Frequently Expressed Statements By Ex-Metallica Fans.
07.02.2003
|
Metallica's style may have changed over the years, but their position on online music has stayed the same: illegally downloaded music is bad! Many of us still continue to download songs and listen to streaming music anyway. And computer companies have gotten in on it, too. When you buy a new computer, many come with anti-piracy features to prevent illegal downloads. |
Many ex-fans and other critics claim that Metallica has sold out, lost touch with their fans, etc. The reasoning behind these opinions vary widely; this document attempts to logically explores some of these reasons.
Q. Metallica's style changed/slowed down (after their fourth album And Justice For All) when they made the Black Album. They gave up their unique sound at this point and this is when they sold out.
- Many ex-fans say that they sold out with And Justice For All.
Q. Metallica's style changed/slowed down (after their third album Master of Puppets) when they made And Justice For All. They gave up their unique sound at this point and this is when they sold out.
- Many ex-fans say that they sold out with Ride the Lightning, their second album.
Q. Metallica's style changed/slowed down (after their first album Kill 'Em All) when they made Ride The Lightning. They gave up their unique sound at this point and this is when they sold out.
- Metallica has never had a truly unique sound. Their first album, Kill 'Em All, was highly influenced by "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWOBHM) bands like Blitzkrieg and Diamondhead. In fact, they covered songs by these two bands on the original release of their first album. In addition, a mostly unknown peice of trivia is that, at the very least, one of their songs on this album begins as a near rip off a the beginning of a song by one of the NWOBHM bands of that time.
Q. Metallica is a speed metal band and they should stick to what they know. They have sold out because now they play slower songs than they used to.
- A. Slower, non-speed metal songs... do you mean like Anesthesia/Pulling Teeth, a relatively slow, methodical bass solo/bass & drum combo off their first album? Or perhaps you're thinking of The Thing That Should Not Be, another slow, methodical song off their third album?
Q. Metallica is a speed metal band and they should stick to what they know. They have sold out because now, on their most recent album St. Anger, they play songs that are really fast in some parts and then really slow in other parts.
- A. Songs that speed up and slow down... like, say either The Four Horsemen or Phantom Lord from their first album, or the title track of Master of Puppets, perhaps?
Q. Metallica is a speed metal band and they should stick to what they know. They have sold out because they now have rock ballads on their albums.
- A. Rock ballads... like, say, Fade to Black from their second album?
Q. Metallica's song writing went downhill after Cliff Burton, their original bassist, died in a bus accident. Their music changed because he was no longer in the band.
-
A. As some people know, Cliff Burton was not Metallica's first bassist.
I believe that distinction goes to a guy named Ron McGovney.
-
But regardless, Metallica is, necessarily, a different band without Burton, there is no doubt.
But how much influence did he really have on the songs they wrote?
It's difficult to say - none of us fans were there when those earlier albums
were written and recorded; however, there is some evidence available to us
given that the early album lyrics give song writing credits to each person who
contributed to the writing of each individual song.
So let's examine this evidence...
-
Burton has only a single song writing credit on Metallica's first album -
indeed, it is interesting that Dave Mustaine (later of
Megadeth
fame),
who was no longer even with Metallica when
Kill 'Em All
was recorded,
has many more song writing credits on that first album than Burton.
This single writing credit is for the song
Anesthesia/Pulling Teeth,
which begins as slow bass solo and later works into a bass/percussion frenzy -
but even then it's no where near as speedy as the other songs on the album.
-
Burton is co-writer of no less than six out of the eight songs on Metallica's second album,
Ride The Lightning.
Albeit using only this unconclusive evidence,
this was the album, it seems, in which Burton had the most influence...
- ...because on their third album, Master of Puppets, Burton is only co-writer of 3 songs - despite the fact that, in my experience, most ex-fans of Metallica and Cliff-worshippers consider Master of Puppets to be Metallica's finest, best written album.
Q. If Cliff Burton were alive, Metallica would never have played with a symphony (e.g. the S&M, a.k.a. "Symphony & Metallica", project).
- A. James Hetfield, Metallica's lead singer - who almost certainly knew Burton better than any Metallica fans past and present - has been quoted as saying that Burton loved all sorts of music, including classical music, and that he considered music to be just music and didn't care much about 'styles'. Hetfield then went on to say that Burton would most likely have loved the S&M project.
Q. Cliff Burton was a god!
- A. No, he wasn't. He was just a man who was very talented at what he did.
Q. Metallica is totally out of touch with their fans.
- A. Then why did they add so much value to their most recent album, by lowering the cost AND including a full album length DVD with St. Anger - just like their fans asked them to?
Q. Metallica is no longer the band they were to begin with.
- A. Of course not. And who would want them to be? The band was formed 20+ years ago, do you still want them to sound like pimple-faced teenagers trying to sound like Diamond Head, Budgie, Blitzkrieg, Def Lepard (yes, really) or any number of other NWOBHM bands? While other metal bands have stagnated or fallen off the face of the earth, Metallica has changed with new times and new influences - and yes, new band members, certainly - as time has passed along. Just like any other musical group or artist in the history of music they are no longer the band they were to begin with. Thank goodness.
Q. Metallica just wants to sell more albums and make more money.
-
A. Who wouldn't? But this doesn't mean they've sold out,
it just means they're human at worst.
I mean, who do you think they are, Kurt Cobain?
- However, the tagline in the jacket cover of their first album states that their goal is nothing less than "world domination" - and you can't dominate the world by remaining an early 80's garage band with bad hair cuts playing covers of NWOBHM songs all day...
Agree? Disagree? Think I'm full of it?
Email Me