Metallica: To Live is to Die

Tonight's blog is dedicated to a band that has shaped a small piece of my life. That band is, for better or worse, Metallica.

For those who don't know, Metallica is a hugely popular heavy metal band commonly grouped in a subgenre of metal music that came of age during the early 1980s known as thrash metal. Trademarks of the style include very fast, highly technical guitar soloing, often referred to as "shredding," some use of dissonance, very fast playing on both bass and rythm guitars ("riffing"), the use of scales and modes commonly associated with the classical genres of music, anger, frequent palm muting, double bass drumming, growling vocals, and the employment of unusual time signatures. There are a myriad of lyrical themes, although subject matter is often associated with injustice, social unrest, and less often macabre and folkloric/science fiction subject matter. Metallica, along with bands like Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax (and a great many earlier bands) are frequently credited with having a major part in the invention of this genre of music.

Metallica began its career with a different lineup than that we see today. The members included current vocalist/rythm guitar player James Hetfield, lead guitarrist Dave Mustaine (now of Megadeth), bass player wiz-kid Cliff Burton, and overzealous drummer Lars Ulrich. As their popularity reached new heights in the Bay Area of California, Mustaine was fired over personal matters, and current lead guitarrist Kirk Hammett was brought in, but not before Mustaine had already had an incalculable influence on the band's sound. He even wrote or co-wrote a few songs still attributed to Metallica, including "Mechanix," which later begame known as "The Four Horsemen," and a great many riffs from the now famous "Call of Kthulhu."

Metallica released their much-sought after but very rare casette "No Life 'Till Leather" and the tapes made their way around California. Their debut album of 1983 was entitled "Kill 'Em All," and although it had yet to capture the full range of their sound, it was a hugely popular and influential record on the underground, but burgeoning thrash metal scene, still in its infancy by this point. The record was followed up, and then some, by "Ride the Lightning," regarded as a classic of the thrash genre. Metallica is widely regarded as having reached their zenith with the release in 1986 of their opus "Master of Puppets." Although an amazing record, I disagree with it's being labelled their best record. That said, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that it does all too frequently pop up on "top ten lists," frequently in the #1 spot of all time greatest albums for metal, heavy metal, rock music, and, especially, thrash and speed metal.

They broke into mainstream recognition to a degree as yet unknown to the band with the release of what many, including me, still argue was their unparalleled masterpiece " . . . And Justice for All." If we're talking about complexity, maturity of the arrangements, girth and diversity of mood and style, degree of "black-ness," anger, sincereity, and overall flow, this album is indeed their greatest. The riffs are more complex and multifaceted here than on any other release by the band, the musicianship is focused and tight, and I believe the band was at the apex of their musicianship during this period. If we're talking about the degree of influence a record has had on fans, bands, and genres alike, this one may also trump "Master of Puppets." It has even been credited with launching new genres of music, and has been cited as a major influence of mathcore, hard core, and metalcore music by bands closely associated with these genres like the Dillinger Escape Plan. In fact, on a recent release, one of Dillinfer's songs was even named after the date "Justice" was released. The song is called "081788." One can hear the influence of this album on these bands due to similarities in the complexity of the guitar and bass riffs, and the band's use of breaks, time signatures, and signature changes unusual to Western music. It should be said, though, that these newer band's music is far and awat removed from anything resembling a Metallica sound, in that dissonance has almost completely taken over the music, scales and time-signatures used are more exotic, arrangments are often asymmetrical and unpredictable, vocals are more often screaming than growling, polyrythms are more often employed, and in general the music is even less accessible.

What happened after ". . . And Justic For All?" In a sentence: the band lost their way. Sure they evolved, and evolution is ALWAYS a good thing, even if only to a small degree. However, it is the opinion of myself and a great degree of heavy music fans all over the world that Metallica forced this evolution in order to sell more records and futher embrace the mainstream rock icon status they began to enjoy after they discovered MTV, and MTV discovered them with the song and video for "One," which is a high-water mark on the already amazine "Justice" album. On a sidenote, I'd like to send out a F*&@ YOU to my much-hated MTV.

