There are a million ways to interpret a song. In a new video, the members of Metallica attempted to reimagine their hit song “Enter Sandman” in a way they’d never done before: backward.

The clip, which was reportedly filmed in 2013, features Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett informally jamming in a studio, playing the notes of the song in reverse order. Hetfield even attempts to sing a line backward into the mic. “Could’ve been different!” he laughs.

In the second portion of the video, the footage is rewound to see if it matches the original forward-moving song, and, surprisingly, the band’s backward take sounds pretty accurate.

You can watch the video below.

The song’s original riff, one that helped launch Metallica to worldwide popularity, was inspired by another group, according to Hammett. “It was about two or three o’clock in the morning. I had just been listening to Louder Than Love, the Soundgarden album,” he recalled in 2017. “I heard that album, I was inspired. I picked up my guitar and out came that riff.”

He knew, instantly, he was onto something. “You kind of get an idea if a riff is cool, because when you play it, if it’s a cool riff, you can just instantly groove on it,” he said. “So yeah, this is pretty cool, this is a good feel, it’s a good sound, this is a good combination of notes. When Lars heard the riff he said, ‘Repeat that first part four times.’ And I did. And he said ‘There you go.’”

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Source: Watch Metallica Attempt to Play ‘Enter Sandman’ Backward