By ANDREW McKAYSMITH
Part I
NINETEEN eighty-two was a time when metal and hard rock were still sorting out how to make sense of the end of an era for one of its biggest names in Black Sabbath and the end of the road for another in Led Zeppelin. KISS had lost traction and Deep Purple hadn’t released a studio album in over seven years.
There was also a sense that while NWOBHM and a few Teutonic outfits were the metal for the times, with the exception of the soon-to-be colossal Bruce Dickinson-fronted Iron Maiden and the already commercially successful Judas Priest, there wasn’t much happening either side of the Atlantic with regard to significant mainstream cultural representation.
Metallica. The name alone stands tall as the edifying monolith to the change that heavy metal would experience after the release of numerous Dave Mustaine- and Heineken-powered demos and then the incendiary debut album Kill ’Em All in 1983. It’s here that heavy metal adopts the puerile energy of punk to become thrash. While it is true that many thrash bands of the era were active at the same time, none would have the pull through factor that Metallica offered and certainly none would
achieve anywhere near the same coverage across so many markets in the following years.
In the simplest possible terms, Metallica changed the game. In a review that I authored for Hot Metal for the release of Hardwired, To Self-Destruct), I described the two albums following KEA as “…two of the most continuously influential albums in recorded music history”. Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets are albums that have transcended the genre. And, as I will go on to explain, they transcended even Metallica themselves … for better and for worse.
The era that started in 1996 with the release of the Load and Reload albums through to – and including – the events surrounding the St Anger album release in 2003 are without doubt the most controversy-plagued and critically questioned of the band’s career. What I present here a synopsis of this era, with some personal insight added for good measure.
Part II …And Justice for All and the death of Cliff Burton
To ensure the scene is adequately set, it’s necessary to highlight some key points surrounding the studio releases between MOP and the Load album series – and of course the tragedy that still affects the band to this day.
Clifford Lee Burton occupies a mantle that very few bass players (alive or dead) will ever reach. His influence on RTL is immense. However, it is his contribution to MOP, including the superb instrumental “Orion” that make this album Burton’s very own magnum opus. Bell bottomed and almost permanently moustachioed, Burton is The Misfit (pun intended) and fan favourite that is revered as the aura surrounding this magnificent period in Metallica’s career. Burton’s death due to a road accident in Sweden in 1986 devastated his bandmates and fans. The incoming Jason Newsted probably thought he had won every lottery drawn that year by winning selection as Burton’s replacement.
Unfortunately for the highly competent Newsted, after putting in a strong showing on The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited in 1987, the first of many peculiar episodes enveloping his tenure was on the near horizon: the recording sessions and mixing of the first post-Burton album…And Justice For All. Some well-publicised commentary from Steve Thompson, the engineer who worked on the album, surfaced in 2015 adding a remarkable twist to the saga surrounding the lack of audible bass on it. Thompson is quoted as saying that even though “[Newsted] killed it on bass. Perfect marriage with Hetfield’s guitars” Ulrich asked him to “…bring down the bass where you can barely, audibly hear it in the mix”. Thompson further offers that he thought “…they were looking for more garagey-type sound without bass”.
One could hypothesise that the band were simply not ready to replace Burton. That Ulrich may have felt it was more appropriate to change the band’s sound as a sort of compromise. Worth noting is that Newsted contended with an at-times brutal array of pranks and hazing through his tenure in the band.
The lack of bass guitar in the mix didn’t seem to impact the fans’ (then) acceptance of a new Metallica album sans Burton. AJFA will always be held as a flawed thrash metal classic by many.
Part III: Commercial success
To follow-up AJFA, Lars Ulrich spoke earnestly about the ‘sound’ producer Bob Rock had achieved on the Motley Crue album Dr Feelgood,and that Rock would helm the new Metallica album. This was the first sign that the band’s overall direction would veer from the straight up metal path trod to date.
The subsequent release, known universally as the ‘Black’ album (given it was an album with no title and carried all black artwork) arrived in late 1991 to massive fanfare and an even bigger commercial response. For each existing fan that may have shied away from the ‘Black’ albums simpler arrangements and radio friendly polish, another 100 bought the it, along with a ticket to the globetrotting Wherever We May Roam, Nowhere Else to Roam or Guns N’ Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour and duly procured the concert t-Shirt to prove attendance. It was a monumental accomplishment as far as then ‘metal’ bands were concerned, particularly so given the looming grunge meteor that landed around the same time in Nirvana’s Nevermind. The awkward and – in hindsight – deeply troubled Kurt Cobain wrote an album that literally ended the careers of thousands of bands plying their trade in musical tillage not too distant from where Metallica now found themselves.
