Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Metallica (pt. 12)

Lulu and tenth studio album (2011–present)

On June 15, 2011, Metallica announced that recording sessions with singer-songwriter Lou Reed had concluded. The album, titled Lulu was recorded over several months, and resulted in ten songs based on Frank Wedekind’s “Lulu” plays, Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. The album was released on October 31, 2011.

On October 16, 2011, Robert Trujillo confirmed that the band was back in the studio and writing new material, stating “The writing process for the new Metallica album has begun. We’ve been in the studio with Rick Rubin, working on a couple of things, and we’re going to be recording during the most of next year.”

Metallica were due to make their first appearance in India at the “India Rocks” concert, supporting the 2011 Indian Grand Prix. However, the concert was cancelled when the venue was proven unsafe. Fans raided the stage during the event and the organizers were later arrested for fraud. Metallica later made their Indian debut in Bangalore on October 30, 2011. On November 10, it was announced that Metallica would play at the Download Festival at Donington Park, England, headlining the main stage on Saturday June 9, 2012, and that they would be playing the The Black Album in its entirety.

From December 2011, Metallica began releasing songs online that were written for Death Magnetic, but were not present on the final album. On December 13, 2011 they were released on Beyond Magnetic, a digital EP release only on iTunes.

Also in December Metallica celebrated its 30 year anniversary by playing 4 shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco. The shows were exclusive only to Met Club members and tickets were only being charged at $6 (or 19.81 for all 4 nights). The shows consisted of songs spanning their entire career and guest appearances by multiple artist that either helped or influenced Metallica. These shows were notable for having Dave Mustaine, Jason Newsted, Glenn Danzig, Ozzy Osbourne, Apocalyptica, members of Diamond Head, King Diamond among others join Metallica on stage for all appropriate songs.

On February 7th 2012, Metallica announced that they were going to start a new music festival call “Orion Music + More”, which will take place on June 23rd and 24th 2012 in Atlantic City.Metallica also confirmed that they will also headline the festival on both days and will perform two of their most critically acclaimed albums in their entirety: their 1991 eponymous fifth release (“The Black Album”) on one night and 1984′s Ride the Lightning the other.So far 16 metal and rock bands are slated to perform at Orion which includes Avenged Sevenfold, Arctic Monkeys, Fucked Up, The Sword and others.

Style and lyrical themes

Metallica is influenced by early heavy metal and hard rock bands such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and Scorpions, New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands such as Venom, Motörhead, Diamond Head, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden, as well as early punk rock bands such as the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and the Misfits. Early Metallica releases contained fast tempos, harmonized leads, and nine-minute instrumentals. Steve Huey of Allmusic said that Ride the Lightning featured “extended, progressive epics; tight, concise groove-rockers”. Huey felt Metallica expanded its compositional technique and range of expression to take on a more aggressive approach in following releases, and lyrics dealt with more personal and socially conscious issues. Lyrical themes explored on Master of Puppets included religious and military leaders, rage, insanity, monsters, and drugs.

In 1991, with new producer Bob Rock, Huey felt Metallica simplified and streamlined its music for a more commercial approach to appeal to the mainstream audience. The band abandoned its aggressive, fast tempos to expand its music and expressive range, said Robert Palmer of Rolling Stone. The change in direction proved commercially successful as Metallica was the band’s first album to peak at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica noticed changes to the rock scene created by the grunge movement of the early 1990s. In Load (an album that has been described as “an almost alternative rock” approach), the band focused on non-metal influences and changed musical direction. Moving away from lyrical themes dealing with drugs and monsters, Metallica’s new lyrical approach focused on anger, loss, and retribution. Some fans and critics were not pleased with this change, which included haircuts, the cover of Load, and headlining the alternative rock concert Lollapalooza. David Fricke of Rolling Stone described the move as “goodbye to the moldy stricture and dead-end Puritanism of no-frills thrash” and called Load the heaviest record of 1996. With the release of ReLoad in 1997, the band displayed more blues and early hard rock influences, incorporating more rhythm and harmony in song structures.

