My Favorite Band – Metallica

 Many people hear this word and think of the 80’s rock band with distaste. I hear it and immediately think of the beautiful music that they have made. Metallica is a long haired, head banging, cussing, rock band. They have dominated the world of music selling millions of albums and influencing people all over the world. Back in the 80’s Metallica was a heavy metal rock band. Most people thought they were a disgrace to musicianship, vulgar and obscene. In truth most of this is correct, and yet Metallica also managed to make beautiful music, sometimes playing the guitar and the drums so skillfully and timed just perfectly that they would sound like one instrument. Their guitar playing was so hypnotizing that you could sit and listen to it for hours at a time. They could make you angry with one song and calm you to the point of sleep with the next.

The lyrics to Metallica’s songs are very disputed, sometimes you might not even understand what they are saying and yet still get the feeling that they are trying to promote, in other cases you might hear what the words are but not understand the point of what they are saying. For example in the song Saint Anger the lead singer is singing about how his anger builds up to the breaking point and then when it reaches the limit his anger explodes without even stopping to think about the consequences or the regrets he might have later. In the song “One” it is hard to understand what he is saying except for the part where he speaks about a war veteran who lost his eyesight, hearing, and powers of speech when he stepped on a landmine. In the last few years Metallica has drastically changed their image. Gone are the days of long hair and swinging heads while playing the guitar gone are the many curse words and gone is the head banging edge of their music. Because of this, many of their oldest fans have stopped buying their new albums and just listen to some of Metallicas many older albums.