I have been a hardcore MetallicA fan for the last seven years,
and this so-called “tribute” you made for them via the MTV ICON special
this past Tuesday, May 6th, 2003 was a disgraceful display that I call
an insult to one of the greatest heavy metal bands in music history.
I am going to demonstrate several points that I feel disgraced the music
& history of MetallicA. The terrible “tribute” performances on
the show, the lack of acknowledgment of key former members of the band,
and finally, the guests & performers who SHOULD have been featured
on this show to make it a proper tribute.
First off, the horrid performance that were dared to be referred to as “tributes”. Let's start with the opening band, Sum 41. They start off with “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. Now, any true ‘Tallica fan knows that “Bellz” was one of Cliff Burton's trademark songs. His riffs, his bass, and most of all, the wild, shrieking wah-enhanced bass performances. Sum 41 neglect to use the bass wah on the intro to “Bellz”. This is by FAR my favorite MetallicA song, and anyone who can’t even get that ONE little part of the song correct, should be ashamed! Such a simple, yet greatly effective addition to the song, and whenever said effect is removed, it degrades the sonic impact of said song. Also, they messed up several key stops in the song. Meaning, they stopped the song in the wrong parts. Then, we skip ahead to their snippet of “Master of Puppets”. The solo was pulled off well enough, but not greatly. A tremolo, or 'whammy bar', is required to play Kirk Hammett's solo for this song, and one was not even present on the guitar it was played on. Then, the FIRST lyrics out of their frontman's mouth during “Puppetz” ARE WRONG! “Come crawling faster” is replaced with “Controlling faster”? Disgraceful. If they're gonna do a tribute to one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all-time, they could, at least, get the damn lyrics right!
Next comes Avril with her monotone version of “Fuel”. What in the sam HELL was that? Not a damn OUNCE of vocal talent in that little, young lady. The rest of her band played well, and her backup vocalist did a better job singing the song than she did. We follow that disappointing performance with the equally cringable Snoop Dogg RAP of “Sad But True”. It was bad when Kid Rock tried rapping over the song, and Snoop Dogg just embarrassed himself trying to rap over a heavy metal song. A total wreck of a song that just got worse when the chorus hit. Fortunately, it didn't last past that point.
Next, Staind, probably the one band I hate more than any other in the world. A poseur band that tries NOT to sound like a poseur band, and thus, only makes them MORE of a poseur band. Their frontman, Aaron Lewis (and I do feel embarrassed by knowing ANY of the band members’ names), sings in a whiny, depressed, and repressed voice that is simply annoying & tired. I did not even bother sitting through their rendition of “Nothing Else Matters” because Lewis simply does not have the vocal range or deep passion in his soul needed to do that song justice which James Hetfield does have. Not worth listening to.
KoRn hits the stage with their clunky version of “One”. They play a shortened version of the song, and I don't just mean cut-off either. It’s like they opted to played the shortened version of the video edit that Metallica does not like at all. The slap bass totally ruined every second of that song, and the equally chunky Jonathan Davis couldn't even deliver all the lyrics for the song. And then, they don't even bother to get NEAR doing the dueling guitar part of the song, nor the hyper speed Kirk Hammett solo. “One” is the favorite song of my friend & guitarist, Rob Bingham, and I'm certain he'd feel that KoRn disgraced that song by not even bothering to do the WHOLE song.
And finally, Limp Bizkit’s wretched rap laden version of “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” nearly made me vomit. If I had to take one more note beyond the few seconds I heard of it, I would've gotten sick. Then, they start up the damn turn tables. Thankfully, I didn't listen to that part either.
All in all, this was a shameful display that was a series of performances
to forget . . . . QUICKLY! Metallica were the only ones who gave
this show ANY redeeming qualities whatsoever. A powerhouse performance
that blew all others away, and how do you repay them? You cut them
off. While playing one of their brand new songs, “Frantic”.
You rob us, the fans, of experiencing new Metallica material we've waited
for since 1997 (when RELOAD was released) to witness. That enraged
me more than anything else on this show . . . . almost.
