Artist Feature: Metallica - Turn the Page

Echobrain - Brian Sagrafena, Dylan Donkin, Jason Newsted

The period following the release of S & M was to be a stark contradiction to the relatively trouble-free time Metallica had had riding the wave of their success. Jason Newsted formally announced his departure from Metallica on January 17^th 2001. In an interview with Playboy Magazine, Newsted stated his reasons for leaving as: “private and personal reasons, and the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love.” At this stage Newsted was heavily involved with his side project Echobrain and was on the verge of releasing an album. Patriarch of Metallica, James Hetfield, was sided against the idea saying; “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". Hetfield made a compelling argument by posing questions such as, "Where would it end? Does he start touring with it? Does he sell shirts? Is it his band?”. The tiff between Hetfield and Newsted had started back in 1987 when Newsted joined the band to replace the late, great bassist Cliff Burton and the Echobrain project seemed to have poured fuel on the fire

Adding insult to injury, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky had started following Metallica in April 2001 to document their recording process for a feature length documentary of the band, entitled Some Kind Of Monster. The documentary came at the worst possible time for Metallica, what with losing their bassist, hiring a psychotherapist, Dave Mustain being back in the picture, a very expensive lease at a recording studio, Bob Rock on the payroll again and James Hetfield entering rehab...

Let me unpack that a little: Metallica had leased The Presidio in San Francisco –  an ex-army barracks which was turned into a stark, spartan studio. For the recording of the new album Bob Rock [often referred to - almost mockingly - as "the fifth member of Metallica"] had once again been hired to sit behind the mixing desk. The problem was, with a studio and a producer ready to go, Metallica had no bassist, and no songs to record. In Some Kind Of Monster, Hetfield and Ulrich admit that they had walked into The Presidio without so much as a riff or even a concept for the disk. At the very same time, James, the creative driving force, was battling with “alcoholism and other dependencies” and would enter rehab on 19 July 2001, leaving no commitments as to when, or even, if he would ever return! This left the colossal machine of Metallica whittled down to 2 members – Ulrich & Hammet. Looking toward the future with uncertainty, it was decided that a therapist would be brought in to council the band through the turbulent time they were experiencing. Jason Newsted shared his feelings on the situation: “At that time, the managers suggested that we have a psychotherapist come in. A man that meets with pro ball teams, you know - big-ego, big-dollar guys that can't get along, but have to make some kind of entity flow, so everybody else and everybody can make the money. And, uh, I actually said, "I think that this is really fucking lame that we cannot get together. Us! Look - the biggest heavy band of all time! The things we've been through and decisions we've made... about squillions of dollars and squillions of people... and this? We can't get over this?"

Dave Mustaine - douchebag!

Part of the ‘therapy’ was for the remaining members to meet with ex-guitarist Dave Mustain. In a teary interview Mustain lashes out at Ulrich – his “little Danish friend” – challenging Lars on the difficulties he, and Megadeth faced being number 2 to Metallica for 20-odd years. [Boo-fucking-Hoo, Dave. Stop crying over spilled beer – you got kicked out because you could barely function through the alcohol induced haze you drank yourself into, Douchebag!]

Anyway, back to the point. Metallica was without a front man with no indication of any betterment to that situation. They had lost their 14-year serving bassist. Their ex-guitarist put the remaining members on a guilt trip. They had a foreign intruder psychoanalyzing their every move. The hellish producer who had upset the applecart for the 'Black' album’s recordings waiting for them in an uncomfortable, barren studio – all with a plethora of cameras and microphones just waiting to capture every weak and wavering moment for the world to see. Truly a turbulent time for the rockers.

After spending time deliberately separated from his bandmates, Hetfield returned to his duties in April 2002. During his time away, the lease at The Presidio was given up and all the equipment moved to Metallica’s new facility - HQ Studios. Part of Hetfield’s recovery was to cut down on his working hours to enable him to spend more time with his family. Resultantly, James would only be available to work between 12:00 and 16:00. This again caused ructions in the ranks with Hetfield feeling that he would walk into a pre-determined, set idea if he allowed Rock and Ulrich to work on the recordings “after hours”. This argument came to a head (as documented in Some Kind of Monster) with “little” Lars screaming “FUUUUUUUCK!!!” right in Hetfield’s face – very courageous indeed.

With the therapist standing in the flanks, and Bob Rock on bass duties, the new album’s recordings finally got underway again, and once the ball got rolling this time, there was no stopping it. James’ return in April gave the band the fire they needed to carry on. The new album, entitled St. Anger was released on June 05, 2003 and was met with mixed reviews. To my mind this is Metallica’s weakest album to date. The album sounds like 4 guys in a garage, recording their demo with an old tape recorder. [Which was apparently the point?]. St. Anger is raw, its emotional, it fierce and passionate but it’s still crap! There are no guitar solo’s from Kirk, James’ lyrics are far departed from social commentary and focus more on his recovery issues, Ulrich sounds as if he’s banging on a steel toilet bowl in the bathroom and, with no specialist bassist, the songs just fall flat. Despite all this, St. Anger is still a Metallica album, and the loyalty of their fans is evident when you consider that the album sold 650,000 copies in its first week on the shelves and has since gone Platinum two times over.

