Metallica seems to have been stealing directly from Sabbath's vintage song Paranoid in which Ozzy Osbourne croons, as does Hetfield in King Nothing, about being "pacified and satisfied". This combination works well, with the otherwise unintelligible words of most of Black Sabbath's songs. Reasons for this phenomenon were simply that a lot of the music was recorded in England in the early seventies, and the sound systems which were used were not of a particularly high quality. This is however, not the case in the United States in the nineties. Also in the spirit of losing your best customers, lead guitarist, Kirk Hamett and bassist, Jason Newsted previously uninvolved in writing the lyrics for the songs, were allowed free license with this album and the next, an obvious mistake on the part of James and Lars. Kirk was even given opportunity to act as creative head on the design of the new album. It is in fact an actual photograph of blood mixed with semen. You can perhaps assume how the album then got its name. One song, entitled King Nothing has such uncreative lyrics, that it seems as if a child could have written it. James Hetfield belts out a phrase in the song. "I wish I may I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight. I want that star, I want it now. I want it all and I don't care how." This is such a totally useless reference to selfishness, the apparent basis for this song. Previous Metallica songs relating to selfishness such as Master of Puppets and Seek and Destroy, provided the listener with an idea as to why the subject of the song was considered selfish, creating a sort of empathy between the listener and that subject. You could almost feel the subject's pain of loss, or fear of failure. This song, King Nothing relates to no one and nothing in particular. It is an empty song, full of empty threats. Both of these things are definite "no-no's" in the world of thrash music, and alternative industrial-style "rock and roll", the latter of which I believe was the hope of the band to be pigeonholed into with the young listeners. Perhaps these younger, naieve consumers of music can accept this band's remakes of itself as artistic endeavors. But to those who have been listening to, and buying albums of Metallica since the early eighties, songs such as those found on this and the proceeding album are insults to such patronage through the years. Other songs on this album feature more complaining about how no one should have to take responsibility for anyone else's happiness. Such "buck-passing philosophy" can be found in the song entitled Ain't My Bitch. The title alone should make this idea self-explanatory. And it is only acceptable as listening-material in my book because it falls into the same category as the Eagle's song on their comeback album, Hell Freezes Over, entitled Get over It.
I suppose there is some credence in explaining that worrying about the small things is non-productive, but that is where the thrash movement got its kick-start. The idea "if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" was welcomed with open arms by the people who looked for answers in the early eighties. The headbangers were the people who questioned the government, questioned society, and even questioned their own judgement. So whatever happened to good old-fashioned responsibility you may ask? Simple, it went by way of the Slinky, a once inspired notion, to find itself touted by car and soda promoters. Now it is all in the name of the almighty dollar. This idea was the very antichrist of the thrash movement of the early and mid eighties. Too bad that we can't gather up a little bit of that past, when looking for answers to the future, eh?
Apparently in keeping with the now popular idea of recycling, Metallica and Elektra Records released an album in 1998 which unabashedly was a remake of its first really horrible album. Even the name is uninspired--Reload. The album cover's artwork is not as rude as Load's intentionally controversial cover art, and not even worth discussing here. The immediately noticeable slap in the face is the obvious fact that title is located in exactly the same place and printed in the same style, as the first bad album, Load. The only difference is that the artist has taken great pains apparently to scribble by hand, the prefix "Re" in front of the word "Load". This makes it appear as if Metallica is every bit aware of the offending content of the first album as well as the second, and doesn't care what the older fans of the band think. This would seem another insult to the headbangers of the era of thrash music. As far as the actual music contained on the Reload album, it is obvious to anyone who knows what he or she is listening for that Metallica has gotten, themselves, old and has run out of steam. There was even another version, or a sequel to The Unforgiven, one of the band's last great endeavors, and found on the "Black Album". Fans newer to the scene considered this song, Unforgiven 2 to be Metallica's first complete love song. It was in fact the only song in which James Hetfield refers to women in the third person. But it was a hold over from eighties pop rock group, Journey's Steve Perry, and should have been left held over. It has no place in the music of a band that asked questions, refusing at that time to hide its head from corporate America.
But I digress. Forgive me, for I must confess, those of the underground era must miss the days when their generation ruled the land, and people were frightened, not by nukes, but at the possibility of having to give answers to the children who wanted to know why the nukes were created in the first place. Theirs is the generation on that which Metallica fed, and earned its keep as a momentous rock band, and this is where I believe it should end. Following this research, I realize many things. First and foremost, children deserve respect, and we should answer their questions as completely and honestly as possible. Secondly, our seniors are very important members of society. They teach us about how it was, and let us know how it may be later on. They too deserve our respect. Thirdly, and no less important, though, I realize society changes over years and over decades, and yet, there is still the unfortunate reality that art may imitate life, but it is money that dictates what canvas shall be used.
