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The caustic antidote to big hair and spandex, thrash metal took Metallica from El Cerrito to Castle Donington and beyond, while unleashing an army of snarling, streetwise insurgents. As Hetfield, Ulrich and Co. readied<\/span> another assault on the UK in 2019, Keith Cameron health-checked their core values of velocity and aggression<\/span>. \u201c<\/span>I don\u2019t think anybody really wanted to kill Jon Bon Jovi,\u201d says Lars Ulrich. \u201cIt was what he represented.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-86119295-scaled.jpg” title_text=”Photo of METALLICA and Cliff BURTON and James HETFIELD and Kirk HAMMETT and Lars ULRICH” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Masters Of Puppets: Metallica’s Cliff Burton, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n T he warrior surveyed the scene. He had seen battles in his young lifetime, but this was the biggest yet: enemy forces summoning 70,000 to a field in middle England. He and his three comrades were outnumbered, yes. Unfancied, certainly. But outgunned? They would see about that<\/span><\/p>\n \n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n He stepped forward and raised a hand.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>If you came to see spandex and fuckin\u2019 eye make-up and the words \u2018rock\u2019n\u2019roll baby\u2019 in every fuckin\u2019 song, this ain\u2019t the fuckin\u2019 band,\u201d he declared. \u201cWe came here to bash some fuckin\u2019 heads for 55 minutes \u2013 are you fuckin\u2019 with us?!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So began Metallica<\/span>\u2019s performance at the fabled Monsters Of Rock festival in Castle Donington, on August 17, 1985. Almost 34 years later, James Hetfield chuckles at the spectre of his younger, wilder self.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Oh, it was a war cry,\u201d he says, settled on a sofa deep within Kansas City\u2019s Sprint Arena, where Metallica will later play the 133rd date of the WorldWired tour, a marathon meander through the arenas and stadia of North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, that\u2019s scheduled to conclude in New Zealand on Halloween 2019, three years after it began. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about it, man. It was a jab at all the other bands, the bands we got energy from. We got energy from that<\/em>. \u2019Cos we weren\u2019t<\/em> that. We didn\u2019t want to be that<\/em>. We didn\u2019t want to listen<\/em> to that \u2013 but we\u2019re kinda being raised in it. So, it was a war cry to all our potential army out there to join us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It<\/span>\u2019s easier to call people to arms if you have a perceived enemy. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Absolutely. So, we\u2019re extremely grateful for all that spandex and big hair, \u2019cos it definitely formed our style. We were anti- \u2018it\u2019<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hetfield<\/span>\u2019s massive frame stiffens slightly as he dispatches that last word with unsettling force. It\u2019s a momentary flashback to a very different James Hetfield, the one this writer first met in 1991, shifting awkwardly in the lobby of a swish Manhattan hotel and wary of everything, from routine questions about his band to the drink in his hand. Back then, with Metallica poised to release their self-titled fifth LP \u2013 AKA \u2018The Black Album\u2019 \u2013 and transition from massive cult stars to colossal mainstream phenomenon, Hetfield was an edgy, reluctant interviewee, a walking glower who by way of conversational opener had declared his bandmate Lars Ulrich \u201ca fucking little prick\u201d, then became irritated at the bar menu\u2019s insufficiently patriotic beer selection, and my choice of Heineken (\u201cNothing American? No Coors? Huh\u2026\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n Today, however, Hetfield is Mr Congeniality. Metallica might have recently launched their very own beer, Enter Night, in collaboration with SoCal craft brewer Stone (<\/span>\u201ccombines the beauty of a Northern German pilsner with modern overtones of aggression\u201d), but you won\u2019t see Hetfield drinking it: he\u2019s been teetotal since a 2001 rehab, the ramifications of which almost saw Metallica break up, as infamously depicted in the film Some Kind Of Monster. He sports comfort-fit jeans and an olive green shirt, tattoos stretching above the neckline and below the sleeves. The blonde hair, which once roared in long leonine frenzy, is gently greying and allowed to relax into a sort of decommissioned quiff, that together with his droopy walrus moustache gives him the agreeable air of an oil baron who took early retirement and now gets to rock all over the world \u2013 playing fast, but at a sensible pace.