So, some of you may remember that I wrote two blogposts criticizing Ed Sheeran recently, here they are:
And those were much easier to write. Before Ed Sheeran unambiguously revealed his “apolitical” political position, I thought his music was as banal and empty as a bowl of cornflakes without sugar, or milk, or a bowl. So there was no feeling of saying something bad about a musician who’s music I loved. But Metallica. I fucking love Metallica. Sometimes I’m so inspired by listening to their playing that I feel briefly inspired to actually practice the guitar before quickly being overcome by my own executive function problems and look there’s a wood pigeon
Now, it’s true that from the beginning of the 21st century on they’ve made a lot of missteps, such as the ill fated collaboration with Lou Reed (just because they’re both good separately doesn’t mean they’re good together) and to be honest I’m not up to date on their more recent stuff (and even recent in this context means the last 20 years), but the music they created in the eighties, and to a lesser the nineties, was simply amazing.
Take Master Of Puppets, an obvious one to start with, but have a listen:
It could almost be described as the perfect trash metal song. The playing is so tight it’s as if every member of the band is a human metronome. Somehow, despite being over eight minutes long, it’s not too long, and not too short either. And despite its reputation as an extremely heavy song, it’s very well balanced between loud musical passages and quiet ones, both loud sections and quiet sections written to perfectly complement each other.
This isn’t the only Metallica song I could spend a bit of time praising, but I might leave it at just that one, because if I remember correctly I’ve got something else to talk about than how awesome early Metallica is!
Nothing will ever change the fact that Metallica are heroes of trash metal, and metal in general. Sure, there are criticisms of both Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich’s playing these days, but that’s more recently, nothing will change the fact that they were on fire during the early albums.
So, what has James Hetfield done that has gotten a few people ticked off?
Well, it’s about recent statements Hetfield made at a concert, where he confirmed his belief in absolutely nothing:
“Unless you live in Vegas, you’ve come a long way to spend some time with Metallica. We’re grateful for that — your travels, the money you spend, the time it took, thanks for coming to celebrate with us. I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bulls—, OK? We are here …no bulls— …we’re here to forget about all the outside s—, OK? Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!” That last line in particular is a bit weird coming from one of the godfathers of trash metal. Take out the word “heavy” and I could imagine the statement, “Our agenda is love, energy and music, baby!” coming from some early 2000’s girl band such as Girls Aloud or Sugababes. Not the band who wrote this:
Given the timing of Hetfield’s statements, it seemed to be in response to Macklemore’s recent statements at a concert calling for a free Palestine. Weird that Hetfield didn’t name him specifically, why be so cryptic? He might as well have said, “I’ve got something to say, and this is going to piss a few people off, but I’m against the thing in question! That’s right, the thing in question is something I’m really against, sue me!”
Metallica has a long history of songs that are completely apolitical. Let’s have a listen to some of their apolitical songs:
After we’re all finished listening to Cliff Burton’s absolutely beautiful bass playing, (for non musicians, it’s the line that sounds like a guitar but isn’t a guitar if that helps), let’s discuss the apolitical lack of politicalness of this song. This song was inspired by an apolitical thing that happened in Spain, starting in 1936 and ending in 1939. A completely apolitical event where many people were killed and the course of European history was changed. Some seriously apolitical stuff going on here.
Or what about this one. On this song, the tendency of countries to, shoot at each other, and hurl bombs at each other, and, invade each other uses tanks and planes, is discussed, which might result in one of the soldiers involved ending up with some unfortunate impairments. Very apolitical stuff.
The album One is on, is called “And Justice For All”, which I’m certain refers to some kind of completely apolitical injustice.
And finally, we come to Don’t Tread On Me, which is, OH COME ON! “Don’t Tread On Me” is a phrase that comes from from the American Revolution, and is a phrase now commonly used by libertarians!:
So that’s at least three political songs right there. Two about war, one about the American Revolution, and possibly also about libertarianism. Which raises the question, if James Hetfield thinks Metallica is apolitical, has he ever even listened to Metallica? Is he somehow singing the songs, and playing the guitar, without listening to the songs? That would be an achievement in itself!
