Metallica – Fade To Black

There’s a rumble on the horizon. The sound of a guitar tuned way down over a mean bass and restless, quick fire drums. The sound of grievance ignored, of pain shed, of America in turmoil. The sound of Metallica.

Nearly eighteen months on from their last European tour proper the San Francisco foursome is back in town. In the ten odd years of its existence the band has gone from being the standard bearer of metal’s dark side to one of the biggest groups any- where. The fresh faced kids who lashed Black Flag’s anger to lion Maiden’s riffs, ditched the old clichés, and spoke up for a dispossessed generation, now sit on top of the world. You can almost hear them shouting, ‘Made it Ma …. ‘

In those ten years they’ve produced arguably the perfect metal album in ‘Master of Puppets’, tragically lost bassist Cliff Burton in a road accident, and redefined rock forever. With REM, Husker Du and Public Enemy they were the most influential American band of the 80’s. But in terms of the sheer number of people who‘ve been inspired by them, copied by them, or even just envied them, Metallica rise head and shoulders above their contemporaries.

The forthcoming tour is in support of last year’s self- titled album, their fifth. It’s predecessor, ‘ …. And Justice For All’, garnered ecstatic  praise from all and sundry as Metallica continued to prove that metal didn’t have to be dumb, but it did raise the occasional eyebrow. The songs fail miserably to get home in under six minutes, and there was a worrying whiff of 70’s-like indulgence about the proceedings.

They took stock of things after that, and came back with a record more lean and hungry than ever. The songs were just as demanding but shorter, to the point and James Hetfield‘s bleak prose-poems were even tempered with bout’s of optimism. But with a string section appearing on ‘Nothing Else Matters’, for some the doubts remained.

“Some people might say we’ve lost an edge because we don’t go fast all the time anymore but there’s just so much more to Metallica…”

The accusation then – Do rock dinosaurs once more walk the earth? Putting the case for the defence from his hotel room in Toronto is Jason Newsted, who replaced Cliff at the end of 1986. The well spoken, thoughtful bass player is utterly convincing in his continued enthusiasm as he looks back on Metallica’s first decade.

“Back when ‘Kill ‘Em All’ was released (1983),” he recalls, “they were the young punks bringing this new mish-mash of music, like the speed of punk and the heaviness of metal all together, and now we’re the old punks. We still play ‘Whiplash’ faster than we ever did but now we can play it back to back with ‘The Unforgiven’ or ‘Nothing Else Matters’ with equal effectiveness so we’ve gained that.”

“We’ve gained musicianship because we always strive to be better players, listening to different kinds of music and influences. And we’re still pretty hungry about getting to places we haven’t played before, conquering new areas and still exploring with our music – taking chances, using different instruments. That keeps it fresh for us.”

“Some people might say we’ve lost an edge because we don’t go fast all the time anymore but there’s just so much more to Metallica. We’ve proven that with some pretty strong songs – ‘Fade To Black’, ‘The Unforgiven’, and ‘One’. We‘re good at keeping a challenge in front of us, trying to go someplace else instead of staying in one spot and stagnating.“

To an extent Metallica have been the victims of their own success, and of their own insistence on doing things their way. The more they take chances, the more people start to listen to them. Their rise has gone against the golden rule which states that success in music can only come through compromise. Yet to some people, the very tact of their growth means they’ve sold out. It’s something Jason is clearly weary of, but as he philosophically says, “With the music we’ve created and the attention we’ve gained that comes with it, people will say we’ve sold out, but we’ve always done what we wanted to do, and we still play the music to satisfy ourselves first.

lt hasn’t been that we’ve changed our music to get the attention, it’s just we progressed as a band and more people started liking us.”

“There’s room for everyone, and that’s why there’s room for us. We’ve never been ones to force it down your throat. Lf you like it, that‘s great, but if you don’t, there’s lots of other music to listen to.” This happily pluralistic view of music is laudable, yet Metallica do persist in playing with metal’s old guard – AC/DC at Donington last year, and Guns N’ Roses this summer – when you can only feel they should be above all that. But Jason is quick to defend their choice of who they share a stage with.

“Just because we play with those guys,”he stresses, “doesn‘t mean we play any different. We still have our edge and _ rapidness and angst. Our energy is still there. If there’s going to be 50,000 we’re fired up to play in front of them whether we’re backing up Madonna or whoever”

Now there’s a double bill to conjure with. One just as mouth-watering, and which apparently was discussed, was a Metallica / Nirvana/ Faith No More blowout, which sadly didn’t materialise. Jason, ‘l don’t think Nirvana would be that farfetched – Kirk (Hammet, lead guitarist) called Kurt (Cobain) but they just didn‘t feel like doing it, I guess”

The granddaddies of America’s underground they may be, Metallica refuse to take any credit for paving the way for Nirvana’s unprecedented success.

“They‘ve been working at it a long time and they‘ve got this sound that people dig. It’s possible we helped open some doors, but we’d rather give credit to people who’ve helped us along, like Motorhead and Sabbath, ‘° is all Jason will admit.

One senses the present tour with Guns ‘N’`Roses has not been the happiest of times for Metallica, not least because of a serious injury to Hetfield in a pyrotechnic accident. John Marshall of Metal Church filled in on guitar for the big frontman as he had done six years ago when Hettield broke his arm skateboarding. The band as a whole are looking forward to getting back out on their own, in control again, but there’s one part of their America show they hopefully won‘t be bringing. Lars Ulrich, for so long that most incorruptible of drummers, has finally succumbed to…a drum solo!

“Goddamn cries Jason, “ask him about that because we’ve been asking him for a fuckin’ year and a half l think if we have anything to do with it. lt’s either going to be trimmed way down to about two minutes, or it’s going to be non- existent. Hopefully we’ve learned. “

Mark Walton