When your band name literally has the word “metal” in it, you’re setting up some major expectations in the heaviness stakes. However, Metallica quickly flourished beyond their snot-nosed thrash roots and showed no fear of other soundscapes, to the delight of many a fan and the chagrin of many a gatekeeper. From the youth-charged sprint of Kill ’Em All to Load’s moody introspection, there’s plenty of variety in the Four Horsemen’s canon.
So – while such bruising tracks as For Whom The Bell Tolls, Master Of Puppets and Enter Sandman have all played their part in pushing metal forwards – that’s not what we’re talking about today. Instead, below is a celebration of Metallica’s most sensitive and soft-hearted moments. These are the five times James Hetfield crooned, Lars Ulrich went easy on his kit and Kirk Hammett had the restraint not to lacerate the listener with solo after solo, listed in chronological order.
Nothing Else Matters (Metallica, 1991)
The first pick on our timeline is probably the most obvious. Metallica had dabbled in a few ballads before Nothing Else Matters (see: Fade To Black, Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and One). But, never had these fire-breathing behemoths laid themselves as bare as they did on this Black Album single.
On a cut so tender that Hetfield questioned whether his band should actually even release it, the frontman softly sang for his then-girlfriend, expressing how much he missed her on the road. Though the song crescendoed with some metallic beats and a solo from Papa Het himself, it was largely pensive and clean, exposing the vulnerability behind what previously seemed to be a bulletproof heavy metal machine. The result was an instant crossover hit that played a serious part in making Metallica one of the most successful albums to ever come out.
Mama Said (Load, 1996)
After Nothing Else Matters offered a sneak peek into the window of Hetfield’s soul, the songs on Load saw him swing the door open. The lyrics throughout Metallica’s still-controversial blues rock dalliance let the singer/guitarist voice the pain of losing his Christian Scientist mother to cancer, shortly after his father had up and abandoned the family. And Mama Said was one of the most sincere bits out of the bunch.
Wielding an acoustic guitar, Hetfield told the autobiographical story of his time with his mum, hinting towards both a troubled relationship (“Let my heart go, let your son grow”) and a lack of gratitude for his departed parent (“I took your love for granted, all the things you said to me”). With the rest of the band as background figures, this cast their founding man’s complexities centre-stage then turned them into something beautiful.
Low Man’s Lyric (Reload, 1997)
Recorded simultaneously to Load, Reload was a sibling every bit as expansive, experimental and revealing as the album that preceded it just one year prior. Low Man’s Lyric was something of a shift, however, in that Hetfield didn’t voice his own struggles as much as those of others. The seven-and-a-half-minute journey cast him into the headspace of a homeless person, expressing the day-to-day tragedy of a ragged vagabond.
Though this was more of a full-band effort than Nothing Else Matters and Mama Said, the music was suitably sombre throughout. A solemn “One, two, three…” heralds layers of undistorted guitar, joined by bare, stomping percussion. Strings and hurdy-gurdies later add to the drama and tragedy of the piece, but Metallica still resist the urge to go full-force, proving that sometimes quietness can be just as powerful and declarative as unfiltered noise.
Tuesday’s Gone (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover; Garage Inc., 1998)
Metallica have seldom been a collaborative group, often preferring to blaze their own trail through the metal wilderness and leave everyone else scrambling to catch up. The exception proving the rule was Tuesday’s Gone. It remains the one time heavy music’s masters turned to outside help on a studio album, and what they’ve otherwise lacked in the teamwork department was made up for in one fell swoop on this star-studded odyssey.
In a move that could have come across as a joke if it weren’t played so skilfully, Metallica corralled a who’s-who of contemporary riffage – including members of Alice In Chains, Corrosion Of Conformity, Faith No More and Primus – then asked them not to play metal at all. Instead, this Lynyrd Skynyrd cover was a constantly tobacco-spitting country jam, harmonica ’n’ all. A risky move, but immersive and moving in practice.
The Unforgiven III (symphonic version; S&M2, 2020)
From The Godfather to the Tobey Maguire Spider-Mans, the trope of the trilogy that couldn’t stick the landing is one of the longest-standing in media. For more than a decade, The Unforgiven had an unfortunate seat at the table, with the first two tracks being thematic and musical mirrors of each other, before the third needlessly tacked itself on and refused to say anything new. That was, until the Death Magnetic entry was re-modelled for S&M2.
For the sequel to their boundary-breaking symphony-orchestra-meets-metal effort, Metallica went even more transformative than before, with this being one of the boldest reinventions. Every conventional instrument was pulled away, turning this once-inessential entry into Hetfield hollering over grandiose strings. Instantly, new life was added, with the singer’s words feeling all the more rending thanks to their quasi-cinematic backing, and it paradoxically came after parts got taken away.
![Metallica - The Unforgiven III (S&M2) [5.1 Surround / 4K Remastered] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tUUUpMnA9_w/maxresdefault.jpg)
