"To Live Is to Die" is a mostly instrumental composition by heavy metal band Metallica from their 1988 album ...And Justice for All. Keeping up with the tradition of the band's previous two albums, the instrumental track comes late in the album and is lengthy. For a little over 2 decades, "To Live Is to Die" was the longest original studio recording to be released on an album by the band at 9:49, just a fraction of a second longer than "The Outlaw Torn" from Load clocking in at 9:48 and change (note that the original recording of this song is 10:48, but the last minute was cut in order to fit the album within the length limitations of CDs at the time).

Since the release of Death Magnetic, "Suicide & Redemption" claims the title for longest studio recorded Metallica song released on an album at 9:58, although "Mercyful Fate" from Garage Inc. holds the title for longest studio song at 11:12, though not only is it a cover, it is a medley of 5 different songs.

"To Live is to Die" contains a few spoken lyrics near the end of the song, coming in at 7:35, that were written by German poet Paul Gerhardt and popularized in the 1981 film Excalibur. The song was written as a tribute to the band's bassist Cliff Burton, who was killed in a bus accident in 1986. The music consists of riffs Burton had written that had not been incorporated into songs prior to his death. The song title is a phrase that Burton was fond of.

Hetfield plays the second guitar solo during the slower mid-section of the song. This is the last song Metallica released in which Burton has a writing credit, and is the band's only instrumental track with Jason Newsted playing bass. It has never been performed live in its entirety, though portions of the song have been performed in medleys or in stand-alone fillers.

The spoken part:
Cliff Burton himself said these words once.

"When a man lies he murders"
"Some part of the world"
"These are the pale deaths"
"Which men miscall their lives"
"All this I cannot bear"
"To witness any longer"
"Cannot the kingdom of salvation"
"Take me home?"

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