“Very difficult for me”: the era that James Hetfield never enjoyed
There comes a time in most bands or musicians’ careers where pivoting becomes necessary for survival. It’s one of the most difficult things to pull off, but more often than not, it’s a means of endurance if they wish to keep engaging fans with the same level of fervour. James Hetfield knows this better than anybody, especially when looking at some of the more controversial decisions Metallica made through the years.
In the beginning, Metallica thrived on their signature thrash metal sound, adopting the kind of rawness that 1980s rock had started to neglect. With other groups leading the charge with bigger and more refined stadium-level rock, Metallica arrived with Kill ‘Em All, a fast and heavy record that reinstated hard rock’s edge. Several years later, Master of Puppets achieved the same feat and then some, centralising everything they had worked towards before a newfound, fully realised vision.
While this continues to earn the highest praise from all over, including the likes of metal veteran Corey Taylor, who described it as more influential and impactful for the metal world than Black Sabbath’s debut, Metallica’s peak was far from over at that point. Even after drawing certain criticisms for their more polished approach in 1991 with The Black Album, the proof of their lasting impact existed in the immediate popularity of songs like ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘The Unforgiven’, ‘Nothing Else Matters’, and ‘Wherever I May Roam’.
However, encountering commercial difficulty is always inevitable for a band that peaked so early and consistently, which came in the following years with the albums Load and Reload. Several personal and professional challenges occurred during this time, the most defining being the sudden pressure to transition the sound into something that would remain relevant without reinventing what they had already done before. Unfortunately, however, the changes proved to significantly detriment their reputability, shifting too far away from their earlier thrash sound.
This wouldn’t necessarily come to a head until St Anger, but the building blocks for Load and Reload set the stage for an unwarranted downfall, one which would later see the band members look back with rightful criticisms. Namely, it’s Hetfield and Lars Ulrich who view some of their choices cynically, relating to both aesthetic and marketing choices, which they didn’t feel appropriately suited to who they were at the time.
Both have discussed this on multiple occasions, but Hetfield perhaps put it most succinctly when he claimed it was one of the most difficult moments in his career because he neglected to listen to his instincts and went along with it anyway. He said: “The reinvention of Metallica around Load and Re-Load, certainly the pictures, was very difficult for me. If it was going to work, we all needed to get into that vein, it was not a comfortable place for me, but as a team player, I kind of went along with it.”
Ulrich has also claimed similar mishaps, criticising their hair, makeup, and general change in attitude, which he says became a major turn off and impacted the album sales as a result. He revealed this during an interview with Louder, saying, “I do remember that as the Load album cycle continued I had more and more people coming up to me and saying that they never gave the album a chance because of how it was presented to them.”
While there’s no doubt that is what some of them wanted to do at the time, the albums that followed The Black Album seemed to falter with each iteration, proving that any sidestep outside of their usual terrain would likely fail to land among fans. Sometimes, bands can pull off new directions, but it’s clear that most only want one thing from Metallica, and that’s endearing melodies, intricate guitar work, and Hetfield’s signature explosive vocals.
