See here for a brief interview of James Hetfield, talking about the new album Metallica are planning to put out.
Given the endless controversies regarding their selling out, the suing of Napster, the fact that St Anger was worse than 99% of what most metal bands produce, you have to wonder how James Hetfield feels. Here is a man who came up - with Cliff Burton - with some of the best rhythm and melody that four men could make, a living legend, who has realized that most of their fan base although respectful of the past accomplishment has all but abandoned him and his band.
That can be a terrible thing, and listening to him talk, it's a wonder he hasn't committed suicide or something by now. You can sense that he realizes their studio output over the last 18 years has not been up to the mark, and his frustration at being unable to understand why. I don't know how many people can sympathize with this, but at some level despite my intense dislike for what stuff Metallica has put out after 1990's Black Album, I feel really bad for what this guy has had to go through.
I mean, consider this. Your business is rock, and you make one of the greatest records ever. (I mean that. I consider Master of Puppets to be one of the greatest works in music in the 20th century, yes go ahead laugh. I've been listening to this album at least once, if not 10, times a month for the last 9 years, and it still gives me goosebumps. The closest thing to it - apart from Iron Maiden and some Megadeth - has been some classical music. Western classical. I somehow get bored with Indian classical, like I get bored with jazz and blues.)
You're acclaimed left right and center, even by people who don't like your kind of music. And all this without any real pushing by your record company. So, whatever your personal opinion, this record was a big deal. A pretty big deal.
20 years on, most of your fans have left, you and your band is a running joke amongst the very people who put you on your way up, you are struggling to put together a record, and you know your last 3 records have not been great.
I can think of fewer things that can be worse for a music man.
One question - if as it is obvious from the interview, Hetfield realized that some stuff on the albums he has put his name to has been below average, why the hell did he not try and fix it then and there? He does say that "we need a little honesty, someone to smack us and say this is no good". Could it be that he and his band got carried away with their success, and just got lazy with making music, and no one told them their songs were crap? And if so, then he has only himself to blame.
Personally I believe that the loss of Cliff Burton did them in. In every great band, there is a certain chemistry that gets created, and if anything happens to alter that then the band starts falling apart. It happened to Iron Maiden, to Judas Priest, to Black Sabbath, to Deep Purple, to The Who, to Pink Floyd etc etc etc
The smarter bands realized this and work to recreating that chemistry, usually by taming their egos and asking people who had left to come back.
However, Cliff Burton cannot come back. It is this that is Metallica's greatest tragedy. They might still make a good album, I hope they do, but it will never be as good as Master of Puppets. They are trapped by their own success, now in the distant past.
And in music, unlike practically every other profession, resting on past laurels is seen as being a bad thing.
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