Metallica, Nothing Else Matters

As I alluded to in my first entry of this blog, one of the reasons that this blog is in existence in the first place is because of the recent Metallica concert that I went to in July.
Metallica is the breakout American thrash metal band and is still cranking the heaviest, although not as thrashy, metal after a 35 year plus career.
When I was getting into metal, I would say that most of what I liked and listened to was glam type metal. You know, like Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Van Halen. Hard rock to be sure.
But Metallica, Metallica was something of a different animal.
My college buddy and my Metal Mentor (whose name I shall not mention due to making his head swell the size of several states) turned me onto to Metallica. Only he did not think that I could handle it. He had a funny way of describing their sound. He would put his hand over his mouth, deepen his voice, and refer to the style as, "TO-TAL THRASH!" I laughed at first but was intrigued. Eventually he lent me a cassette tape of the first Metallica album, Kill 'Em All. Below is the album cover.

All I could say is WOW! Not just WOW! but it really was Metal Up Your Ass*!
I had never heard anything like Metallica. The frenzied guitars and smashing drums were something beyond the glam metal that I was into. I could not get enough of Metallica.
So in the middle of 1984, I on my own purchased the second Metallica album/cassette, Ride The Lightning.

When I told my buddy about getting it, he wanted to borrow it. I almost did not want to give it up. I so got into it. But remembering that he introduced me to the band, of course I let him borrow it. And he was as blown away as I was by such a band.
It was a style that my buddy was correct about.
It was and is "TO-TAL THRASH!"
For the first time, I really began to listen to a whole band and literally bang my head. One could not listen to Metallica at this time and NOT bang your head.
I could not help but share this music with my other friends, some of which were not into metal as much as I was. One of these friends was taken in by the establishment crap of the 80s. You know, Bruce Springsteen, U2, yada, yada, yada. In other words, bo-ring! And yet, after listening to Metallica, he was hooked. He ended up being as big, if not a bigger fan than your humble blogger. He even had a Metallica patch on his Levi's jacket. Even the most fair weather types at least gave it a listen and most got hooked.

But then it came. Quite possibly the greatest album that Metallica put out. And here it is, Master Of Puppets.

No doubt, it is the breakout album for the rockers.

With such hits as the title track, Master Of Puppets to Battery, every song, not one less than five minutes long, is an adventure into "TO-TAL THRASH!"

But the world of Metallica nearly came crashing down on Sunday, September 27, 1986.

On that fateful day on a road in rural Sweden, the band's tour bus went out of control and crashed. One person was killed and that person was in many ways the heart and soul of the band. That person was bassist Cliff Burton. 

And like that, the band nearly ended.

But Metallica does have a code of honor, no matter what one former member would say. They asked Burton's parents if they should continue with the band. They were ready to call it quits. But Burton's parents, said that yes, the band should go on. And later that year, bassist Jason Newsted from the band Flotsam and Jetsam, was brought as Burton's replacement. As a side note, Burton's parents have been giving royalties to school music programs. And they are constantly included with the band in pretty much every way. 

Once the Master Of Puppets tour concluded, work began on the fourth album, And Justice For All.

And Justice For All did quite well and produced some hits as Harvester Of Sorrow, Blackened and One, but it just did not have the same umph as Master. It still was "TO-TAL THRASH!" and rocked hard. The fan base was still growing and there was no doubt that this was THE band of the "Big Four" of thrash metal bands. The "Big Four" are Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer. And as all true Metallica fans know, Megadeth is a direct desendent of Metallica as former guitarist Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth once he was unceremoniously dumped by Metallica.

This all leads to what became the breakout away from the thrash and to a more accessible heavy metal sound. 

That album was the self-titled album, also known as the Black album.

The album was released on August 12, 1991 and by February of 2016 had been on the Billboard album chart a staggering 363 weeks. The album gave us such classics as Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters, Wherever I May Roam, The Unforgiven and Sad But True. This album made them superstars beyond the world of "TO-TAL THRASH!" and caused some long-time fans of accusing the band of being sellouts. One reason was that for the first time, there was not an instrumental track on this album. All previous albums had one instrumental track. It was on this album that they made the most videos. It was here that Metallica would become something that the rest of the Big Four would not. An international headlining band that could play anywhere, indoor or outdoor, and guarantee selling out any venue. They would play a concert at the Rose Bowl in 1992 with Guns N Roses. 

But much of the decade of the 90s, metal of all kinds suffered at the hands of the Grunge movement that was led by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and bands like that. It was also when Hip Hop began it's rise. Some of the material was not all that great for Metallica. It was like they were phoning it in, so to speak. 

It was Death Magnetic that came out in 2008 that got them back to a hard if not more thrashy sound. However, it took another eight years to get them back in the studio and Hardwired. . .To Self Destruct is clearly a return to their roots. It is a real combo of thrash and hard metal. Songs such as Hardwired, Atlas, Rise! and Moth Into Flame was like taking a trip back in time to the mid-80s and the days of "TO-TAL THRASH!" that Metallica brought with a vengeance.
The current line up is James Hetfield, vocals and rhythm guitar, Lars Ulrich, drums (these are the two remaining original members of the band), Kirk Hammett, lead guitars and Robert Trujillo, bass guitar. 

Metallica are true pioneers of a type of music that most in what I call establishment pop music can't really stand. There is no other band like 'em. There never will be.

Metallica is why nothing else matters. 

*-Metal Up Your Ass was going to be the original name of the album, Kill 'Em All.