He tempered Hetfield's angst and channelled those feelings down a creative route. He had a great attitude I thought, though." Rasmussen was the perfect foil for the opinionated Hetfield back in1984. So we ended up looking for something that was new but also sounded something like his own stolen amp." But what did the Dane make of the man on a personal level? "I always considered James to be an angry young man. I think we took most of the recording process to pretty much get his thing. Rasmussen explained, "He liked the fact that he had his own sound and wasn't trying to copy someone else's. What we ended up with was something very different, which from my point of view was brilliant because I could then work on getting the sounds I wanted."Įven at this early stage, Hetfield had developed a unique guitar sound, and it took Rasmussen to make the best of James's newfound need to sound like nobody else on the planet. Hetfield and Rasmussen had to put their heads together to arrive at a solution, as Rasmussen recalled: "We started out playing some Kill 'Em All tracks so I could hear what he was talking about, and we started testing guitar amps, which took a couple of days." The original amp had been modified, which meant, as Rasmussen bluntly stated: "Nobody remembered what the fuck had gone on, so we were all kind of lost. Rasmussen recalled, "The first time I met was in the studio, and he's got a pretty strong mind about what he wants from a sound perspective." There was an immediate problem: Hetfield's favourite guitar amp had disappeared at that Boston show. Album number two was called Ride the Lightning, and the road to making it happen began and ended at Sweet Silence. Instead of returning to America to record, the band remained in Europe-in Lars's home country of Denmark.Īccording to Marrs, after the Venom tour ended in February, the band drove to Sweet Silence, which had recently been used by Mercyful Fate and their charismatic singer, King Diamond. They released "Jump in the Fire" from Kill 'Em All as a single, along with live versions of "Seek and Destroy" and "Phantom Lord." It was a stopgap release, but one that sustained fans' attention until new material was ready. James was always down-to-earth, just a genuinely nice guy who seemed to be pleased to be there and was there for the love of it." Metallica, Hooker and Music for Nations gave serious thought to the second Metallica album.
It was an experience I'll never forget." Dunn acknowledged the success of the tour and recalled how the bands interacted: "Lars was always the spokesperson and always had the most to say. There were bands out there like Venom and Accept that played fast, but Metallica took this style to a level of perfection." When discussing that day in Holland, Petrozza was equally reverential: "We were excited when we heard that they would open for Venom and everyone went there to see Metallica. Petrozza remembered being inspired by Hetfield and Metallica even before that Aardschock appearance: "When Kill 'Em All came out, it was like some kind of sonic revolution. With a growing number of likeminded followers in Europe, if ever there was an opportunity for Metallica to establish themselves at the forefront of a transient metal scene, 1984 was it.
The Swiss band Celtic Frost-who influenced a slew of black metal and death metal bands with their off-kilter and avant-garde debut, Morbid Tales-were another young act trying to break into the market with a much darker and extreme sound. Their vast stage sets and ambitious visual production set the standard for any rock band to follow. Both bands continued to tour and release quality material for another twenty-five–plus years, but this was one of several peaks for both bands, particularly Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden, the most successful act to hail from the NWOBHM that Lars loved so much, released their mighty Egyptian-themed Powerslave that year, while Judas Priest-that other force of British metal-were flying high with Defenders of the Faith. Some of the more established bands enjoyed career-high success, while new acts-including Metallica-were trying to crash the party.
In many ways, 1984 was a pivotal year in the genre. Far from being a time of media censorship and cultural repression, there was an outburst of aural productivity, and it was an exciting time to be a metal-head. When 1984 rolled around, it was less Orwellian than some had predicted.
0 kommentar(er)