St. Anger marked another large change in the band’s sound. Guitar solos were excluded from the album, leaving a “raw and unpolished sound”. The band used drop C tuning, and Ulrich’s snare drum received particular criticism. New York Magazine’s Ethan Brown noted it “reverberates with a thwong”. Lyrics on the album dealt with Hetfield’s stint in rehab, including references to the devil, anti-drug themes, claustrophobia, impending doom, and religious hypocrisy. At the advice of producer Rick Rubin, for its ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, the band returned to E tuning (though all songs were tuned half step down live) and guitar solos, and adapted Middle Eastern influences.

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Metallica (pt. 11)

On November 26, 2010, Metallica released another live EP, titled Live at Grimey’s, which was recorded in June 2008 at Grimey’s Record Store, just prior to its appearance at Bonnaroo that year.

In a June 2009 interview with Italy’s Rock TV, Ulrich stated that Metallica was planning to continue touring through August 2010, stating there were no plans for a tenth album, but was sure that they would collaborate with producer Rick Rubin again. According to Blabbermouth.net, the band may start thinking about recording their next album in the second half of 2011. In a November 2010 interview with The Pulse of Radio, Ulrich stated that Metallica wants to get back to writing again for 2011. Ulrich stated: “There’s a bunch of balls in the air for 2011, but I think the main one is we really want to get back to writing again. We haven’t really written since, what, ’06, ’07, and we want to get back to kind of just being creative again. Right now we are going to just chill out and then probably start up again in, I’d say, March or April, and start probably putting the creative cap back on and start writing some songs.” In an interview at the April 2011 Big Four concert, bassist Robert Trujillo said that Metallica will work with Rick Rubin again as the producer for the new album and were “really excited to write some new music. There’s no shortage of riffage in Metallica world right now.” He also added, “The first album with Rick was also the first album for me, so in a lot of ways, you’re kind of testing the water. Now that we’re comfortable with Rick and his incredible engineer, Greg Fidelman, who worked with Slayer, actually, on this last record – it’s my hero – it’s a great team. And it’s only gonna better; I really believe that. So I’m super-excited.” As of June 2011, according to Rubin, Metallica has begun writing their new album.

On November 9, 2010, Metallica announced that it would be headlining the Rock in Rio, in Rio de Janeiro, on September 25, 2011. On December 13, 2010, the band announced that it would once again play as part of the “big four” during the Sonisphere Festival U.K., on July 8, 2011. It was the first time all of the “big four” members played on the same stage in the United Kingdom. The performance took place at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire. On December 17, 2010, Another “big four” Sonisphere performance was announced that would take place in France on July 9. On January 25, 2011, another “big four” performance was announced in the United States. It took place on April 23, 2011 in Indio, California at the Empire Polo Club. It was the only scheduled concert in the United States, it was also the first time all of the “big four” members played on the same stage in the United States. On February 17, 2011, another show was announced in Europe. The performance took place in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on July 2, 2011. On February 22, another “big four” show was announced, also in Europe. It took place in Milan, Italy on July 6, 2011. On March 2, 2011, again another “big four” concert was announced, which took place in Gothenburg, Sweden on July 3, 2011 at the Ullevi Stadion.

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Metallica (pt. 10)

Death Magnetic debuted at number one in the United States selling 490,000 units with Metallica becoming the first band to have five consecutive studio albums debut at number one in the history of the Billboard 200. After a week of its release, Death Magnetic remained at number one on the Billboard 200, the European album chart, and became the fastest selling album in Australia for 2008.

Death Magnetic remained at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart for three consecutive weeks. Metallica was one of two artists, along with Jack Johnson with the release of the album Sleep Through the Static, to remain on the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks at number one in 2008. Death Magnetic had also remained at number one on Billboard’s Hard Rock, Modern Rock/Alternative and Rock album charts for five consecutive weeks. Internationally, the album reached number one in 32 countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

In November 2008, Metallica came to the end of its record deal with Warner Bros., and the band is now considering its options for the future and, according to Ulrich, one of the band’s options is to release its next album through the internet.

