Metallica vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield has shared abbreviated version of his life story with Teamrock.com in a newly digitally published piece. In it he is asked what late bassist Cliff Burton would have thought regarding the band’s 90’s output, starting from 1991’s self-titled album (aka ‘The Black Album‘) through to 2003’s “St. Anger. He replied:
“Well, I certainly would have thought there would have been some resistance, for sure. I think The Black Album was a great album and I appreciate the fact that we did have the balls to do that and have [producer] Bob Rock to work with us. It had to be, it really did. You know, when I go back and I listen to [previous album] …And Justice For All, it couldn’t have stayed on that path.
We needed to bring in another set of trusted ears. [But] I think Cliff would have probably interjected some different stuff, getting his bass heard and some more musically challenging things, probably. I would certainly think that the Load and Re-Load [era], I would have had an ally that was very against it all – the reinvention or the U2 version of Metallica.”
When asked if he was uncomfortable with that period of the band, he offered:
“No, no, not at all. There’s some great, great songs on there but my opinion is that all of the imagery and stuff like that was not necessary. And the amount of songs that were written was… it diluted the potency of the poison of Metallica. And I think Cliff would have agreed with that.”
When asked if “St. Anger” ended the, as he put it, ‘U2 version of Metallica‘ period, he stated:
“Well, I’m not sure. For me, St. Anger kind of stands alone. It’s more of a statement than an album. It’s more of the soundtrack to the movie, in a way. There’s some really interesting and cool riffs, some great songs on there. But sonically it sounds fragmented, which is exactly where we were at the point. But in that fragmentation it brought us together. So it was a very necessary piece of the puzzle to get us where we are today.”
You can read more from Hetfield over at Teamrock.com. The new Metallica album “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct” will be released on November 18th.
