My biggest hunt has come to an end…
This is something which i was working for so long time.. Have taken much effort to make out this..ma long time dream.. here i go about ma frenzied coverage of metallica.. guys let me go into the topic directly...
Firstly, in their 20-year career to date Metallica have sold over 85 million CDs and albums, plus huge numbers of singles, videos, DVDs, box sets and merchandise...They are currently the seventh biggest-selling artists in US recording history, and even their closest competitors in the field of heavy rock and metal(enormous sellers in their own right such as Iron Maiden, Guns N'Roses, korn, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit come to mind) don't come close in commercial terms, But these simple statistics give no indication of the cultural changes which Metallica have prompted. Their career has clearly been of two discernible halves- the first as a left-field extreme metal act and the second as a globally successful band with few peers. Somewhere between these two phases lies a ground-breaking album, 1991's Metallica, which changed the face of popular music. This record thrust aside all the rules of what heavy metal meant at the end of the 20th century and, in doing so, ushered in a whole range of new bands with a greater or lesser debt to pay to Metallica.
And along the way Metallica changed. They were once a thrash metal band, epitomizing the style with highly aggressive, totally uncompromising music played at speeds ranging from fast to extremely fast. Played well, thrash metal is among the most exhilarating, demanding and downright venomous musical genres of all and, for eight years, it was Metallica’s chosen speciality. They played it with utter commitment and jaw-dropping expertise and amassed hundreds of thousands of fans in doing so.
However, the Nineties saw Metallica evolve their music into a slower, more thoughtful, even contemplative hybrid of bluesy, alternative rock and metal, to the confusion and disappointment of the more dedicated headbangers among their fanbase. Simultaneously, the ranks of the faithful were swelled enormously by new fans for whom Metallica’s earlier work had been too raucous and who preferred the new, smoother sounds. Suddenly, Metallica could be heard on the radio and were seen on TV, a previously unthought-of-development. They released singles in large quantities for the first time. They toned down their image. They wrote songs with non-metallic instrumentation and introspective, almost philosophical lyrics, only returning to the older, brasher songs on the ever-more-enormous tours which made them multimillionaires. They played alongside non-metal artists. They made high concept videos. They wore make-up.
To sum up, they shed their skin entirely. As the old-school fans watched in horror, more and more new converts to the Metallica cause appeared and in 2003 they were part and parcel of the establishment. They are a stadium band. They are an MTV band. They are-wait for it-an acceptable band.
Suprisingly, no book on Metallica has yet appeared of sufficient scope to address the whole of the phenomenon that is this remarkable band. One or two smaller biographies have appeared over the years, all of which have their virtues, but Metallica is now a truly heavyweight institution and deserves a book of similar gravitas if their full story is to be told.
Secondly, it took much time to investigate every(and I mean every) aspect of the Metallica machine. In order to make this blog as comprehensive as possible. I’ve gone to great length to search about them in many websites, articles to get the facts out of them. There’s not tabloid rumour-mongering here. This is the real deal. This is the truth.
Which brings me to the title of the blog, and the most compelling reason why this blog needed to be written. There are far too many rumours about Metallica in circulation- inevitably so, given their size and the cult popularity which they enjoy. I’ve read far too many articles and web sites about them which fudge the truth, avoid certain areas of uncertainty or are simply wrong about certain facts. This isn’t my fault: these things happen because Metallica’s roots are now two decades away and their genesis occurred in the midst of a confused, alcohol-fuelled music scene set in a particularly dark, grimy environment: the punk and metal underground scene in California in the early Eighties. Its only by going directly to the people who were actually there at the time that the truth can be revealed- and I’ve tried to do just that.
Finally there are loads of irrational opinions flying around about Metallica. Check any website devoted to them. If you believed everything you read there, you’d come away with one of two impressions; either that Metallica are gods whose every word and act is worth intense celebration, and whose every musical note is unsurpassable- or that they are a bunch of sell-outs who lost their balls years ago and who are only interested in money for its own sake. Of course, neither of these views is wholly correct, although there are supporting arguments for either stance(as we’ll see, believe me). But Metallica and their fans deserve a more balanced, unbiased view than these two extremes- and this, I truly believe, is it.
With this in mind I’ve structured the blog to allow the story to flow without being help up by intermittent analysis. Like the best of Metallica’s music, theirstory moves fast and unpredictably, so I’ve allocated the Truth chapters their own separate section every now and then.