On January 14, 2009, it was announced that Metallica would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4, 2009, and that former bassist Jason Newsted (who left the band in 2001), would perform with the band at the ceremony. Initially, it was announced that the matter had been discussed, and that bassist Trujillo had agreed not to play, as he “wanted to see the Black Album band”. However, during the band’s set of “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman”, both Trujillo and Newsted were on stage. Ray Burton, father of the late Cliff Burton, accepted the honor on his behalf. Although he was not to be inducted with them, Metallica also invited Dave Mustaine to take part in the induction ceremony. Mustaine declined however, citing his touring commitments in Europe.

Metallica, along with Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, performed on the same bill for the first time on June 16, 2010 at Bemowo Airport (Warsaw, Poland). It was the first performance of that bands played as a part of Sonisphere Festival series, one of the following (Sofia, Bulgaria, June 22, 2010) was sent via satellite in HD to cinemas. They also went on to play in Bucharest, Romania (June 26, 2010) and then in Istanbul, Turkey (June 27, 2010) also as part of the Sonisphere Festival. On June 28, 2010, Death Magnetic was certified 2X platinum by the RIAA.

The band’s World Magnetic Tour ended on November 21, 2010 in Melbourne, Australia. The band had been touring for over two years in support of Death Magnetic. To go with its final tour dates in Australia and New Zealand, a live limited edition EP of past performances in Australia was released called Six Feet Down Under. The EP was also followed by Six Feet Down Under (Part II), which was released on November 12, 2010. Part 2 contains a further 8 songs recorded during the first two Oceanic Legs of the World Magnetic Tour.

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Metallica (pt. 9)

In June 2003, Metallica’s eighth studio album, St. Anger, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and drew mixed reactions from critics. Ulrich’s “steely” sounding snare drum, and the absence of guitar solos received particular criticism. Kevin Forest Moreau of Shakingthrough.net commented that “the guitars stumble in a monotone of mid-level, processed rattle; the drums don’t propel as much as struggle to disguise an all-too-turgid pace; and the rage is both unfocused and leavened with too much narcissistic navel-gazing”, and Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork Media described it as “an utter mess”. However, Blender magazine called it the “grimiest and grimmest of the band’s Bob Rock productions”, and New York Magazine called it “utterly raw and rocking”. The title track, “St. Anger”, won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2004, and was used as the official theme song for WWE’s SummerSlam 2003.[65]

Before the band’s set at the 2004 Download Festival in England, Ulrich was rushed to the hospital after having an anxiety seizure, and was unable to perform. Hetfield searched for volunteers at the last minute to replace Ulrich. Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, and Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison volunteered. Lombardo performed the songs “Battery” and “The Four Horsemen”, Ulrich’s drum technician Flemming Larsen performed “Fade to Black”, with Jordison performing the remainder of the set. Having toured for two years in support of St. Anger on the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003 and the Madly in Anger with the World Tour, with multi-platinum rockers Godsmack in support, Metallica took a break from performing and spent most of 2005 with friends and family. However, for two shows on November 13, 2005, and November 15, 2005, Metallica opened for The Rolling Stones at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Death Magnetic (2006–2011)

In December 2006, Metallica released a DVD containing all the music videos from 1989 to 2004. The DVD, titled The Videos 1989–2004, sold 28,000 copies in its first week, and entered the Billboard Top Videos chart at number three. Metallica recorded a cover of Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold” for a tribute album titled We All Love Ennio Morricone, released in February 2007. The cover received a Grammy nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards for the category “Best Rock Instrumental Performance”. A recording of “The Ecstasy of Gold” has been played as the introduction for Metallica performances since the 1980s. However, this new version features the band itself performing the piece, giving a new guitar-based interpretation to the music.

In 2006, Metallica announced on its official website that after 15 years, long-time producer Bob Rock would not be producing Metallica’s next studio album. The band chose to work with producer Rick Rubin. Metallica scheduled the release date for Death Magnetic as September 12, 2008, and the band filmed a music video for the album’s first single “The Day That Never Comes”.

