Metallica – King Nothing

This is a live performance by the American heavy metal band Metallica playing the song “King Nothing” live. The performance is from 1996 from the British TV show “Later with Jools Holland”.
The song was originally released on the band’s 1996 album “Load”. The song is credited to: James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett. All guitars were tuned down one half step to Eb.
The song was released as a single in 1997 and a music video was shot for it as well. It peaked at #90 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
It’s a good song and a good performance by the band.

Enjoy ; )

Metallica - Mama Said

The top video is of James Hetfield performing an acoustic version of this song of the band's album "Load". It's a genre bending tune that strays a lot from Metallica's other songs. It starts off with an acoustic guitar, and the towards the chorus goes into a country inspired piece, with the whole thing sort of peaks, and power chords played on a distorted electric guitar plays through the last part of the song. I think it's a really good song, and it really sounds great in the studio version, a well mixed song that mixes genres. The video below is the music video for the song, so you can hear the studio version of the song as well.

The lyrics are written by Hetfield, and they are about a boy struggling to find his own way in life without his mother. This draws on Hetfield's own relationship to his mother who died of cancer.
The song has never really been part of Metallica's live set, probably because it strays so much from Metallica's traditional metal sound. Hetfield has played it alone with no accompaniment, and has also played with country singer Jessi Colter. But we'll probably never get the band playing the song live as it was recorded. It's sort of James' song which is also shown in the fact that the other band members only make a brief and excluded cameo in the music video for the song.
Still a very good song.


Enjoy ; )

Metallica - Last Caress/So What

Posting the song "Light My Fire" by The Doors yesterday got me inspired. The Doors were rebellious and didn't care, they did not want to change their lyrics, they did not want to conform to the dull mainstream culture.
Something similar happened years later at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 1996. Metallica was set to play the song "King Nothing" from their highly successful follow up to 1991's "Metallica" aka. The Black Album; Load from 1996. They rehearsed the song King Nothing, but the producers told Metallica that their pyrotechnics was a safety hazard. Metallica was upset and decided to, well tell MTV how they felt through their song selection, to say it in an unfilthy manner. They changed song to playing Last Caress/So What, both songs with very graphic lyrics and swearing. This of course pissed off the censures, but hey, if they'd just given them pyrotechnics there wouldn't have been a problem in the first place.
I love it when bands rebel and don't do as they're told, makes it more exciting. We seriously need more artists today who'd be willing to do something like this. Today's music sucks!
Oh, and for the uber-fans, click here to see an exclusive behind the scenes of this performance including rehearsal footage of the band playing "King Nothing".

Enjoy ; )