Metallica Collectors....

Updated
Metallica Collectors....

Not entirely content consistent, but the band in question occupies a fair bit of bandwidth here and so you all might be "in the know" about those who horde the old collectibles. I stopped collecting Metallica vinyl, CD's, posters, promos, etc. in about 1991 when the Black Album came out. It was blasphemy as a Metallica album at that time for us fans that first heard them when Ride the Lightning came out, and I was positive that they would drive all their die hard fans away. Those of us who worshipped at the altar of Hetfield had to shutter the windows and listen with headphones to the Black Album for fear of having the true Metal Militia come and kick our asses. It turned out OK for them for sure, but I still have fellow metal fans my age question my sexuality for still liking them. Meh....it is what it is.

The real point here is that when I stopped collecting, I lost all my pen pals in Australia and Japan that would find me items, and I would send them US copies of stuff. I had my Japanese contact send me the Pushead drawn "Mt. Fuji" 1989 tour promo poster from Sony that I have treasured ever since. What I DIDN'T catch at that time was the other poster. There were 2 issued. "Mt. Fuji" and "Spider" were the two and I never ran across the Spider one anywhere in Asia. It's a LOOOONNNNGGG shot but does anyone still have one in good shape for sale, or know of anyone who does? Here is a pic of the spider one.....

Road King

I didn't know that Metallica triggered the snowflakes. Most people complain about Load. I guess it depends on your age. St. Anger was the one I didn't like.

Tondog

The black album signaled the official end of "Metallica" as we knew them. The close of the 80's was the end of Metallica could do no wrong for all of us who were old enough to know who they were when at Ride the Lightning came out. I don't remember ever hearing about them until Ride came out in the midwest at least. They were already being accused of selling out on that record because of Fade to Black, and also because they signed to a major record label. I was into punk but Metallica was the exception that we could all agree on. Punk and metal heads did NOT co mingle back then. Slayer blurred everyone's lines too.

The end of the 80's had Hetfield go from a Jagermeister swilling pirate playing the EET FUK and only wearing black Vans, to a total Dwight Yoakam fanboy to the point of wearing cowboy boots, cowboy hats, big poofy sheep skin jackets, and a fuckin mullet! The music was different, the look was different, and we were absolutely certain that Cliff would have killed them all with his suitcase hammer by then. Selling out wasn't the issue at all by then, they were a different band altogether. Going backstage on the Justice tour was like the old days where they sat around drinking and signing stuff while chatting. I stood in the Snakepit when they first came around on the black album tour, and we were ushered backstage from there. It was a big bunch of radio winners and local bigwigs by then, many of whom didn't know who the band really was! It was not uncommon for the radio guys to ask how long they'd been around?! They weren't "OUR" band anymore....and they kind of acted like it by then.

I'll always be a fan because of what they meant to us in the mid and late 80's when I was in school and stuff. I've had to cringe and feel embarrassed FOR them a LOT though since then. Meh.....they are who they are, and they'll always be the biggest rock band in my life anyway. I still don't like Rob through no fault of his own though. When I see them live now, it's just a different thing altogether than it was when there were 5 of us in school who even knew who they were. It's hard to feel "nostalgic" for them though because I think the last 2 albums had some REALLY good stuff on them, and they can still belt it out live for sure.                 

Road King

Meh, people change. It's probably hard to stay angry when you're making bank and you have less energy from being old. Metal fans claim to be angry and tough yet are the most complaining bunch ever.

Tondog

Without a doubt! They were given the license to not care, and they seem to have not gotten that message. That being said, there really are two distinct generations of metal heads that encompass Metallica, and those two are as opposed to one another as could be as well. It's funny to watch Metallica have to tread that line like that stupid little hunting movie they had to do to play at Glastonbury. Fuckin gay. 

Cogan C.

I was a Metallica fan back when bootleg cassettes were the only way you could listen to them. I got Kill Em All I think in 83 and was instantly hooked. I never heard metal up until that point and I was sold. From then on it seemed like they couldn't top their previous albums. Then Ride came out and blew everybody away, no way could they top that. Then Master, and sure as shit, they did it again. When Justice hit, I thought it wasn't as great as the others but it wasn't bad. I waited in line for 6 hours to get the Black album.....and nope, it wasn't the same band anymore for me. I didn't like any of the songs on it and actually gave it to somebody else for a Hell Awaits import cassette. Never listened to anything else they produced after that until Hardwired, and the latest sounds pretty decent, like they went back to their roots.

Tondog

Exactly the way I felt about their career as well. I have a good friend to this day who said right when Cliff died that, "there went the Metallica we'll always want more of...." To this day it was one of the most enlightened comments I've ever heard about anything. We physically cried like little girls when the Beatles broke up when we heard the news on MTV. The thing is that when he was alive, he was just another band member, but we did know he was special. We just didn't know how much. I denied his importance until the Black album came out and then I knew the Cliff material was totally worked out of the demo cassettes. 

The thing that I think we all also acknowledge is that Metallica would never have stayed together as a band if Cliff were alive. There was a LOT of tension that was true between Cliff and Lars that even we knew about back then. That never would have stayed glued together because Cliff wasn't codependent on the rest of them for family like James was. Cliff would have put his huge bony middle fingers in the air and walked right out at the Black album stuff. Hell even Justice wouldn't have been so staccato with Cliff. He hated that shit.