The ‘Black’ tour cycle ultimately concluded during the Shit Hits the Sheds Tour in late 1994, which included headlining the re-creation of the famed Woodstock festival. After a break the band entered The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California in May 1995 where the recording for Load and Reload commenced. Producer Rock once again accepted production duties.
Part IV: Load
It is impossible to say for sure when news first started to filter through that the new Metallica album, designed for release to coincide with the retail boom North America experiences during their summer, was intended to be a different affair from all that had passed before. What is without question is that Metallica in 1996 were certainly and fundamentally no longer willing to be known as simply a ‘metal’ band.
The group agreed to reams of interviews – mainly describing the birthing process for songs, tone and gear choice as well as the repeated desire to ‘think forward’ (or words to the effect). In all the interviews I could find posted online from that year – and recall from my own reading back then – the band never actually fully explained why there was a decision to move away from the ‘metal’ tag. The closest we may ever get is 18 years later, when Ulrich quipped after being asked about Metallica’s headline slot at Glastonbury: “People say it’s controversial because we’re the first metal band to headline Glastonbury, but I’m not even sure we’re ‘metal’. Glastonbury’s one of the biggest rock festivals in the world and we’re one of the biggest rock bands”.
The first track I heard was the lead single “Until It Sleeps” during its premier on Triple J. James Hetfield and Jason Newstead had made the trip to Australia to promote the album and lead single; both sounded very amicable and fan friendly when being interviewed. “Until It Sleeps” contained a verse strain I’d never heard from the band and the cynic in me thought they had released a track for radio play. It was a song that mirrored the grunge epithet of ‘loud chorus, quiet verse’. It actually turned out the band had even gone to the extent of naming the demo of the song after a well-known Soundgarden track.
The accompanying music video would also be the first concept or themed video the band presented. Directed by Samuel Bayer, who is also directed Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, the video appeared to be a nod to Ulrich’s evolving passion for the fine arts. I purchased the single as a friend’s 18th birthday present so I had an opportunity to sample what else was on the disc: a live recording of new track, “2×4”, and a skeleton version of “Until It Sleeps” designed to give the fans a taste of what the song sounded like when being demoed. What struck me first, though, was the stylised new logo on the cardboard cover of the single.
The iconography of a metal bands logo is almost as important as the music it accompanies. What Metallica did was remove the bullet belt and spiked wristband provoking M and A in the logo and replace it with a far less threatening and frankly, more marketable script. It was a sure sign that things would be very different from here on. Of interest to note is that in 1997 Dave Mustaine would do something similar for the Megadeth album Cryptic Writings, however it was paired with the logo
that fans had come to closely associate with the band.
Like many I purchased Load as soon as I could obtain a copy. I listened to it in its entirety and at the time, found only a single song that contained trace elements of the Metallica that I liked (“The House That Jack Built”). The opening track “Ain’t My Bitch” starts with a riff that would work well between bull-riding events at a rodeo and second song “2×4” is in the same category. From a listener’s perspective both tracks appear to be the genesis of a feature for all future Metallica releases: Ulrich’s penchant for relatively simple drum arrangements that sit high in the mix.
Of the other singles released, “Hero Of The Day” and “King Nothing” are honest attempts at straightforward hard rock fare and “Mama Said” is the biggest departure from the band’s traditional sound.
“Mama Said” is essentially the album’s obligatory power ballad and in a contentious move it features lap steel guitar and overt country musical stylings. So do Metallica possess the DNA to write and perform rock infused bluegrass or country music? Frankly, the jury is still in recess on that one, all these years later. However “Mama Said” doesn’t actually sound out of place on the album given the propensity for slide guitar to appear across so many other songs. Of the 14 tracks on the album, it can be roughly divided into halves. Three of the four singles are in the first half, rendering it the stronger of the two. Could it be that criticism of the album focuses on the second half? Along with “Mama Said”, it contains “Poor Twisted Me”, “Thorn Within” “Ronnie” and “The Outlaw Torn”. These are tunes that carry a pronounced variation on the sound found on previous Metallica releases.
