For Those Who are Younger, How Relevant is Metallica?

[Lorcan Ward]

I think Metallica are an amazing band worthy of their fame but I never really enjoyed listening to them. I’ve seen them live 4 or 5 times and learned lots of songs but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to an album start to finish.

For me Metallica and many other older metal bands were a gateway to artists like Opeth, Children of Bodom, In Flames, Dimmu Borgir etc

 

[Veldar]

I'm 25 for reference, honestly listening to metallica over the weekend I found it kinda jaring how half of the riffs/solod still sound modern and the other half is bluesy or NWOBHM.

You can still hear of lot of their DNA in most meat and potatoes metal but It's not exciting.

Having said that master of puppets is a great finger exercise that I teach to all my bass students.

 

[Mprinsje]

I like to think I'm still young (although I'm probably not, 30). I like Metallica and listened to them pretty often, especially when I was younger. They were the gateway band to get into heavier music for me, I first listened to stuff like red hot chili peppers.

However influential they were on me discovering heavy music however, they haven't been that influential in the music I make. That influence is more from the metalcore years and onward. I think that there will always be young people who should've been born 50 years earlier, but they're definitely the exception. Hell, I work with people who are in their late teens who barely even know who the Beatles are, if they do at all. And those are definitely not an exception in their age group as far as I've experienced.

This isn't a complaint btw, it's just the way it is. Metallica is for old people and the occasional young kid who'll write something about how he's born in the wrong generation in social media comments.
T

 

[Wiltonauer]

I'm 25 for reference, honestly listening to metallica over the weekend I found it kinda jaring how half of the riffs/solod still sound modern and the other half is bluesy or NWOBHM.

You can still hear of lot of their DNA in most meat and potatoes metal but It's not exciting.

Having said that master of puppets is a great finger exercise that I teach to all my bass students.

Yepper. There is so much Sabbath, Motorhead, Maiden, Schenker, and I don’t know what in there. Kirk was tossing in Chuck Berry licks on KEA, for godsake. And I love it.

Bands like Metallica are bridges for me. I can listen to most of their records and hear decades of influence going both ways. It makes me feel connected to so much, I don’t have words for it. In some ways it’s like listening to, well, a bunch of names that would make you shake your head, probably a facepalm or two.

 

[spacebard]

I stopped listening to Metallica after the black album...

and that's much better than what they're doing these days

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

I'm 27. Some of the bigger Metallica songs were among the first metal music I ever heard as a little kid, but I've never been a particularly big fan of the band. Learned a few riffs here and there and of course have a great respect for what they did for the genre, but I've never seen them live or put on any of their albums top-to-bottom just for the sake of it. They were a gateway band for me, but my overall musical taste and the development of my playing style were influenced a lot more by bands who were probably more directly influenced by Metallica. In Flames, Children of Bodom, Lamb of God, and so on. I guess I'm a second-hand Metallica fan in that regard

As for currently relevancy, I don't think any recent or future releases have been/will be as groundbreaking or consequential as their earlier albums, but they'll probably always be an important first step into the world of metal for new listeners I'm sure they'll sell out stadiums for as long as they care to keep touring, too.

 

[Fenriswolf]

that's kind of like saying is Isaac Newton relevant. or the beatles . they did what they did and things grew from there.

I've posted on here about how fucked of an intro to metal and rock I had, but one thing that has expanded my enjoyment of music is going by what I think Keith Richards said, the cat's that make you hot, check out what made them hot. As much as you may hate on Metallica, or Pantera or any of the big bands of a certain time, they were big for a reason

 

[SCJR]

I'm 30 and I've always seen Metallica as more of metal guitar required reading but that's as a player. As to my personal taste or their place in the pop culture at large, they do little for me and the Master of Puppets album art connects me as much to the t-shirt section at Target as it does to a handful of my own personal memories.

Though I respect Hetfield's right hand technique now more than ever.

 

[KentBrockman]

I’m 26 and started listening to them when I was 10 or 11. I heard one of their songs in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (Whiplash) and then saw their cameo in an episode of the Simpsons where Otto fails to give the band a ride and then Moleman helps them out and says he used to sleep with Lars’ grandmother. I then found the Master of Puppets CD in a local library and borrowed it. I also used to watch the Scuzz and Kerrang music channels where the videos for I Disappear, Enter Sandman, One, and The Day That Never Comes would play (this was the late 2000s and back when I lived in the UK, so I’m not sure those channels exist in the US). Older metal music seemed to have had a big revival in the late 2000s.

As far as relevancy goes, I supposed that would depend on what you mean by relevant. I doubt there are many people, even in the metal world, gushing over new Metallica stuff as they did 30-40 years ago. Metallica was one of my favorite bands when I was younger, but I don’t really care about hearing their latest stuff. I don’t find it having as much of an influence on my playing today than 15 years ago and that is probably because I don’t listen to their newest albums (Lulu, the album that came after that, and the one they are doing now…I did like Death Magnetic though). I would go see them live if they booked something near me though.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I wouldn't exactly say I'm young, but I'd like to think Metallica as I think of The Simpsons: an extremely important landmark of history (certainly important to me), and while I've got off the train a long time ago and I know well that their best days are done, I'll still pay attention every now and then.

 

[ShredmasterD]

I've posted on here about how fucked of an intro to metal and rock I had, but one thing that has expanded my enjoyment of music is going by what I think Keith Richards said, the cat's that make you hot, check out what made them hot. As much as you may hate on Metallica, or Pantera or any of the big bands of a certain time, they were big for a reason

exactly my point

 

[works0fheart]

What do they use? Friendster?

Myspace.