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Of course,\u201d he chuckles, \u201cnow I wear spandex.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The 1985 Donington line-up wasn\u2019t quite the unmitigated orgy of Revlon and synthetic fibre suggested by James Hetfield\u2019s exhortation. Indeed, that year\u2019s event wasn\u2019t officially billed as \u2018Monsters Of Rock\u2019 at all, but \u2018ZZ Top Rocking The Castle\u2019 in honour of the headlining Texan blues-boogie legends, at a commercial peak thanks to their MTV-powered \u201980s makeover. Eyewitness accounts suggest the arrival by helicopter of Eliminator, the Top\u2019s 1933 Ford Coup\u00e9, was the highlight of support act Marillion\u2019s performance. Openers that day in the East Midlands were Birmingham stalwarts Magnum, whose prog-tinged AOR was chiefly notable for singer Bob Catley\u2019s cavalier decision to wear white jeans, prompting some unfortunately accurate mud-slinging.<\/span><\/p>\n Metallica, meanwhile, were sandwiched between Ratt and Bon Jovi, a piece of scheduling guaranteed to stoke Hetfield<\/span>\u2019s ire. Ratt epitomised a primped and puckered glam metal that dominated the Los Angeles club scene when Metallica formed in 1981 and against which they self-consciously defined themselves. Metallica\u2019s second ever gig was opening up for Saxon, exponents of the stoutly proletarian, resolutely un-glam New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, to which Lars Ulrich was devoted. The Barnsley quintet, still riding high on the success of their 1981 album Denim And Leather, had arrived on the Sunset Strip for a two-night stand at the Whisky A-Go-Go, and Metallica wangled the second night\u2019s support slot; first night openers were Ratt.<\/span><\/p>\n Outsider products of suburban Los Angeles, albeit from starkly contrasting backgrounds, both singer-guitarist Hetfield and drummer Ulrich felt so estranged from their home city<\/span>\u2019s commercially-driven poseur shtick that in early 1983 they relocated to San Francisco. Four hundred miles up the West Coast, Metallica encountered a very different environment: metal gigs characterised by speed and aggression, the scene nurtured by a grass roots fan network whose musical touchstones were Mot\u00f6rhead and the NWOBHM. The band\u2019s relocation was sealed by the replacement of original bassist Ron McGovney and guitarist Dave Mustaine with two noted players from the Bay Area, Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett. In May 1983, this Metallica lineup recorded Kill \u2019Em All, a gauche but compelling synthesis of hard rock precision and hardcore punk energy into a new variant that would vanquish the poodle-hairs and fundamentally alter the complexion of rock: thrash.<\/span><\/p>\n As for Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet was still another year away, but the New Jersey quintet already had its shiny template down pat, not to mention the dandified yuppie couture. <\/span>No matter that Metallica themselves had occasionally been known to accompany their Mot\u00f6rhead or Iron Maiden T-shirts with <\/span>spandex <\/span>strides, at least until around 1983. By the summer of 1985, now signed to Elektra following the startling impact of second album Ride The Lightning, their studiedly adversarial stance was embedded. The night before they played Donington, Lars Ulrich told Kerrang journalist Mick Wall that his band were \u201cin the mood to kill\u201d. Hetfield, meanwhile, would replace the maker\u2019s name on his new Jackson King V guitar with the inscription \u2018Kill Bon Jovi\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>We were fuelled by lots of contrary energy,\u201d says Ulrich today, on the Kansas City interview couch. \u201cI was 21, James may have just turned 22\u2026 We were different from everybody else that was mainstream. Of course, 34 years later, some of it can seem a little easy, cheap shots. But we were proud that we were offering something different, and we made no excuses for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He laughs.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Y\u2019know, Jon Bon Jovi is a really nice guy. But we were pointing out different options. Different ways of looking at stuff. Different music, different things you could embrace other than what you were being fed by the mainstream music business, mainstream radio, the mainstream way of things. And Jon Bon Jovi was the poster child for that. You\u2019d hear Discharge and you\u2019re like, What the fuck?! That sounds really different to REO Speedwagon! And I like it! I don\u2019t think anybody really wanted to kill Jon Bon Jovi \u2013 I certainly didn\u2019t myself. But it was what he represented.