Beyond Headbanging: The Story of Metallica's Most Daring Move

PJ Pat, your fellow 'Rock Freak,' reads an excerpt from Rolling Stone magazine about Metallica's iconic Black Album. He discusses its massive popularity, its impact on both hardcore and new fans, and why it's considered the gold standard in heavy metal. Pat also shares insights on Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters,' praised by Elton John as one of the greatest songs ever. The episode highlights Metallica's dedication to their fans, innovation in music and technology, and the daring creativity that keeps them at the top of the rock world.

Article excerpt from Rolling Stone magazine by David Fricke. Released on November 14, 1991.

00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:14 Metallica's Black Album: A Game Changer
01:41 Metallica's Connection with Fans
03:01 Metallica's Innovations and Achievements
03:54 Reading from Rolling Stone: Metallica's Black Album
04:40 Deep Dive into 'Nothing Else Matters'
05:35 Insight into Hetfield's Songwriting
08:24 Reflections on Metallica's Evolution

Transcript

[00:00:00] What's going on, Rock Freak? This is your fellow Rock Freak, PJ Pat. Today, I'm going to read an excerpt from this article right here. From the Rolling Stone magazine. They compile the book of all their interviews. In the 90s and one of my favorite books to date and let's get into this now Metallica's black album came out obviously in the early 90s and to this day, I believe it is the most popular heavy metal album of all time now.

[00:00:31] I'm not saying it's the greatest album, but is the most popular as in the most purchases the most well known songs even people who don't know a lot about metal know something about a song on this album typically the unforgiving or nothing else matters but that is a it is really the gold standard of what any heavy metal band Should do or wants to do if they want to reach peak popularity. And pretty much Metallica did everything right leading up to this album. I, it definitely alienated some of the hardcore fans, but even if you look at their whole career.

[00:01:15] Not only are there hardcore fans back, but the fans that they roped in with this black album I'm including myself in that boat have stuck with them. There's a lot of them that have stuck with them. And I would say, obviously there's some who dropped off because they started getting heavy again.

[00:01:33] But man, if this album really spoke to you, especially like the heavier songs really spoke to you on this album. To this day, you're with them just like me. I'm a Metallica fifth member, club member. Forever for life and they've been just an amazing band and I think the gold standard of what Any forget about heavy metal band, but any rock band in terms of connecting with their audience and pushing out a product that man really connects with people and really gains loyalty.

[00:02:03] If you take a look from their website to everything they're doing there with all the products that they have there and all the special fifth member Metallica club exclusives on there, they used to have a vinyl club as well 

[00:02:16] where they would pump out exclusive Metallica vinyls for their club members, and it was amazing. It was such an amazing time I think they stopped that, the cost started getting ridiculous. Pearl Jam used to have that as well I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan. They used to have a vinyl club as well, but unfortunately they killed that and this has been a couple years.

[00:02:35] So, that's the realities of life But the fact that Metallica actually did that and went ahead and started doing that for their fans I mean you can't ask more than that. They actually went out and bought a vinyl record plant because they're huge vinyl fans, obviously and not sure what they're doing now.

[00:02:50] They're obviously using that plant now to do all their vinyl pressings for all the albums coming out. But it was a pretty sweet time. And All the high quality concert YouTube videos that they put out there.

[00:03:01] If you take a look at their channel, man, it's just the gold standard The thing with Metallica, what I really appreciate about this band is that they always try to push the envelope of what they can do. Whether it's concert wise, I think they were the first band to play in Antarctica, believe it or not. They had a concert in Antarctica, they had this bubble and they invited a bunch of fans.

[00:03:21] Who does that, right? And social media, even, they're always at the forefront with any new technology, social media, they were the first to really pump out high quality. Interviews, Lars Jurek has a podcast, 

[00:03:34] I think he has a show on Apple Music. Social media stuff, high quality content that they would pump out in terms of Full on concerts for free on youtube at very high quality video. Just amazing So as a fan of not only the music and the band This is really all you can ask for from a band trying to connect with their fans I don't think any band does it better.

[00:03:54] Okay back to the article. I'll be reading this. Like I said, it's called back in black metallica Go to number one by David Freak, November 14th, 1991. And it says, when David Freak joined Metallica in Europe in the fall of 1991, the Metal Kings had millions of new fans thanks to their heavy, melodic fifth album, Metallica.

