The members of Metallica pick their favourite metal songs
The Los Angeles band Metallica formed in the early 1980s to join the heavy metal fray. Throughout their first decade, James Hetfield’s songwriting prowess undoubtedly helped to buoy the group to the height of their genre, but most importantly, they championed the thrash metal subgenre.
Much of Metallica’s success as pioneers stems from their impressive guitar ability, especially Kirk Hammett’s mind-blowing talent for killer solo riffs. Throughout his four-decade run with the group so far, he has forged a signature style of lightning-fast licks, incorporation of the wah pedal, and detailed picking.
Hammett’s solo style underpins Metallica’s DNA as much as Hetfield’s vocals, but a lot also has to be said of Hetfield’s distinctive rhythm guitar approach. The seamless chemistry of interwoven lead and rhythm sections betray a meticulous side to these rock ‘n’ roll behemoths.
So, where does it all come from? Beyond Metallica’s roots in 1970s heavy rock, such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, their most apparent inspiration pool lies within their musical niche: thrash metal. While not deemed a singular progenitor of the genre, Metallica popularised it through the 1980s and beyond alongside the likes of Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Together, these bands make up the ‘Big Four’.
During an interview with Little Punk People, Hetfield was once asked to pick out some of his favourite thrash metal bands. Curiously, none of his ‘Big Four’ neighbours received a shout-out – ostensibly, they were too obvious. “Oh, my God! There’s tons of them,” Hetfield exclaimed. “Well, Exodus, for sure. We grew up with those guys in the Bay Area. Oh, and we stole their guitar player; that too. But, yeah, I think they’re great. Testament, a lot of bands in the Bay Area, a lot of thrash stuff. I just think even before that, punk rock was kind of the beginning of it for me.”
If we’re to take a deeper dive into the music that inspires Metallica, we’d have to get each member to list some of their favourite songs. Fortunately, In 2016, the four members did just that on the band’s Spotify account. Naturally, innovative musicians are influenced by a mountain of music from multiple genres, but heavy metal and its derivatives have taken the lion’s share.
Below, we have listed the metal songs from each member’s playlist. The selections from James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammet, and Robert Trujillo have then been combined to create a master of playlists.
James Hetfield’s favourite metal songs:
- ‘From The Pinnacle to the Pit’ – Ghost
- ‘Shellshock’ – Tank
- ‘Gloomy Sunday’ – Pallbearer
- ‘Fertile Green’ – High on Fire
- ‘Lahja’ – Oranssi Pazuzu
- ‘Die Hard’ – Venom
- ‘Volcanic’ – Death Angel
Kirk Hammett’s favourite metal songs:
- ‘Blood and Thunder’ – Mastodon
- ‘Set to Fail’ – Lamb of God
- ‘Lay Down, Stay Down’ – Deep Purple
- ‘Opium Trail’ – Thin Lizzy
- ‘Ritual’ – Ghost
- ‘Ghosts Along the Mississippi’ – DOWN
- ‘Hollow’ – Alice in Chains
- ‘Polar Nights’ – Scorpions
- ‘Kill The King’ – Rainbow
Lars Ulrich’s favourite metal songs;
- ‘Tap into the Power’ – Suicidal Tendencies
- ‘Green Machine’ – Kyuss
- ‘Tattoo Vampire’ – Blue Öyster Cult
- ‘Speed King’ – Deep Purple
- ‘Streets of Gold’ – Diamond Head
- ‘Calm Like a Bomb’ – Rage Against The Machine
- ‘Blockbuster’ – Sweet
- ‘The Hidden Masters’ – The Sword
- ‘Radio/Video’ – System of a Down
- ‘Bad Reputation’ – Thin Lizzy
- ‘Charlie’s Out of Prison’ – Warrior Soul
- ‘King of the Road’ – Fu Manchu
Robert Trujillo’s favourite metal songs:
- ‘S.A.T.O’ – Ozzy Osbourne
- ‘Hand of Doom’ – Black Sabbath
- ‘Locust’ – Machine Head
- ‘New Millennium Cyanide Christ’ – Meshuggah
- ‘Holy Wars…The Punishment Due’ – Megadeth
- ‘Chaos B.C. – Sepultura
- ‘Raining Blood’ – Slayer
- ‘Healer’ – Torche
- ‘Eighties’ – Killing Joke
- ‘Redneck’ – Lamb of God
- ‘Orgasmatron’ – Motörhead
- ‘March to the Sea’ – Baroness
- ‘You Can’t Bring Me Down’ – Suicidal Tendencies
- ‘Woodpecker from Mars’ – Faith No More
- ‘My Name is Mud’ – Primus
- ‘Sunshine’ – Alice in Chains