None of it ultimately matters and we have to cringe through a lot of shit today that doesn't suit our taste but it sure does for someone because they still sell like most others could only dream of! I'll still always idolize James and respect the little niche he's carved out of the world for himself. He was always the one that took the time to say hi to me even back in 1989 when he'd had a half bottle of Jagermeister. Jason was always really nice but James kind of made a point to make me feel less stupid asking someone for their signature on something dumb. We even made fun of some chick together backstage in 1991 that made him laugh so hard people thought we were huffing farts. The rest of them I could really care less about and I'll probably get tossed out of my backstage shenanigans on this coming tour for talking shit to Kirk. 

metalhobo
Tondog wrote:

 

The thing that I think we all also acknowledge is that Metallica would never have stayed together as a band if Cliff were alive. There was a LOT of tension that was true between Cliff and Lars that even we knew about back then. That never would have stayed glued together because Cliff wasn't codependent on the rest of them for family like James was. Cliff would have put his huge bony middle fingers in the air and walked right out at the Black album stuff. Hell even Justice wouldn't have been so staccato with Cliff. He hated that shit.

 

I remember hearing a rumor that the band was conspiring to kick lars out before cliff died.

Tondog
metalhobo wrote:

 

The thing that I think we all also acknowledge is that Metallica would never have stayed together as a band if Cliff were alive. There was a LOT of tension that was true between Cliff and Lars that even we knew about back then. That never would have stayed glued together because Cliff wasn't codependent on the rest of them for family like James was. Cliff would have put his huge bony middle fingers in the air and walked right out at the Black album stuff. Hell even Justice wouldn't have been so staccato with Cliff. He hated that shit.

 

I remember hearing a rumor that the band was conspiring to kick lars out before cliff died.

I read the same but it was Scott Ian's book that brought that up again to confirm what Dave Mustaine had been blurting out all those years earlier. Dave had maintained for years that Cliff thought Lars was a weak link because he was running all of the management type stuff and not telling the rest of them about it. The closest thing I've seen to an admission from Lars knowing all this was him saying that right before Cliff died, he and Lars had a sitdown to hash out the beef they had and that Lars felt better after that. Lars had said he and Cliff were at peace the night he died. I also have to think that this was somewhat of a fairytale story and that Lars had to be in some headspace relieved that the question of his place as the drummer would no longer be questioned. He said in that movie, "this is the interesting part though that today, maybe it wouldn't be Cliff being picked for the band!" I know that caused a big argument between James and Lars at that time too because it's a pretty disrespectful and spiteful statement to make given the legacy of Cliff Burton. I have to believe that Metallica would not have reached the heights that it has without Lars though too. Never mind what you think of him as a drummer, he's a perfect politician and manager of their brand and image. Kirk is a delicate wallflower who's still WAY into coke, James would have thrown a beer and punched someone eventually for disagreeing with him, Jason might have been ok, but given his recent mismanagement of his own band on the road and finding out they were paying to play gigs....likely not! Metallica is a mighty empire of money that has to be managed constantly, or it will dry up and never pay anyone another residual dime.

 

Nathan S.

I like everything but Lulu, and not super impressed with hardwired.

frantic77
Nathan S. wrote:

I like everything but Lulu, and not super impressed with hardwired.

Me too.  Couple of songs on Hardwired are great like Spit out the bone. 

Breadfan32

I was 11 or 12 when the black album came out. Hearing enter sandman on the radio got me hooked instantly and they’ve been my favourite band ever since. 

I love the old stuff and the new stuff.  I really liked death magnetic and I love every song off hardwired. Tons of fun riffs to play on guitar.  

The only album I won’t listen to much is st anger.  Every now and then the odd song is ok.  

I can totally see why he fans who started in 83 would hate the black album though.  

Tondog

'68

Road King

I was like 9 when the Black Album hit so big. I had older friends who were like 13 and they loved Metallica, but I thought they sucked because I was more into electronic music and Vanilla Ice. In high school, I was just getting into Metallica during the late 90's after Reload. They put out the Garage Days album, S&M, and did the MI:2 soundtrack song. They were really on the right track IMO and then I kind of lost interest after the St. Anger album. I was trying to play the songs on guitar but they weren't fun.  Still, it's cool to see so many phases of one band, and the last 2 records were pretty good.

remz

In my humble opinion, the black album had two massive radio pop ballads and they became millionnaires at that time... So i think money at that time became more important than music and their music has to become more mainstream to continue to make a lot of money... For me metallica died in 92-93 when moneyllica was born.. It's still a good band for me but way overrated 

Brono

I was a huge Pushead fan ( my first username on the old boards was Pusfan), sweet find. I still got like 40 pushead metallica shirts and some posters. I dont give two shits about metallica anymore, but the artwork is still sick

Tondog

Agreed and the 80's Pushead stuff is just amazing. I even think this new artist they have doing stuff for them was HEAVILY influenced by Pushead but he got all butt hurt when I mentioned it.

Graham Wellington

What an overly dramatic story lol just lol. 

Jim B.

I just wish they would go back to the Black era. I'm not asking for Justice or MOP awesomeness. I would settle with Black. Stop trying so hard and just write good songs again. Thanks all.

Mia Rose

I agree with you about the metallica collectors, I have watched its complete movie series at Streaming Digitally in Nederland and loved most of the parts of it. So, please keep sharing posts like these for movie lovers like me. 

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