Next up, the key figures in Metallica's history you chose to disregard. Chronologically, we begin with Dave Mustaine. Without Mustaine, many of the riffs on Metallica's first two albums would never have existed. More specifically, the majority of KILL ‘EM ALL featured his riffs on nearly every song. You give him a two second mention, and nothing more. Mustaine deserves FAR more. One of the greatest speed metal guitarists EVER, and is truly a key figure in the history of The Four Horsemen. KILL ‘EM ALL was all Mustaine's work. His riffs, his solos, but Hetfield's re-written lyrics. That debut album would not have existed without the talent and input of Dave Mustaine. And the riffs used in “The Call of Ktulu” and “Ride The Lightning” are also those of Dave Mustaine. “Ktulu” is a Metallica instrumental classic, and Mustaine used that riff he created for the Megadeth classic “Hangar 18”. Truly a great riff & melody no matter which track you hear it on.
Now, the true enrager, the exclusion of Clifford Lee Burton from your “history of Metallica”. Without Cliff Burton, Metallica may never have evolved from their KILL ‘EM ALL sound. Burton has song writing credits on six out of the eight songs off of “Ride The Lightning”. Not to mention, “Ride The Lightning” is my favorite MetallicA album, ever! On “Master of Puppets”, his classic music influence is felt the most as MetallicA puts together one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all-time. I've listened to this albums several times through. From the first acoustic chords of “Battery” to the final pounding fury of “Damage, Inc.” - it’s a simply AWESOME album. And “Orion”, the band's second full band instrumental, is another marvel of metal melody & musicianship. This is the track that was played at Cliff Burton's funeral & cremation. Cliff Burton has been embedded in the hearts & souls of, not only MetallicA, but us fans as well. The home video, “CLIFF ‘EM ALL” demonstrates just how great & lively of a person Cliff was, and how much of a brother he was (and still is, in spirit) to the rest of the band. It’s a crime in the eyes of MetallicA's fans to deny the existence, let alone the influence, of Cliff Burton.
And on a final note, in this segment of this letter, the claim
of you presenting MetallicA's history as you’ve never seen it was a JOKE!
If you’re a MetallicA fan, unless you’ve been living under a proverbial
rock, you know everything about their history. Between the VH1 Behind
The Music of both MetallicA & Megadeth, “A Year and a Half in the Life
of Metallica” documentary, all of their home videos, their magazine interviews
over the past three years, the official
Metallica website, and a certain fan website called Encyclopedia Metallica
(www.encycmet.com), there's not
a proverbial stone un-turned in the history of MetallicA. MetLive.com
has THOUSANDS of their concerts dates & setlists throughout their career
posted up on their website. MetallicA fans ARE fanatics, and to think
we don't know every inch of their history is an insult to us as fans!
Plus, the weak and half-assed attempt at trying to recap their history
was a foolish and futile attempt.
And now, the way this show should have been done. First off, the performers. You should have gotten Anthrax, Motörhead, Danzig, System of a Down, Corrosion of Conformity, and quite possibly Pantera. Anyone who's a Metallica fan knows the highly friendly relationship between MetallicA & Anthrax. From the VERY early days on the east coast, they've been awesome friends to one another. Anthrax even sampled “Master of Puppets” for their many versions of “I'm The Man”, and thus, should perform “Puppetz”. And if there was no Motörhead there would be no MetallicA, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, or possibly even Pantera. Motörhead are like GODS to MetallicA, and having Lemmy on-stage with the rest of Motörhead performing a MetallicA masterpiece would be an experience beyond words for them. Now, despite the fact that Motörhead won a Grammy Award for covering “Enter Sandman”, it should be “Damage, Inc.” as their song. In my honest opinion, MetallicA's heaviest, fastest song ever! Every member of MetallicA has been a Glenn Danzig fan, in whatever band he may have been a member of. Jaymz contributed vocals to two tracks on Danzig's classic self-titled debut album. Danzig has joined the boys on stage in doing a trio of Misfits covers, and Jaymz has joined the current Misfits line-up on stage as well. So, having Glenn Danzig performing as a tribute to them would be quite the treat for them, to say the least. Danzig would do “Harvester of Sorrow” as the song lends much to Glenn Danzig's vocal stylings, and is just one heavy song (and Glenn Danzig is one heavy bad ass). System of A Down's guitarist, Daron Malakian, filled in for Jaymz (as us fans spell it, in reference to “Garage Days Re-revisited”) on guitar for the Summer Sanitarium 2000 tour when Hetfield injured his back. I think a song, which MetallicA themselves have never played live, that would lend to System's style well would be “The Struggle Within”. All of the core members of MetallicA have been fans & friends of Corrosion of Conformity for many, many years, and would definitely LOVE to see them performing any MetallicA song on stage before them. And finally, Pantera have covered “Seek & Destroy” live several times, and have even done it with Jason Newsted! Needless to say, the two bands have been kick ass heavy metal cohorts practically since Pantera hit the scene in 1990! Now, if you could tear Anselmo & Rex away from their side project “Down” for two seconds (or whatever Phil's side project of the week is), I'm certain Pantera would be more than willing to come on to play “Seek & Destroy” or any other MetallicA song of their choosing. That would be a sonic blast of metal that would've CRUSHED the putrid performances on your shameful show.
