Awesome Music / Metallica

Hotel rooms and motorways / Life out here is raw / But we will never stop / We will never quit / cause YOU'RE Metallica

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• ...And Justice for All (1988). They had just lost arguably the driving force behind their musical evolution into the nine-minute epic-writing band we know them as today and were pissed at having to hire a replacement (the perpetual Butt-Monkey Jason Newsted). They somehow channeled that into an album that had enough sheer force behind every song to make every song, from the opening reversed-guitar intro to "Blackened" to the last thrash-tastic moments of "Dyers Eve", an expression of the raw fury they felt at the time. They even managed to score a Grammy off "One", which cemented their meteoric rise to fame.
  • "One" is also #3 on best Solo and #5 on best song according to Top Ten.com anyway.
  • Speaking of Grammys, arguably their Moment of Awesome really came when ...And Justice For All LOST to Jethro Tull for the Best Hard Rock Album Grammy. The upset, more than anything else, put Metallica on the mainstream map.
  • And yes, you read that right, the intro to "Blackened" is reversed. You cannot even tell at all that it's reversed, no giveaways at all. Doubles as an awesome moment in the sense that they managed to create a riff that sounds just as fantastic backwards as it is forwards.
• Master of Puppets if only for the title song, and "Battery", but consensus says the entire album qualifies. There's a reason why so many web sites and metal magazines have ranked it as the greatest metal album of all time; it's pure, distilled awesome from start to finish.
  • "Orion" is one hell of an instrumental. In fact, that whole album reeks of awesomeness, give "Battery" a listen and try to say otherwise. The intro to "Battery" is a song in and of itself. Never has flamenco guitar sounded this badass.
  • "The Thing That Should Not Be". No wonder it was the Final Boss for Guitar Hero: Metallica.
  • "Disposable Heroes" is arguably the most underrated song of their classic years. At nearly 9 minutes and maintaining a claustrophobic and sorrowful atmosphere throughout, lyrics about PTSD and depression (especially raising awareness of suicide and mental illness in extremely young vets- something not many bands at the time were willing to do) and jam-packed to the brim with amazingly kickass riffs to boot, it's a song that's so beautifully aggressive that it's a shame it doesn't get more mention than it does. "Disposable Heroes" stands proud among Metallica's blistering anti-war pieces.
• It may have been a significant shift in style, but The Black Album is packed with awesome songs.
  • Even if Hetfield doesn't enjoy the song, "Don't Tread On Me" is not to be overlooked. While the frontman considered the song "goofy" and Metallica claims to never be a politically slanted band, it is appreciated among fans, especially Libertarians.
  • If "One" was not your entry point to Metallica, chances are that "Enter Sandman" was, with its unforgettable riff and solo, and lyrics about various forms of nightmares. Especially if you were a New York Yankees fan in the time period of 1995 to 2013, as "Enter Sandman" was the music that played to herald the entry of Mariano Rivera into the ballgame. Or, for all The Mutants of ECW, every time The Sandman makes his entrance from the rafters, can of beer in one hand, a Singapore cane on the other, and a face already busted open from smacking the beer can on his forehead during the chorus.
  • "Wherever I May Roam" takes the Walking the Earth trope and turns it into a fierce, powerful metal track.
  • "Nothing Else Matters", also known as the only love song the band has ever made, and which inspired many listeners to learn its riffs and solos.
  • "Holier Than Thou", a fast-paced, relatively short and fierce song that takes notes from the Bible.
  • "The Unforgiven" does a good job of overwhelming the listener between the alternating riffs and the most powerful guitar solo of the album, and lyrics drawing from James' anger at religion. It says something that the band would eventually make two sequels to the song on Reload and Death Magnetic.
  • "The God That Failed" continues on the theme of Rage Against the Heavens by delving into James' anger and feelings that religion stopped his mother from getting the cancer treatment she needed, leading to her death.
  • "Sad But True" is best known for one thing: its kickass, crushingly heavy riff. Even better, it's about one's dark side!
