What does Welcome Home (Sanitarium) mean?

Metallica: Welcome Home (Sanitarium) Meaning

Album cover for Welcome Home (Sanitarium) album cover

Song Released: 1986


Welcome Home (Sanitarium) Lyrics

Welcome to where time stands still
no one leaves and no one will
Moon is full, never seems to change
just labeled mentally deranged
Dream the same thing every night
I see our freedom in my sight
No locked doors, No windows barred
No things...

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 7th 2009 !⃝

    you may think I have lost it but I think this song is not about a mental hospital at all,but about the state of mind the
    terrorist and criminals before they are that .this world is the sanitarium for them where they are segregated and discriminated,bullied or made fun off to such an extent that they turn into killers out of sheer desperations or they commit suicide
    BY sayan

  2. unkown
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    Jan 22nd 2008 !⃝

    Here's the story: a man is put in an institution wrongly (i.e. He's not crazy) "whisper things into my brain ASSURING me that I'm insane" meaning this could be told by him or the doctors. The doctors suck they use medieval methods and that only drives him to the very thing he got in there for. They abuse their power like dictators. Honestly I don't care if its misspelled it means insane asylum.

  3. anonymous
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    Oct 6th 2007 !⃝

    Hahahah, these two last guys above me are brilliant, I've been laughing a shit out of me, wow, dude is talking about a song "one" hahahaha, man you gotta buy yourself binocular or brain or something... Hahahahah, holy shit, I am out of breath... Song is simply about some kind of fucked up state of mind and the mental hospital addiction

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  4. anonymous
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    Jul 7th 2007 !⃝

    The guy who posted above me is a moron!

    First off, you come on calling people stupid for writing their interpretation of a song, then you go and make an ass out of yourself when you start talking about a completely different song on a completely different album. Just a reminder, the song being talked about here is called "Welcome Home" from an album named Master of Puppets.

    "Fed through the tube that sticks in me
    just like a wartime novelty "

    Those are lyrics for a song called "One" from an album called And Justice for All, maybe you heard of it?

  5. anonymous
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    Apr 12th 2007 !⃝

    wow...u guys are fuckin stupid...if you haven't seen the fucking music video to this song....its about a man...in a war...either hit by a bomb or stepped on a land mine...was paralyzed...later put into a hospital...he talks about wanting to get out of the state of mind he's in...he also talks about being fed through a tube that sticks in him...the meaning I got out of it is that he wants to die and be left alone instead of being left on life support...

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
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    Nov 23rd 2006 !⃝

    "No locked doors, No windows barred
    No things to make my brain seem scarred"
    Since this songs about a sanitarium, I'm gonna say that this set of lyrics makes sense, since a sanitarium is a mental institution where people can come and go as they please. This song is obviously about an institution that abuses its power:
    "They think our heads are in their hands
    but violent use brings violent plans
    Keep him tied, it makes him well
    he's getting better, can't you tell?"
    Though I do know a person that has spent time in a sanitarium and when they heard this song they said it was a dark and disturbing song if you have experienced it.

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  7. anonymous
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    Oct 26th 2006 !⃝

    This song bemuses me...It seems in lyrical content to be about a mental institution, but sanitorium, as mentioned by someone else, is a mental institution, whereas sanitarium is where they put people with tb and other infectious diseases. Close in name but just not the same. And no, I didn't mean that to rhyme. Although I bet you could go quite loony cooped up in a building with people who really didn't know what the hell to do with you. Their cure was isolation.
    Now, is that what the song is about? The feeling of slow, creeping insanity...Or just outright insanity. I don't know. It could be a glitch on metallica's part...Maybe they meant sanitorium but sanitarium has a more metal feel about it...After all, the "a" is easier to say whilst screaming...Mouth is in a more comfortable position...Besides, most people don't know the difference between the two words.

    This song's about crazy people! Whether they were crazy to begin with or became crazy because they were isolated from society...Those with tb had no hope of breathing the open air again, no hope of recovery...And pure crazies weren't exactly given any tlc...

    ...Did I put too much thought into this? Probably.

  8. anonymous
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    Oct 6th 2006 !⃝

    Expanding from previous interpretations.

    Welcome home(sanitarium) is the song name but a sanitorium is where people with mental problems go. It's a different spelling but could mean something else. I'm not entirely sure.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
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    Aug 1st 2006 !⃝

    I think this song, in a slightly sarcastic sense, is about being an adolescent (aka... A teenager! Dun dun dun...). It's about feeling like the people around you, particularly at home, are restricting you and saying they know what's best for you, but you feel like they don't understand what's going through your mind at all. Then they just treat you like you're crazy, or just a dangerous bundle of hormones. (aka people saying "teenagers are all up to no good" or suggesting that young people are in danger of hurting themselves because they are unable to make choices clearly yet).

  10. skinbabe
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    May 30th 2006 !⃝

    I heard "sanatarium" is like a mental hospital. The name of the song "welcome home (sanatarium)" kinda suggests like he's tried to leave and go on his own but he ends up back (welcome home) that's what I think but I'm only 15 what do I know? ahaha nuh just let me know if I have anything right ahah. Thnx dudes keep rockin!! 666%metal 4 lyf

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Jan 4th 2006 !⃝

    This is pretty hard lyrics. I believe it's about someone in a prison or mental hospital that is so locked up and its not helping him so he says "let me be". He wants to breathe the open air but they won't let him, then the doctors wonder why he's so angry (of being locked up).

  12. anonymous
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    Jan 3rd 2006 !⃝

    This song was inspired by "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". The people there can leave whenever they want, but they choose to stay because they feel that it is better for them. But, in many ways, it just makes them worse.

  13. anonymous
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    Dec 30th 2005 !⃝

    Its About a Lunatic in an insane asylum
    "Build my fear of what's out there
    can I breathe the open air
    Whisper things into my brain
    assuring me that I'm insane"

    And..

    "Welcome to where time stands still
    no one leaves and no one will
    Moon is full, never seems to change
    just labeled mentally deranged
    Dream the same thing every night
    I see our freedom in my sight
    No locked doors, No windows barred
    No things to make my brain seem scarred"

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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