"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" is the fourth song from Metallica's 1986 album Master of Puppets. It was inspired by Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Keeping with the theme of powerlessness of "Master of Puppets", the lyrics portray one being trapped in insanity, or perhaps incarcerated in a mental asylum. However, a sanitarium is usually a facility for treating tuberculosis and other chronic disease. It begins slowly with harmonics, which in the song are meant to simulate time slowly ticking by. Eventually leading into the main riff followed by the bass guitar, drums and solo. The lyrics progress and become more harsh as time moves on, backed by harsher vocals (in comparison to the cleaner vocals of the song) and heavily distorted guitars. The song ends with several solos and a few lyrics that hint about an uprising in the asylum. Altogether, the song is guided by powerful and moving riffs that give the song a cold and gloomy atmosphere.
The original demo version of this song features an extended ending which is eventually used as bass and guitar solos in the song "Orion".
The section of the song that begins at 4:06 ("Fear of living on/Natives getting restless now...") bears a resemblance to a main riff in the Rush song "Tom Sawyer." Metallica thanks Rush in the liner notes for the album, so the riff may have been an intentional tribute, but it has not been confirmed by either band. The song is sometimes combined with "Master of Puppets" in concert; the combination is known as "Mastertarium".
This song is also featured as background music for the film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, which details the controversial West Memphis Three murder case, as the three boys listened to Heavy Metal.
"Welcome Home" is a song by the progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria. It is the third track on the album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. The song was the second single on the album, and was made into a music video. The song tells of the hostility in The Writer and Miss Erica Court's relationship in the story of Coheed and Cambria. The song is featured as a playable track in the game Rock Band.
Welcome Home is a single by the heavy metal band King Diamond. This single is taken from the album Them. The song features prominently in the 2006 movie Clerks II, serving as the de facto theme song for Jay and Silent Bob on a number of occasions. The song also has a music video, which features King Diamond as a young boy in his old house welcoming his grandmother home from the asylum.
"Welcome Home" is the first single from Backstreet Boys member Brian Littrell. The single is also the title of the album, and has reached #2 on the US Christian AC Charts. It was also #1 for 3 weeks on the US Christian Inspirational charts.