  • "Of Wolf and Man" starts off with a pulse-pounding drum and guitar intro and only gets more intense from there, perfectly complementing its subject matter.
• Death Magnetic. Years since their last good album, generally regarded as has-beens. How does this one turn out? A glorious return to their 80s greatness, completely destroying any hint that the band is dead.
  • "The Day That Never Comes" feels like something that would have come out of ...And Justice for All. The powerful melody and lyrics leading into the solos that finish the track will carry you around easily. The music video is no slouch either and perfectly conveys the feeling of the song.
  • "All Nightmare Long" is one of the most technical tracks of the album, loaded with riffs, solos, a frantic pace that reflects James' lyrics about monsters coming back from the dead, and an environment that old fans wouldn't have felt since Master of Puppets.
  • How do you describe "Suicide and Redemption" if not as one of the best instrumental tracks the band has ever made? Ten straight minutes of the band dishing everything they have to offer on their instruments. The track is also notorious for its three different solos, two from James and one from Kirk, which make different versions of the track: the main one with Kirk's solo but excluding James' second solo, a version with James' solo that excludes Kirk's solo, and a version with both solos that extends the track to nearly eleven minutes of pure awesome.
• Their debut album, 1983's Kill 'Em All, which may just blow Master of Puppets clear out of the water. "Hit the Lights" is just fucking awesome: not even rabid metal fans had heard a song that fast before! "Motorbreath" is similarly insane, and "The Four Horsemen" is just plain spooky. Metal Militia, too, is a blisteringly fast closing song with a bassline that is almost superhuman.
• Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra's "S&M" performance. See "The Call of Ktulu". It raises the feeling of being with a monster without saying a word.
  • The S&M "The Thing That Should Not Be" could even surpass the original version.
  • They managed to make One even more orgasmic.
  • The performance of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" at the same concert was breathtakingly amazing. The whole performance is basically a Concert of Awesome.
  • The S&M version of "The Ecstasy of Gold" is just breathtaking and sends chills up the spine. It's unbelievable.
  • The S&M version of "Battery" is absolutely amazing. Not only is it an absolutely intense song, the intro is complemented to perfection by the Orchestra. Finally, the intensity of the vocals combined with the excellent instrumentals on both sides is absolutely orgasmic.
  • The whole idea of a symphony orchestra playing with Metallica sounds ridiculous at first, but with Michael Kamen at the helm (he previously collaborated with them on the Black Album) it should be no surprise that the combination is glorious. Any doubts that "Call of Ktulu" didn't erase are gone once the first few notes of "Master of Puppets" hits.
  • The crowd reaction during the first three tracks tells the whole story; they cheer heartily for "The Ecstasy of Gold," the piece from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that opens the concert, and they applaud "The Call of Ktulu," but the moment the opening riff for "Puppets" hits, the crowd explodes, as if they're thinking, "Holy shit, they're really doing this!"
• The "Big Four Live" European mini-tour with Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer, with the performance in Sofia, Bulgaria on 2010-06-22 being shown in theaters worldwide that same night.
  • Metallica's first encore was "Am I Evil"... with the rest of the bands joining them on stage. Yes - Dave, James and Lars on the same stage!
  • Then they managed to top that with a cover of "Overkill" with the Entire BIG FOUR and Exodus.
• Since Load was such a stylistic change for Metallica, it contains several excellent songs that frequently get overlooked.
  • Take a listen to "Until it Sleeps" and keep your composure if you can.
  • "Mama Said", an emotional ballad Hetfield made to contemplate over his relationship with his mother, is a melodic, potent Tear Jerker.
  • "Hero of the Day" has an unique feel to it as Metallica's stab at a rock song, managing to be the most awesome track of the album.
  • With an honorable mention to "Bleeding Me", "King Nothing", and "The Outlaw Torn", they help prove that even Load, as polarizing as it was, still has some awesome bangers.
