The power of metal

After 23 years, Metallica still rules the hard-rock world

By Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Popular Music Writer

Metal is a world of chaos, turbulence and insanity.

And we're not just talking about the screaming guitar solos.

Metal's a cruel, tough way to go. Just ask Metallica, a band going at it for nearly 2 1/2 decades. The band came out blazing, jacking the tomfoolery of their hair-band peers and instead approaching the music from a no-nonsense, punk-driven, Motorhead-inspired angle.

After conquering the metal world and sitting atop it for two decades, it nearly fell apart in 2002 and barely got out their most recent record, last year's "St. Anger." And although it's far from Metallica's best work, it's still the most relevant metal act making music today.

"We're the only band you can go to to get this sound," lead guitarist Kirk Hammett said recently. "More than 20 years into it, and our songs still seem fresh to a lot of people."

It's still fresh, and the thirst is still insatiable.

Metallica is easily one of the best-selling hard-rock acts of all time, and although it lost money on last year's Summer Sanitarium Tour, which played stadiums including Invesco Field at Mile High, the current arena tour playing the Pepsi Center on Wednesday is selling well, Hammett said.

And it should sell out, says Matthew Donahue, because it would be impossible to find a more influential hard-rock band still playing.

"From their first record, their early recordings to the present, they've established themselves as the premiere heavy-metal group in the U.S., and their popularity is a worldwide phenomenon," said Donahue, a Metallica fan and a professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

"From a musical standpoint of heavy metal, Black Sabbath and Motorhead are the two major influences on Metallica," he said. "But in the end, Metallica's as big as an influence today as both of those bands ever were."

A metal act rocking consistently for more than 23 years is quite an accomplishment, especially when mainstream backing for most acts fell away in the mid-'90s. Fan support wavered, as many defected to grunge. Many metal acts suddenly seemed grossly outdated due to their music, style and wardrobe.

Metallica combated this in 1996, releasing the more pop-melodic "Load" and chopping off their hair. Suddenly they were ready for their non-"Headbangers Ball" close-up, and while it clicked with some fans, it didn't work for others. The image stayed, but the music regained its harder edge.

Fan support truly waned in 2000 when Metallica went after Napster and illegal file-sharers everywhere. It seemed the everyman band was jacking the everyman, and it started a downward spiral that lasted two years.

In 2001, bassist Jason Newsted left the band. Singer James Hetfield was going to take on the bass duties on the following album but checked into rehab for alcoholism and other addictions. The process nearly took down Metallica.

"I really didn't think we'd be able to put out an album with Jason leaving, the whole Napster thing, James off to rehab for six to eight months and him rethinking his whole role in the band," Hammett said.

The two years are chronicled in the documentary "Some Kind of Monster," which has played film festivals from Sundance to South by Southwest and may earn a theatrical release. The film is "as accurate as it can be when you put two years into two hours," Hammett said, and it's also an excellent look into a band in flux - the heavier version of the Wilco doc "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart."

"I definitely didn't see us here," Hammett said. "I thought we were headed toward the bargain bin."

Instead they're headlining arenas. They settled "the Napster thing" out of court ("But we still feel the way we feel," said Hammett), and Hetfield is recovering from his addiction issues. Solidarity is again being built, and even though "St. Anger" hasn't sold so well, it was a necessary part of the band's rebuilding.

"This album is so important to us," Hammett said. "It's so intimate and honest and such a band collaboration. We took a pretty risky approach, and now we're much more closer as a band."

Perhaps more impressive after 23 years is that the fans still respond to their music.

Bowling Green's Donahue said the band's longevity derives from it being a leader and not a follower. "You have this notion of the innovator and the imitators," Donahue said, "and the innovator is the one who has the long-lasting, enduring career. Then you have the imitators, a lot of groups making music that's similar to what Metallica are doing."

Not that Metallica was wholly original when it surfaced in 1981. But it was certainly fresh, its arrival heralding a new day for metal.

Some are saying the same thing in the past six months with the stateside arrival of The Darkness - Nu Queen, if you will. The Darkness is making delicious glam metal music that is sweeping MTV with kitschy hooks and sequined outfits. But The Darkness isn't starting a metal revolution, nor is it bringing back the glam. It's just great metal-infused pop music that pays homage (and owes everything) to Freddie Mercury. It's little more than a reason for hipsters to appear ironic and retro.

That's not to say that metal won't be brought back in vogue by another band.

"Every style of popular music will go through a resurgence," Donahue said. "There will be a major peak and then a downside where it goes underground and then a major resurgence. Often (the resurgence) can be attributed to new groups coming out, bringing their own sense of innovation to the style.

"And that's what Metallica did. They brought their own innovation to hard rock/heavy metal in the beginning stages of their career, and their sound offended many of the hair bands in the 1980s. Their sound was raw. It wasn't the primping and the flashy clothes - it was almost like punk rock."

Hammett looks back on his band's roots with a sincere appreciation for his inspirations, as outdated as they may seem.

"You look at Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and it's a trip to see bands that were big influences on us and not relevant anymore."

And all those bands influenced Metallica?

"Well," he pondered carefully, "all of them except for Bon Jovi."

From: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~28704~2039213,00.html