It is also important to note that when Hetfield and Newstead were in Australia for the mentioned promo tour, both made repeated references to the brilliant Kyuss, whose Blue Cheer-inspired songcraft certainly commanded attention against the grunge narrative of the time. Kyuss supported Metallica during the Australian leg of the ‘Nowhere Else To Roam’ tour which landed on these shores in 1993. How much of an effect Josh Homme and co had on Metallica across each of the nine dates is
not necessarily a mystery. I will hypothesise that key elements of the California desert-at-dusk vibe of the then in-market album from Kyuss (Blues for the Red Sun) and its follow up (Sky Valley) made their way onto the Load album series. The most notable is the thick, bouncy, blues inspired riffage,and Ulrich may have paid particular attention to Brant Bjork’s ride-soaked drumming.
Combine the Kyuss elements with the band’s well known love of blues-based hard rock such as Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, AC/DC and UFO, then overlay this on the template that produced the ‘Black’ album … that’s one way of summarising the change in sound found on the Load series of albums.
So this change in musical direction and new logo, paired with the album cover art and updated visual identity of the members of the band, were all ingredients for a polarising reception. For the prudish, the album cover concept is patently vulgar: The artist’s (Andres Serrano) own semen and blood between two sheets of Plexiglas. Serrano was already rather infamous due to a piece alled Immersion (Piss Christ), which was a photograph of a crucifix in a glass of urine. I recall from interviews at the time, Hetfield hated it and Newstead just plain refused to talk about it. In my own then 18-year-old mind, the artwork struck me weird. After the blood, lightning, graveyards, sword and snake used on other albums … it certainly wasn’t linear.
The photos that accompanied the album booklet were another matter altogether. The band enlisted famed Dutch photographer Anton Corbjn to essentially mimic his collaboration with U2 from their 1991 release, Achtung Baby. Depeche Mode was also a muse of Corbijn’s around the same time, and the resulting sessions would significantly influence the final product.
Where the slight frame of the demure Dave Gahan dressed in the fashion of the day, and the choirboy looks of Depeche Mode’s outstanding guitarist Martin Gore work wonderfully against the stark hues Corbijn is so synonymous for creating, many fans and critics felt Metallica and taken one bridge too far. A brief search in Google for ‘Metallica Corbijn 1996 photos’ returned images of members of the band posturing and pouting, wearing eyeliner, shagpile coats and snakeskin pants.
Inside the booklet accompanying the Load CD… many more await. The photos illustrate men approaching middle age, members of one the most popular bands on the
planet, reaching for the opportunity to redefine and maybe even re-invent themselves. It’s important to note the change in image actually started two years beforehand.
For a performance at Woodstock ’94 the most ‘metal’ of the group, Newsted, already sported a crew cut. Hetfield looked like Dog the Bounty Hunter, and Kirk Hammett rocked what looked like a fringe of dreadlocks. Only Ulrich looked as he always had. In early 1996 when Alice In Chains recorded for MTV Unplugged, all four members of Metallica attended and they all had short hair. So the haircuts weren’t a surprise to many. I certainly felt that given the era and the band’s proximity to the
mainstream it was inevitable.
Hetfield is on record stating he is uncomfortable with the Load album series and accompanying imagery. He also calls the albums the “U2 version of Metallica” and that Burton would have been an ally in providing resistance to the band’s then-direction. While not implying the blame for this era lies with Ulrich and Hammett (due to the band’s dynamic Newstead didn’t have any real decision-making power), it’s a telling comment from the bloke who had to stand out front and sing the songs, answer
the media’s questions and interact with fans as the most clamoured for member. As for what Burton may have thought, Hetfield sums it up nicely: “There’s some great, nice songs on there. However my opinion is that all the imagery and stuff like that was not necessary. And the quantity of tracks that had been written – it diluted the potency of the poison of band. And I believe Cliff would have agreed with that.”
Due to intense interest in a new Metallica album, Load sold a staggering 680,000 copies in its first week and has since been certified x5 Platinum in the USA.
