Why Doesn't Metallica Play More Underrated Songs Live?

Maybe Metallica should change up the setlist?

Having recently seen Metallica live on Aug. 24 in Vancouver, I got to wondering why some songs aren't as well received by fans as others during the show.

While most of the crowd was rocking to most of the songs, some tracks drew a kind of "meh" response from fans.

It wasn't a sellout concert, with the floor half full and several sections in the corners rather bare. That in itself was kind of surprising.

And a good number of fans there, at least in the general area I was sitting, just didn't seem really that into it. Maybe the potent weed that was being smoked everywhere had them hippy-shaking in their seats.

But if you look at the songs, you might glean an answer towards some of the apathy.

Metallica has been around for more than 33 years, touring quite a bit. With that comes the fact they tend to play the same songs live. Over and Over.

As a longtime fan of the band, I'm frankly tired of seeing them do "For Whom the Bell Tolls" for the umpteenth time. It's a great song to be sure, but fans seem tired of seeing it live.

And "Seek and Destroy" is another that they've played on pretty much every single tour.

Even the mastery of "Master of Puppets" is getting dull now. Overplayed. Beat to death.

Then, as usual, they closed the show with their most overplayed song "Enter Sandman". Again. Yawn.

I get that the band sort of has to appeal to the lowest common denominator and play songs the casual fan might recognize, but wouldn't it be better if they pulled out some older, underrated songs from the catalogue?

Suffice it to say Metallica would be well-served to play some other tracks. How about "Leper Messiah"? It's easy enough, so Lars Ulrich can get through it on drums.

What about "Outlaw Torn" – one of their most underrated songs. Or "Bleeding Me" – another standout from the Load album. Or how about "Fixxer", a song they finally played live late in 2021, which is an absolut gem.

But sadly for longtime fans of Metallica, it's pretty much the same old songs live, aside from anything they played off Hardwired ... to Self Destruct, and I loved hearing those songs live in concert for the first time.

And just like the Rolling Stones before them, playing "Satisfaction" for the millionth time, it's likely Metallica fans will have to endure through "Enter Sandman" over and over again.

Check out what Lars Ulrich thinks of Metallica playing their fastest songs when they're in their 60s.

Albums that Spent the Most Time on Billboard Charts

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

When you think about some of the truly great albums of all time that have spent time on the album charts, it's worth noting Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is still top dog.Released way back in March, 1973, the record spent an astounding 953 weeks on the Billboard charts, even spending a week at No. 1 in the U.S.

What's really interesting is it fell off the charts in 1988, only to re-appear with the introduction of the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in May 1991, and has been a perennial feature ever since. It's a testament to the innovation and song writing the Pink Floyd brought to Abbey Road Studio when they created the masterpiece. 

Floyd's bassist and principal songwriter Roger Waters says he knew the band was onto something amazing when he played it for his wife.

"When the record was finished I took a reel-to-reel copy home with me and I remember playing it for my wife then, and I remember her bursting into tears when it was finished. And I thought, 'This has obviously struck a chord somewhere', and I was kinda pleased by that. You know when you've done something, certainly if you create a piece of music, you then hear it with fresh ears when you play it for somebody else. And at that point I thought to myself, 'Wow, this is a pretty complete piece of work,' and I had every confidence that people would respond to it."

Of all the albums that spent the most time on the Billboard 200, only two of the top five are non-compilations - Dark Side of the Moon and Metallica's Black Album, which sits at No. 4 with 542 weeks on the chart. Bob Marley's Legend (No. 2), Journey's Greatest Hits (No. 3), and Johnny Mathis' Greatest hits (No. 5), are all compilations.

The Black Album Shows Longevity

Metallica's Black Album

Metallica's 1991 record marked a massive change for the thrash band. The San Francisco quartet brought in uber producer Bob Rock to help them find a different sound as the band went from the brutally produced ...And Justice For All to a clear, hard-hitting sound that made the band more accessible to a much wider audience. It also helped that "Enter Sandman" became a staple of modern rock radio. The band also made a concerted effort to slow down, going from pure thrash to more grinding metal.

