"Hero of the Day" is a song by Metallica on their 1996 album Load. It is about people who are looking for heroes in the media and not realizing that those you should admire are the people whom you come across in everyday life. The song was first recorded on December 13th 1995, and was the first song on Load to be recorded.
The song starts on a simple guitar play, while the heavy guitars don't start for a while. This song was Metallica's second single release off the "Load" album. A live video also accompanied the song.
The music video for this song was directed by Anton Corbijn and features a drunk man watching a television, while every channel features Metallica in some way (in a Western called Load, a drink called "load", a game show called "Hero of the Day", etc.)
The demo for the song is entitled "Mouldy" due to the main riff of this song being on a demo tape for many years. The demo was recorded on December 8th 1994, one of the earliest demo recordings for the Load sessions.
It was also played live with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Michael Kamen), which is recorded on the album S&M.