As for the guests. How about Steven Tyler & Joe Perry
(as you actually advertise Tyler to appear, but didn't). Tyler &
Perry were the duo that inspired Jaymz to pick up a guitar in the first
place. Hetfield stated as much at the Aerosmith MTV ICON special
last year! And on top of that, add in Jaymz’ good friend, Black Sabbath
guitar god, Tony Iommi. The two have been good friends for a very
long time. Plus, Black Sabbath is & always will be one of the
most influential bands in heavy metal. They practically invented
the heavy metal riff. And speaking of guitar gods, Kirk Hammett's
guitar teacher, Joe Satriani, should’ve been there as well. Satriani
is an amazing guitarist, and he passed on that amazing knowledge to Kirk.
I'm certain, Kirk would be overjoyed to have his old guitar teacher on
stage praising his works over the past 22 years. And there's even
more friends. The aforementioned Dave Mustaine was contemplating
a joint MetallicA - Megadeth tour with Hetfield before his unfortunate
injury over a year ago. Mustaine has been close friends with Jaymz,
Larz, & Kirk over the last decade, and would've been privileged to
express that friendship on stage. Whether in performance or in simple
words. Then, you’ve got Jerry Cantrell. Jaymz, Kirk, Larz,
and Newsted have been close friends with the now former members of Alice
in Chains. Jaymz even performed on one of Cantrell's solo albums.
To hurry this list along, you could've also added Slash, Chris Cornell
(the guys are HUGE Soundgarden fans, mostly Kirk & Jason), Blue Öyster
Cult (Jaymz & Jason have always been MONSTER BÖC fans), Brian
May of Queen (again, Jaymz is a big fan & admirer), Michael Kamen,
Ted Nugent (Hetfield's hunting partner), Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
were an influence on them (especially with “Fade to Black”), and if you
could've dug up Diamond Head, I'm sure every past & present member
of MetallicA would be ecstatic! All of those people & bands,
plus more. It’s a very long list of friends, influences, and the
like for MetallicA.
So, there you have it. If you had followed even a basic outline of what I stated, this would've been a monstrous metallic event (no pun intended). Instead, you choose a group of bands that have little to pay tribute to. KoRn has more of a thanks to give to Rage Against the Machine than MetallicA, I won’t even run through the rest of the performers. You gathered up a list of poseur bands that can’t even perform the damn songs correctly, a rag tag group of people who CLAIM to be HUGE MetallicA fans (Rob Zombie being the only genuine article on-stage), and a very non comprehensive overview of their over two decade long career. This was, at no level, a tribute to MetallicA, AlcoholicA, The Four Horsemen, or whatever you wish to call them. MetallicA drastically changed my life, and I only regret that it didn't happen a decade or more beforehand. I might not have been a lonely, shy person constantly & consistently referred to as a geek, nerd, or any number of similar derrogatory names. I am a die hard, hardcore Metallifan, and I owe them so very much for changing my attitude & outlook on life. Not to mention the vast emotional support their music has given me throughout these past seven years. And that being as it is, they deserved a STARKLY opposite treatment from you in relation to this tribute special. In my view, and in the view of many, many more legions of MetallicA fans, you did not treat them with the proper & deserved respect you had claimed to be giving them, let alone us fans. You should be ashamed of yourselves for delivering this disgraceful 90 minutes of personal insults to the band & the fans alike. Perhaps, if you didn't have 20 commercials per break, you could have actually fit in MetallicA's complete, uncut, and unedited performance (yes, I know about Larz’ snare drum crapping out on him). I could go on & on repeating myself with a wealth of insults, but if you haven't gotten the point by now, then no further words from myself are going to make a difference. I just hope my words have penetrated through your thick, commercialized, ratings-hungry, money grubbing, egotistical minds.
Nicholas J. Michalak