Metallica

The thrash-metal rule breakers who blew up the Eighties hard-rock scene and went on to become one of the biggest bands in the world

By KORY GROW

MustHaves

Ride the Lightning

1984 The speed-metal fury of Metallica’s debut, Kill ‘Em All, made them underground heroes, but they sealed thei r legacy on Ride the Lightning. Although heshers called them sellouts for playing below 220 bpm, the band proved i ts versati li ty wi th a tender song about suicide (“Fade to Black”), the devastating “For Whom the Bell Tolls, ” which marched along steadi ly enough that you could actually hear i ts crunching rifs, and the bibli cally apocalyptic “Creeping Death. ” Metallica made room for melody too, and Ki rk Hammett’s gui tar solos became a beacon for the band, especially on the closing “The Call of Ktulu. ”

Further Listening

Master of Puppets

1986 Metallica’s thi rd album is thrash-metal perfection, from the galloping aggression of “Battery” to the pi le-driving pummel of “Damage, Inc. ” James Hetfield rai ls against drug addiction (“Master of Puppets”), war (“Disposable Heroes”), greedy televangelists (“Leper Messiah”), and Lovecraftian monsters (“The Thing That Should Not Be”). But what’s hugely impressive is how each tune is i ts own mini -symphony wi th spi raling, ornate rifs, and finger-breaking solos. There are also moments of true heart, such as Hetfield’s arresting descent into madness on “Welcome Home (Sani tarium), ” and dearly departed bassist Clif Burton’s intricate melodies on the instrumental “Orion. ”

Hammett, Burton, Ulrich, and Hetfield (clockwise from top left) ci rca 1986

...And Justice for All

1988 Metallica’s commercial breakthrough is also thei r most uncompromising album — nine bleak, brutal progressive-thrash odysseys about poli tical corruption (the ti tle track), nuclear war (“Blackened”), state-sponsored censorship (“Eye of the Beholder”), and coldblooded parents (the album’s best song, “Dyers Eve”). Its most harrowing track, “One” — a torturously slow depiction of a quadriplegic soldier praying for death — was an unlikely breakout hi t, propelling the band into arenas. “We were fi ring on all cylinders, ” bassist Jason Newsted said. “Once the ‘One’video came out, we were ready for i t, and the world was ready for Metallica. ”

Metallica

1991 After seeing concertgoers zone out during the seventh or eighth minute of thei r Justice epics, Metallica tightened things up wi th Mötley Crüe producer Bob Rock. The result was the Black Album, thei r bestselling record of the past three decades. “Enter Sandman” was a gutsy, stadium-size anthem that bands have been trying to copy for decades. Metallica channeled spaghetti -Western panache on “The Unforgiven, ” Zeppelin-like mysticism on “Wherever I May Roam, ” and West Side Story flare (li terally) on “Don’t Tread on Me. ” The album also contained the band’s fi rst full-on ballad, “Nothing Else Matters, ” later covered by artists ranging from Shaki ra to Mi ley Cyrus.

Ki ll ‘Em All

1983 The band’s debut was the perfect fusion of punk animosi ty and metal precision. Its back cover showed four pimply, chi ll-looking dudes, but the album’s 10 songs (many co-wri tten wi th Dave Mustaine, before he left to form Megadeth) are all pure visceral attack. They laid out thei r headbanging vision on “Whiplash” : “Li fe out here is raw/ But we’ll never stop, we’ll never qui t/’Cause we’re Metallica. ”

Live Shit: Binge & Purge

1993 For years, this CD/VHS (later DVD) box set was the band’s go-to live document. The two three-hour Black Album-era gigs capture the sheer, steamrolling might of “Sad but True” and “Sandman, ” whi le the video of a 1989 Seattle gig from the Justice tour shows a moment when Metallica’s early punkish atti tude crisscrossed wi th the rush of playing arenas.

Reload

1997 On 1996’s Load, Metallica shocked fans wi th a post-grunge sound and, wei rder sti ll, short hai r. This set of outtakes from the album actually sounds more comfortable than the original. “Carpe Diem Baby” is an under-

appreciated peak, whi le “The Memory Remains” pai red them wi th Marianne Fai thfull in all her wi tch-voiced glory.

Garage Inc.

1998 Metallica always had great taste in covers, and they showed that of here, charging through songs by artists from the new wave of Bri tish heavy metal like Bli tzkrieg and Sweet Savage, goth crooner Nick Cave, rock heroes Queen, and hardcore punks the Misfi ts. Thei r version of “Am I Evi l?, ” by U.K. cult metal heroes Diamond Head, has long been a frequent Metallica encore. FURTHER VIEWING

Some Kind of Monster, 2004

One of the all-time most revealing music docs, Some Kind of Monster captured Metallica on the brink of implosion, as James Hetfield went to rehab, bassist Jason Newsted qui t, and the remaining members met wi th a therapist to parse thei r diferences. There are plenty of cringy moments (Lars Ulrich making peace wi th a teary-eyed Dave Mustaine), but i t’s also a document of how the band saved i tself.

mostly came through in the music. Thrash was out. In i ts place, Metallica attempted brooding alt-rock (“Unti l It Sleeps”), upli fting pop rock (“Hero of the Day”), and slowchurning doom (“The Outlaw Torn”) — all fine, but a pale reflection of past glory. LPs, the fact that the band was disintegrating behind the scenes sent them into disarray. The result is a lot of therapy-speak (“My li festyle determines my deathstyle”) and even more noisy confusion.

