That first guitar figure is picked clean and simple, almost like the song is teaching the riff one piece at a time.

The distorted guitar enters on the same idea, adding weight without changing the shape of the riff.

Now the drums and low end put the riff into a heavy pocket, with plenty of space between the hits.

The groove is settled now: clipped guitars, square drums, and that repeated figure doing most of the work.

Hetfield's voice comes in close and dry on the bedtime-prayer address, "Say your prayers," while the riff keeps the room uneasy.

On "Sleep with one eye open," the vocal rises into the warning instead of softening it.

The chorus is blunt on purpose: "Exit light" lands like a command, and the band stays locked to the same hard stride.

The second verse keeps the chug steady while the words move into heavier nightmare images.

When "Exit light" returns, the hook doesn't get more complicated; it gets more certain.

The lead guitar cuts above the rhythm section here, but the kick, snare, and low riff keep pulling it back into the bar.

The prayer section turns into call and response: an adult voice and the echoed line make the childhood words feel staged inside the heavy sound.

The lullaby starts with "Hush, little baby," but the guitars and drums make comfort almost impossible to believe.

The chorus returns after the bridge, and the old "Exit light" phrase now carries all that prayer-and-lullaby unease with it.

That quick "Boo!" is small, almost throwaway, but it fits the song's nursery-rhyme scare tactics perfectly.

The outro keeps circling "never-never land" over the established riff, more possession than invitation by this point.

One last repeat carries the song to the edge, and then the guitar noise is left to finish the command.