Metallica.
Mere mention of the band’s
name is enough to elicit a whirlwind of conversation amongst metal fans of all
generations. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Metallica knows how to get people talking,
and that’s exactly what they did on February 7th, 2012 when they announced
the Orion Music + More Festival (the name taken from the song “Orion” off the
band’s now classic “Master of Puppets album), set for June 23rd
& 24th in Atlantic City, NJ. Looking back at the last handful of
live dates the band announced – the “Big Four” shows with Slayer, Anthrax and
Megadeth and the quartet of 30th Anniversary dates in San Fransisco
late last year – a two day festival headlined by Metallica should be reason to
celebrate. Then they announced the lineup…
Continuing the game of
tug-o-war they started playing with the heatstrings of longtime fans with the
release of the overly-artsy “Lulu”
collaboration with famed noise rocker Lou Reed, an album which couldn’t find
appreciation from fans or critics, Metallica dug their claws even deeper into
the flesh of the indie-rock scene by announcing a list of supporting acts that sent
texts of “WTF” screaming across Verizon and Sprint’s collective networks. While
the overfuzzed, stoner metal vibe of Texas’ The Sword (who once toured with
Metallica), hipster black metal act Liturgy and the commercially-polished
Avenged Sevenfold fall in line with Metallica’s “Metal Up Your Ass” motto, the
inclusion of acts such as Modest Mouse, Cage The Elephant, Arctic Monkeys, Gary
Clark Jr. and garage rock legend Roky Erickson left many among the metal
community scratching their heads in disbelief. Not to take away from the
talents of any of the aforementioned artists, but the announcement has many feeling
that Metallica has once again turned their backs on loyal fans in an attempt to
cash in on current trends and is eeriely reminicent of their descion to feature
2003’s flavor of the week bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park on the
cash-grab that was the Summer Sanitarium tour.
Objectively speaking, this
festival could be seen as a way for Metallica to further spread their artistic
wings and diversify the fanbases of all involved. Or it could be that a 30 year
career has afforded the band the luxury of changing their game as they see fit.
It could even be that Metallica is trying to cram a bit of culture down our
throats. Whatever the case, the timing is horrible. The success the band
enjoyed by returning to their roots should have been enough proof that their
battle-tested thrash metal stylings remains close to the hearts of millions and
has sank its hooks into multiple generations. The main question here is why
abandon what their fans have been pining for yet again? I guess the answer can
be found by looking back and remembering that this was a band that sued
teenagers for millions in the Napster controversy and needed a therapist in the
studio to complete an album. At least they’re keeping us all talking.
I kind of forgot about the whole Napster thing, and agree Metallica does a lot of things for attention, and probably not because they really want to - but they are old... haha. I agree with everything you say, and whatever their reason, they must be doing something right because they are still around. I personally am not a huge fan of Metallica, but I do like their music and think they are still putting out good music today.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I've never really listened to Metallica or music like that so I had no idea any of this was happening. Nonetheless, I'm glad you chose to write about it because it made me have more knowledge about this genre I probably never would've gotten to have. Also, I enjoyed your analogies at the end. They made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteYour analogies in the end are really interesting. Also, I'd like to learn more about this kind of music.
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