Rolling Stone : Metallica

Article : Metallica: Pretty Hate Machine

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:07:20 PDT

James Hetfield is ready to rock. Standing amid the high-tech clutter of a control room at Right Track Recording, in midtown Manhattan, Metallica's singer and guitarist locks his legs in a gunfighter's stance and grips a '60s-vintage Danelectro guitar — a cream-white-and-burnt-copper-colored beauty — like a hunter holding an antique rifle, anxiously waiting to take his best shot. As he listens intently to the music roaring through his headphones, Hetfield's stern, leonine ...

Article : Metallica: Still Heavy After All These Years

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:52:20 PDT

This is the advice producer Rick Rubin gave Metallica over two years ago, as the band knuckled down to write its next album: "I said, 'Imagine you're not Metallica,' " Rubin recalls. " 'You don't have any hits to play, and you have to come up with material to play in a battle of the bands. What do you sound like?' "

"It was the obvious thing — that we didn't see," says singer-guitarist James Hetfield. Rubin, a longtime friend and fan who was producing a Metallica album for the first tim...

Article : Secrets of the Guitar Heroes: Kirk Hammett

Fri, 30 May 2008 01:14:57 PDT

• The Essential Metallica Album Guide

• The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time

You have been working on the new Metallica album for almost three years. How do you know which riffs and solos to keep and which to throw out?
I know whether I'm cutting it or not. And I always try to make a solo the best it can be. I recorded over 100 solos for one track on this album — and the solo is only 25 seconds long [laughs]. But it's apparent when the solo works that it's...

Article : Lars Ulrich: "We've Always Been Fiercely Independent and Controlling"

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:03:39 PDT

Rolling Stone caught up with Metallica at their Record Store Day signing event in northern California late last week. Drummer Lars Ulrich dialed us up to discuss the event and chatted about recording with Rick Rubin, bonding with his kids over Guitar Hero and learning to love the Web.

You went through four boxes of Sharpies signing autographs on Record Store Day. Can you talk about that marathon meet and greet?
I think the intense energy and all the love carried us through. I didn't...

Album Review : Master Of Puppets

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:29:32 PST

Artist: Metallica
Album: Master Of Puppets
Review: Metallica has taken the raw material of heavy metal and refined all the shit -- the swaggering cock-rock braggadocio and the medieval dungeons and dragons imagery -- right out of it. Instead of the usual star-struttin' ejaculatory gestures and hokey showbiz razzmatazz, the members of Metallica pour out pure apocalyptic dread. Their version of heavy metal is the sound of global paranoia. Not for th...

New Release : I Disappear

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:16:03 PDT

Artist: Metallica