• PP_GIRL_@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Metallica is the reason that P2P file sharing is almost impossible post-Web 2.0. There’s an argument to be made that someone else would’ve taken Napster to court if Metallica didn’t, but they did, and the internet has been shit ever since. Fuck them and their friends who think their garbage variety of radio-friendly variety of Beer Metal is anything worth listening to

      • chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-40090809

        https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-pain-of-listening-using-music-as-a-weapon-at-guantanamo-a-672177.html

        Metallica singer James Hetfield has said he is proud that his music is used against enemies of the US

        Metallica’s Enter Sandman had became a particular favourite at the height of the War on Terror, when US interrogators admitted using music to break the resistance of captives in Iraq. The goal was to deprive them of sleep and offend their cultural sensibilities.

        Unco-operative prisoners were exposed to children’s TV music from Sesame Street, and the purple singing dinosaur Barney.

        Sergeant Mark Hadsell of the Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops) told Newsweek magazine: "These people haven’t heard heavy metal. They can’t take it.

        “If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That’s when we come in and talk to them.”

          • 4am@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            Oh, are you just now learning that America has been the bad guys pretty much since the beginning?

            • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Apart from Iceland, I wonder which countries are “the good guys”? Your virtuous indignation is adorable

          • chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 months ago

            I don’t know what to tell you; the same site has Hetfield making a statement that’s pretty to the contrary:

            https://blabbermouth.net/news/james-hetfield-is-honored-metallica-music-was-used-by-us-military-to-help-us-stay-safe

            Asked by Thrasher magazine in a recent interview if he is offended at all by the CIA’s use of METALLICA’s music to torture prisoners, Hetfield said: “Ha! We’ve tortured people with it for a long time. A lot longer than the CIA.”

            He continued: "I’ve got nothing to say about that, really. I’m honored my country is using something to help us stay safe, if they are. But then again, once the music is out, I don’t have control over that. Just like how someone’s giving it away online. They’re using it to do what they do.

            So really he couldn’t give a shit.

            In the article you linked, it sounds like Metallica’s PR people did the asking; the interview with Ulrich is pretty equivocal:

            With the debate over the military and CIA’s use of torture front and center in the news lately, Maddow also asked Ulrich how he felt about METALLICA’s music being used to psychologically torture prisoners of war. “There is a lot of METALLICA music that’s helping a lot of scared 18-, 19- and 20-year-old kids out there who are out on the front lines and who are doing a hell of a job on behalf of you and me and the rest of us,” he said. “But obviously when you hear stories like the one you’re telling, it all seems so bizarre and so strange that METALLICA’s music, which generally sort of facilitates bringing people together, is used in these bizarre circumstances. It’s certainly not something that we in any way advocate or condone.”

            So not going to advocate or condone the use of their music in torture.

            • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              It is possible that James and his bandmates have different opinions about it. Hetfield has always come across as a bit dumb/rednecky(?) fwiw.

              However the band as a whole did ask the US army to stop using their music.

  • wildcardology@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    My metal head friend said that Metallica became a pop band when they released the black album.

    • Skkorm@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Your metalhead friend was correct. I personally think that that “Metallica” died with Cliff Burton. No hate to Jason Newstead, but Cliff was the one in the band with musical integrity.

      • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Justice was really important to me. It was the first album I ever loved at the age of eight. It introduced me to the rest of their catalogue and, of course, fell in love with Burton and bass guitar. Too bad they did Newstead dirty on that album. But Justice sparked some political consciousness in me. And musically, I think they stretched as far as they could. With Burton, it would have been farther, but still farther than those three had stretched before. The same is not true for the black album.

        • Skkorm@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I agree completely. There are versions of Justice that can be found online where the bass is mixed back in, and I highly recommend them. Newstead put in work on that album.

          • qpla@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Yeha I think they’re called “And justice for Bass” or “And Justice for Jason”

    • zod000@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      When the black album came out, Metallic instantly went from legit thrash band to top 40 hard rock and was on the radio all day everyday… and somehow they still are and it’s baffling.

    • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      I didn’t really listen to them but have always associated them with being fragile babies. In the early file sharing era, other bands were like, “I dropped an entire album as a free download, fuck the system.” Meanwhile Metallica was whining and sobbing about college kids on Napster stealing their pennies.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        System of a Down literally named an album “Steal This Album” and made the CD art look like a burnt CD with sharpie label.

        It’s one of the few albums I later purchased. Never would have gotten that into soad without piracy, other than their singles that most people from that era would know.

    • 1371113@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’ve met people, REAL people, who think the black album is their first.

      • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Fair assumption to make that a early self-titled album would be the first one. I wouldn’t know the order of their albums because I don’t care enough

        • 1371113@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          That’s true. I was implying they haven’t heard of the first four - don’t even know they exist. Not so much that they had them out of order.

          A band I like called colour haze has its first self titled album as the 6th or 8th. I forget.

          • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            dream theater did the samething, but it was a huge dick move to mike portnoy (original drummer).