Phoebe Bridgers shares ghostly cover of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters
Singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers releases her contribution to Metallica's Blacklist covers album with a haunting take of Nothing Else Matters
Select the newsletters you’d like to receive. Then, add your email to sign up.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
Louder
Louder’s weekly newsletter is jam-packed with the team’s personal highlights from the last seven days, including features, breaking news, reviews and tons of juicy exclusives from the world of alternative music.
Every Friday
Classic Rock
The Classic Rock newsletter is an essential read for the discerning rock fan. Every week we bring you the news, reviews and the very best features and interviews from our extensive archive. Written by rock fans for rock fans.
Every Friday
Metal Hammer
For the last four decades Metal Hammer has been the world’s greatest metal magazine. Created by metalheads for metalheads, ‘Hammer takes you behind the scenes, closer to the action, and nearer to the bands that you love the most.
Every Friday
Prog
The Prog newsletter brings you the very best of Prog Magazine and our website, every Friday. We'll deliver you the very latest news from the Prog universe, informative features and archive material from Prog’s impressive vault.
The latest addition to Metallica's 53 artist charity covers album The Blacklist is here – and it's one of the best we've had so far.
Performed by singer-songwriter and confirmed Metallica fan Phoebe Bridgers – who's better known for writing songs so delicately profound that they could make even the most iron-hearted of listeners shed a tear – her take on Nothing Else Matters re-imagines the track in a "baroque" style, incorporating haunting piano, velvet-smooth vocals and curious production that makes it sound like the whole thing was recorded from inside a trinket box.
Detailing her thoughts on the cover, the Kyoto singer explains: “It was just so fun to take a part in it, I feel like my version almost sounds baroque. Literally, James [Hetfield] does all sorts of weird octave jumps and stuff that I can’t do, and I almost have a Billie Eilish approach of right by the microphone, performing it the opposite of them, which was really fun to lean into.”
On being a fan of Metallica Bridgers says, "I've always been a big Metallica fan. I think it's funny, my intro to them was probably way later than so many people who have always loved them.
"But when I was a teenager, I went to Outside Lands and I definitely knew Metallica songs from video games and stuff, but I went to Outside Lands and saw their set and was like, 'This is a rock band.' It's kind of a gateway to metal because they're so hooky and you can hold onto so much of it and it actually can get stuck in your head. So that's what I've always loved about Metallica is that they don't shy away from a great hook."
Other artists who have contributed to the epic compilation includes Biffy Clyro, St.Vincent, The Hu, Weezer, Idles, Corey Taylor and many more.
The Blacklist will arrive on September 10 in aid of the 30th anniversary of Metallica's 1991 self-titled album.
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
Listen to the cover below:

Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.