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While everyone else on the bill at Donington in 1985 was either a nostalgic reflection on rock<\/span>\u2019s past or an indictment of its present, only Metallica offered a dynamic vision of the future. Four weeks later, the band began recording its third album, Master Of Puppets, a record that both underscored the sheer exhilarating physicality of thrash but also, in its musical sophistication and existential lyric themes, brokered Metallica\u2019s eventual ascendance to another dimension. It made the US Top 30 without any radio play. The album\u2019s inner sleeve photograph depicted Burton, Hetfield, Ulrich and Hammett in a scene of domestic squalor at 3132 Carlson Blvd, AKA the \u2018Metallimansion\u2019, a modest house in the East Bay suburb of El Cerrito where Hetfield and Ulrich lived, and where the band wrote and rehearsed. Beer bottles, overflowing ashtrays, ripped jeans, manky sneakers, Misfits T-shirts: this was not how million-selling rock bands presented themselves, according to the conventional wisdom in 1986. But in blurring the aesthetics, both sonic and visual, between metal and punk, between performer and fan, here was a portent of changing times.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I remember watching a documentary on Bon Scott,\u201d says Hetfield, \u201cand AC\/DC were playing somewhere with the band Trust. I saw Malcolm Young walk into the trailer, wearing a black shirt and black pants. He gets changed, he comes out, he has the *exact same thing on, and walks onto the stage. That<\/em> was very impactful for us. It\u2019s like, \u2018Hey \u2013 be who you are.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-1164312015-scaled.jpg” title_text=”Metallica” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Nothing Else Matters: Metallica at the NEC Arena, Birmingham, UK, August 1996.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Who or what Metallica are has been a matter of debate throughout the band\u2019s near-40 year existence. Despite two ever-present founding members, personnel issues have been a persistent sub-plot. There are fans of a certain vintage who at best begrudgingly honour anything the band have done after the 1986 death of Cliff Burton, a hardline which thereby denies the two best-selling Metallica albums, 1988\u2019s \u2026And Justice For All, and its 16-times platinum successor Metallica. Former members Dave Mustaine (sacked, 1983) and Jason Newsted (quit, 2001) both departed in acrimonious circumstances, but have since enjoyed contrasting relationships with the band. Newsted, who replaced Burton within weeks of the bassist\u2019s death and suffered the brunt of his bandmates\u2019 <\/span>grief<\/span>thereafter, was present at Metallica\u2019s 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and played Enter Sandman amid a reunion of the \u2018Black Album\u2019 band, alongside his replacement Robert Trujillo. Mustaine, on the other hand, was not invited, and seems disinclined to let the matter drop. As recently as 2017, he was insisting his composer credits on the first two Metallica albums conferred de facto Hall membership.<\/span><\/p>\n Ulrich is philosophical. <\/span>\u201cThere\u2019s a particular sincerity when it\u2019s just Dave and I together, often very warm. I\u2019ve always liked that side of Dave. But other stuff gets in the way, and there\u2019ll be a couple of years of posturing in interviews from both of us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But it<\/span>\u2019s Metallica\u2019s ambivalent relationship with heavy metal itself that perhaps explains their conflicted perception among its adherents. As Ulrich notes: \u201cThere was always stuff that we found silly. The sword and sorcery business. I love Venom but I\u2019m not going to do a photo shoot on a beach with 16th century weapons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Possibly the most contentious Metallica release, Lulu, 2011\u2019s collaboration with Lou Reed, split opinion between those who hated it, and those who merely refused to consider it a *bona fide Metallica album. \u201cWhat will our fans make of Lulu?\u201d Hammett pondered to MOJO. \u201cIt really doesn\u2019t matter. And I say that with so<\/em> much love and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n Having evolved a fresh code for metal, Metallica then broke ranks, loosening the thrash strictures to admit acoustic guitars, vocal harmonies, prog song structures, slowed tempos, ballads<\/span>\u2026 and hit singles. Their speed peers \u2013 Anthrax, Slayer, and Dave Mustaine\u2019s post-Metallica vehicle Megadeth \u2013 enjoyed the trickle-down benefits while broadly sticking to the purist path. Yet for Metallica, the post-\u2018Black Album\u2019 trajectory through the \u201990s and into the new century resembles a CT scan of self-doubt. The awkward alt-rock dalliance of Load and Reload (Short hair! Eyeliner! Weak songs!) fed into the imperfect storm that was St Anger: over two years in the making; written in the studio by a band without a bassist; whose singer quit for 12 months to undergo rehab; amid an internal dynamic so damaged that the band paid performance coach Phil Towle $40k a month to counsel them; and with every dysfunctional episode and hissy fit documented by a film crew.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Obviously those were dark and bewildering days,\u201d Ulrich says. \u201cThe best thing about that time was all that meltdown forced a redirection of the individual band members\u2019 lives, then a bigger reset of the Metallica ethic. We had never prioritised our personal needs over the band\u2019s needs. The band had always squashed the individual. The reason it works so well now is we know where our boundaries are, mentally and physically.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Clearly, <\/span>\u2018Metallica\u2019 is one of the most powerful brand identities in music. But has it ever felt like a burden?<\/span><\/p>\n Ulrich is thoughtful.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I remember when [1992 \u2018Black Album\u2019 single] Nothing Else Matters was breaking in America. You\u2019d get these updates, and you\u2019d sit with the manager and talk about what was going on. Nothing Else Matters was being very well received at radio, it was all very positive\u2026\u00a0 <\/span>(adopts Svengali-esque voice<\/em>) \u2018But if your name was not Metallica it would be an even bigger song.\u2019 Oooo-kaaay<\/em>\u2026!\u201d He laughs. \u201cBut I can deal with that! At no point in the past 37 years have I sat there and thought, We shoulda gone with \u2018Thunderfuck\u2019 instead. Or \u2018Empty Barrel\u2019, or \u2018Helldriver\u2019, or whatever other names we were thinking of. I\u2019m perfectly fine with \u2018Metallica\u2019. If we\u2019d gone with \u2018Thunderfuck\u2019 it would have been a whole different story!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So baroque are Some Kind Of Monster<\/span>\u2019s layers of dysfunction that the film\u2019s joyful moments are easily overlooked. Such as Robert Trujillo\u2019s audition in April 2003, where the band, having interviewed the prospective new bassist \u2013 with the obligatory presence of their therapist \u2013 finally get around to some tunes. \u201cI could try Battery,\u201d Trujillo offers. Ulrich seems doubtful. Then we hear Hammett off-camera exclaim: \u201cYou can play that fast with your fingers?!\u201d To which the pick-averse Trujillo replies \u201cYeah!\u201d, then proceeds to drill Metallica through a full-tilt rendering of *Master Of Puppets\u2019 thrash apex, a song celebrating the violence of the band\u2019s early shows in San Francisco\u2019s Old Waldorf club, located at 444 Battery Street: \u201cCrushing all deceivers, mashing non-believers\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The scene is even better when you know that Trujillo is monumentally hungover, after Ulrich had prevailed upon him to drink cocktails until 5am the previous night. \u201cI think it helped me not to be nervous,\u201d he later recalled. \u201cI was brain dead.\u201d<\/p>\n The recruitment of Trujillo, a supreme bass-player but equally importantly an old school Metallica fan, helped the band make peace with their past. Three years later, they toured Europe, playing Master Of Puppets in its entirety.<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I feel honoured to play Cliff\u2019s music,\u201d says Trujillo, sipping herbal tea in the Kansas City interview room. \u201cI came into the band at a point where it was ready to dive into the older material and celebrate it. That [2006] tour helped cultivate the songs that ended up on [2008\u2019s] Death Magnetic, there is a huge root from the tree of thrash, and Cliff, in that body of music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>St Anger wasn\u2019t the most popular record we did,\u201d says James Hetfield with a smile. \u201cIt was very cathartic for us, but we started to realise how much we cared about Metallica and how we weren\u2019t the only people who cared about Metallica. I always felt looking at our past was the first sign of becoming lazy, or old, or irrelevant. Then when we did Death Magnetic with Rick Rubin, he said, \u2018Think Puppets! Put on the clothes you wore \u2026\u2019 \u2013 they\u2019re not gonna fit, dude \u2013 \u2018what were you listening to, where did you live, what was the atmosphere\u2026?