"…And Justice For All album sounds horrible, awful, can't fucking stand it," says Hetfield "That was our fancy stage, showing off too much. We knew we had to move on and the Black Album was the opposite. So when me and Lars got back together after a short break, I said, 'We gotta really try and write some shorter, to-the-point songs.'"

Metallica fans at the time were outraged the band was "selling out", which they were, to a certain extent, but there aren't many artists who don't want their work to be heard or seen. James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted, and Lars Ulrich can't be faulted for wanting to broaden their horizons and change things up.

Time, the ultimate arbiter of what becomes legendary, has shown how well the Black Album has held up and appealed to multiple generations, much like Dark Side of the Moon.

Check Out: How Pink Floyd created The Wall album

Five of the Most Underrated Metallica Songs

To date, Metallica has released 10 studio albums and, along the way, have gained millions of new fans but lost a few on the way as well. Certainly Metallica has written many well known songs such as "Enter Sandman", "Master of Puppets" and "One", but among their vast catalogue are many jewels buried behind those more popular tracks. Here are five of Metallica's most underrated songs, which could be a 20-songs long (see playlist below):

The Call of Ktulu (From Ride the Lightning)

Found as the last song on Metallica's sophomore album, "The Call of Ktulu" blends dark atmosphere with melody and the bass-mastery of the late Cliff Burton. Coming in at 8:53, Ktulu is an instrumental that has to rank as one of the best metal instrumentals ever laid down. The song draws its inspiration from the pen of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, who wrote of a mythical figure, Cthulhu, in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu". Metallica also use Cthulu as a muse for "The Thing that Should Not Be" and "Dream No More" off Hardwired. . . To Self Destruct.

The Outlaw Torn (from Load)

Crammed in as the last song from 1996's Load album is The Outlaw Torn, boasting a massive James Hetfield riff and some stellar bass playing from Jason Newsted. For "The Outlaw Torn", it's all about groove over speed, with an amazing vocal delivery of anguish from Hetfield, particularly during the chorus. Written by Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, it's only been played live 13 times to date (the S&M version is absolutely killer). Interestingly, Hetfield plays the outro solo, which has to fade out because it was too long for the 78 minutes of music a CD could store.

My Friend of Misery (from Metallica)

Granted the first time I heard "My Friend of Misery", I thought it was a throwaway song, filler for the Black Album. But after more and more listens, I came to realize it's a powerhouse, progressive track. It's got a fantastic groove for the verses with a really nice acoustic guitar part that's rather buried in the mix, which certainly adds to the feel. It also happens to be one of the few songs bassist Jason Newsted got credit for writing.

Fixxxer (from Reload)

A song Metallica has never played live, Fixxxer is found buried as the very last song on 1997's Reload album. However, it's worthy of being the second or third song on that record. On James Hetfield's handwritten lyrics from June 4, 1997, he actually titles it "The Fixxxer" and for him the lyrics are very personal, dealing with his childhood and parents ("Can you heal what father's done? Or fix this hole in a mother's son")and how alcohol numbs the pain of the "pins". Like "The Outlaw Torn", the song fades in, then slams you in the face with the main riff. It really is a shame Metallica has never played this song live.

Lords of Summer (from Hardwired. . . To Self Destruct)

Kind of lost on the latest Metallica album is "Lords of Summer", which opens the third side of the deluxe edition collection. Hetfield's riff, as usual, carries this galloping gem. It's a just a good, old-fashioned, straight-up Metallica song the band debuted in 2014 at a concert in Bogota, Colombia.

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Metallica's Most Underrated Songs Playlist

Check out why James Hetfield wasn't a fan of Metallica's mid-1990s look

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Cliff Burton's Influence on Metallica's "Ride the Lightning"

There's no question Metallica's sophomore album, Ride the Lightning saw the band finding their thrash metal stride with better songs and production than on their stunning debut Kill 'Em All.

