How Metallica Became the Most Hated Band in Metal (Video)
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What year is this, 2000? It's too late, they're beyond criticism now and up there with the all-timers...Stones, Beatles, Zeppelin et al. They left the haters and their arbitrary rules in the dust a long time ago.
Metallica lost me long ago when the Black Album came out. Not trying to be music snob or anything but I was a huge fan of theirs before that and the Black Album just hit me differently. Well that and the fact that I was already balls deep into underground/grunge during that time. Just never went back.
As someone who grew up in the south during Satanic panic, not in a million years would I've dreamed that Ozzy would become a household name and the laughingstock of reality TV. I remember when he came to my town on the Ultimate Sin tour (with Metallica opening, God I hate I missed that show), people acted like Satan was showing up himself.
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Whenever St Anger comes up, i remember the local Rock station (who always did a couple hour block of 'mandatory metallica' on weekends) getting so hyped up for the release that they were going to play the ENTIRE album on release day, without interruptions for the whole day.
They got through exactly ONE playthrough of St. Anger and spent the rest of the day apologizing to the audience
Pretty much.
The irony in these posts is nothing short of amazing. "You have to like what I like or else you're an elitist jerk"
This makes no sense. Metallica changed their sound after AJFA to be more accessible and radio-friendly, this is undeniable. It doesn't mean having a more commercial-friendly sound is necessarily "selling out", but a band "doing the same album over and over" is clearly not trying to get mainstream success and are obviously just doing whatever they like.
OP
OP
For me at least, it was when one of them found it "kinda cool" that brothers where tortured with their music in guantanamo or Abu ghraib or such, I can't remember which one.
I believe Lars just mellowed out with age? All of them did obviously, but IIRC Hetfield specifically noted it in some feature in So What! (don't remember if that was in an interview or fan mail section, but whatever).
This really happened? God, I fucking hate the youth of today lol
I never hated Metallica for becoming popular, I stopped liking them because they started writing shit music.
Megadeth was always the better band and still is. Listen to the a couple songs released from the new album and it blows away everything Metallica has done the past 30 fuckin years.
I can save you 20 minutes: they are massively popular so the haters who don't like them REALLY don't like them.
I dunno if I entirely agree with that. For instance, Load and ReLoad were obviously things they wanted to do. James loves country, Kirk loves blues, and they all love metal/rock. Those albums may very well be more "them" than anything else in their discography.
I think its also important to remember that Metallica were already starting to get pretty mainstream by the end of AJFA. At that point they were being played on MTV, headlining arenas, and nominated for a grammy. I would say changing their music at that point took more balls since there was no guarantee of success than sticking with the same formula and riding out growing popularity. Im sure plenty of bands stick with the same sounding albums in fear of losing established fans and not potentially earning new ones.
In regards to Napster - there's still people to this day who dont quite understand what went down. Some believe Metallica sued fans. When in reality all they did was ask Napster to remove users sharing their music, Napster said it was impossible, then the lawyers or whomever of Metallica found those users that weekend. Said users were then removed. It was never about suing them.
I don't think anyone else has addressed this, but…yes, actually, they did! The current streaming versions (at least, Apple Music) have noticeably improved mastering compared to the original CD & digital release.
Old guy take. Liked their old stuff but they started to change and people weren't vibing with it. When they saw that and saw how people were getting their old stuff through Napster it felt like they freaked out too hard and we're more worried about the money. The reality of it is is that most musicians money comes through touring and merch then it does through streaming. The same was to be said of their CD and record sales. I also think the music industry used them but they went full dive into it.
Hating on Metallica is pretty passé, but it's not surprising there was pushback when the headliner of any underground music scene crosses over as sharply as they did. I just don't think their music from Black Album on is as interesting as their earlier stuff.
That's nice in theory, but it comes down to the results. Someone like Dylan doing something new and defying expectations, in the face of fan backlash, gave us Like a Rolling Stone. Metallica gave us Fuel...
He EATS BATS !!!?!??
man dude Ozzy and Randy at their peak was magic it was soooo evil but just this side of cartoon
that was great
i do feel sad for dude, Randy death was not how it should go down
The haters were mostly edgelords who were afraid to like something popular and the purists who can't accept a metal band doing something different.
Kill 'em All came out in 1983. Metallica still fills up stadiums almost 40 years later.
They're up there with the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, etc... as GOAT bands.
I'd say most, if not all of today's music creators are thankful Metallica took a PR hit to knock out Napster and steer the industry to streaming services so everyone would get paid for their work.
Kill 'em All came out in 1983. Metallica still fills up stadiums almost 40 years later.
They're up there with the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, etc... as GOAT bands.
I'd say most, if not all of today's music creators are thankful Metallica took a PR hit to knock out Napster and steer the industry to streaming services so everyone would get paid for their work.
This is genuinely the first time I've heard of hate for the Black Album. What's that about? Every single track on there ranges from great to incredible. It's probably as close to a near perfect album that I've ever heard personally.
As Jason once famously said, with the Black album Metallica sold out…every stadium in the world.
The question of their legacy in the mainstream vs. their legacy in the metal scene are two different things, imo. They'll be remembered as one of the biggest rock bands to ever exist. For people with more than a passing interest in metal though, I don't think they're anywhere near as revered as bands like Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, etc.
They made badass older albums and a classic breakthrough album. Mostly shit since then but that concert/movie thing was rad. They're goats now.
