Going Deeper

Load

1996

After grunge transformed hard rock, Metallica trimmed their manes, painted their fingernails, and even kissed one another in photos. But their confusion mostly came through in the music. Thrash was out. In its place, Metallica attempted brooding alt-rock (“Until It Sleeps”), uplifting pop rock (“Hero of the Day”), and slowchurning doom (“The Outlaw Torn”) — all fine, but a pale reflection of past glory.

S&M and S&M2

1999, 2020

At the suggestion of composer Michael Kamen, who had orchestrated “Nothing Else Matters,” the band teamed with the San Francisco Symphony to add cinematic strings and elephantine horns to some of their more orchestrally inclined tracks. The best of these is “No Leaf Clover” with its eerie “freight train coming your way” refrain, specifically written for S&M.

St. Anger

2003

An attempt at minimalism with maximum force, St. Anger is Metallica’s rawest record — pure Hetfieldian ire, a total dearth of guitar solos, and Lars Ulrich cudgeling a hubcap like it owed him money. And while that cocktail could have made for Metallica’s metal redemption after the Load

LPs, the fact that the band was disintegrating behind the scenes sent them into disarray. The result is a lot of therapy-speak (“My lifestyle determines my deathstyle”) and even more noisy confusion.

Death Magnetic

2008

Spurred on by the “go back to your roots” mantra of producer Rick Rubin, the band unloaded the pretenses and sounded like Metallica again on Death Magnetic. They brought back the stacked riffs of Justice on “Broken, Beat & Scarred” and “My Apocalypse,” and the swagger of the Black Album on “All Nightmare Long” and “The Judas Kiss.” Even “The Unforgiven III” felt like a worthy sequel. Plus, Hammett was playing solos again.

Lulu

2011

Metallica’s contributions to this collaboration with Lou Reed are chaotic, crushing, and at many times, beautiful. It’s arty and experimental (and, yes, Reed got Hetfield to growl, “I am the table,” on “The View”). But at its core, it was a Reed solo record and an experience in experimentalism for Metallica.