Part V: Reload
Reload was released in late 1997, a little over a year after Load, to what I remember was a weary metal-listening public. Numerous (then) popular newsprint publications had taken aim at the perceived reasons for fans’ disdain for Load. The Rolling Stone quipped that fans were in a ‘dither’ over “a few haircuts, some eyeliner and a little song craft” and the same publication later proclaimed that RTL, MOP and AJFA were ”… transitional albums that moved the band from the pure aggression of Kill ‘Em All to the flawless ‘black album’.”
It was low tide for heavy metal. Iron Maiden was touring and releasing albums without Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith; Max Cavalera had just left Sepultura; Pantera had started their drawn out and ultimately tragic demise as Phil recorded the critically underrated The Great Southern Trendkill, in a separate studio to the rest of the band. There were very few metal bands with major label support, so essential to securing mass distribution of a latest release. Metal, with a few notable
exceptions, had gone underground.
Reload contains songs written the same time as the batch that appear on Load. In what was due to be a double album, Metallica staggered the release of the songs over two separate albums as they hadn’t finished those that eventually made Reload. There was also the added advantage of the prolonged touring cycle such a decision would afford.
Lead single “The Memory Remains” features the ever endearing Marianne Faithful. Near the end of the track she can be heard beckoning the listener to “Say yes. At least say hello…” Could one frame this lyric as the band themselves asking a maternal figure to reach out to fans asking them to give Reload a chance? The cast changed little across the album: Rock was allocated production duties; Serrano’s artwork would once again adorn the album cover, virtually repeating the same concept as on Load with a single change: it is his own urine and blood between two sheets of Plexiglas (because semen is just so 1996 and urine was de jour in 1997…). The photos accompanying the album were credited to Corbijn again, but this time around, the shagpile coats and snakeskin pants stayed in the closet (although Kirk Hammet is still wearing the eyeliner…). Corbijn’s photography focused on the band doing what they do best: performing live and in various states of motion.
The change in the photo concept could also be used as an analogy for the principle difference between the two albums. Reload is more focused. Where Load can be roughly divided into two halves, the ‘talent’ is spread evenly across Reload. In my view the songs bite a little harder, they pack more punch overall.
If Load starts with a song suitable for a hillbilly rodeo then Reload commences with a song customised for illegal street drag racing. “Fuel” starts with a rapid fire vocal quickly halted by the turbines under full throttle roar of the opening “riff”. This song is important in the chronology of Metallica’s evolution as it contains passages that sound like riffs, but really aren’t (quasi riffs?). What started on this track is further refined in a few years on the ill-fated Mission: Impossible 3 soundtrack song, “I Disappear”, but more on that later.
If “Mama Said” was a detour to Nashville then “Low Man’s Lyric” is a pit stop in a Bavarian Beer Barn due to the hurdy gurdy that adds a touch of ye-olde Europe to the album. (Borrowed incidentally, from Jim Martin who is the original guitarist from Faith No More).
Elsewhere “Devils Dance” is probably the heaviest track on both albums. Both “Attitude” and “Fixxxer” sound positively Dio-fronted Black Sabbath and “The Unforgiven II” is another attempt to bring country into the current Metallica sound. The finished product is a heavier cousin to the music on Jon Bon Jovi’s Young Guns soundtrack. This song is a personal favourite as the chorus contains a stunning, instantly memorable yet versatile lyric that twists the double entendre of the
title rooted in a suitably restrained riff.
Reload sold 436,000 copies in its first week and has since been certified 4X platinum in the United States. As far as a hardcore fan could be concerned, a fan whose tastes are rooted in the thrash era, is there a genuine upside to the album series? Hetfield’s voice never sounded better- maybe the decision to
change the tuning of the guitars to Eb helped. And I’m also willing to wage that the listener appreciated finally getting to hear the bass guitar again.
Jason Newsted had a tougher task than he would likely admit. This cat could certainly play and for a genuinely creative soul it must hurt that his single writing credit on both albums is “Where the Wild Things Are”. Without courting controversy he is almost a better fit for Metallica sonically than Cliff Burton due to the sustained attack playing the bass with a pick provided – and he had mastered playing between the percussive rhythm guitar jam of Hetfield and the loud and often erratic Ulrich.
