It was the spring of 1986 and I was in the eighth grade. I subscribed to Circus magazine and there was a considerable buzz around a band called Metallica. They had the opening spot on Ozzy's Ultimate Sin tour and their new album, Master of Puppets was getting really good reviews.
I had heard of them before, even recalled that their previous album was called Ride the Lightning, but I was never much interested in thrash metal. They sounded pretty cool in their interviews, more down to earth and less rock star sounding than what I was used to reading. They also had a major label deal without any airplay or videos which I thought was a pretty cool thing, and it was something that the band themselves were really proud of as well.
At the time I was listening to typical hair metal, stuff such as Mötley Crüe, Ratt and Dokken. The problem was that all these bands were releasing disappointing follow-ups to the albums that got me interested in them in the first place. I was in a rut, plain and simple. I was looking for something new to get me excited about music again. I was on a very restricted paper route budget but decided that Metallica's Master of Puppets may be worth picking up.
When I arrived home with my new cassette, I was excited to see what all this hype was about. I liked it on first listen, didn't immediately fall in love or anything, just enjoyed it. The album was certainly different than what I was used to listening to and that was probably why it would take some getting used to. I began listening to the album daily and by the end of the week I had a new favorite band.
Sure the guitarists can't shred like Yngwie can, but does that really matter? They had riffs, monster riffs that kicked ass, and complex song structures. The tunes were long, some were really long, not the kind of thing for people with a short attention span. The album also had cool lyrics too, not crap about getting laid or fighting or partying. Metallica was talking about drug abuse, mental institutions, evangelism, and war. I was listening to music that was way over the head of most typical thirteen-year-olds and feeling pretty cool because of the fact that I wasn't a typical thirteen-year-old.
On September 27, 1986, I was sitting in the junior high lunchroom and a buddy of mine (we'll call him JD) told me the bass player of Metallica had died. He said he heard about it on MTV that morning, but it sounded like a joke to me, since he knew I liked them. How could a band on the verge survive after losing such a key member? I was saddened by the news, but was glad to hear that the band would move ahead. After all, they still had 3/4 of what made them great.
Cliff was not even a chief songwriter or lyricist either, so they'd be fine, right? He hardly ever did interviews either, but whenever one of the others were asked about Cliff's role, they always had something to say. He was very involved with the arrangements, plus he was the only guy in the band that could figure out what odd time signature they were playing in or even what key they were playing in. I guess he was pretty damn important after all. I didn't realize it at the time, but essentially the heart and soul was ripped from the band that very day, the descent would be a slow one, but it was definitely starting.
In the summer of 1987 Metallica released Garage Days, an EP of cover songs. The band said they released it to tide the fans over while they got their next proper studio album done. What a cool bunch of guys! Doing something like that for the fans. About the EP, I liked it quite a bit, obviously I would prefer an album of original material, but this will do for now. The production had a really raw and cool vibe to it, and damn that new bass player is pretty good too. I'm really anxious to hear what their new album is going to sound like now, I'm sure it's going to be great.
And Justice For All was released on the first day of school my junior year. I had heard Harvester of Sorrow on Z-Rock a few weeks prior to release and wasn't sure about it, but it was shitty AM radio so I really couldn't judge it. My friends and I drove to the local record store straight from school with great anticipation. We all bought our copies and piled back into my buddy's car. Blackened came on, kind of weird intro that sounds pretty cool, then the main riff kicks in. Fucking awesome, this is the band I know and love, and that middle section just kicks ass! Needless to say, I fell in love with the album right away and listened to it day after day. It was amazing to me that a band could follow up their "masterpiece" with an album that doesn't disappoint.
That winter the band announced that they were going to do a video for the song One. This is really weird news coming from the band that was so proud that they did it their own way. But, all was well because it wasn't going to be a "normal" lame performance type of video, it was going to have a story behind it and be all arty and stuff, because Metallica was about the music.
I believe the video premiered sometime in February and shortly after, a weird thing started happening at my school. Jocks were starting to show up in Metallica shirts and raving about how great the band was. What the fuck was going on? This album has been out since September and all my friends already know how great it is! Plus since then there have been new albums released by Slayer, Exodus and Anthrax so why are they talking about Justice as if it was some great new thing? Damn Metallica for releasing that video. I guess it really doesn't matter though because it's a one-time thing and they are still a great band.
