Metallica

[gopolks]

I know among Heavy metal fans they are popular, but how come people who don't like Metal, love them. I have a mate who doesn't like the genre, but he has their CD's, he swears by this band, and they seem to have been around for decades, at the school I went to kids loved them, they couldn't believe me, I would rather listen to Billy Joel, than rock out to them.

I didn't think much about the band during high school, but in the early 90's, James Hetfield said to a reporter "WHATS A GARTH BROOKS?" in response to the reporting saying Metallica had been knocked out of the number one album spot on the Billboard top 200 by Garth Brooks.

That quote was used by Garth for the next couple of years, in interviews on tv, also on the print and radio media, and well the rest is history, so in some little way, Metallica has to take credit for the success of Garth.

That is my limit of knowledge of Metallica, so my question still remains, why are they popular?

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Some of their stuff is quite good and some not.
Very much so especially the classical one they did with the San Francisco Orchestra.
James Hetfield is a good songwriter tho.
I like their version of "Whiskey in the Jar"


JohnGaul
NZTS

[Ryan Thomas]

I'm a big Metal Fan, and I haven't listened to Metallica in years, since i used to love them. Found out that they're an average band and theres far better music out there. They're so overrated its not funny. I mean Master of Puppets best Metal album ever? LOL, wouldn't even be on a top 100.

[Michael]

There used to be in Auckland an excellent radio station many moons ago called KAFM on 93.8 on Waiheke island,that used to play "real metal".nothing like it now.Didnt play metallica often though as it was too pop sounding.

[Vertigo]

as a guitar player, i keep coming back to metallica, because its just awesomely fun stuff to play. technical, fun, and sounds and feels great to play.

[jamie]

The songs that are popular from them are not heavy metal. They are more rock and very catchy.

[Ryan Thomas]

I listened to a small amount of the new material, its not that good, but still better then St Anger.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I once went to school with the bass guitarist of Uriah Heep, Gary Thain, which was a very succesfull heavy metal band in the 1970s in England. This was in the early days of Black Sabbath.
Sadly he died.
"Very Heavy, Very Humble " was the first album, I think

JohnGaul
NZTS

[03Stormchaser]

Sonata Arctica, Helloween, Masterplan, Heavenly etc etc is the type of metal im into.

[tich]

One and Fade to Black were classics.

[southernthrash]

I once went to school with the bass guitarist of Uriah Heep, which was a very succesfull heavy metal band in the 1970s in England. This was in the early days of Black Sabbath.
Sadly he died.
"Very Heavy, Very Humble " was the first album, I think

JohnGaul
NZTS

Thats amazing!

Speaking of early sabbath, I have a copy of a 1967/68 recording of them covering blue suede shoes, when they were called earth. Ozzy actually sings quite well on that one! They were/are a great band.

As for metallica, well as far as the early stuff, it was technical brilliance at the time, and in the states the themes of their songs hit home with the working class, without the politicism of punk/hardcore at the time. Not too say there is no politics or social commentary in their music, but it is less extreme, and not as abstract as, say, the hardcore scene of the time. They sang about the things that affected their fans (alot of people) and made music that sounded great if you were angry and drunk/high.

By the way, James Hetfield most certainly does know who Garth Brooks is, he listens to a fair bit of Country music.

Even now, the early metallica albums are still some of the best thrash ever produced, along with megadeth (who I prefer to be honest), anthrax and slayer. Through the 90's they changed direction a lot, and james wrote a few ballards (country influence here), kirk got off the drugs, and james and lars cut back heavily on beer, and ditched coke. For better or for worse? Die hard fans would say worse, but there would be no more solos from hammet... A lot of the hardcore fans didn't like the new "soft" music... not to say it was bad music, hell I think that both load and re-load are pretty good, but you can't consider them in a metal context. Death magnetic is ok from what I've heard, but the poor guys are sounding confused.

I mean ****, I'm 20 and I can appreciate metallica over most of the new metal any day. The best metal coming out now is the stuff that has its roots in the older heavy metal/hard rock/blues of the 60s and 70s, and the thrash of the 70s and 80s. Some stuff these days is absolute rubbish.

[Ryan Thomas]

Slayer is far better then Metallica and Megadeth, Anthrax is crap imo. Theres far better thrash / speed then the bands you've listed, Dark Angel for one

[southernthrash]

Slayer are not versatile. Anthrax may not be regarded as "good" speed metal now, but they were fundamental to the development of thrash and speed metal in the "bay area", just like slayer and early metallica while mustaine was still playing lead.

Remember that thrash evolved moreso out of punk than traditional hard rock or metal itself. I mean one of the biggest influences on early metallica was the misfits, while the dead kennedys were a huge influence for slayer.

[Razor]

You cannot surpass the might and achivement s of the incomparable Iron Maiden.

[southernthrash]

No you can't, and they provided a lot of the metal influence on the thrash scene.

[Ryan Thomas]

I'd say Angel Witch would of been a great influence on the Thrash / Speed scene, and of course Motorhead..

[southernthrash]

Yea they were there. But when you look at the history of thrash, the bay area bands that kick started the whole thing were pretty much spurred into action by the punk scene in the area at the time. NWOBHM certainly had an impact though, most notably in the technicality.

[Razor]

I love that we are talkign about the New Wave of British Heavy Metal on a weather site

[Ryan Thomas]

Should get rid of the "lica" and rename the topic

I feel that Judas Priest (of course, pretty much started it, NWOBHM that is), Iron Maiden and Angel Witch are the most important NWOBHM bands. As much as I love Sabbath.. I'd just call them "Heavy Metal"?

*adds Watchtower to this topic* Proberly the only decent "technical thrash metal" band

[tgsnoopy]

I love that we are talkign about the New Wave of British Heavy Metal on a weather site

Ahh, aren't "Off Topic" subjects great (Even if I am too musically naive to participate. I like the fact those that wish too, can).

[southernthrash]

Yea sabbath were the first wave of "heavy metal" really, but never claimed the name themselves. Halford was the first guy to describe his own music as heavy metal. Certainly priest et al are more akin to modern metal, while the sabbath influence is heard in heavy/stoner/doom rock.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Yea sabbath were the first wave of "heavy metal" really, but never claimed the name themselves.

...and Uriah Heep.

JohnGaul
NZTS

[Inny Binny]

I think I'll just spoil the party by saying that I'd rather listen to classical/easy listening/jazz/trance/techno/drum n bass/idm/soundscape/ambient/softer rock/pretty much anything else except hiphop and speedcore/terrorcore/etc. over metal.

[Ryan Thomas]

What on earth is speedcore and Terrorcore? And I assume you have a stereotype that all metal is like Slipknot / Disturbed / whatever other crap comes to peoples minds.. when you mention metal. Or for hip hop Souljah boi, 50 cent and Insane Clown Possese.. Theres excellence in both genres.

[David]

Yes I'm not a fan of metal myself, but prefer music from the styles of pop, rnb/hip-hop, some dance/trance/electronic, some rock and only the odd rap song. I think soulja boys music is a load of **** but 50cent is OK