Newstead was so often the band’s defender in both print media and in recorded interviews. I do recall an interview with the publication Metal Maniacs where he was asked if he was aware how highly regarded he was by metal fans. The response was bashful and almost apologetic if I recall correctly. Later in the same interview he said that fans needed to respect Hetfiled and Hammett as they were the ‘teachers’. If you are playing the guitar fast with plenty of palm muting and downstrokes then it was partly due to Metallica.
When it’s all said and done and regardless if the band felt they had a warrant to experiment on whatever they did after the success of ‘Black’, what Newsted or any member couldn’t varnish was the most damning assessment that many critics of the Load series of albums raise: The absence of many truly great heavy metal riffs – the type that revolutionised metal on KEA, RTL, MOP, AJFA and even ‘Black’.
If both albums were condensed to a single release, limited to a more palatable 11 songs, in no particular order this is what I select:
1. The House That Jack Built
2. King Nothing
3. Hero of the Day
4. Wasting my Hate
5. The Memory Remains*
6. Devils Dance
7. The Unforgiven II*
8. Where the Wild Things Are
9. Prince Charming
10. Attitude
11. Fixxxer
Part VI: Load and Reload tour cycle
It would come as a surprise to virtually no one that Lollapalooza founder and Janes Addiction front man Perry Farrell was strongly against Metallica headlining Lollapalooza No. 6. Still, the idea that Metallica could be playing “Ronnie” and “Mama Said” on the same stage that the ethereal Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins sang “Cherry-Coloured Funk” and “Wax and Wane” is hilarious to this scribe.
So the almost four year global trek in support of the Load series started with Metallica headlining the world’s foremost ‘alternative’ music festival. Reviews for their performance certainly weren’t disparaging, as Metallica’s true bullpit is the live arena and looking over set lists from the time it was stacked with songs from previous albums. Farrell has since softened his view on Metallica’s billing on the festival but the sentiment is still there, and it ought to be mentioned the festival went on an
indefinite hiatus following Lollapalooza No. 7 in 1997…
The global tour was called “Poor Touring Me” and started a month after commitments to Lollapalooza No. 6. ended. Looking over set lists from the time about four interchangeable songs from Load and the yet-to-be-released Reload made the set. Again, reviews were solid. Trainspotters will be interested to note that Soundgarden was a major support.
Once Reload was released, the global tour title was switched to “Poor Re-Touring Me”(Geddit??!) and “Touch, Peel and Stand” hit makers Days Of The New were enlisted as the support act. The addition of Reload songs to the repertoire took the Load series contribution to about six songs each performance. I attended one of the Australian concerts in 1998 and I can recall some restlessness during the ‘Metallica in the round’ segment where they performed classic numbers as acoustic
versions. I could just imagine a ferocious sneer from the songs long since departed chief architect, Dave Mustaine, as Metallica performed “The Four Horsemen” in this format. Looking over old set lists “Low Man’s Lyric” and “Mama Said” were segment features.
Keep in mind that this is well before the days of 24/7 media coverage and social media. However I’m unaware of any controversy surrounding the tours. Fans flocked in their hundreds of thousands and I’m sure the band made a killing from the merchandise stall and renewed interest in the back catalogue.
I believe the tours were notable for the following reason: The Load series tracks that made the set list eventually found a home amongst the thrash canticles in much the same way an awkward child settles into a new school. The stock of bona fide classics such as “Creeping Death” and “Leper Messiah” skyrocketed and to this day, approximately half of a Metallica set list is a revolving selection of songs from KEA, RTL and MOP. Considering there are 10 studio releases that’s a
significant tip of the hat to that particular era.
Ulrich was interviewed and stated that he wanted Metallica to release a studio album every year until 2000. Wasting no time at all, as soon as obligations to ‘Poor Re-Touring Me’ concluded in September 1998, the band hit the studio to record a double album of covers and musical keep sakes called Garage Inc.
It was revealing that the logo on the album cover is a starkly drawn stylised version of the logo that adorned all albums up to and including ‘Black’. Could this have been taken as an olive branch to what the band now probably realised, were some extremely faithful yet disaffected fans?
Garage Inc apes The $5.98 E.P. Garage Days Re-Revisited release over a decade prior and the EP itself would even be included as a part of the package. The band chose to cover an array of artists that inspired them – veering from the violent street punk of Discharge, the sinister storytelling of Nick Cave,and prime NWOBHM selections that inspired the band to play instruments in the first place. Once again Bob Rock was selected to produce (well, co-produce with Ulrich and Hetfield), indicating a desire to stick to the ‘Blues meets Black’ sound from the Load series.
