METALLICA Try To Recapture Old-School Hunger On Death Magnetic, But Not To Please Fans
August 7, 2008, 16 years ago
The following story is courtesy of Chris Harris and Todd Brown from MTV.com:
For the METALLICA faithful, 1996's Load marked the end of an era.
The album was largely panned by the band's allegiant fans but hailed by critics, who praised its inclusion of melodies and exploration of new sounds. Meanwhile, the people who wore Metallica shirts, bought their albums and supported the band from its earliest beginnings claimed the boys were losing some of their grit — something they erroneously connected to the members' decision to hack off their glorious metal hair. And those fans have been grumbling ever since, calling on Metallica to return to their earlier sound.
In short, fans have longed for another Master Of Puppets, and they've never been satisfied. But could Metallica's forthcoming album, Death Magnetic, be the next best thing, seeing as the bandmembers themselves have publicly stated that the LP would signal a return to their old-school sound? Frontman James Hetfield is not so sure.
"I don't know — in a way, yes, and in a way, no," he told MTV News last week. "The last thing I want is someone to think, 'Oh, they had to go back to Puppets because that was the best album, and they're doing it because we want it.' If we start writing songs for our fans, something's gone wrong. The fans may think they know best, but hey, I'm the armchair quarterback when I'm watching my team too. At the end of the day, we have to write it because we love it and it's coming from our heart. That's why people connect with it. If you start doing it for the fans, you've lost the plot."But at the same time, Hetfield does acknowledge that the band did try to find its way back to that Puppets mind-set. (Read about the video for the album's first single, 'The Day That Never Comes', here.)
"We recognize there was an essence, there was a youth, there was a something about that record, and this is a perfect time for a record like this," he said, "because old-school metal is huge and coming back, and there's so many people wanting to play, and get riffy again, get solo. ... I love that, so [with this record], it's like us starting over again."Read more here.
