Amongst many metal fans, Metallica’s ‘One’ is the pinnacle of their late ’80s output, embodying the riffs, solos, and anger that they were known for. However, the track has now become the focus of a new YouTube video, showing an ambitious musician performing the entire track on just one guitar string.
You might have heard of Pete Cottrell before. He’s a musician and YouTuber who, in addition to talking about guitars and music, also likes to upload a few musical challenges from time to time. Just last year, we talked about his attempts to make bands such as Metallica still sound brutal, even after tuning the guitar on which they’re played up a few steps.
Now, Cottrrell has attempted a new challenge; performing all of Metallica’s 1988 track ‘One’ on the titular amount of strings.
Yes, picking up his axe (which has had the majority of its strings removed), Cottrell goes on to deliver a stunning cover of the …And Justice For All cut, tackling all the riffs and solos in a way that would make both Kirk Hammet and James Hetfield proud.
Of course, due to the technical restrictions of the song, Pete Cottrell does break up some of the tune by multi-tracking himself while playing it, but let’s be fair, considering how much of an effort that would be by itself, we’ll have to let him slide and commend him for a mind-blowing rendition of the track.
While we recently heard that Metallica still have plans to visit Australia at some point on their current tour, we’re sort of doubting you’ll see them attempt to play any songs on a reduced number of strings. So point your peepers downwards, check out Pete Cottrell jamming out to ‘One’, and gaze in awe at his musical talent.
Check out Pete Cottrell’s one-string cover of Metallica’s ‘One’:
