Standard Issue: Metallica
Image by FFP.
Ten essential tracks from the elders of thrash.
Black Sabbath and Queen gave birth to heavy metal as the psychedelic wave of the sixties broke against the banks of the 1970’s. Acid tabs and three-finger-lids were replaced by lines of cocaine, quaaludes, and disco; but the arena venues of the world began to seethe. The undulation of hard rock became tempered against an anvil of music that refused to twirl on the night club dance floor. The heavy metal sound penetrated the minds of those who could not sit still in schools across the world, corrupting the hearts and minds of daredevils and outcasts.
Metallica was founded in 1981 with James Hetfield on rhythm guitar, Dave Mustaine on lead guitar, Lars Ulrich on drums, and Cliff Burton on bass. Lars Ulrich wanted to start a metal band so badly that he didn’t even know how to play the drums when he assembled Hetfield, Mustaine, and Burton — he just wanted to rock. Their namesake was lifted from a hard rock fanzine that was circulating around San Francisco in the early eighties, and the rest is history. The band has become synonymous with the heavy metal genre and for good reason; Metallica, along with Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth, founded the thrash metal subgenre and have continued to wave the flag of heavy metal for over forty years. The heavy metal tribe has many members, but only a handful of elders — Metallica is one the of the greatest heavy metal bands that has ever existed, and here is why…
10.
Song: “Disposable Heroes”
Album: Master of Puppets (1986)
“Bodies fill the fields I see, hungry heroes end
No one to play soldier now, no one to pretend
Running blind through killing fields, bred to kill them all
Victim of what said should be, a servant ‘till I fall”
War…war never changes. Metallica love exploring the futility and brutality of armed conflict. Disposable Heroes remains one of their best — a requiem of a battle fought at the cost of an expendable commodity, life. The 1986 album Master of Puppets is a colossal entry into the book of heavy metal, and there are few bands that have come close to replicating its black magic.
Hetfield opens the song with his unrivaled downstroke palm mute; absolutely cranking his unmistakable heavy metal tone. The entire song is a frantic flurry of monstrous tones slathered in wonderfully distorted layers — a necessary evil for the budding head banger.
Hetfield in front of a small crowd.
9.
Song: “The Call of Ktulu”
Album: Ride the Lightning (1984)
*Instrumental*
When you pilot a giant mechanized robot through a war-torn metropolis, grinding rusted cars into dust between your ten-ton heel and cracked asphalt, only a few songs should be playing: “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees, “Fire Water Burn” from Bloodhound Gang, and Metallica’s “The “Call of Ktulu”.
The song begins with a wonderfully evil clean guitar. Meticulously picked notes rise and fall across the fretboard like a handful of broken glass. A wonderfully melancholic scale draws you closer to the eye of a tornado as the bass line slides under it all. Distorted palm mutes light the fuse of the atomic bomb before you. A wall of heavy metal mayhem crashes against your ear drum, rupturing it completely. The lead guitar slaps melancholy melodies across your face before a wall of distorted rhythms slams you into the ground. A masterfully decadent conflagration of drum and bass, rhythm and lead — the devil himself could not command a more foreboding melody.
8.
Song: “Damage Inc.”
Album: Master of Puppets (1986)
“Slamming through, don’t fuck with razorback
Stepping out you’ll feel our hell on your back
Blood follows blood and we make sure
Life ain’t for you and we’re the cure”
A rare musical track that can leave you with a busted jaw. “Damage Inc.” is what will blast through the headsets of tank drivers in World War III. After a minute and nineteen seconds of banshee squelches and dive-bombing guitar tones, the wrath that is Metallica’s finest ode to mayhem and pain is released. There are many ominous songs out there, but none hit harder than “Damage Inc.” The entire first half of the song is basically a warning shot across your bow; the cock-eyed glance from a bouncer three times your size with a six-inch scar across his cheek — that grizzled mover wearing a shirt that says, “Don’t Fuck with Mr. Zero.”
At the 3:16 mark, the talent that is James Hetfield shines brightly. Dimebag Darrel of Pantera wrote an article in Guitar One magazine that heralded Hetfield for his uncanny ability to strike the perfect tone with his palm muted notes. The riff that follows is magic, pure uncut coke; that magical feeling when the drip reaches the back of your throat. The onslaught of that mesmerizing riff comes to an end with a blistering solo from Kirk Hammet. A frantic frenzy of furious notes that could raise Stalin back from the dead long enough to put a slug from a .45 through his skull.
7.
Song: “The Outlaw Torn”
Album: Load (1996)
“You make me smash the clock and feel
I’d rather die behind the wheel
Time was never on my side
So on I wait my whole lifetime”
Metallica’s 1996 album is largely forgotten, but they can’t all be zingers. “The Outlaw Torn” is one of many exceptions on the album. A seamless fusion of hard rock and blues guitar riffs; perfectly altered in Metallica’s uncompromising style. It is a grand departure from the sound established by “Ride the Lightning” and “Master of Puppets”, but you want that in your favorite band. They can’t languish in the same old sound; they need to spread their wings and fly as close to the sun as possible.
The album is filled with songs that are almost as hard as the coffin nail bangers of Metallica’s early 1980’s albums, but they were pulled out of the forge a little earlier than usual. The result is a record that delivers the same pulse-pounding rhythms in a package that is both familiar and foreign; a renewed listening experience for the diehard fan and newcomer alike.
6.
Song: “Wherever I May Roam”
Album: Metallica (1991)
“And the Earth becomes my throne
I adapt to the unknown
Under wandering stars I’ve grown
By myself but not alone
I ask no one”
A sultry Middle-Eastern acoustic riff rings out in a coating of thick reverb before exploding alongside the snare drum. The entire song is lifted into the air with an ascending scale of thick distortion-laden guitar and bass. A push and pull effect is created between palm muted riffs and the rhythm section, creating a theme throughout the song that keeps your head banging and your devil horns in the air.