• Ride the Lightning deserves a mention, if only for the title track and "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
  • Alternatively, every song. Except maybe "Escape". Least interesting song on the album? Maybe. Still a good fucking song? Duh. It's Metallica.
  • "Fade to Black" is another standout; it was their first ballad, and one of the best.
  • "Fight Fire with Fire", probably the most aggressive song they've ever written that's not on St. Anger. ENDING IS NEAR!
• Lay beside me, tell me what they've done, and speak the words, that I wanna hear, to make my demons run. "The Unforgiven II" is just beautiful and epic. It also has one of the greatest simple guitar riffs of all time. Also, on the ReLoad front, we have "Fuel", the Grammy winning "Better Than You" (AWESOME guitar solo in the middle!), the hard-rocking "The Memory Remains" and the epic-length "Fixxxer" (get a load of that intro). And "Low Man's Lyric", which sounds like it could have been on The Wall. With bonus hurdy-gurdy.
• Their cover of Diamond Head's "The Prince". When they start to play this live, the fans go berserk. And for good reason!
• St. Anger is a polarizing album, but those who are on the "Love It" side really tend to love it.
  • "Frantic" starts the album by giving the listener an idea of how it's going to be, with an aggressive track that has guitars, drums and Hetfield's voice dominating the entire environment.
  • Consider the title track. A little bit long-ish? Mayhap. Still awesome? You bet your ass. Seven minutes plus of pure, distilled aggression as only Metallica could have done at that time. It also doesn't hurt that it features some of Lars' fastest double-bass footwork since Battery.
  • "Some Kind of Monster", which also gives its name to the documentary that registered the album's Troubled Production, is an ominous, savage, tribalistic attestation to the band's abilities and reflects the anger involved in the album's conception.
  • "My World" was never played live by the band, but the frantic pace of the song and the lyrics describing a descent into madness will take you for a ride.
    Not only do I not know the answer
    I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE QUESTION IS
  • "The Unnamed Feeling", a claustrophobic, oppressive, slow-paced track that describes a massive anxiety attack, but it wouldn't look out of place if someone said it describes a depressive crisis.
• The Beyond Magnetic EP. These four songs were cut from Death Magnetic, and finally released in their rough mixes. The song "Shine" finally got released as "Just a Bullet Away" and is totally epic. Also, "The Rebel of Babylon" is a tear-jerking tribute to Layne Stayley. This should set aside all doubts about Metallica that stem from LuLu.
• Hardwired... to Self-Destruct was the band's first album in eight years since Death Magnetic, and it's a great example of how far they've come while still remaining just as fast and heavy as ever.
  • "Hardwired", their first 2016 single, is a great representation of what makes Metallica great.
  • The beautiful and dynamic "Moth Into Flame", another single from Hardwired, is similarly an excellent example of how well the band has matured.
  • "Murder One" serves as a heavy-hitting tribute to Lemmy, complete with Shout Outs to his band's greateat hits. Hell, the title of the song itself is in reference to Lemmy's iconic amplifier box of the same name.
    Hear your thunder still feeding back!
    Still hear your thunder!
    The Man In Black!
    Born to Lose!
    Livin' to Win!!!
  • "Spit Out the Bone" has been praised as one of the band's best songs since 1988. Many people have commented that they didn't think the band had a song this intense in them this late in their career.
• Lulu has been widely criticised, but, as with St. Anger, it has its defenders, and the people who like it tend to really love it. The closing song, the nearly-twenty-minute epic "Junior Dad", is absolutely gorgeous, with a closing section that could have come straight out of Sigur Rós. An arguable career highlight for both Metallica and Lou Reed. Other highlights include "Pumping Blood" (featuring some of Lars Ulrich's best drumming since the '80s) and the devastating "Little Dog" and "Dragon".
• 72 Seasons sees the band taking more introspective themes in their lyrics while still retaining their signature brand of intense metal. The title track is considered to be one of the album's best tracks, a relentless roller coaster of a song that deals with how the first 18 years of a person's life influence a person's growth and evolution. It even won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance.

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