And a big reason the songs got better and were more mature, for lack of a better word, on Ride was because of bassist Cliff Burton's influence. The legend had a bigger hand in helping write more songs (he only got writing credits for "Anesthesia - Pulling Teeth" from Kill 'Em All. Tracks like "Fight Fire with Fire", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Ride the Lightning", "Fade to Black", "Creeping Death" and, of course, "Call of Ktulu" were co-written by Burton, who died tragically in a bus accident in Sweden on Sept. 27, 1986.

Guitarist Kirk Hammett recalls in an interview with Guitar World how Burton was the guy who had the musical theory and brought his love of harmonies to the songs.

"Cliff studied music in college,” Hammett said. “I had a grasp of music theory, thanks to Joe (Satriani, who was teaching Hammett ahead of recording Ride), but Cliff went the whole length and learned musical theory and everything. And he was way into harmonies. James really absorbed the dual-harmony thing and took it to heart. He made it his thing, but it was originally Cliff’s. Cliff also inspired James greatly on counterpoint and rhythmic concepts."

Interestingly, Hammett recalls a memory of Burton singing along with the Eagles whenever they came on the radio.

"And he would also sing harmonies. I remember the Eagles would come on the radio and he would sing all the harmony parts, never the root," Hammett said.

As for Burton's work on Ride the Lightning, it was often a case of the bassist throwing in some key parts here and there, while helping the band create harmonies and different feels.

"He wrote that “Creeping Death” harmony part and the harmony in the intro to “Ride the Lightning.” He even helped me with a lot of the harmony stuff I played in the solo to “Ride the Lightning," recalled Hammett. "I remember, I thought he’d just grab a bass and show me. But no, he had me write out all the notes in my solo on a piece of paper. Then he grabbed a pencil and went through and notated it, "If you’re playing E, then G, then A, then C…" I’m looking at him like, What? But I took the paper and worked it all out. And you know what? It was perfect."

Hammett: "Cliff was a Total Anomaly"

Hammett recalls his former bandmate being an eccentric type when it came to music.

"Cliff was a total anomaly. To this day, I’m still trying to figure out everything I experienced with him. He was a bass player and played like a bassist," said Hammett. "But, fucking hell, a lot of guitar sounds came out of it. He wrote a lot of guitar-centric runs. He always carried around a small acoustic guitar that was down tuned. I remember one time I picked it up and was like, "What is this thing even tuned to, like C?" He explained that he liked it like that because he could really bend the strings. He would always come up with harmonies on that acoustic guitar. I would be sitting there playing my guitar and he’d pick up his bass and immediately start playing a harmony part."

That memorable, soft acoustic intro to "Fight Fire with Fire" was a piece of Burton brilliance that opened the album, lulling listeners before the heavy guitar kicks in.

"That acoustic piece was Cliff’s! Cliff wrote that on the down-tuned acoustic guitar I was talking about. He had a really good grasp of playing the guitar, and a good grasp of classical modulations. That intro was his piece," said Hammett. "We heard it and stuck it onto “Fight,” and it worked fantastic. We knew that was going to be the opening track. There was no question about it."

Not only was Burton a phenomenal bass player, but he was such an integral part of Metallica's songwriting on the Ride the Lightning, then on 1986's Master of Puppets, the last album he'd do before his untimely death at just 24 years old.

Check out five of the five best Metallica songs co-written by Cliff Burton

Metallica Won't Be Reworking Any Old Albums

James Hetfield

If you're hoping Metallica will someday remix . . . And Justice For All, don't hold your breath.

Even though the 1988 album sounds terrible, with no bass tone, guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield said the band won't revisit any of their older stuff to tweak it - even if they wanted to.

"These records are a product of a certain time in life – they’re snapshots of history and they’re part of our story," Hetfield told Red Bulletin. "There are things I would like to change on some of the records – but it gives them so much character that you can’t change them."

While many fans would love a remix of Justice with Jason Newsted's bass louder in the mix, it's unlikely.

Hetfield acknowledged that record didn't have the best production, but said it's a part of the band's days of yore.

"OK, so … And Justice for All could use a little more low end and St. Anger could use a little less tin snare drum, but those things are what make those records part of our history,” explained the 53-year-old riffmaster. "I find it a little frustrating when bands re-record classic albums with pretty much the same songs and have it replace the original. It erases that piece of history."