I remember a friend of mine picked up the cass-single of Enter Sandman a few weeks before the S/T album came out. We all got in his car and checked it out. It really wasn't doing much for me, not at all. In fact, it sort of sounded to me like Testament! How could that be? How could Metallica sound like Testament? I thought I was nuts until my friend Dave said, "it sounds like Testament." That was probably one of the weirdest moments ever, and one of the funniest too.
I didn't like the song at all, but I remembered my lukewarm feelings toward Harvester of Sorrow and I really liked that song once the album came out. I had been reading some "making of" album articles prior to release and I was a bit scared that the album would disappoint. They had recruited Bob Rock to do the production, whereas Fleming Rasmussen had produced the previous three albums. Rock was the man responsible for such gems as Bon Jovi's New Jersey, Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation and Mötley Crue's Dr. Feelgood, what a great choice for producer! Even better than that was that Rock's duties were to clean their sound up (urgh!) and condense the songs (huh?); these seemed like bad signs.
I got the album on the day of release and ran home to listen; I couldn't even get through the whole thing. The band I knew and loved was over in my mind. Gone were all the things I loved about them and what was left was a shiny little CD full of dumbed down radio friendly bullshit that any moron could get into. This is a band that is supposed to challenge the listener, not supply nice background music for a frat party. Of course, the band exploded on a far greater level than I ever expected, and I hated them for it, I still hate them for it.
I was working at a record store when Load was released, and the anticipation (not mine) was enormous. Every day people would come in asking when the new Metallica album was coming out, so excited that they were coming back after a five year absence. I guess Until It Sleeps was getting some airplay before the album's release but I hadn't heard it.
The day we got the promo, I was working with a guy named Robert and we immediately popped it in to laugh at it. What we heard was far worse than what we expected, what a piece of shit! It is a pathetic excuse for music and I don't get how anybody could like it. Well, Robert and I had the pleasure of working together on the day the album was released. Everybody that came in would ask us, "How's the new Metallica?" and we'd give the standard reply, "it's all right."
It was getting pretty annoying, why would they care what we think? I guess they were just being friendly, but don't they understand that we are record store employees that look down on their musical taste? Robert said "I'm getting sick of lying to people about this new Metallica album, eventually I'm just gonna break and tell someone how bad it sucks." I thought that was pretty funny because Robert is a really laid back guy.
There was this dorky kid that worked a couple doors down at the Radio Shack that shopped at the store all the time, and was always bugging us about this new Metallica album. But he hadn't been in yet to buy it. Where was he? He eventually showed up and proudly arrived at the counter with his copy of Load and he asked us how it was. Robert replied, (in a really annoyed voice) "Personally I think it totally sucks but my opinion won't change the fact that you will still buy it". Poor kid, I felt bad for the little dork but Robert had a very valid point there. It wasn't our fault that people had bad taste in music.
I was still working at the aforementioned record store when Reload was released. The anticipation wasn't as great as the buzz surrounding Load, but people were still asking about it all the time, after all this is a new album by the great Metallica. The song that was getting airplay this time was "The Memory Remains," which featured a guest appearance by Marianne Faithfull. A shitty song made even shittier by Marianne's terrible vocals.
I was working with a girl named Nicole on the day of release and of course every moron that walked in was buying it. We kept half the stock behind the counter just to make it easier on us, because most of the idiots would just walk in and come straight to the counter asking, "Do you have the new Metallica CD?" They couldn't look for it themselves, since they obviously only get out to the record store whenever Metallica releases a new album.
I'm not very irritable this day, in fact I'm more amused at the variety of people that are now into Metallica, but I did make one mistake that now seems legendary since I'm a contributor to Rocksnobs. Some jock looking guy and his girlfriend walk in and he comes straight to the counter and asks if we have the new Metallica album, I say "yeah" and grab a copy from the stack behind the counter and begin to ring him up.
He then asks if this is the album that has the new song they are playing on the radio with that "weird dude singing on it." I say, "actually that is a weird lady who sings on it, but yeah, it's on here," in a perfectly nice tone of voice and I didn't think any condescension could be detected (even though we look down at all customers).
This guy apparently picked up on my vibe and said to his girlfriend, "let's go buy it somewhere else so these snobs don't get the satisfaction." I felt bad as he left the store, mostly hoping that he wouldn't complain to the jackass owner because that was a pretty cool job to have while I finished school. As soon as he exited the store Nicole began laughing hysterically, I told her to shut up because I felt really bad about it. She told me to lighten up and kept laughing. I truly did feel bad but couldn't help myself from laughing about it because it was just too damn funny. I was just called a snob by a customer and he was totally right, I am a Rocksnob and I'm damn proud of it.