Metallica

One of the first viral videos I remember getting in my inbox was the "Napster Bad" cartoon back in 2000. Man, did it make Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield look like assholes. Oh course, they were dead-on about piracy--downloading went on to bash the music industry's head in, and now artists have pretty much no chance of making a living from their music, no matter how good or popular it is, unless they kill themselves on the road year in and year out. Yup, Metallica was right. But guess what? They're still assholes. This was clearer than ever when the band released the Some Kind of Monster documentary, in which they come off as maybe the most irritating spoiled brats on the planet. Really, though, where would we be without Metallica? Could any karaoke night exist without "Enter Sandman" at this point? I think not. And wouldn't producer Rick Rubin get bored if he didn't spend all his time restoring the street cred of over-the-hill musical acts, like he did for the umpteenth time with Metallica's Death Magnetic? More importantly for fans, would there even be listenable metal at this point, if Metallica hadn't kept it heavy through those years of Bon Jovi, Poison and Warrant? Ok, probably not. But they're still assholes. - Steve Palopoli



Image Credit: Photo by Luis Rocha,
https://photos.sfstation.com/Music/Metallica-The-Night-Before/