A perfect example is how Motley Crue redid the track "Shout At The Devil" on their 1997 Generation Swine album, turning a great, classic track into a semi-industrial piece of garbage.

Part of what makes Metallica's classic stuff so good is its inherent rawness, even St. Anger which was such a detour for the band.

A Remix of Justice from Youtube

Check out why James Hetfield wasn't a fan of Metallica's mid-90s look.

Lars Ulrich's Take on Aging and Playing Thrash Music

Lars Ulrich isn't getting any younger

Age is the one thing that creeps up on everybody, and for Metallica's Lars Ulrich, he worries about Father Time taking a toll.

In an interview on CBC Radio show 'Q', Ulrich wondered out loud if he and rest of the band will be able to hammer out some of their faster songs as they age into their 60s and 70s.

"Whether we can do the 'Fight Fire's' and the 'Battery's' and the 'Master Of Puppets' and all that in our mid-60s and our early 70s remains to be seen," said Ulrich, who turns 53 on Boxing Day.

"And there's kind of a second part to that, which is that if… I mean, we may be able to still play them — do you know what I mean? — but whether we can bring the weight and whether we can bring the energy and whether we can bring the attitude that those songs deserve in our 60s to 70s, I have no idea," Ulrich continued. "Hopefully we'll have enough clarity to be able to tell if it's not working, to walk away from it graciously and respectfully. But right now we're fine, and we've played some of our best shows in the last couple of years, and I think there's still a bit left in the engine. But whether we can do it in our 70s… hopefully we'll get a chance to find out."

Drumming Takes a Physical Toll

Young Lars, bigger kit

Metallica fans will note that, over the years, Ulrich's drum kit has gotten smaller and smaller. When playing live, he certainly doesn't throw in all the drum fills from the recordings, instead focusing on keeping time.

Not many bands have 70-year-old drummers. Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones comes to mind, and he's 75. Now Watts isn't pounding out 200 beats per minute, but you get the idea that a drummer must be physically in-shape to play.

In fact, part of the reason Rush retired from touring was because drummer Neal Peart suffers from chronic tendonitis and shoulder problems, making him unable to properly play the complex parts he wrote as a younger man.

Ulrich noted he wants Metallica to go on for as long as possible, but can't predict the future.

"When people ask me to look into the crystal ball into the future: 'What do you think? Are you still gonna be playing…?'" he said. "It's the great, big unanswered question. Mentally, creatively, spiritually, aesthetically, we'll go for another hundred years [and] we're fine. Physically, obviously, it's the big question.

When touring, Metallica employs a couple of physical therapists to keep the band going.

It's actually kind of pathetic. People come backstage [and ask], 'Where's the Jack Daniel's?' There's no Jack Daniel's. It's brown rice and nasty protein shakes and a couple of trainers that are stretching us and stitching us back together again after the show," said Ulrich. "But at least we're still playing, and at least we're still functioning, and at least it still has some of the weight that it used to. So, so far so good, so we'll see where it takes us."

One drummer who comes to mind that's still playing at a frenzy is Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain, who is now 64 years old, and never misses a fill.

Only time will tell how long Ulrich can keep it going. You've gotta figure he's got at least another 10 years in him.

James Hetfield Wasn't a Fan of Metallica's Mid-'90s Look

Metallica during the Load era

When Metallica fans purchased the Load album in 1996, they were probably shocked seeing what the band looked like in the liner notes.

They went from scruffy rockers to short-haired, makeup-wearing, leather-clad rock stars. And it turns out frontman James Hetfield wasn't a fan of the short hair and makeup, either.

Hetfield told Team Rock that not only did he not like Metallica's look, but late bassist Cliff Burton would have agreed with him and fought the record company about how the band should appear.

"I would certainly think that the ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’ [era], I would have had an ally that was very against it all – the reinvention or the U2 version of Metallica," said Hetfield, adding he wasn't comfortable during the Load-Reload era but liked the music. "There’s some great, great songs on there."

