| OK, I’ll get right
to it: Metallica has always been known for kick-ass
lyrics. Still in later years criticism has risen. And for
a reason too. Back in the 80’s lyrics were superb
and came straight to the point: Anti-war, anti-drugs,
anti-violence, anti-system and stuff like that but now,
on the LOAD-twins, it seems that Jaymz writes
about rather trivial things. To me there are two main
differences: One is that Jaymz uses much deeper and much
more metaphors and the other is that… some of his
lyrics are not very good. Jaymz has used metaphors since
the birth of Metallica, even on the raw and unpolished Kill
‘em all, but as Jaymz ability to write lyrics
has grown stronger his metaphors have grown deeper. And
when the lyrics are packed with metaphors people often
don’t see through them and label the lyrics as
bullshit. These people go out "spreading their
disease" and "infest" other peoples mind
with these labelings.
Ain’t my bitch has got pretty crappy lyrics
about a rather trivial subject: It (something indefinite)
ain’t Jaymz’s problem so leave him alone. Yes,
the lyrics are rather… well actually they’re
VERY crappy. Yet we must consider that lyrics are
musician’s line of communication. Bitch is
simply about not caring and that’s what Jaymz is
trying to get through.
Another song that has received criticism is Fuel.
This time the criticism is not deserved. The song’s
message can that the one in question lives his life to
the limits and enjoys everything to the extremes and I
don’t care what other people think. It can also be
about not obeying the rules of society, it can be about a
driver who likes driving fast and it can be about
drug-abuse. It’s all a matter of interpretation.
Most lyrics repeat one point in more than one way.
That’s the case with Fuel and more songs; Ain't
my Bitch, The house that Jack Built, The
Memory remains and even older songs like Puppetz,
Fade to Black, Ride the Lightning… the
list is endless. This method of lyric-writing is used by
most artists, knowingly and not, and is in no way bad.
Another possible reason for the criticism is that people
don’t like the drastic change of Metallica’s
music during the LOAD-era but simply can’t
put their finger on what it is they do not like about the
twins and therefore they blame it on the lyrics,
which’ subjects have obviously changed a lot. Jaymz
seems to be writing about how he feels more than what he
thinks. Emotion is strong on the LOADs (Sleepz,
Bleeding Me, Mama said, Low Man’s
lyric…) especially on the first one. Part of
this is maybe that Jaymz doesn’t let things piss him
off as easily as before. He is not an angry young man who
thinks he can change the world-order anymore. He’s a
middle-aged man who has settled a truce with the world.
Jaymz’s latest lyrics are quite horrible, even I
can’t deny that. I disappear is definitively
Metallica’s worst effort ever, both lyrically and
musically. But obviously Jaymz had to write about a
subject picked by somebody else and the time the band had
to write the song was limited so the song is kind of
crippled. Therefore I don’t think Metallica’s
current status can be measured by that latest piece of
work. All we can do is hope for the best and wait for the
fall of 2002…
NOTE: My definition of
the LOAD-era includes –Human and No
leaf clover since they were written at the same time
as the LOADs.
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