 

[fantom]

Legitimately want to know if the younger people who listen to them started on Load or later albums and wondered wtf the first 4 albums were about. Most of us ancient ones feel like Metallica changed on the Black Album, and then went full on Alternative Rock on Load. The songs weren't bad (Load surpirisngly has some bangers in hindsight). But I wouldn't say they stopped being relevant.

I have the same question everytime someone in their 20s mentions In Flames or Children of Bodom. To me, both those bands stopped being relevant in the 2000s (Clayman and Hate Crew Deathroll being their respective "black album"s).

Amon Amarth on the other hand has somehow found a way to re-release the mediocre pace riffs from Once Sent from the Golden Halls every couple years... And I loved that album. I honestly cannot figure out which album any of their subsequent tracks appear on.

 

[KentBrockman]

Legitimately want to know if the younger people who listen to them started on Load or later albums and wondered wtf the first 4 albums were about. Most of us ancient ones feel like Metallica changed on the Black Album, and then went full on Alternative Rock on Load. The songs weren't bad (Load surpirisngly has some bangers in hindsight). But I wouldn't say they stopped being relevant.

I have the same question everytime someone in their 20s mentions In Flames or Children of Bodom. To me, both those bands stopped being relevant in the 2000s (Clayman and Hate Crew Deathroll being their respective "black album"s).

Amon Amarth on the other hand has somehow found a way to re-release the mediocre pace riffs from Once Sent from the Golden Halls every couple years... And I loved that album. I honestly cannot figure out which album any of their subsequent tracks appear on.

I'm in my mid 20s so maybe I can answer. I started on Master of Puppets but heard Whiplash in a video game and also saw the videos for Enter Sandman, One, I Disappear, and The Day That Never Comes on television in the mid-to-late 2000s.

As far as COB goes, I am a big fan. I started listening to them after seeing one of their videos on television but also found one of their songs in a Total Guitar magazine (Smile Pretty for the Devil).

 

[BenjaminW]

I'm 25, been listening to metal since I was 8. I've always felt a bit bad about not knowing many older bands that seem to be important. Like Metallica, ACDC, Led Zeppelin, RHCP, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Pantera, Judas Priest, Nirvana, etc, etc. They are really big names, and lots of people wear their shirts. It's strange how metal music has been such a big part of my life and yet I don't know even 1 song from those classic bands...

A lot more teens/20's are into them now solely due to Stranger Things.

I'm 19 and these two are pretty much how Metallica is known with people my age.

I was into them when I was 11 because that was when I first got into them, but ever since Hardwired came out I've occasionally cared about Metallica. They're definitely still one of my favorite bands of all time though.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

lol at the 30 and 40 year olds who are posting thinking this thread is for them

Ola said they were for old people...even though that guy has to be pushing 40, no? I guess Metallica is elevator music now, definitely can put the unforgivens on the elevator. Less than the riffs and songs, the aged sound is more due to the aged rock voice, elementary solo parts, and weak ass snare fills that I could teach a child. James' right hand is still awesome. Trujillo is my favorite bass player ever before he joined them, I grieve over losing him to this band where he is just disappeared into the mix with vanilla riffs.

Besides all that, I'd love to catch them live again, but not for $1000s or even $100s.

 

[Mprinsje]

Legitimately want to know if the younger people who listen to them started on Load or later albums and wondered wtf the first 4 albums were about. Most of us ancient ones feel like Metallica changed on the Black Album, and then went full on Alternative Rock on Load. The songs weren't bad (Load surpirisngly has some bangers in hindsight). But I wouldn't say they stopped being relevant.

I have the same question everytime someone in their 20s mentions In Flames or Children of Bodom. To me, both those bands stopped being relevant in the 2000s (Clayman and Hate Crew Deathroll being their respective "black album"s).

Amon Amarth on the other hand has somehow found a way to re-release the mediocre pace riffs from Once Sent from the Golden Halls every couple years... And I loved that album. I honestly cannot figure out which album any of their subsequent tracks appear on.

first heard Metallica because of the St Anger and Frantic videos on MTV. I must've been around 12 or something, and that was before I got into downloading stuff and no one I knew listened to metal. So for quite some time St. Anger Metallica was what I thought all Metallica sounded like, and I really liked it. I only got to hear their old stuff after I played the tony hawk game that had whiplash in it with a friend of mine. I liked it but didn't like the high vocals.



I've come around to that now and I really like old Metallica (especially Justice), but because I got into them through st.anger that record has a lot of nostalgic value to me, and is most definitely my most listened Metallica record.



Same goes with in flames and children of bodom. Got into them around 2005/2006, so well after their, what the trve metalheads call "good years". So the records that came out around that time (come clarity, are you dead yet) hold that same nostalgic value for me, and while for both bands I like their old stuff better now, i still really like everything up to those records. I see why other people might not, but to me those records just sound different, not necessarily worse

 

[Wiltonauer]

…the Master of Puppets album art connects me as much to the t-shirt section at Target as it does to a handful of my own personal memories.

 

[SCJR]

I would go see them live if they booked something near me though.

That reminded me that I saw them about five years ago at the Hard Rock stadium. Actually one of the better arena acts I've ever seen. And yes, Kirk messed up the One intro. Not kidding lol.

 

[MattFlat05]

17 here. Didn't really listen to Metallica that much growing up and only knew about their really big hits until probably 2 years ago. Metallica's early albums will always be super iconic to me, but when it comes to anything after the black album I don't think they have the same importance. And Justice For All is probably in my top ten favorite albums. I'm not sure I can say they're relevant since most of my friends know of Metallica but don't really bother listening to them.