\u2019 H<\/span>eheheheh<\/span>! I understood what he was trying to get at. It\u2019s our roots. But you can\u2019t go back. They were so innocent, those times. Still, we tried our best. I think Death Magnetic is really strong. And I think Hardwired\u2026 To Self Destruct [2016] came out even better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It\u2019s five minutes to showtime in Kansas City. Having played US stadiums in 2017, this segment of the WorldWired tour continues 2018\u2019s itinerary of indoor venues in what the slightly condescending industry parlance calls \u2018secondary markets\u2019; the previous show was in Wichita, next up is Louisville. Sited in-the-round, the stage design cleverly minimises the alienation that once typified the arena rock experience: a centrally placed circular revolving stage combines with the Sprint Arena\u2019s steeply raked<\/span> stands<\/span> to create a sense of the audience not only surrounding but looming over the performers. The noise from 19,000 Midwestern Metallica nuts is gladiatorial. Metallica\u2019s number one fan is suitably enthused.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>We\u2019re setting<\/span> attendance records<\/span>,\u201d <\/span>says Lars Ulrich. <\/span>\u201cWe can put more people in, because the stage takes up less space. So we get more people on the floor. And when it\u2019s packed to the rafters like here, it\u2019s amazing. You\u2019re sharing this experience together, rather than being \u2018the band\u2019 and \u2018the audience\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Some time beyond the moment his band finally vacate the stage in Kansas, Lars Ulrich will sit down, possibly enjoy a glass of Enter Night (<\/span>\u201cThat\u2019s right<\/em>! That\u2019s the only thing I would be drinking!\u201d), and turn his thoughts to the future. Metallica are \u201cin the long-range planning game\u201d, he says, with 2020-21 already filling up.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Ironically for someone whose music is preoccupied with alienation and anomie<\/em>, <\/span>Lars Ulrich<\/span> is currently all about \u2018connecting\u2019. <\/span>And it<\/span>\u2019s not just the gregarious drummer. Before each show, the four band members do several meet-and-greets, hanging with fans who\u2019ve shelled out for an \u2018experience\u2019 ticket. But taking care of business cuts both ways. At every tour stop, Metallica also present a cheque for $10,000 to a local food bank, while their non-profit foundation All Within My Hands is giving a million dollars to the American Association of Community Colleges, to support blue-collar students. For a band that officially doesn\u2019t \u2018do\u2019 politics \u2013 \u201cWe don\u2019t care what colour you are, who you voted for, which gods you worship, we don\u2019t give a fuck what\u2019s between your legs,\u201d runs Hetfield\u2019s on-stage spiel \u2013 who would have thought that Metallica, with their notorious internal faultlines, would stand as an exemplar of healing in 2019?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>There are people who want to divide and conquer,\u201d says Hammett. \u201cWe\u2019re not gonna be part of that platform.\u201d Trujillo states: \u201cAs individuals within the band, we\u2019re all different. But we get along. Different upbringings, but we are family, we\u2019re brothers.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>James Hetfield, meanwhile, bridles at the suggestion his relationship with Lars Ulrich has mellowed, likening it instead to mutually assured destruction. <\/span>\u201cWe know there\u2019s a nuclear option and we know where those buttons are, but there\u2019s no use in pressing them.\u201d He laughs, then looks solemn. \u201cWe are there for our similarities, not our differences. You don\u2019t need that enemy everywhere all the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The singer who once fed off his antipathies and declared them onstage at Donington in \u201985, has found other motivations.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving everyone singing the song together\u2026 there\u2019s nothing like it.<\/span> <\/span>It\u2019s the best drug in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This article originally appeared in issue 307 of MOJO<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Words:<\/strong> Keith Cameron Images:<\/strong>\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thrash Of The Titans The caustic antidote to big hair and spandex, thrash metal took Metallica from El Cerrito to Castle Donington and beyond, while unleashing an army of snarling, streetwise insurgents. As Hetfield, Ulrich and Co. readied another assault on the UK in 2019, Keith Cameron health-checked their core values of velocity and aggression. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1134,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/1134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cThere was always stuff about heavy metal that we found silly. The sword and sorcery business.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Lars Ulrich<\/h3>\n
\u201cI saw Malcolm Young walk into the trailer, wearing a black shirt and black pants. He gets changed, he comes out, he has the exact<\/em> same thing on.\u201d<\/h2>\n
James Hetfield<\/h2>\n