reminds us we can always rise above our struggles and find a way back to the light.
• The epic "Inamorata" clocks in at over 11 minutes, making it the longest song Metallica has ever recorded. Born from a jam session in the tuning room during their 2016-19 WorldWired Tour, the band developed this constantly shifting requiem over the long months of lockdown.
• The term "inamorata" refers to a woman with whom someone is in love or has an intense romantic infatuation. The word is derived from the Italian language, where "inamorata" is the feminine form of "inamorato," meaning "lover" or "admirer." For Hetfield, that female lover in the song is Misery.
• The chorus conveys the feeling of being so used to misery that you almost need it:
  
  Misery, she needs me
  But I need her more
  Misery, she loves me
  But I love her more
  
  In the verses, Hetfield personifies misery as a lover by illustrating the painful push and pull of a toxic relationship:
  
  Comfort in the hell I know
  Resentment like a cancer grows
  
  "That whole song, you know, misery as my mistress, and I'm trying to hide her," Hetfield told Metallica's fan club magazine So What!. "I enjoy her at certain times, but I don't want the world to know about her. I don't want to introduce her to the world because it's not okay. So misery as a mistress, it does serve a purpose in my life, but I don't want it to be my life, and I'm tired of it running my life."
• Some lyrics echo lines from Metallica's "My Friend Of Misery" off 1991's The Black Album. The line "misery loves company," for instance, appears in both tracks. The second guitar solo on this song and chord progression are also reminiscent of "My Friend Of Misery."
• At the end of "Inamorata," two of the Metallica guys say, "Thank you, good night!" followed by, "That was the best one. That button was the best one. The best button."
  
  So why a button? "Well, 'button' is a term for the end of a song," Ulrich explained to Rolling Stone. "So, the last few hits or the outro is the button."
  
  But, "button" is an unusual term for a song's conclusion. "If you talk to 10 artists, you'll probably hear 10 different sets of lingo and quirky explanations for what they call stuff when they work together," Ulrich acknowledged, "What we call the very end of a song is the button."
  
• Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo revealed to So What! that his bass breakdown in "Inamorata" was inspired by James Hetfield's vision of a "Sabbath-esque, Geezer-esque" bass solo that "feels raw, but at the same time it's got this dark beauty to it."
  
  "What I tried to do was really just close my eyes and channel every note," he said. "I say to people that that song reminds me of... it's a cross between driving on Pacific Coast Highway in the sun in your convertible, a beautiful warm summer day, ocean to your right or your left, depending on what direction you're going. It has that swagger to it; it's just very cool. Nothing's rushed. It's just a beautiful drive on PCH and the California coast. And when it gets to the breakdown, it's very strong and powerful, this raw, beautiful moment. So maybe the ocean is speaking; that's what I see. I see waves, I see the power of the ocean, the sun, the coastline."
• Metallica played "Inamorata" live for the first time on May 26, 2024, during a show in Munich, Germany. "This next song, we have never, ever played live before," Hetfield told the crowd. "And, you know, in our band we don't recognize the word 'mistake,' because there are no mistakes. There's just unique moments that happen, all right? That's what we need to tell ourselves. This one is from 72 Seasons. It's one of my favorites, so I'm gonna like it."