On September 2, 2008, a French record store began selling copies of Death Magnetic nearly two weeks ahead of its scheduled worldwide release date, which resulted in the album being made available on peer-to-peer clients. This prompted the band’s United Kingdom distributor, Vertigo Records, to officially release the album two days ahead of schedule, on September 10, 2008. Rumors of Metallica or Warner Bros. taking any legal action against the retailer were unconfirmed, though drummer Lars Ulrich made such responses to the leak as, “…We’re ten days from release. I mean, from here, we’re golden. If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. Happy days. Trust me,” and, “By 2008 standards, that’s a victory. If you’d told me six months ago that our record wouldn’t leak until 10 days out, I would have signed up for that.”

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Metallica (pt. 8)

Newsted’s departure and St. Anger (2001–2005)

As plans were being made to enter the recording studio, Newsted left the band on January 17, 2001. His statement revealed his departure was based on “private and personal reasons, and the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love.” During a Playboy interview with Metallica, Newsted revealed intentions he wanted to release an album with his side project, Echobrain. Hetfield was against the idea and said, “When someone does a side project, it takes away from the strength of Metallica” and a side project is “like cheating on your wife in a way”. Newsted countered his statement by saying Hetfield recorded vocals for a song in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and appears on two Corrosion of Conformity albums. Hetfield replied, “My name isn’t on those records. And I’m not out trying to sell them”, and pondered questions such as, “Where would it end? Does he start touring with it? Does he sell shirts? Is it his band?”

Robert Trujillo was announced as Metallica’s new bassist on February 24, 2003

In April 2001, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky began following Metallica to document the recording process of the next studio album. Over two years, more than 1,000 hours of footage was recorded. On July 19, 2001, before preparations to enter the recording studio, Hetfield entered rehab due to “alcoholism and other addictions”. All recording plans were put on hiatus and the band’s future was in doubt. Hetfield left rehab on December 4, 2001, and the band returned to the recording studio on April 12, 2002, though Hetfield was required to limit his work to four hours a day, noon to 4 pm, and spend the rest of his time with his family. The footage recorded by Berlinger and Sinofsky was compiled into the documentary, Some Kind of Monster, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2004. In the documentary, Newsted described his former bandmates’ decision to hire a therapist to help solve their problems which he felt they could have solved on their own as “really fucking lame and weak”.

For the duration of the recording period, producer Bob Rock played bass, both on the album and for the few live shows at which Metallica performed during that time frame. Once the record was completed, in early 2003, the band started to hold auditions for Newsted’s permanent replacement. Bassists that auditioned included Pepper Keenan, Jeordie White, Scott Reeder, Eric Avery, Danny Lohner, and Chris Wyse. Following three months of auditions, Robert Trujillo, formerly of Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne’s band, was chosen as the new bassist. As Metallica moved on, Newsted joined Canadian thrash metal band Voivod in 2002, and was Trujillo’s replacement in Osbourne’s band during the 2003 Ozzfest tour, which included Voivod as part of the touring bill.

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Metallica (pt. 7)

Napster controversy (2000–2001)

In 2000, Metallica discovered that a demo of its song “I Disappear”, which was supposed to be released in combination with the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack, was receiving radio airplay. Tracing the source of the leak, the band found the file on the Napster peer-to-peer file-sharing network, and also found that the band’s entire catalogue was freely available.[49] Legal action was initiated against Napster with Metallica filing a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, alleging that Napster violated three areas of the law: copyright infringement, unlawful use of digital audio interface device, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Though the lawsuit named three universities for copyright infringement, the University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University, no individuals were named. Yale and Indiana complied and blocked the service from its campuses, and Metallica withdrew the universities’ inclusion in the lawsuit. USC, however, had a meeting with students to decide what was going to happen with Napster. School administrators wanted it banned as its usage accounted for 40% of the bandwidth not being used for educational purposes.

Metallica hired online consulting firm NetPD to monitor the Napster service for a weekend. A list of 335,435 Napster users who were believed to be sharing Metallica’s music was compiled, and the 60,000 page document was delivered to Napster’s office as Metallica requested the users be banned from the service. The users were banned, and rap artist Dr. Dre joined the lawsuit against Napster, which resulted in an additional 230,142 Napster users banned.