This blog is likely to remain so permanently unless the band choose to publish their own version a few years down the line. Enjoy the ride, and keep an open mind…
Firstly, in their 20-year career to date Metallica have sold over 85 million CDs and albums, plus huge numbers of singles, videos, DVDs, box sets and merchandise...They are currently the seventh biggest-selling artists in US recording history, and even their closest competitors in the field of heavy rock and metal(enormous sellers in their own right such as Iron Maiden, Guns N'Roses, korn, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit come to mind) don't come close in commercial terms, But these simple statistics give no indication of the cultural changes which Metallica have prompted. Their career has clearly been of two discernible halves- the first as a left-field extreme metal act and the second as a globally successful band with few peers. Somewhere between these two phases lies a ground-breaking album, 1991's Metallica, which changed the face of popular music. This record thrust aside all the rules of what heavy metal meant at the end of the 20th century and, in doing so, ushered in a whole range of new bands with a greater or lesser debt to pay to Metallica.
And along the way Metallica changed. They were once a thrash metal band, epitomizing the style with highly aggressive, totally uncompromising music played at speeds ranging from fast to extremely fast. Played well, thrash metal is among the most exhilarating, demanding and downright venomous musical genres of all and, for eight years, it was Metallica’s chosen speciality. They played it with utter commitment and jaw-dropping expertise and amassed hundreds of thousands of fans in doing so.
However, the Nineties saw Metallica evolve their music into a slower, more thoughtful, even contemplative hybrid of bluesy, alternative rock and metal, to the confusion and disappointment of the more dedicated headbangers among their fanbase. Simultaneously, the ranks of the faithful were swelled enormously by new fans for whom Metallica’s earlier work had been too raucous and who preferred the new, smoother sounds. Suddenly, Metallica could be heard on the radio and were seen on TV, a previously unthought-of-development. They released singles in large quantities for the first time. They toned down their image. They wrote songs with non-metallic instrumentation and introspective, almost philosophical lyrics, only returning to the older, brasher songs on the ever-more-enormous tours which made them multimillionaires. They played alongside non-metal artists. They made high concept videos. They wore make-up.
To sum up, they shed their skin entirely. As the old-school fans watched in horror, more and more new converts to the Metallica cause appeared and in 2003 they were part and parcel of the establishment. They are a stadium band. They are an MTV band. They are-wait for it-an acceptable band.
Suprisingly, no book on Metallica has yet appeared of sufficient scope to address the whole of the phenomenon that is this remarkable band. One or two smaller biographies have appeared over the years, all of which have their virtues, but Metallica is now a truly heavyweight institution and deserves a book of similar gravitas if their full story is to be told.
Secondly, it took much time to investigate every(and I mean every) aspect of the Metallica machine. In order to make this blog as comprehensive as possible. I’ve gone to great length to search about them in many websites, articles to get the facts out of them. There’s not tabloid rumour-mongering here. This is the real deal. This is the truth.
Which brings me to the title of the blog, and the most compelling reason why this blog needed to be written. There are far too many rumours about Metallica in circulation- inevitably so, given their size and the cult popularity which they enjoy. I’ve read far too many articles and web sites about them which fudge the truth, avoid certain areas of uncertainty or are simply wrong about certain facts. This isn’t my fault: these things happen because Metallica’s roots are now two decades away and their genesis occurred in the midst of a confused, alcohol-fuelled music scene set in a particularly dark, grimy environment: the punk and metal underground scene in California in the early Eighties. Its only by going directly to the people who were actually there at the time that the truth can be revealed- and I’ve tried to do just that.
Finally there are loads of irrational opinions flying around about Metallica. Check any website devoted to them. If you believed everything you read there, you’d come away with one of two impressions; either that Metallica are gods whose every word and act is worth intense celebration, and whose every musical note is unsurpassable- or that they are a bunch of sell-outs who lost their balls years ago and who are only interested in money for its own sake. Of course, neither of these views is wholly correct, although there are supporting arguments for either stance(as we’ll see, believe me). But Metallica and their fans deserve a more balanced, unbiased view than these two extremes- and this, I truly believe, is it.
With this in mind I’ve structured the blog to allow the story to flow without being help up by intermittent analysis. Like the best of Metallica’s music, theirstory moves fast and unpredictably, so I’ve allocated the Truth chapters their own separate section every now and then.
This blog is likely to remain so permanently unless the band choose to publish their own version a few years down the line. Enjoy the ride, and keep an open mind…