Indeed. Despite how the band looked and their more hard rock vs. thrash sound, some of Metallica's best tracks including "Bleeding Me", "Outlaw Torn", and "Thorn Within" are on those albums.

Hetfield added if Burton were still alive back then (he died in a bus crash in 1986), things probably would have been different with how the band sounded.

"Well, I certainly would have thought there would have been some resistance, for sure," said Hetfield, who also hated both the Load and Reload covers. "I think Cliff would have probably interjected some different stuff, getting his bass heard and some more musically challenging things, probably."

"But my opinion is that all of the imagery and stuff like that was not necessary. And the amount of songs that were written was… it diluted the potency of the poison of Metallica. And I think Cliff would have agreed with that," Hetfield noted.

Certainly, many Metallica fans jumped off the bandwagon in anger when Load was released, but at the same time, they captured new fans with their look and grungier sound.

With their 10th studio album, Hardwired ... To Self Destruct set for release on Nov. 18, it sounds like James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo are getting back to their earlier roots from the mid 1980s, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Check Out The Top 5 Metallica Songs Cliff Burton Co-Wrote

The Five Best Metallica Songs Co-Written by Cliff Burton

Revered and influential Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died 30 years ago today during the Master of Puppets Tour in Sweden. He was 24 years old. Burton was killed when Metallica's tour bus skidded off the road and flipped over into a ditch. He was thrown out the window and the bus landed on him. Burton helped write many of the great tracks from Metallica's first three albums. Here are five of the best songs Burton co-wrote before his untimely death in 1986 (not including his (Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth".

"Creeping Death" from Ride the Lightning

One of Metallica's best tracks, period, "Creeping Death" got it's title from Burton who coined the term as the band watched The Ten Commandments movie. There's a part where a plague wipes out every Egyptian first-born child, and Burton is noted as saying "Whoa, it's like creeping death." From there the band wrote a song about the Egyptian plagues and titled it "Creeping Death". Burton's bass playing on the track is somewhat down in the overall mix, but you can pick it up pretty well in the middle "Die, Die, Die" section, thundering along.

"The Call of Ktulu" from Ride the Lightning

One of the greatest metal instrumentals, "The Call of Ktulu" is a nearly nine-minute masterpiece of mood and melody, with Burton's playing featuring prominently throughout the track. Whether it's the bass squeals throughout, the subtle intro notes or his using the pedal wah to create unique bass runs, Burton makes Ktulu an amazing piece of music that perfectly captures the mood of H.P. Lovecraft's mythical figure Cthulhu rising from the depths of the underground city in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu".

"For Whom The Bell Tolls" from Ride The Lightning

Another track from Metallica's sophomore album, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" features Burton playing a nice lead part to open the song and, from there, his bass line - with its amazing sounding tone - carries the track as it marches into battle. The video shot at Day on the Green in Oakland, back in 1985 (and shown on the Cliff 'Em All video) is probably the best pro-shot performance of Burton live with Metallica. He takes "For Whom the Bell Tolls" to a new level with that intro solo.

"Orion" from Master of Puppets

One of Metallica's more progressive pieces at the time, "Orion" is a chugging, spacey instrumental prominently featuring Burton's amazing bass playing, particularly the two bass solos he plays. The first, a section of repeated notes, comes in at 1:42 and goes through until 2:13. There's a melodic bass interlude in the middle of the track, followed by a Kirk Hammett solo, then Burton really goes to work at at 6:36 on his second solo. As an ode to Burton, James Hetfield has the bass notes from the middle section of "Orion" tattooed onto his left arm, along with Cliff's name over top of it.

"Damage Inc." from Master of Puppets

The closing track on the Puppets album, "Damage Inc." sees Burton creating the build-up intro with bass swells and harmonies, laid out over what he said in an interview with Rock Hard magazine was "eight or 12 tracks of bass, a lot of harmonies and volume swells effects and stuff." It's a total thrash monster of a track, propelled by Burton and drummer Lars Ulrich. It's the last full song recorded on an album with Burton's playing.

Check out Cliff Burton's influence on Ride the Lightning and how helped shape the songs on that album