[00:04:17] Known as the Black Album, it included the single Enter Sandman, and has sold more than 14 million copies. And this is back in 1991. Who knows how many more millions now.

[00:04:28] Okay, so I'm not going to read the entire article for you. I don't want to spoil it for you. Maybe in future episodes, I'll read a couple of excerpts.

[00:04:34] But for today, I'm going to read you an excerpt specifically talking about Nothing Else Matters. Now, looking back as an older man, I would say, pushing 50 this year Metallica's Nothing Else Matter. I can confidently say this is one of the greatest Metallica songs. I know it's ironic, but if you really listen to it and you really take a look at it, forget about the greatest Metallica song ever, I think, and I'm going to go out on a limb here, it's one of the greatest songs ever, period.

[00:05:04] And don't take it from me, Elton John actually proclaimed Nothing Else Matters as one of the greatest songs ever written. And he told this to Hetfield's face and Hetfield just could not believe it. But if you really take a listen to that song, the lyrics, the melody, the dynamics in that song, that amazing solo.

[00:05:23] It has everything you want for a close to perfect song. Nothing else matters. Let's take a look at this.

[00:05:30] Alright, gonna get my reading glasses on here. Okay, here we go. So this little excerpt here, it starts, when Metallica debuted their new album at a massive free listening party at New York's Madison Square Garden last August, Headphil made a point of sneaking out into the audience during Nothing Else Matters. I had to run out there and see what they thought, he says sheepishly. If they were killing themselves, or killing each other, or falling asleep, he was surprised to discover they were doing anything but.

[00:06:01] They were really attentive, Hetfield says, with undisguised delight. They were really listening to what it said. Metallica have written ballads of a sort before. Dark, melancholy songs punctuated with explosive passages of firebomb guitars such as One and, one of my favorite songs, Fade to Black.

[00:06:19] Hedfield's chilling examination of the heart sinking hopelessness that leads to suicide. And Hedfield, who writes all of the lyrics, has never been shy about drawing on personal history to make a point. 

[00:06:30] Both Dyer's Eve on justice and the God that failed on Metallica are rooted in his rocky adolescent experiences as a doubting son of strict Christian science parents. But nothing else matters is unlike anything Hetfield ever wrote before or anything that Metallica would have dared record. It is a candid admission of romantic affection and staunch fidelity delivered with a soulful.

[00:06:53] That is a far cry from Headfield's usual attack dog posture. 

[00:06:57] It is, in short, a love song. And when Ulrich first heard it on one of Headfield's demo tapes back in May of 1990, he was duly impressed. Unlike many fans and reviewers who were taken aback by the final version on Metallica, however, Ulrich was not surprised. Nothing he does really surprises me, Ulrich says.

[00:07:16] I think a lot of people are surprised by it because of who he is as a person, because he keeps everything so guarded inside. But I know a lot of that shit lingers in there. I just know it's a question of whether he feels right about admitting it. For Hedfield, it was originally a matter of admitting it to himself.

[00:07:33] That song was just me and my guitar on the road, he says. It came together somewhere in Canada. Alright, Canada! I just sat in my room working on this thing. It was a personal thing. I played it for myself, but I played it for Lars, and he listened and said, Man, that's pretty cool. And I thought, yeah, it is.

[00:07:53] People have their own interpretations of love, Hetfield continues. 

[00:07:56] For some, love is sleeping with a sheep. For others, it's just being with somebody. Love to me is being able to depend on someone else, especially being on the road. You can really lose yourself out there. Then you go home, and you realize, Yeah, here's my base. Here's where I start, and here's where it ends.

[00:08:13] It's a song that's not safe, Hetfield argues. It takes some nerve to do. We're not supposed to do something like that. Then you turn around and go who said we couldn't? We're running the show here. So there it is Man, that's so cool to get a little bit of insight on Nothing Else Matters, right? Amazing to see Jem's head feels mindset at the time and to them It was a very daring thing if you think about it to write a song like that from a band like Metallica 

[00:08:41] I know it pissed off a lot of traditional fans, but that is really punk rock. I remember Trent Reznor saying when he released The Hand That Feeds, Nine Inch Nails, one of his most commercial songs. And he actually said that, he started feeling like people were expecting a certain sound and a certain type of song.

[00:09:00] And so he really wanted to get Out of his comfort zone and really surprised people. And he came out with the hand that feeds, which I think is one of his best songs . And I think that's the mindset that Metallica or Hetfield had, pushing the envelope always, like I said earlier.