Metallica - The worlds greatest metal sellout band? I think so...

[Sephiroth]

"Sell out" is generally the battle cry of those jealous of someone elses success.

From my local scene they were the only thrash band that was never part of it because of who they chose to tour with.


That's why they were called sell-outs at least here. They seemed to have no interest at all at actually pandering to the very crowd they made music for, and instead wanted the Bon Jovi crowd to like them. It still makes no sense to me.

[Tetsuo]

Metallica live is some ugly shit these days. Ughhh. I for one hav no issue with the Black Album. I will still spin it from time to time. The Loads are just fine... They are ok rock albums that no one would ever talk about if they were not put out by Metallica.

The whole people going to see the older catalog thing live hits all bands... I can't imagine there are many people going to see the stones to hear anything from steel wheels or after. Yeah well there are those ten people 12 rows back stage left that are... Hell Lamb of God has that issue... Play redneck we don't want to hear the new sell out stuff you guys have lost it... Fans so fickle.


In our next episode of beating a dead horse and bringing it back to life and killing it again we are featuring Nirvana how they ruined music.

[Tetsuo]

The thing that pisses me off the most though is that Hetfield is sitting at home thinking how he hates my new sound because I am using a lot of reverb live. Calling me a sellout in his mind. The fact that the 50's that come out and see us now really chaps his ass.

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

[markD]

I tend to be on Newc's side of the view. Bands grow. Shit, as a musician (in the 80s) I started out sounding like Venom and Hellhammer playing the sloppiest, out-of-tune, punk-infused metal EVER with out-of-key solos that were so heavy on whammy bar abuse that Kerry King would be jealous!!!! I NEVER thought I'd be anything but METAL!!!!!!

Couple of weeks ago my band from the 90's reunited. We were a weird mix of Mercyful Fate (music) meets Poison (lyrical concepts). It was great! Again, we NEVER thought we'd leave the "rock" vibe. Our first NEW song since 2005? It could be a Tom Petty tune. We are in the process of auditioning - GASP - a keyboardist!!! NEVER in a million years would we have EVER thought we'd have one of those bastards in the band.....

People change as they age. I have an amazing metal collection - cool shit from the 80s - I NEVER listen to it anymore. These days I am entrenched in 70's and 80's AOR/classic rock. On a rare occasion I will listen to "metal" - but NOTHING from any bands that are "new" - defined by having come out after 1996.


Classic Metallica is still my favorite. I HATED AJFA - the production annoyed me, even as a teenager. The black album was cool for a couple of years. It was nice to hear Metallica try something new. Load/Reload? Again, not bad for what they are. I ended up making a comp CD with my favorite songs from both - made the experience better, lol. I appreciated it because it seemed like Metallica was growing/changing as I was. The thrash scene was over for me by the time I graduated Junior College.....


St. Anger? I ripped the audio from the DVD of them playing it in the rehearsal room - MUCH better experience. Some of it isn't too bad. Not my favorite, but it was ok for a couple of months. Death Magnetic? Eh....I was kind of excited to hear this "return to roots" album, but thought it sucked for the most part.

Having said ALL of this, I will conclude with the fact that Metallica is SO low on my musical radar that I barely even pay attention to ANYTHING they do. I have simply moved on and found other bands/music that I enjoy listening to.

Are Metallica sell-outs? Only they know the answer to that. If they are staying true to themselves, then NO, they aren't "selling out". Selling-out means that you compromise your heart to chase something you don't believe in. I don't know them, so I can't speak for what they believe in.

[BLOOD SPLATTER]

[Nimitz]

[VitaminG]

The whole people going to see the older catalog thing live hits all bands... I can't imagine there are many people going to see the stones to hear anything from steel wheels or after. Yeah well there are those ten people 12 rows back stage left that are... Hell Lamb of God has that issue... Play redneck we don't want to hear the new sell out stuff you guys have lost it... Fans so fickle.

LoG fans were calling them sellouts *because of Redneck

[Tetsuo]

LoG fans were calling them sellouts *because of Redneck

It's a total sellout song a lot like one was with the pop chorus of hold my breathe as I wish for death.

[toejam]

The Loads are just fine...

That's what she said.

[Rsmacker]

I still have a soft spot for them, and probably always will. So they matured and their music matured too, no problem with that (we'll just pretend St Anger never happened though), no problem with them making piles of cash and even wearing make-up and all that nonsense. There was a BBC (IIRC) documentary about the making of the black LP, and it illustrated the step they made from AJFA into the REAL music Premier League, and how they probably would have withered away if they'd not taken that polished Bob Rock road.
They didn't just write some killer tunes then make an LP accidentally which became a massive hit, it was a conscious business decision to up their game, and it seemed like they weren't always 100% happy with the way they were being led/advised/told was the way forward. It looked to me like that was the point it became a serious job, rather than being a fucking hoot that paid well.

It might not have been the way anyone thought they'd go back when they released Kill 'Em All, but if they'd not stepped up, they'd have just been another one of those bands we thought were great but fizzled out.
They made the right decision - I'm sure that all the lucre aside, being part of a business empire where dozens of people rely on your employment to feed their own kids, and every decision has to be thought through, seconded, checked by lawyers and signed for must sometimes wear thin. Beats working at Burger King though.

However, I wish they'd do a real tour, instead of shitty festivals - I'm not paying £100 to stand in a field listening to utter shite for 12 hours till they come on. I swore that I'd never do that again after having to endure bollocks like Mastodon and Lamb of God a few years ago. Talk about headache music. Oh, and then I had to stare at the back of some arsehole's 10 yr old kid that was hoisted onto their shoulders (until I hit them with a 2 litre bottle of piss - an old-school Donington special).
I wasn't going to fucking Glastonbury either - 25 years ago, I'd have definitely turned up wearing my bullet belt and "Fuck Off" t-shirt, just to trample on those middle-class tosspots in their fucking Yurts who infest festivals like that. The time for that, for forcing some Metal Up Yer Ass, is long gone they weren't shaking anyone up, weren't conquering new ground. Even if they'd played "So What"...
That gig was great, I enjoyed it from the comfort of my armchair, pissed up in my own home.

The thing that really boils my piss these days is Mr Hetfield speaking from the stage about the band in the third person. That is so pretentious, it even eclipses Dave Mustaine singing Tout le Monde for making me cringe.

Oh, and they really need to stop releasing fucking balloons at the end of the show FFS, black or any colour. And get rid of that gurning monkey and ask Jason nicely if he'd like to come back as a member on a 25% share (mind you, I'm sure Kirk would like a piece of that, ha ha)

[Nimitz]

I think we're all forgetting this fucker...

[toejam]

I think we're all forgetting this fucker...

Definitely one of my favorites!

[Razor]

Definitely one of my favorites!

Bought that one used several years ago, and I have to say the Mercyful Fate medley and So What kicked ass. The only reason I bought it was to have Garage Days Re-Revisited '87 on CD. I will say it was a good one.

[toejam]

I never did get it on CD, but I did buy the vinyl a few years back.
I also have the original Garage Days Revisited EP on vinyl, as well as the picture disc of Creeping Death which has the original Garage Days Blitzkrieg and Am I Evil.

I did also get a weird German Garage Days Re-Revisited & More CD, as well as another weird import Garage Days 2 CD in my local record store.

https://www.discogs.com/Metallica-The-598-EP-Garage-Days-Re-Revisited-And-More/release/2534858

https://www.discogs.com/Metallica-Garage-Days-2/release/3204053