Kirk Hammet shines on lead guitar with a blistering solo at the 4:15 mark. It is nothing short of modern metal magic. His intonation, pitch, and bite on the strings are mesmerizing and emulated throughout the worlds of hard rock and metal, from Trivium, Godsmack, and Avenged Sevenfold. “Wherever I May Roam” is the anthem for all rogues and outliers, a chant that every motorcycle gang has playing through their hearts and minds.
James Hetfield 1983.
5.
Song: “Whiskey in the Jar”
Album: Garage Inc. (1998)
“Being drunk and weary
I went to Molly’s chamber
Takin’ Molly with me
But I never knew the danger
For about six or maybe seven
Yeah, in walked Captain Farrell
I jumped up, fired my pistols
and I shot him with both barrels”
Proper musical acts worth their salt will always cover songs they love. “Whiskey in the Jar” is a classic Irish song about a cut throat betrayed by his lover. The theme of which is pitch perfect for a band like Metallica. The song is more of a hard rock ballad with overtones of metal phrasing and riffs, but the heart and soul remain intact.
Metallica are not the first to cover this iconic song. Even Burl Ives had a crack at it; but the energy of this version is unmistakable. There is something wonderfully abrasive about Hetfield’s vocals mixed with his group’s modern sound, the combination bites hard and goes down smooth like three fingers of Midleton after a bare-knuckle boxing match. Skipping over this track is a frightful sin that no Metallica fan should ever stand for.
4.
Song: “One”
Album: …And Justice for All (1988)
“Fed through this tube that stick in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me”
Directly inspired by Dalton Trumbo’s anti-war novel, Johnny Got His Gun, “One” is nothing short of gut wrenching. A solemn acoustic ballad opens the doors to one of the most dynamic tracks that Metallica will ever create. The tone of the entire …And Justice for All album scooped to hell and back; the bass and treble are turned up to 11 while the mid-range is floored to the basement. The result is an uncompromising sound that allows every palm muted, machine gun riff to collide against your supple eardrum like a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant.
The song comes alive at the 3:52 mark, when both Hetfield and Hammet support the song with a synchronized interlude that paves the way for Ulrich’s double-bass assault. The 4:35 mark draws together the entire band in an arpeggiated palm-muted frenzy that could raise Vivaldi from the dead with a sugar skull smile. Over the next three minutes Metallica demonstrates why they are one of the greatest heavy metal bands to ever exist. The remainder of the track is a wondrous onslaught that caresses the senses like a thousand planes carpet bombing a football field. No quarter will be asked, nor given.
3.
Song: “Ride the Lightning”
Album: Ride the Lightning (1984)
“Flash before my eyes
Now it’s time to die
Burning in my brain
I can feel the pain”
Forty years ago, Metallica broke through the veil that separates flash-in-the-pan acts with legendary performers. “Ride the Lightning” represents the graduation of talents that Metallica’s original lineup fostered through years of club touring. They were ready for stadiums the second this album was pressed into vinyl.
Metallica’s sound is raw, fresher than a blue steak from a blood-soaked butcher. Hetfield’s hallowed vocals are thickened with a precise amount of 1980’s reverb, taking any listener back to the decade of high-tops, cocaine, and smoke-filled venues. 2:45 marks the crescendo of Hetfield and Dave Mustaine’s final contributions to the lead guitar tracks. Hammet would succeed Mustaine, but “Ride the Lightning” is the way it is because of Megadeth’s future founder. No other metal song hits as hard, and that is because few tracks will ever have been woven by such masterful talent; required listening for any metal head.
2.
Song: “Moth Into Flame”
Album: Hardwired…To Self-Destruct (2016)
“Guarantee your name, you go and kill yourself
The vultures feast around you still
Overdose on shame and insecurity
If one won’t do, that fistful will”
Metallica fans will agree, St. Anger never happened, and Rick Rubin tried his best with Death Magnetic; but Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is a chaotic throwback that honors every fiber of Metallica’s being. If Ride the Lightning had a son, it would be this 2016 album. It is nothing short of amazing that a band that has been around for almost fifty years, a pioneer of the genre, is still able to churn out amazing heavy metal songs.
Every Metallica fan needs to stow their apprehension for new Metallica music, and give Hardwired…To Self-Destruct the same time and attention they devoted to the band’s first five albums. Metallica is back with a vengeance and though this is not their most recent album, it is without a doubt proof that this iconic band never lost what made them famous in the first place.
Hetfield and Gaga.
1.
Song: “Seek and Destroy”
Album: Kill ’Em All
“There is no escape and that is for sure
This is the end we won’t take any more
Say goodbye to the world you live in
You have always been taking
But now you’re giving”
The first true heavy metal album hits harder than a semi-truck, and is worthy of the head-banging Gods Randy Rhoads, and the Abbott brothers. Hetfield and Mustaine are front and center, delivering a sonic assault that tears away at your inner ear. The iconic riff snakes its way in and out of your soul, suturing its melody to your Id. Not many metal songs are able to take you away to a different decade, but “Seek and Destroy” does exactly this.
From the moment you push play, to the second it ends, “Seek and Destroy” delivers an unrelenting assault of metal mayhem that cannot be replicated. Modern heavy metal bands like Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, along with iconic acts like Pantera and Testament have all drawn their inspiration from the well that Metallica drilled. There are heavy metal artists and then there is Metallica, and this list proves why a distinction even exists.
Metallica — Left to Right: Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett.