There was a time - many, many years ago - when I considered Metallica my favorite band. Probably from around the 7th grade until sometime during my first months in college, when my interests shifted due to the exploding music scene and particularly a lot of the Seattle bands that had emerged. But that was a long run of perhaps six or so years when I simply could not get enough of Metallica.
Of course, there were reasons why that changed. It felt to me that Metallica began to change with the black album, and not for the better. As a young man, I had always liked the intensity and energy of their earlier albums. And while I liked the music of the black album, things just felt...well, different. Suddenly, they were everywhere, on the radio and making videos. Also, while their previous album had featured a beautiful anti-war song ("One"), this new black album featured one in support of war. As a fan, it felt like they were turning their backs on what they once had stood for. Yet, I still was unable to pull myself away from Metallica.
In truth, I probably had an overly idealized impression of who the guys in Metallica really were. Their lyrics seemed intelligent, and so I had assumed that they really stood for something. And it felt to me at the time (and still to me even after all of these years) like they took the black album as an opportunity to reinvent themselves, and not just musically. If there was a point when they made a turn into the mainstream, and became a band where their business interests were often more front and center than it is with most other popular musical acts (with a few exceptions, like perhaps KISS), that was the moment when it seemed to happen.
So finding other bands that I felt more of a kinship to, that were (or felt) more relatable was probably a must. Little by little, Metallica faded into the black, so to speak, for me. Increasingly, they were a band that I largely forgot about. By the time that they released Load and Reload, they already felt like something from my past, and no longer a band that I was a bigtime fan of. I saw them in Lollapalooza, but felt detached from their performance in a way that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years earlier.
Then came the whole Napster thing. Metallica was front and center, protecting their legal interests and leading the crusade. It felt more and more to me like they were more businessmen than artists. And that was an impression that, once seen, was difficult to unsee. In fact, I never quite could get into them or their music as easily, even effortlessly, as I once did. Sure, I gave some of their music a listen here and there, but it was mostly out of curiosity. Some of the music I still liked, but not like I once had with their earlier stuff.
Don't get me wrong: I still like quite a bit of their music. Every now and then, I can still rock out to some of their stuff. If the right song comes on the radio, I won't turn it off, and may even really get into it. On rarer occasions, I might even opt to listen to an album, or one of their live albums. Again, though, those instances tend to be the exception, and not the norm in my routine any longer.
Also, there was a better understanding of the guys in Metallica themselves. James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in particular sometimes felt like control freaks, thinking first and always of their business interests. The Napster version of Metallica never did really seem to go away for me. And yes, admittedly, that got in the way of my own ability to listen to and/or enjoy their music. To this day, I never seriously thought about going to see them live, although you never know.
All of that said, I got a kick out of a recent headline, when Metallica was in the news again. They threatened to sue Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who used the music of Metallica for one of his videos, without first seeking permission.
You would think that prominent members of the Trump administration, of all people, would understand the legal risks of using other people's art or music without permission.
Apparently not in this case.
Such morons.
Below is the link to the article which got me on this particular topic:
Awkward Pete Hegseth video hit with Metallica copyright over ‘unauthorised’ song usage ‘Enter Sandman’ played on the video, which featured Pete Hegseth awkwardly talking about drone warfare Greg Evans Sunday 13 July 2025:
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/metallica-pentagon-pete-hegseth-video-b2788101.html
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