Hardwired...to Self-Destruct

2016 On 2008’s Death Magnetic, producer Rick Rubin pushed the band to return to the sound of Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning. That introspection bore even better frui t here, from the furious tumult of “Hardwi red” to “Spi t Out the Bone, ” thei r best speed-metal symphony since the Black Album.

Going Deeper

S&M and S&M2

1999, 2020 At the suggestion of composer Michael Kamen, who had orchestrated “Nothing Else Matters, ” the band teamed wi th the San Francisco Symphony to add cinematic strings and elephantine horns to some of thei r more orchestrally inclined tracks. The best of these is “No Leaf Clover” wi th i ts eerie “freight train coming your way” refrain, speci fically wri tten for S&M.

Death Magnetic

2008 Spurred on by the “go back to your roots” mantra of producer Rick Rubin, the band unloaded the pretenses and sounded like Metallica again on Death Magnetic. They brought back the stacked rifs of Justice on “Broken, Beat & Scarred” and “My Apocalypse, ” and the swagger of the Black Album on “All Nightmare Long” and “The Judas Kiss. ” Even “The Unforgiven III” felt like a worthy sequel. Plus, Hammett was playing solos again.

Lulu

2011 Metallica’s contributions to this collaboration wi th Lou Reed are chaotic, crushing, and at many times, beauti ful. It’s arty and experimental (and, yes, Reed got Hetfield to growl, “I am the table, ” on “The View”). But at i ts core, i t was a Reed solo record and an experience in experimentalism for Metallica.

More Rifs

Forgotten gems, B sides, rarities

“HIT THE LIGHTS”

MetalMassacre, 1982 A messy homage to Bri tish heavy metal (credi ted to “Mettallica”) the band’s fi rst-ever recording sports a jazzy, unwieldy solo by early gui tarist Lloyd Grant.

“THE MECHANIX”

No Li fe ‘TilLeather demo, 1982 Metallica later retrofi tted this gri tty Dave Mustaine song about a letchy gas jockey and rebranded i t “The Four Horsemen. ”

“NOTHING ELSE MATTERS (ELEVATOR VERSION)”

“Sad but True” single, 1993 The same recording as the Black Album hi t but wi thout electric gui tar or drums, i t relies instead on Hetfield’s intensi ty and Michael Kamen’s orchestrations.

“ONLY HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS”

Unreleased, 2007 Hetfield somehow squeezed even more pathos from Garbage’s synth-pop lament by turning i t into a moody acoustic rumination.

“WHITE LIGHT, WHITE HEAT”

Unreleased, 2009 Metallica and Lou Reed found enough common ground in thei r run-through of the Velvet Underground’s proto-metal bruiser to inspi re Lulu.

“AM I EVIL?”

The Big Four: Live From Sofia, Bulgaria, 2010 Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax jam on a Diamond Head classic — and Dave Mustaine buries the hatchet wi th his estranged bandmates.

“DIARY OF A MADMAN”

Unreleased, 2014 Wi th former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rob Truji llo now in thei r ranks, Metallica performed a fiery acoustic rendi tion of one of Ozzy’s best songs.

“DISPOSABLE HEROES”

Helping Hands...Live & Acoustic at the Masonic, 2019 Metallica recast one of Puppets’ hardest-hi tting songs as a Zeppelinesque folk-song odyssey.

“ENTER SANDMAN”

Helping Hands...Live & Acoustic at the Masonic, 2019 Metallica turn thei r signature hi t into an eerie cowboy ghost song, à la Johnny Cash, complete wi th steel gui tar.

On tour in 1984

Load

1996 After grunge transformed hard rock, Metallica trimmed thei r manes, painted thei r fingernai ls, and even kissed one another in photos. But thei r confusion

St. Anger

2003 An attempt at minimalism wi th maximum force, St. Anger is Metallica’s rawest record — pure Hetfieldian i re, a total dearth of gui tar solos, and Lars Ulrich cudgeling a hubcap like i t owed him money. And whi le that cocktai l could have made for Metallica’s metal redemption after the Load Check out Rolling Stone .com for a definitive Metallica playlist.

