It isn’t a usual train of thought to associate Metallica with vulnerability. In fact, the fierce and thunderous sounds of most of their discography point towards anything but. However, even someone as rock solid as James Hetfield feels uncertain sometimes, as was the case with one of the band’s most career-defining compositions.
Following on from …And Justice For All must have been strangely enticing for Metallica. Not only did their fourth studio album feel somewhat eclipsed by a weirdly transformative period for thrash metal, but their legacy as one of the biggest and most defining acts in the genre felt threatened one year after its release when they lost out to Jethro Tull in the ‘Best Metal Performance’ category at the Grammy’s.
The Black Album in 1991 undeniably put any scepticism about their talent to bed, especially since it featured some of the band’s most important tracks, like ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘Nothing Else Matters’, ‘The Unforgiven’, and ‘Wherever I May Roam’. The album also proved Metallica’s ability to adapt to the ever-evolving metal and rock landscape.
With Metallica, their music no longer heavily relied on the thrash metal sensibilities they worked hard to redefine, but it now incorporated new elements that saw their sound become heavier and more polished and refined. Their earlier, more ferocious sound was suddenly replaced with a more considered effort that established them as world-class contenders in the metal and wider rock landscape.
‘Nothing Else Matters’ is perhaps the most notable example of this change. Prior to the Black Album, Metallica knowingly garnered fans who were attracted to their aggressive ‘take no bull’ attitude and headbanging sound. They still held elements of this at the crux of their new sound, but suddenly, it seemed that vulnerability had crept in, and Hetfield was, for the first time, tackling personal experiences head-on.
At the time of writing ‘Nothing Else Matters’, Hetfield was on tour and feeling the effects of being far away from home. To cope with his sadness, he penned the song as a way of pouring his feelings out onto paper with no intention of ever releasing it. However, when Lars Ulrich heard it, he knew it was destined to be a Metallica work and a hit one at that.
“So close, no matter how far / Couldn’t be much more from the heart,” Hetfield sings, the first lines of the song communicating everything he felt at the time. According to the singer, it was a frightening prospect, presenting the piece to the band after it had been written as merely an outlet for getting “some other feelings out.” However, “when the guys heard it, they were amazed at how much they related to it.”
Overcoming his reservations resulted in one of the most iconic Metallica tracks in their entire discography, a fact which is not lost on the frontman. “It turned out to be a pretty big song on that record,” Hetfield told Metal Hammer, adding that it “opened the door even further and gave us carte blanche to play many different styles of songs. It touched a lot of people.”
