Songfacts®:

• "Escape" was Metallica's effort to write a hit. The lapse in musical integrity was likely caused by their persistent penury, as they'd been struggling financially for years. It didn't work: radio stations ignored the song and the band wasn't thrilled with it either.
  
  The song is from their second album, Ride The Lightning, recorded in Copenhagen with producer Flemming Rasmussen. "They did the 'Escape' song, which was supposed to be their first single. Big mistake," he said in the book Birth School Metallica Death. "I think they recorded the song to try and get some kind of commercial break. They didn't realize that that was a total waste of time."
• This song of resilience and inner strength was originally entitled "The Hammer" after the outro lyric, "See them try to bring the hammer down."
• This was a late addition to Ride the Lightning. James Hetfield told the story during a video interview with Sopitas:
  
  "[Ride the Lightning] was the first time we wrote a song in the studio. I remember we had all the songs and Lars [Ulrich] said, 'They want us to record one more, they need one more for the album."
  
  "I was like, 'You didn't tell me that...' So we had to write and it was really last-minute. So 'Escape' was one of those songs that was written in the studio."
• Metallica performed this live for the first time in its entirety at the Orion Music + More music festival at Bader Field, Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 23, 2012, while performing all of the Ride the Lightning album. Guitarist Kirk Hammett told Rolling Stone: "When we played 'Escape' at the Orion Fest, we collectively agreed why we never play that song: It's not really a great song to play live. It's in the key of 'A,' like "The Call Of Ktulu" and 'Metal Militia,' but the key of 'A' doesn't really work well for us for some reason or another."
  
  "Playing that song was more of a novelty than anything else," he added, "but we loved playing all the other songs."
• "Escape" was covered by the hardcore metal band Hatebreed on their 2009 self-titled album. (For more on Hatebreed check out the Songfacts interview with their frontman, Jamey Jasta.)