WATCH LIST

What to stream, what to skip this month

TRUE ROMANTIC

The Pursuit of Love

NETWORK Amazon Prime Video

AIR DATE 4

July 30th

Emi ly Mortimer plays a small role in this adaptation of Nancy Mi tford’s novel, set between the two world wars, as the wayward mother of the story’s narrator, the responsible young Fanny (Emi ly Beecham). But Mortimer’s more important work takes place behind the camera, where she has turned her di rectorial debut into a joyful coming-of-age tale, which at times feels as i f Wes Anderson had been hi red to make a Masterpiece Theatre miniseries. Li ly James plays our adventurous heroine (and Fanny’s cousin), Linda, whose unwavering belief in the existence of true love is both her greatest strength and her biggest weakness. Mortimer stages each scene wi th verve, getting lively performances from the whole cast. (Dominic West is particularly funny as Linda’s rich, xenophobic father.) The energy flags a bi t near the end, but most of the time, Pursuit lives up to Fanny’s description of Linda as a woman who “lived in a world of superlatives. ”

SONG AND DANCE

Schmigadoon!

NETWORK

AIR DATE 3

Apple TV+ July 16th

“You know how much I hate musicals. People don’t just burst into song in real li fe, ” complains Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) to gi rlfriend Melissa (Ceci ly Strong). Unfortunately for Josh, he and Melissa find themselves trapped in a magical li ttle town that mashes up elements of classic musicals like Carousel and, of course, Brigadoon — including the way that the locals burst into song at the drop of a hat. Schmigadoon! is meant to both spoof and pay loving tribute to show tunes, but only sometimes gets that tricky balance right. Many of the songs

Strong (left) and Key

are practically note-for-note copies of thei r inspi rations. Whi le i t’s amusing for OB-GYN Melissa to teach a woman about sex to a sound-alike version of The Sound of Music’s “Do-Re-Mi , ” when busybody Mi ldred (Kristen Chenoweth) dives into a pastiche of “Ya Got Trouble” from The Music Man, i t wi ll mostly leave you wanting to see Chenoweth play Harold Hi ll. Strong and the actors playing the townsfolk (including Alan Cumming, Aaron Tvei t, Dove Cameron, Fred Armisen, and Jaime Cami l) throw themselves wholeheartedly into the songs and goofy tone, but having Josh perpetually complain about the place (“It’s like i f The Walking Dead was also Glee”) undercuts the fun behind the premise, suggesting you need to love musicals way more than he does to get full enjoyment.

James is looking for love in mostly the wrong places.

GIRL GONE WILD

Kevin Can F**k Himself

NETWORK

AIR DATE 3

AMC Sundays at 9 p.m.

Everyone’s made fun of all those si tcoms where an oafish man has a beauti ful, impossibly patient wi fe. This hybrid series takes those jokes to thei r dark conclusion by considering just how sad the lives of those women must be. Parts of Kevin are presented as a brightly li t si tcom wi th a loud laugh track, where Allison (Annie Murphy) endures the juveni le idiocy of husband Kevin (Eric Petersen) through false cheer and limp punchlines. Most of i t, though, is a drama about Allison and her neighbor Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden) starting to recognize, and fight back against, the damage that losers like Kevin do to them. Murphy sparkles in a messier role than Alexis on Schitt’s Creek. The show

as a whole is a fascinating but limi ted piece of meta commentary: It’s unsettling to see the kind of emotional damage that si tcom hijinks would do to a real person, though after a whi le, you won’t want to be in i ts fake si tcom world any more than Allison does. A.S.

Murphy gets mad. EXTREME MAKEOVERS

The Twist We Didn’t See Coming

Season Two of OWN’s excellent David Makes Man (Tuesdays at 9 p.m.) leaps i ts ti tle character from middle schoolto his thirties. It’s a radicalshi ft, but far from the only show to reinvent i tself between outings.

The Wire

HBO 2002-08 Viewers were startled to find Season Two focusing not on the same inner-ci ty drug crew, but a group of corrupt (and mostly whi te) stevedores at the Baltimore docks. The remaining seasons would embed in other parts of town, including Ci ty Hall, a school, and the Sun newsroom.

Weeds

Showtime 2005-12 After the thi rdseason finale burned down the placid suburb where Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) dealt pot, later installments took her and her kids around the country for increasingly dark adventures involving drug cartels, murder, and Big Pharma.

Archer

FX 2009-Present The animated spy comedy reti tled i ts fi fth season Archer Vice, as Sterling focused on selling cocaine after his agency was disbanded. And when Archer was shot at the end of Season Seven, the show’s next three years featured coma fantasies in which he worked as a fi lm-noi r-style gumshoe, an adventure-seeking Thi rties pi lot, and a spaceship captain.

Baywatch Nights

Syndicated 1995-97 Few seemed interested in this Baywatch spinof where David Hasselhof played a hard-boi led private eye when he wasn’t busy li feguarding. So the second season tried and fai led to cash in on the populari ty of The X-Files, wi th Mi tch Buchannon and friends (including a young Angie Harmon!) investigating monsters, aliens, and other paranormal mysteries. A.S.