I discovered Metallica, as did many people my age, through the "Black Album," called so because the record has no official title save "Metallica" on its spine and has a virtually black cover with only hints of imagery on it. It's a good record. I'll go so far as to say it's a GREAT record. But it's not a great thrash metal record. It's simply a great heavy metal record. The strange and engaging time signatures are explored less often, the riffs are a bit simpler, the songs more melodic more of the time, the tracks are trimmed shorter than usual and show less diversity, and the band overall sounds confident, although possibly TOO confident. These boys grew up and into their stardom. They kicked ASS. The problem was, they were too aware of this (and if Lar's Ulrich's increasingly annoying tendency to overdo EVERYTHING, from his exaggerrated drum performances to his overexagerrated speaking style, to his "I'm so bad" attitude is anything to go by, their egos needed to be checked at the dorr to their recording studio) Metallica continued this spiral of mainstream arrogance and posturing until they began more and more to distance themselves from their roots. This isn't always a bad thing, but it IS a bad thing when you are much better paying your roots than playing your new style. They left behind what they did BEST, and, in so doing lost a great many fans. Why did they continue to sell 8 million records in the U.S. after they sold out? Because they gained back just as many fans as they lost, both because the music was more accessible and because they had the name Metallica. These new fans, though, were more likely generic heavy metal, rock, and alternative rock kids who never liked Metallica until they cut their hair short, got kinky, wore eyeliner, and trimmed down their riffs but "not their attitude," as they always shot back.

What followed was a series of official albums - Load, Reload, and St. Anger - which don't even qualify as "Metallica lite" ( at least, not in the same way Coldplay qualifies as Radiohead-lite). They were Metallica posing as hipsters and trying everything to do to remain hip and popular in the face of the post-Nirvana fall of metal, hair metal and, of course, just about every other kind of metal known to man. Metal went more underground again, but now lacked the acceptance of the underground fans it left behind to embrace the mainstream. These artists were essentially left high and dry. Metallica was lucky enough to have the embrace of new "Alternative" fans worldwide. That is, until the reemergence of metal circe 1998. Well, it wasn't real a reemergence so much as an emergence of a cold, vaccuous, and plain ridiculous new metal (often called "nu metal" by its young fans circa 1999-2003). It was about as deep as a rain puddle and played by musicians who technically had neither the chops nor the desire to be as skilled or creative as those who preceded them. But this new shit sold records. Metallica, of course, took notice. They needed to reinvent themselve AGAIN!

Enter: St. Anger. The record was bottom heavy (like all nu metal), and the interesting time signatures began to make a comeback, too. But . . . but gone were so many hallmarks of the good, old Metallica. The record featured no, I repeat NONE, guitar solos. Umm . . . . Metallica, not to mention 80's metal, was all about wonderfully creative and richly technical guitar solos. Kirk even objected in the studio that he felt that by not allowing him to solo on the tracks, the band was riding the coattails of the non-technical bands of nu metal, and, essentially dating the record to that time. This means the record lost a lot of it's opportunity to age well over the years, something their earlier records had no problem doing. He was right. The record really, REALLY sucked. Their reemergence as the Metallica of old (long, long songs, complicated drumming and riffs, and anger) seemed forced, as if they were trying to turn back the clock but lacked the ability to do it following too many years of shitting on their own legacy. They had tamed. They had gotten rich. They all simply gotten OLDER, and had been a different band for too long to be able to revert back to their old ways at the drop of a dime. It's hard to be genuinely angry or unhappy when you sleep on a mountain of cash. James vocals sound sincere, but he also sounds rifdiculous, especially in "Frantic." The album sold well, but as quickly as 18-30 year olds began exclaiming "Metallica's back!" in the streets, they returned their albums in exchange for their money back at stores across the country as it became apparent on repeated listens that the songs just weren't there.

It was during the time of Load, ReLoad, and ESPECIALLY their live album "S&M" (Symphony and Metallica, dumb idea guys) that Jame's vocals changed from the growling, angry but sincere barks and declarations from their classic years to a new style more and more approaching singing sans the growling tonatlity of earlier performances. He started to sound more confident, but in that same arrogant, "I'm the man" way mentioned earlier, and to a degree that, at times, sounds laughable. James . . .seriously dude, you can sing FINE, but . . . but just drop it. At times, he adopts a sort of squealy, cutie pie sound that makes you think he was primping himself in the mirror prior to approaching the mic. ENOUGH!

So - how's the new record? Their new album, the terribly named "Death Magnetic" is much better than its cheesy moniker would lead you to believe. The white cover, in passing, almost reminds one of the cover art for "Justice." The riffing, while not as inventive or genre-pushing as the "Justice" years, is much better. The solos are back, but as with Kirk's playing in general, their sounding more and more sloppily played (he just isn't as disciplined as he was during the band's heydey, and he'll never be mistaken for Marty Friedman of Megadeth). James' cutie-pie squealing is still evidenced in his vocals. Yuck. Some of the songs sound forced, and some of the thrash metal posturing also sounds forced, but this is a VERY good sign of things to come. If they keep in practice, we may, at long last, see the Metallica of old again. Just . . . . don't hold your breath . . .. these are VERY different, and much less angry middle-aged men than those who wrote and recorded the mighty "Justice" album.