There are some interesting moments across the album and trainspotters will again recognise that “Die, Die My Darling” was an honourable nod to one of Cliff Burton’s favourite artists, The Misfits, and the band performed the song with commendable vigour. Is the decision to go back to their roots motivated by the critical response to the Load series? The band certainly never let on, but one can’t help but feel the timing was appropriate.
Part VII: S&M – Symphony and Metallica
After the period of relative calm that was the Garage Inc album and tour, Metallica threw another curve ball right on the dawn of the new millennium: S&M – Symphony And Metallica. In April of 1999 Metallica performed alongside The San Francisco Symphony at the Berkeley Community Theatre to rabid fans and confused season ticket holders of the symphony.
The decision to perform and also record with the San Francisco Symphony certainly worked on paper- enlist the exceptional Michael Kamen to morph a symphonic arrangement around choice cuts from the catalogue. Kamen would be known to most metal fans through his arranging the score to the rock and metal leaning soundtrack on the 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero. Once again, the release polarised both fans and critics.
My own take on the matter is there is no room in the thrashier numbers for a third guitar yet alone a whole orchestra- the orchestra sounds as if it playing a different song entirely on the track “The Thing That Should Not Be”. It works marginally better elsewhere although it was clear to me that Metallica’s music ultimately clashes against the instruments used in an orchestra. So the genesis of Lulu is also here in the teaming of Metallica with an element not found on their periodic table. Some
tracks do work well though. In the same manner that Deep Purple’s Jon Lord composed pieces specifically for Concerto for Group and Orchestra, both “No Leaf Clover” and “Human” were designed specifically for orchestral arrangement and I feel are justifiably the album’s highlights.
I’ll pause for a moment to put forward a theory – one that at least sounds reasonable: Why did Metallica release S&M and Lulu? Lars Ulrich has made no secret of his rather Avant-garde European upbringing. He loves his art and is by all accounts a polite and cultured fellow who has all the time in the world for Metallica fans. So he has met a lot over the year, and he may have got a sense that the average fan would benefit from some exposure to genres and forms of art they otherwise would
not seek for themselves. Ulrich may see himself as a guide, or chaperone to the uninitiated and there was no better way than to introduce some culture directly through Metallica’s music.
Part VIII: “I Disappear” and the Napster controversy
In May of 2000 a track called “I Disappear” specifically recorded for the film Mission: Impossible II was released.
A demo version of the track found its way onto the internet and was distributed over P2P network Napster well before the release date. As a consequence radio stations started playing the track and Ulrich was not happy. Speaking to Rolling Stone he said that it was “…sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is.”
In April 2000, Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster and a few universities as it was on campuses around the USA that P2P flourished, and many universities refused a request by Metallica to block access to Napster.
One could draw comparisons between P2P and the tape trading scene in 1982. Would Ulrich have made the same remarks about tape trading in 1982 if they were a band with almost 10 studio albums to their name, hundreds of thousands of fans globally and a storied place assured in hard rock and heavy metal? Would so many heads have started banging if it were not for the fans that copied and dubbed the demos and early albums? Essentially it is the same thing: reproducing the
artist’s work without consent or permission.
Of course the sheer scale of P2P networks such as Napster presented a real problem to the music industry. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had actually beaten Metallica to the punch – they sued Napster in December of 1999. The controversy reached flash point when, during a media event orchestrated by the band themselves, Ulrich arrived at Napster head office to personally present the names of over 300,000 Napster users who at some point had participated in the sharing of Metallica songs over the P2P network. Ulrich was heckled and jeered, at one point a fan even smashed Metallica CDs in protest. Ulrich maintained “This is not between Metallica and its fans” and that “this is between Metallica and Napster, let there be no question about that”.; Although the perception from fans was very
different. Fans felt targeted and perhaps justifiably so. Copyright law expert Eric Doney said “If Metallica or anyone else who is being infringed wanted to start picking people off to make an example of them, they could”.
