Metallica...

I was sure I'd already done these guys. Still, for their long career in music and therapy, they deserve their due. Here's a few of theirs, even some not from the Black album:

Master of Puppets (live)

The Unforgiven

Wherever I May Roam

Nothing Else Matters

The Unforgiven II (live)

Metallica: Up Close & Personal
Intriguingly told solely from archive of the band, rather than helpful fans. So this mainly boiled down to Hetfield and Ulrich. Oddly, the story went from the 90s, back to the 80s, then on to the 00s. Their occasional experimentation, whether in the name of publicity or not, has put them in a different level to most of their peers.

Metallica: The Halcyon Days
Three hours or so covering their story from their 80s successes, the stratospheric success of their 1991 self-titled record, and how it catapulted them to a place that didn't entirely suit them, let alone please their old fans.

Metallica @ Reading 2015
From their headline spot on Aug 29, they delivered over 2 hours of stuff, much of which I knew for once. The band seemed thrilled to be there, and even delivered a great encore, too.

Metallica: Through The Never
Complicated concert film from 2013, wherein the lads perform a lengthy set, whilst inbetween there's a plot involving a runner sent out into the city streets with a simple mission of recovery, but who stumbles from one nightmare to another after his vehicle is crashed into by another. Good gig, anyway.

Brian Johnson's A Life on the Road: Lars Ulrich
At Metallica's studio base in the San Rafael district of San Francisco, Brian and Lars talk briefly about their early years, then the spectacle of their warm-up gigs with both bands in the summer of 1991, before Metallica took to their mammoth "Wherever I May Roam" world tour, which extended to 1993. Manager Peter Mensch also chipped in, where the inclusion of private planes enabled more gigs to be added, as the global circuit extended to bigger shows in places they'd already played. Also how picking a town to use as a base between gigs made travelling slightly less terminal. The struggle to adjust to real life timing after the tour was also mentioned.

S&M2 - Metallica and San Francisco Symphony - Together Again Live
From a couple of nights in September 2019, marking the 20th anniversary of their collaboration with the late Michael Kamen. Edwin Outwater conducted this time. A fun show, which they all clearly enjoyed.

Metallica - The Story of the Songs
The songs chosen were One, Enter Sandman and I think St Anger. Some archive of main band members along with engeineers, mixers and record company guys. Plus the ever reliable Wayne Isham.

MTV World Stage: Metallica
From a turn at the Rock Am Ring festival in Germany in June 2008. They did a few lengthy numbers from across their career.

They've been marking the 30th anniversary of release of their game-changing self-titled album.

Metallica - Masters of Metal
Another unauthorised effort from 2014, chiefly on the shoulders of veteran journo Malcolm Dome, biographer Joel McIver and Alexander Milas, together with some archive from band members. They seem to have unintentionally been a band who struck different eras by decade - their 80s records were in a different space to their 90s ones, and so on. The death of Cliff Burton seems to be seen as the death of the true Metallica, and no replacement has correctly filled his shoes (not that anyone could replace Hetfield or Ulrich either, but never mind).

Seems they too are getting some rub off the Stranger Things hype, with Master of Puppets at #22 in the UK singles chart this week... 

Metallica: This Monster Lives, by Joe Berlinger with Greg Milner (2005)
The inside story of the Some Kind of Monster documentary, which I hope to see sometime, from Joe's documentary works before this, a failed movie experience, and what turned out to be a pivotal moment in Metallica's story with Jason leaving and James going to rehab. Despite management uncertainty, the band stick with it, and eventually produce a hit movie rather than a crappy TV series. And Metallica produce St Anger.

Metallica presents: The Helping Hand Benefit Concert
From the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, James, Lars and so on presented a set in support of their own All Within My Hands Foundation, named after one of their songs which they included here, as well as new single Lux Aeterna. They also did Nothing Else Matters as well as Seek And Destroy. Good luck to them.

Their new album 72 Seasons is out tomorrow. Recent singles have been Lux Aeterna, Screaming Suicide and If Darkness Had A Son.

misery guts wrote:Their new album 72 Seasons is out tomorrow. Recent singles have been Lux Aeterna, Screaming Suicide and If Darkness Had A Son.

It's become their 4th ever UK #1 album 

Geddy Lee asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? - Robert Trujillo
Rush legend comes to Topanga Canyon to meet Metallica's bass player, who played in Suicidal Tendencies and for Ozzy Osbourne, before getting the call to join Lars, James and the rest. He was inspired by funk rock, and owns many basses. He tapped into surfing and skateboarding cultures. He owned a bass that belonged to and was played by Jaco Pastorius, and he helped make a tribute film to him. They finished off eating tacos and checking out Bob's son who was in a band of his own, which Bob was supportive of. Maybe less on heavy band stories than other episodes, but interesting all the same.