Did you know Metallica has four albums that have over 6 million sales in the United States? All four are in their first five albums. That is one claim for why Metallica isn’t as good as they used to be. Most of the time if someone asks you to name a song, they will most likely say a song from the 1980s or 1990s when Metallica ruled. Another good claim is that their style changed.
Kory Grow, a Rolling Stone author, says, “After grunge transformed hard rock, Metallica trimmed their manes, painted their fingernails, and even kissed one another in photos [for the Load album].” This shows that they completely changed from hard-core headbangers to just like everyone else, taking away their uniqueness. Grow also noted that the album “Some Kind of Monster” was a piece of art that “captured Metallica on the brink of implosion, James Hetfield went to rehab, bassist Jason Newsted quit, and the remaining members met with a therapist to parse their differences,” which shows that the band was falling apart; and people’s musical tastes started to change.
Ever since the (Black) Metallica album, the sales per album have gone down. According to Tableau public, from 1989-1992 (three years) Rock percentages went down 21.2%. There are only two songs out of their top 10 streamed songs on Spotify that are post Black albums.
In the making of their debut album, “Kill ‘Em All” there were 4 members: Lars Ulrich (drummer), James Hetfield (lead singer & rhythm guitarist), Cliff Burton (bassist), and Dave Mustaine (lead guitarist). Mustaine was fired on April 11, 1983, because of his alcoholism, drug abuse, overly aggressive behavior, and personal clashes with Hetfield and Ulrich; less than a month before they started recording “Kill ‘Em All.” Mustaine later started Megadeth and continued his career as a musician. So, Metallica found their new lead guitarist in Kirk Hammet, who is still with them today.
Five months after the “Master of Puppets” album was released, bassist Cliff Burton died. He died on September 27, 1986, when their tour bus in Sweden skidded and overturned multiple times, throwing the sleeping bass player out the window (he was crushed by the bus). It was an immediate death that changed Metallica forever. The lyrics “cannot the Kingdom of Salvation take me home” from the song “To Live is to Die” are written on his memorial stone. James Hetfield has spoken about the lasting impact of Cliff Burton’s death, stating that he still channels Burton’s spirit and asks himself, “What would be really cool right here?” when creating music, and that he holds Burton in such high regard that he challenges himself to impress him.
Even with all of this criticism, I still love Metallica and I think, even though they’ve had some troubles, they should be well respected for everything they’ve done.