It would be many years before streaming services such as Spotify and Apple music started to replace P2P as the dominant media, in doing so finally issuing a commercial model that awards the artist a royalty when fans consume music over the internet. Ulrich is on record as stating that he is fan of Spotify.
Something that was overshadowed was the track “I Disappear” itself. I certainly felt that the song and accompanying Mission: Impossible II inspired video are a strong contribution to the Metallica catalogue,and it demonstrated the evolution of something I referred to earlier in the critique of the Reload song “Fuel”: Metallica were mastering the use of the ‘quasi riff’- single notes or chords in a staccato sequence. Using this philosophy the riff was mainly about the timing of the notes and
chords rather than the actual notes or chords played. Elements of this can also be heard on the “Sad But True” from ‘Black’.
Bob Rock co-produced “I Disappear” with Ulrich and James Hetfield. The overall ‘vibe’ of the track is distinct from the songs on the Load series- the overt blues influence is largely absent and in came something that sounded like a precursor to the mainstream rock that prevailed in the following years from bands such as Nickelback, Theory of a Deadman and Three Days Grace.
“I Disappear” is also Jason Newstead’s swansong, and in what I believe is his most creative contribution during his tenure as the band’s resident bass player, the pre-chorus contains a simple grooving bass riff that sits counterpoint to Hetfield’s vocal. The bass line itself could almost be isolated and used as a melody in much the same way Motown legend James Jameson so effortlessly added so much depth to the Marvin Gaye classic “Whats Going On”,
Part IX Events surrounding St Anger
(ix-a) Newsted’s departure
On balance, Newsted’s addition to Metallica is probably best summed as ‘right player, wrong time’. Citing chronic injury as the reason for his departure, Newsted left Metallica in early 2001 to focus on the decidedly non-metal Echobrain. For mine this decision seemed rather odd: the most metal referencing member of the band, the member that had kept up to date with the modern metal scene leaving and releasing what is essentially a pop album. Years later Newsted would reveal that Metallica’s management had expressed an interest in releasing Echobrain material, until James Hetfield’s influence cancelled the arrangement.
Hetfield has gone on record as stating his desire to limit the members of Metallica contributing to other projects is because he “… always thought that when one guy jams with somebody else, that will fuck with Metallica. The fist is no longer four fingers. It’s not as strong…”
Sensing Hetfield’s disapproval may have stemmed from the Sepultura meets Godlfesh sounding IR8 demo that made its way to radio in 1994, could Newsted have engineered Echobrain as a means of pursuing a creatively fertile outlet well away from the brand of hard rock and heavy metal Metallica was known for?
Either way, Newstead quit Metallica and his next venture was to pursue Echobrain with vigour, losing funds that he had personally invested. With all due respect, although the project was favourably reviewed it received very little commercial or critical attention and Newsted had leave Echobrain by August 2002. Newstead would go on to feature in Ozzy Osbourne’s band and Voivod. He has made a few forays back into the world of hard rock and heavy metal although he is now performing acoustic music.
(ix-b) Some Kind of Monster
At some point prior to the recording for the album that would eventually become St. Anger, Elektra Records commissioned director Joe Berlinger to direct a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the new album.
In what eventually became a rockumentary addressing the dysfunction within the band (a synopsis of you can read on IMDB), viewers were treated to scenes of Ulrich yelling at Hetfield, Dave Mustaine venting to Ulrich, Kirk Hammett talking about his ranch in Northern California and Jason Newstead discussing his reasons for leaving Metallica among others. Drawing the comparison again to bass players in Metallica feeling as though they have won the lottery, one of the more memorable
scenes was when Rob Trujillo was handed a cheque for one million dollars to entice him into the band.
The question that I posed, along with many others after viewing the film was: why?
Why did the band subject themselves to the scrutiny of the public in such an open manner? Was it necessary for the cameras to be rolling once a discussion started, something Ulrich felt was required, in order to keep the discussion civil? Why not just use that footage as a historical document to remind the band of a particularly dysfunctional cycle of their timeline?
Critical opinion be damned, Metallica would release the film to an unprepared public. This was the time of The Osbourn’s reality TV series, The Amazing Race and (Select your own nations) Idol. Issuing the film was at least a daring and shrewd move on the band’s behalf. Perhaps anticipating the reception the new album would receive given its polarity to literally anything else in the band’s catalogue, could this have been the companion piece required for the listener to make sense of what
is a fearlessly unlistenable upcoming album in the spirit of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music?
