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First off id like to talk about James's new style of live singing. James now displays an actual singing voice on stage (and in the past few albums as well) instead of the old school growl that made Metallica famous. Some would say "Well this song sounds better the old way but this song sounds better the new way." Some just say that his singing sucks now and that he should sing all of the songs live the same way they sound on the albums. But really do you pay the expensive price of a concert ticket and go to all the trouble to show up just to hear the same thing that you could hear at home for free? James is a musician, so he shouldn't have to ask permission from anyone to play and sing his own song the way he wants to. James adding guitar parts, lyrics, and new singing styles to old and played out songs is not a bad thing.

Now I come to Jason Newsted. Even though hes not in the band anymore, id like to address some of the undo criticism hes received. No one can deny that jason has a spellbinding stage presence. When he had hair, he was nothing but a massive funnel of hair spinning out of control during the entire show. Jason, although not as noticeable as James and Lars, used to improvise on stage a great deal with his bass technique. He added scales and chords that werent in the songs originally. Of course, I must address the age old question: Who´s better Jason or Cliff? It´s obvious that just about every bass player in the world pales in comparison to Cliff Burton, but that´s no reason to give Jason a hard time for not being the greatest bass guru in history. Metallica auditioned over thirty players to fill cliffs spot - and they choose Jason. That´s an accomplishment in itself. Give the guy some credit for being only among other many, willing to take a crack at filling Cliffs shoes.

Thirdly Lars Ulrich. Lars has received more criticism than any other member of the band recently because his drum playing "sucks." I have only one thing to say to those who hold that opinion-listen to Load. I know its not everyones favorite Metallica album, but its undeniable that the drum tracks are amazing. Listen to "Bleeding Me" This is one of the most complex songs ever to be played by Metallica as far as drums are concerned. Imagine sitting down trying to memorize that entire song for drums - now try to imagine writing it. Lars also has shown an uncanny ability to improvise on stage. Anyone can keep a snare beat and hit a crash now and then but Lars chooses to liven songs up with extra hits here and there. Its not like hes chosen the easiest drum setup to play with either, any drum player will tell you that Lars' drum set is massive and that only a true genius could use it as efficiently as he does.

Lastly Kirk Hammet. Kirk is the most tame member of Metallica on stage. He doesnt improvise as much as the other band members because the only thing that he could really improvise would be his solos. He does add a lot of extra wah in his solos nowadays beef them up a little, but other than that, he sticks to the point and tends to anchor the other members of Metallica while they might stay away from the songs basic structure.

So Metallica has changed a lot; its called growing. You can´t criticize a band for growing musically. I think its important to realize that if it weren´t for Metallica´s growing and broadening of horizons (with the black album and its succesors) then probably three-fourths of the people who are Metallica fans now (including myself) would have never heard of them.