On Metallica's Decline
Over the last week or so, I’ve been breaking out the old Metallica cd’s. For fans of their older music, this can be a pretty sad occasion because you realize just how far downhill the band has come.
To me, what made Metallica was the fact that they combined heavy, fast thrash guitar riffs and wicked guitar solos with intricate, complex, epic arrangements and thoughtful lyrics. New Metallica has basically abandoned all of this, and it’s not so much that the past few Metallica records have been bad as it is that it’s just not as original anymore. The music Metallica has been making for the past decade could be made by any number of bands out there. The “Black Album” was the turning point: the songs got shorter, more commercial and the band became a huge “success.”
Metallica is now a household name and is considered a “safe” heavy metal band. They used to be dangerous! I remember when I was little, my brother went to a Metallica concert and my Mom was all worried about him because she’d heard on the news that people had accused Metallica of being devil worshipers and having evil lyrics and so on. She thought my brother was going to come home worshipping the devil and using drugs, I guess.
So when I was listening back to this old Metallica, I was reminiscing about the days when Metallica was dangerous, and I noticed not only the huge change in their overall sound and musical arrangements, but also a shift in the content of their lyrics, something that pretty much went over my head when I was younger and listening to them. At some point, James Hetfield decided he could sing, and he also decided that he could not write meaningful lyrics anymore. Old Metallica, despite their dangerous reputation, was a pretty positive band, actually. They wrote about all the “right things.” Here are a few examples:
"Pain monopoly, ritual misery chop your breakfast on a mirror Taste me you will see more is all you need you're dedicated to how I'm killing you
Come crawling faster obey your Master your life burns faster obey your Master"
It’s an anti-drug song! It’s about how cocaine controls people’s lives!
How about another, Blackened:
"Blackened Is the End Winter it Will Send Throwing All You See Into Obscurity Death of Mother Earth Never a Rebirth Evolution's End Never Will it Mend"
It’s about environmental destruction! Those tree-hugging hippies!
How about …And Justice for All:
"Halls of Justice Painted Green Money Talking Power Wolves Beset Your Door Hear Them Stalking Soon You'll Please Their Appetite They Devour Hammer of Justice Crushes You Overpower
Justice Is Lost Justice Is Raped Justice Is Gone Pulling Your Strings Justice Is Done"
This one’s about political corruption and power inequality ruining our judicial system. These guys are some dangerous devil worshippers, aren’t they?
One more, Disposable Heroes:
"Bodies fill the fields I see, hungry heroes end No one to play soldier now, no one to pretend running blind through killing fields, bred to kill them all Victim of what said should be a servant 'til I fall
Soldier boy, made of clay now an empty shell twenty one, only son but he served us well Bred to kill, not to care just do as we say finished here, Greeting Death he's yours to take away"
This one appears to be about soldiers being trained as killing machines, being sent into battled, being killed and then being forgotten.
Now, let’s look at some of Metallica’s more noteworthy lyrical moments in the post-Black album era:
How about Fuel :
"Gimme Fuel, Gimme Fire, Gimme that which I desire, Ooh!"
Or, Don’t Tread On Me :
"Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail once you provoke her, rattling of her tail never begins it, never, but once engaged... never surrenders, showing the fangs of rage don't tread on me
so be it threaten no more to secure peace is to prepare for war so be it settle the score touch me again for the words that you'll hear evermore... "
Is this not a complete 180 from anti-war Metallica of songs like Disposable Heroes and One? Celebrating militarism instead of questioning it. Is that what millions of dollars and mainstream success does to you? Well, it also brings you insight into the shallowness of fame and wealth (see The Memory Remains) and the pursuit of fame and fortune (see King Nothing).