So, James Hetfield has written and played political songs, despite his claim that he’s apolitical. My contention is that nobody is apolitical. To be truly apolitical, you would have to have no position on whether or not housing was affordable. You would have to have no position on whether or not health care should be provided as quickly as possible as opposed to you being put on a massive waiting list. You would have to have no position on whether or not you are allowed to freely voice your thoughts and feelings, like, for example, in the form of a song. Is James Hetfield really telling us he has no position on whether or not censorship laws became so draconian that Metallica’s music was banned? Is he really telling us that he has no position on whether or not eminent domain law in the United States became so extreme that he ended up losing his house? (though I assume he has several houses.)
James Hetfield HAS taken a public position on intellectual property law. Remember the Napster lawsuit? An argument could be made that this was mainly Lars Ulrich’s decision, but Hetfield has stated that he stood behind Ulrich on the matter:
It’s not about whether or not the political positions he has taken, whether through his music or other means, were right or wrong. You may agree with some positions and disagree with others, that’s not the issue. The issue is, Hetfield, by no means an apolitical person, mainly because being apolitical is impossible, chooses to hide himself in the “apolitical” flag during one of the worst genocides of the 21st century. And I mean, it’s not like Metallica’s music wouldn’t be suitable for describing the horror of Gaza. I mean, this is the band that wrote “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and ” One”. So, what are Hetfield’s politics?
Well, I kind of described it already in the title. Hetfield’s politics are that he’s rich and old. That’s it. That’s what it comes down to. He’s worth 300 million dollars.
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rock-stars/james-hetfield-net-worth
To put that into more understandable terms, that means he’s worth one Leonardo diCaprio, five Margo Robbies, he’s half a Tom Cruise, and he’s three quarters of a Brad Pitt. He’s been playing a game for more than forty years that has earned him Julia Roberts money, and he doesn’t want anything to upset the apple cart.
Also, he’s old. That’s not to say there aren’t old people who support social justice causes and young people who don’t, but I think for some, not all, people of an older age group, there is a certain calculation made. That the world might well burn, everything might fall apart, the whole system could come crashing down (this would make for a good Metallica song by the way), but, if you’ve more years behind you than in front of you, you can rely on the oncoming apocalypse happening after you’ve died. So why worry about it! Just continue with your residencies in Vegas! A residency in Vegas? Yuck! Is it just me or is a residency in Vegas the most painfully un-metal thing you’ve ever heard?
Metallica brought metal to new heights. Taking inspiration from such heavy weights as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, they made heavy metal even heavier, but kept things interesting by bringing in a lot of prog influences from the likes of Rush, and brought in enough melody and hooks to find a place in the hearts of even those who don’t listen to metal as a general rule. Their music is loved by millions of people around the globe, myself included. But something often happens to innovate musicians as they get more and more successful. They start off as something the establishment hates, then as they get more and more popular, the establishment bends its rules a little to let them in, and then, they BECOME the establishment. I’m not saying bands shouldn’t seek financial success, if you don’t get paid being in a rock band is pretty unsustainable. And I’m also not saying Metallica would have been better social justice advocates if their music had remained underground. There is no way to know for certain how things would be if Metallica were still playing tiny venues to a niche audience.
But don’t let the awesome riffs fool you. James Hetfield has more in common with Ed Sheeran, and Bono, and Taylor Swift, then he does with any innovative metal band currently playing tiny venues, or than he does with the poor and oppressed of the world, be they from America, his home country, or overseas. Master Of Puppets was one of the most innovative metal albums of all time, and it took great passion, great ingenuity, and a hell of a lot of hard word, to bring that masterpiece into the world. But off the back of that album, and all those that followed, Hetfield has sadly earned, “I don’t need to give a shit about anything” money. So alas, and I’d love to be proven wrong, we shouldn’t expect much from him. Even though he has the wealth and influence to do a whole lot of good in the world.