It's excruciatingly boring and completely sanitized and tepid compared to their previous stuff. The only song on it I kinda like is Wherever I May Roam. Unforgiven is OK. This album epitomizes "soulless" honestly.
Came in here looking for this information. Leaving happy. I'm not a huge Metallica fan by any means, but Death Magnetic has some bangers that are really swallowed by bad mastering. Would love to hear that album with a better stab at it.
It's less thrashy than their earlier works, so the fans that started with the band didn't like the change in sound. I personally prefer it because it's easier to sing to >.>
I wouldn't say I loved it but I had a great time with it when it released and really enjoyed it when I listened to it recently. I don't have a lot of music knowledge however so I can't say I can argue with the detractors
When it comes to their music output, I agree with this 100 percent. They have a better track record than 90 percent of bands, but they are a "victim" of having a tremendous first couple of albums.
When I was young, I was annoyed by their Napster stance, but in retrospect they were right - I think.
Lars was right about Napster but fighting for the wrong reasons. The music industry was a dinosaur littered with greed and vampiric contracts and labels, and Napster was a symptom of that as well as a sign of a future the industry was wholly unprepared for.
Streaming services aren't much better and buying/listening to music is still largely unprofitable for anyone but the top of the top, but artists have so many avenues to cut out the middle man and be discovered/supported online nowadays.
Radiohead had the right idea when they put out In Rainbows as pay-what-you-want; a fuck you to the industry, forward thinking, and it didn't involve them sending a list of their fans names and addresses as part of a lawsuit.
Streaming services aren't much better and buying/listening to music is still largely unprofitable for anyone but the top of the top, but artists have so many avenues to cut out the middle man and be discovered/supported online nowadays.
Radiohead had the right idea when they put out In Rainbows as pay-what-you-want; a fuck you to the industry, forward thinking, and it didn't involve them sending a list of their fans names and addresses as part of a lawsuit.
Completely agree, I met them both during the stanger era and Lars was by far the most chatty and nice. The thing with lars ia that he is a caricature of the typical rockstar lol
Even after 20-30 odd years, metal purists are still huffing at the fact that their favorite band either changed their sound or got popular. In Metallica's case, it was both. A lot of people got into them (myself included) because of the Black album.
St. Anger is still dog shit, but it's still fun to listen to on the weird occasion.
Didn't realize the hate for Metallica was still even a thing.
The combo punch of Napster and St Anger left a black eye for a bit. But i thought that shit was way under the rug by the time Death Magnet came out.
The combo punch of Napster and St Anger left a black eye for a bit. But i thought that shit was way under the rug by the time Death Magnet came out.
I don't like Metallica Black Album onward, but "most hated" is only because they were the most popular. In terms of the ratio of hatred/how well known the band is, Burzum, Inquisition, and a ton of other metal bands far surpass Metallica.
Like, there's a lot of actual terrorists and murderers and child abusers and Holocaust deniers in this industry. It would be like calling Drake more hated than 6ix9ine
Like, there's a lot of actual terrorists and murderers and child abusers and Holocaust deniers in this industry. It would be like calling Drake more hated than 6ix9ine
Wait what? Are u saying black is similar to load/reload rhat is similar to st anger etc... Love them or not, these records are vastly different from one another
I was too young to remember the Black Album backlash but boy do I remember them coming off as villains during the Napster thing.
And when St. Anger dropped lmao do I remember all the shit they took people HATED that album 😂
And when St. Anger dropped lmao do I remember all the shit they took people HATED that album 😂
There are other reasons to think less of Metallica, specifically James. During the 90s, he motioned the act of inserting a heroin needle into his arm while performing at a concert because Layne Staley didn't attend it on account of Layne suffering from drug addiction. I know James changed his perspective on Layne as a person later on, but man, what a piece of work he was in his younger years.
Nah, not if they were already big. Like I get the sellout complaints if some really underground group pivots their sound, but Metallica? The easiest money they could've ever wanted would be to just imitate RTL forever. Like, I like AC/DC but that's what they did. No reason to really buy their newer albums like Black Ice imo when the sound is the same as the tapes I've already got.
It's way easier to play the same stuff forever if it's already paying your bills.
Here's Emperor playing a huge festival. The video has almost a million views. The debate in the comments is that they think Trym is a better drummer than Faust. I don't think a significant percentage of fans care that some of these people are shit heads.
I said no such thing at all, and I struggle to see how you got that from what I wrote.
The album is perfection. But, people cried about them "selling out" with it. Metallica has literally had people crying about them selling out their entire careers. Put out a balad on their 2nd album. Released a music video on their 4th. Had radio hits with their 5th. Cut their hair on the 6th (no fucking joke, this had people crying)...
I'm not saying people have to like Metallica or all their albums. Personal preference is personal preference. But, the vitriol that surrounds the band at times is 100% because they are so popular. The more something somone dislikes becomes popular, the more that dislike turns into hate. It is insane to watch their Facebook page post shit about their charity or something and see comments about how they were shit after Burton died or something. Just fucking pathetic losers who can't stand Metallica being the biggest hard rock band of all time.
Are they still doing meet and greets now? I know James stopped doing them for a bit, but I thought once they started straight up selling them, he was at them. I know the disclaimer on them says all members might not attend, but pretty sure that was a "just in case" thing, but the norm before covid was that they were all there, usually.
Edit: So, it looks like maybe they officially said it during 2020 that he wouldn't be doing them. So, I wonder if he stopped after his return to rehab at the end of 2019. Before that, you can find people saying he doesn't, but others comment say he was at their meet and greets.
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