During high school, the album I heard the most was Metallica’s, Master of Puppets. Speed metal done right. The Black Album follows the polarizing trend of other credible bands who long for mainstream acceptance: U2 – The Joshua Tree and The Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic being two of the most notable examples. Their mainstream “hit album” causes their fans to fracture into three groups: those who loved them before, those who love them after and those who love all their material. The first two groups of fans often like some of their breakthrough album but dislike just as much. Metallica left behind their speed-metal roots with The Black Album and became more of a Hard-Rock band. Lyrically, TBA followed in the footsteps of their earlier material, but musically, it was… different. Their albums since then have spiraled down in quality. Some Kind of Monster follows the band as they recorded their St. Anger album, which was supposed to be a return to their roots. Not only did it follow their creative process, it also showed the band with all their warts as they hired a counselor to work with them exclusively around-the-clock. It is obvious Metallica is essentially Ulrich and Hetfield. It is also obvious that the creative spark that made their early material so memorable and exciting has expired. Watching them communally write lyrics is almost painful. Watching them try to resolve their musical differences in the Big Chair was so unrewarding, if they could have taken their anger towards themselves and one another and put in on tape, they might have regained some of their credibility. Metallica has sold over 90 million albums. Their original guitarist, Dave Mustaine, has sold over 15 million with his band MegaDeath. Mustaine is interviewed and it is obvious he is still ill-treated by fans which is no doubt painful, but come on….. 15 million albums. Allow me to share that pain while I count my money. This is an engaging and fascinating film, and one in which Ulrich, he of the Napster-destruction, actually comes across as more likeable than Hetfield. Whether you like Metallica or not, this is a film worth seeing.

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