Viewers were also witness to the embryonic stages of the songs that made it to St Anger. Not that you can tell from what eventually made it on to the album, such is the sonic delta between the album and the rehearsal tracks shown in the film.
(ix-c) St. Anger
The album itself almost defies review. I personally view the album as a contribution separate to anything else in their catalogue, and that includes Lulu as that was a collaboration. St Anger is in every way possible, a statement. A dare. The band issuing the listener a challenge to keep up with them and almost survive the listening experience.
In what would be Bob Rock’s final production credit with the band, he also played the bass guitar in the absence of an appointed bassist.
Rock has been unfairly accused of initiating the significant change in Metallica’s sound since he came on board to produce ‘Black’. For those who aren’t in bands or yet to spend any time in a recording studio: unless you are in a boy or girl band it is usually the band and not the engineer or the producer that determines the artistic direction. Metallica as a band are certainly the protagonist in the overall change in direction, particularly so on the ‘Black’ album and Load series… now St Anger.
Rock was simply the man who facilitated the change in Metallica’s sound, the agent of change is the band members.
Were there any tracks on St Anger that warrant a closer inspection? The answer is profound as every track has the potential to come to life, The riffs were actually there this time around. However it is like listening to a song buried beneath white noise amidst enveloping arrangements. Literally each song sounds as if it is a contribution to the overall unit and the decision to tune to what I understand is low C (1 ½ whole steps below the tuning featured on the Load series…) adds a sense of grit and determination. Only the title track with its Prison Break-imitating video filmed in the notorious San Quentin Penitentiary sounds as if it is anything close to what it was: A lead single.
Kirk Hammett appeared to have sat this album out – not a single guitar solo in sight. So much has been written about Ulrich’s performance, due to the drum sound I feel like adding the album to the theory I proposed in the review of S&M. It simply cannot be a matter of dismissing the drum sound as a matter of taste and personal preference. Ulrich was reaching for something. I’ll hypothesise again that due to the enormous fan base that Metallica by-now boasted, and the still rising stock of the previously mentioned thrash-era songs, Ulrich may have felt that he had one more roll of the dice on pushing fans’ and critics’ boundaries. An individual of
Ulrich’s intelligence would have to have known that such a din, as what the listener was treated to from his performance on St Anger, would cause controversy.
Regardless, Ulrich, to his credit, couldn’t care less.
St Anger was released with an accompanying video of the band performing the album in a rehearsal space that was a spirited move designed to help the listener make sense of the album. Along with many others, I personally get far more from watching this video than listening to the album.
Part X: Conclusion
Despite the change in direction that occurred on the ‘Black album’, a change that would only essentially be resolved on the 2008 release Death Magnetic, Metallica became the most successful and certainly most popular heavy metal/ hard rock band in history from 1991 to 2003.
What is it about the band that attracts the legion of followers that will in many cases, defend the band’s decision to do whatever the hell they want, regardless of their own opinion of a particular release? Check Blabbermouth boards next time Metallica are mentioned, how many comments does the band attract in response to article to any other band mentioned?
I will contend that there is a level of emotional investment that invites the listener to become a part of the band on every album. I can certainly recall significant events of my own life and songs or albums that were released that coincided. Even the material that I don’t particularly fancy, this is also the case.
The band possesses an x factor. Is it Hetfield’s vocal? Ulrich’s penchant for interviews? The tremendous riffs that changed metal on RTL and MOP? The fearlessness in which the band adapts to self-initiated change? It is no doubt different to each and every listener and that is what makes the band so unique.
I will leave with a final thought: having listened to and critiqued the latest release HtSD, the only controversial change that I would suggest is that Ulrich step out of the band and act as an executive producer, allowing a younger drummer with a deeper appreciation of the modern techniques of drumming to interpret Ulrich’s accompaniment to Hetfield’s riffs. On recorded evidence, Tim Yeung (Morbid Angel), Chris Adler (Lamb Of God) or Ray Luzier (KXM/Korn/ David Lee Roth) would be
worthy additions and add considerable merit. I’m certainly not suggesting that Ulrich ‘leave’ Metallica- that’s neigh impossible since he and Hetfield are its heart and soul.
Peace
