The one tour James Hetfield said was out of control: “Lots of egos”
Every band has that one moment where no one is in Kansas anymore. They may have been one small group looking to conquer the world one day, but as soon as a single took off or a record started gaining traction, there was no going back to their old stomping grounds as the same people. Although Metallica had the underground cred of their first four albums, James Hetfield thought that The Black Album was a bit of a mixed blessing in retrospect.
When you look at how Metallica has been shaping up for the past few years, they have already delivered a letter-perfect example of thrash metal. Most of the music world was still knee-deep in songs about partying all night and “metal” acts in spandex and teased hair, but the San Francisco natives were delivering the kind of music that carried on the example Black Sabbath started back in the 1970s.
While there were problems like the fact that And Justice For All sounded like absolute trash, the group thought that the next best thing would be for them to work with someone to finetune their sound. As opposed to just making a leap into a newer sound, Bob Rock was brought to get them to the other side, having worked magic for Bon Jovi and Aerosmith.
At first, Hetfield was extremely receptive to relinquishing a little bit of control, telling Classic Albums, “It wasn’t just Lars [Ulrich] and I. Suddenly, we had this fifth member that was going to take us to where we needed to go.” It’s one thing to have a new sound, but while they were already playing stadiums as an underground band, ‘Enter Sandman’ took everything to nuclear levels.
Outside of being one of their most notable hits, the metal classic opened the door for more adventurous songs like ‘Nothing Else Matters’, which turned them from the biggest underground act in the world to a group that could share the stage with acts like AC/DC and Aerosmith. While no one would tell you fame and success are bad things, Hetfield could feel the creative tension starting to happen as well.
When speaking with Guitar Center, Hetfield thought that their self-titled record was a certain turning point in their career, recalling, “There was a certainly a time when it got out of control. The Black Album and tour, we were out for a long time. That was a time when there were multiple divorces and lots of egos. No one was right-sized anymore. They were all bigger than they should have been.”
That’s all well and good when you’re on the road, but once the group reconvened to make their next album, Load, those egos did crop up more than a few times. Across the record, it often feels like Hetfield and Ulrich are trying to pull the band in wildly different directions, from trying to make something akin to Achtung Baby-era U2 to Hetfield embracing his rootsy and country side as well.
Then again, can you really fault them for becoming that big that quick? No one was really expecting them to come out with the metal equivalent of Dark Side of the Moon, but when those numbers rolled in, it’s no wonder that the group eventually sought a counsellor during St Anger to help bring them back down to Earth.
