Hear Me Out: Metallica’s James Hetfield is the worst metal lyricist of all time
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Credit: Alamy
Revisting Metallica’s terrible cover of ‘Whiskey in the Jar’
There are great covers and then there are terrible covers, and Metallica‘s cover of Thin Lizzy’s version of ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ fits into the latter category. Released in 1998, not only is it one of the worst tracks Metallica have ever recorded but one of the worst covers of all time. This is one of the greatest reflections of just how over-blown, and how lacking of self-awareness metal can be.
Of course, it still contains the anthemic flecks of the original Irish traditional number, and retains the central musical refrain, but it does the original a disservice in the sense that this cover is trying to be so metal that it fails to realise that it is lacking the panache that a good cover usually constitutes. Undoubtedly, there will be many fans of the band and hard rock that enjoy the song, but looking at it objectively, it is terrible.
Yes, this is a Metallica rendition, so it contains many of the band’s hallmarks such as overdriven guitars, harmonised soloing, and a thunderous rhythm section, but it is because the band insisted on being so Metallica about it, that qualifies it as such a misfire.
They could have attempted to dial it down, adding in extra textures as they’ve been known to do over their career on tracks such as ‘Nothing Else Matters’, or else, made it so thrash by speeding it up and throwing in divebombs that it became so different from the subject material, that it could have been regarded as practically its own entity.
However, the band chose to try and stay as close to Thin Lizzy‘s as possible, with their dovetailing, harmonised guitars carrying the track, destroying any hope of something refreshing right from the off. In honesty though, if you were to listen to just the music of their cover, it wouldn’t be the most awful experience, save from it being such a stereotypical rock cut that you’d have expected to have heard it on the soundtrack of any popular video game at the turn of the millennium.
Above all else, there is one aspect of this song that makes it so unbearable; frontman James Hetfield’s vocals. They are so affected that it’s as if they’ve been plucked straight from the South, directly lifted from one of the many terrible country acts that it boasts.
The vocal mix is so front and centre that it is hard to get past. Hetfield‘s gruff, extremely breathy delivery is carried by the least subtle amount of reverb and delay, which at parts makes the cheese so unbearable that you find yourself rushing to the pause button, as when he sings “Here I am in prison” towards the end.
Admittedly, his vocals work well within the confines of Metallica, but when too melodic such as here, they are just simply ridiculous. He could’ve at least attempted to mix it up.