Robert Trujillo

Only once the recording was completed did Metallica start the search for a bassist to replace Jason Newsted. This was far removed from the last time they needed a bassist where auditions started the day after Cliff’s funeral. Auditions kicked-off early in 2003 and saw some of the biggest names in music competing for a spot in this prestigious line-up. Awesome players like Jeordie White (a.k.a Twiggy Ramirez) from Marilyn Manson and A Perfect Circle fame, Pepper Keenan from Corrosion of Conformity, Chris Wyse of The Cult, Eric Avery who played with Alanis Morisette and Jane’s Addiction and Danny Lohner from Nine Inch Nails were all called upon for a live audition with the band – a harrowing experience I’m sure. In the end the coveted spot fell to scary-as-hell, ex- Ozzy Osborne and Suicidal Tendencies bassist extraordinaire, Robert Trujillo. Rob impressed from the start with his speed while playing with his fingers only (ala Cliff Burton) and what Lars described as a “pretty fuckin’ amazing bass sound...” As a show of good faith, Metallica offered Trujillo a million dollars up-front, and a fully encompassing deal that would see him earn a 25% share in all future Metallica projects. Schweet!

Godsmack

As per usual, Metallica embarked on a world tour in support of their latest offering playing with some of the biggest names in metal. The 2003 Summer Sanitarium tour saw them supported by Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Deftones and Mudvayne. The following Madly in Anger with the World tour had Metallica share the stage with two of my favourites, Godsmack and Slipknot until late 2004. An interesting fact is that the St. Anger songs quickly disappeared from the live performance setlist. Some of the songs were played live, but in an altered state, some were shortened and others had the addition of guitar solo’s - but by 2008, none of the St. Anger songs formed part of the live shows – the only one of the 8 albums not to have a single song on the playlist.

In keeping with their legendary reputation of churning out songs like a machine whose sole purpose is to spew forth riot-enticing metal, Metallica would once again return to the studio in 2007.

This time, off the back of yet another successful world tour (their 7^th to date), the band had all their proverbial ducks in a row: The new bassist had been playing with the band live for 5 years, they finally sacked Bob Rock and replaced him with world-renowned rock producer Rick Rubin. [Rubin has worked with the who’s who in rock and metal. Names like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Mick Jagger, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down and Audioslave feature on his “hit-list”]. It seems the planets once again aligned for the production of a new Metallica album.

Hetfield had dropped hints from as early as 2004 that the band was working on new material during their studio jam sessions and by the time the tour ended, Metallica had already compiled almost 50 hours of recorded sessions, riffs, beats and bass lines. By 2006 Ulrich mentioned in an interview that they had 6 to 8 songs recorded (without vocals) and that the band was getting along much better in the studio than they were with the St. Anger recordings In April 2007 the boys got together to put the final touches on the next epic from these legends.

The new album would see Metallica return to their tried and trusted recipe of writing and shaping songs to completion before recording them. The band was also full of praise for Rubin, with Lars saying Rubin did not want them to start the actual recording until every song was as close to 100 percent perfect as possible. Lars said of Rubin’s recording process: “Rick's big thing is to kind of have all these songs completely embedded in our bodies and basically next Monday, on D-Day, just go in and execute them. So you leave the creative element of the process out of the recording, so you go in and basically just record a bunch of songs that you know inside out and upside down, and you don't have to spend too much of your energy in the recording studio creating and thinking and analyzing and doing all that stuff. His whole analogy is, the recording process becomes more like a gig — just going in and playing and leaving all the thinking at the door.”

All is well in the 'Tallica camp

The title of the Album, Death Magnetic, is a reference to other musicians who had fallen within the industry, said Hetfield. “...thinking about death… some people are drawn towards it, and just like a magnet, and other people are afraid of it and push. Also the concept that we're all gonna die sometimes is over-talked about and then a lot of times never talked about — no one wants to bring it up; it's the big white elephant in the living room. But we all have to deal with it at some point.”

The release date of Death Magnetic was announced to be 12 September 2008, but a French record store started selling copies 10 days ahead of schedule on September 2^nd. The result was that the album quickly went viral on peer-to-peer networks, and everyone was expecting a repeat of the Napster debacle. However, Lars Ulrich, who spearheaded the assault on Napster in 1999/2000 conceded that “that is just how it is these days, so it’s fine. We’re happy.”

Death Magnetic sold in access of 500,000 copies in the opening week, and was the 5^th consecutive Metallica album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. Making them the first artist in history to achieve this feat. The album remained securely seated in the top spot for an impressive 5 weeks and reached # 1 on the charts in 32 countries. Clearly, this was a huge success.

Death Magnetic is a fantastic piece of work. It is evident that the fire, passion and the aggressive edge, that was so conspicuous in its absence on the Anger record, was back in abundance. Many critics [including myself] agree that this album could easily have followed the 1988 masterpiece ...And Justice for All. It put Metallica back on the radar of the serious music fan, and restored the confidence that the hardcore fans lost due to St. Anger. The truth is that Metallica has written and produced 9 albums up to this point and have commandeered a horde of loyal followers over the years. There is no way that a metal band could ever accomplish this by offering up sub-par music. Metal artists cannot even remotely be compared with the pop-stars of today. Metal music does not sell because the band wears Lady Gaga inspired outfits, or cut their hair like Bieber. It sells [almost] purely on the integrity of the sound that comes from the hifi speakers. Well, that’s how I and the people who write on, and read this blog adjudicate our musical tastes anyway.

The new album put Metallica back on top of the world – where they rightfully belong. And aside from the “over production” and “distortion” issues some production and mixing guru’s picked-up on, there is nothing wrong with Death Magnetic. In fact, in my opinion it ranks right up there with the “old stuff”.

Check out the video of a single off Death Magnetic - The Day That Never Comes

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