Ulrich provided a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding copyright infringement on July 11, 2000. Federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered the site place a filter on the program in 72 hours or be shut down. A settlement was reached between Metallica and Napster when German media conglomerate Bertelsmann BMG showed interest to purchase the rights to Napster for $94 million. Under the terms of settlement, Napster agreed to block users who shared music by artists who do not want their music shared. However, on June 3, 2002 Napster filed for Chapter 11 protection under U.S. bankruptcy laws. On September 3, 2002, an American bankruptcy judge blocked the sale to Bertelsmann and forced Napster to liquidate its assets according to Chapter 7 of the U.S. bankruptcy laws.

At the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, Ulrich appeared in a skit with host Marlon Wayans that blasted the idea of using Napster to share music. Marlon played a college student sitting in his dorm room listening to Metallica’s “I Disappear”. Ulrich walked in and asked for an explanation. On receiving Wayans’ excuse that using Napster was just “sharing”, Ulrich retorted that Marlon’s idea of sharing was “borrowing things that were not yours without asking.” He called in the Metallica road crew, who proceeded to confiscate all of Wayans’ belongings, leaving him almost nude in an empty room. Napster creator Shawn Fanning responded later in the ceremony by presenting an award wearing a Metallica shirt, saying, “I borrowed this shirt from a friend. Maybe, if I like it, I’ll buy one of my own.”

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Metallica (pt. 6)

Load, ReLoad, Garage Inc., and S&M (1994–1999)

After almost three years of touring to support Metallica, including a headlining performance at Woodstock ’94, Metallica returned to the studio to write and record its sixth studio album. The band went on a brief hiatus in the summer of 1994 and played three outdoor shows which included headlining Donington Park in the United Kingdom, supported by Slayer, Skid Row, Slash’s Snakepit, Therapy?, and Corrosion of Conformity. The short tour was titled Escape from the Studio ’95. The band spent roughly one year writing and recording new songs, resulting in the release of Load in 1996, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and ARIA Charts, marking the band’s second number one. The cover of Load was created by Andres Serrano, and was called Blood and Semen III. Serrano pressed a mixture of his own semen and bovine blood between sheets of plexiglass. The release marked a change in musical direction for the band and a new image with band members receiving haircuts. Metallica headlined the alternative rock festival Lollapalooza in the summer of 1996.

During early production of the album, the band had produced enough material for a double album. It was decided that half of the songs were to be released, and the band would continue to work on the remaining songs and release them the following year. This resulted in the follow-up album, ReLoad. The cover was created by Serrano, this time using a mixture of blood and urine. ReLoad debuted number one on the Billboard 200, and reached number two on the Top Canadian Album chart. Hetfield noted in the 2004 documentary film Some Kind of Monster that some of the songs on these albums were initially thought by the band to be of average quality, and were “polished and reworked” until judged to be releasable. To promote ReLoad, Metallica performed on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in December 1997, performing “Fuel” and “The Memory Remains” with Marianne Faithfull.

In 1998, Metallica compiled a double album of cover songs titled Garage Inc. The first disc contained newly recorded covers of songs by bands such as Diamond Head, Killing Joke, The Misfits, Thin Lizzy, Mercyful Fate, and Black Sabbath. The second disc featured the original The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited, which had become a scarce collectors’ item. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number two.

On April 21 and April 22, 1999, Metallica recorded two performances with the San Francisco Symphony orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen. Kamen, who had previously worked with producer Rock on “Nothing Else Matters”, approached the band in 1991 with the idea of pairing Metallica’s music with a symphony orchestra. Kamen and his staff of over 100 composed additional orchestral material for Metallica songs. Metallica wrote two new Kamen-scored songs for the event, “No Leaf Clover” and “-Human”. The audio recording and concert footage were released in 1999 as the album and concert film S&M. It entered the Billboard 200 at number two, and the Australian ARIA charts and Top Internet Albums chart at number one.

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