Articles

Everyone in Metallica is allowed to bring musical ideas to Metallica. Whether those ideas pass their infamous “tone police” – that’s another matter. Today we try to find the best riffs written by every Metallica member, former and actual.

In 1989, Grammy had finally recognized heavy metal. And Metallica, aged 25-26, were among those initial nominees (although didn’t win it, Sandman would fix that a couple years later). This was the turning point not only in Metallica’s career, but the history of metal in general.

Several months to a couple years – this is, on average, how long Metallica writes a song. From retrieving a 5-star idea from their infamous Riff Bank, to crossing out the last checkbox on the recording progress wall table.

But there are outliers on both ends. There are songs born literally in days, such as Escape and Hardwired. And there’s one that took almost a decade to complete: All Nightmare Long. It perfectly shows how Metallica’s transitioned from St Anger to Death Magnetic.

My Friend of Misery could have been another glorious Metallica instrumental, a Ktulu of Jason Newsted. But instead, we have the epic tradition broken and a track that’s been buried in Metallica’s catalogue.

Metallica’s Black album (officially known as “Metallica”) quickly received an iconic status. It was clear right off the bat that it goes down as a cornerstone metal record. But was it actually that amazing?