POLL: WHO WAS/IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEMBER OF METALLICA, PAST AND PRESENT?
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 3:51pm by Vince NeilsteinThe question is simple enough but the answer sure ain’t easy. Who was or is the most important member of Metallica, past and present? Take all things into consideration — musical ability, songwriting, charisma, performance, motivation, and intangibles, aka the “X” factor. For the sake of keeping things realistic, I’ve left out original bass player Ron McGovney, but I can’t imagine any of you would’ve voted for him anyway; and if you’re that one dude who would have, congratulations, you’re a douchebag.
Vote below and tell us why in the comments!
n
Who was/is the most important member of Metallica, past and present?
Hetfield, no question about that. If you answer anyone else you’re a poser.
Of course it’s Hetfield, he’s literally the voice of the band and writes a lot of the riffs. He’s not necessarily the most talented member of the band, but he’s definitely the most important
HA! Vince, are you just bored today and trying to start a fight amongst metalsucks readers? I think so.
Mustaine. James learned everything he was good at from Mustaine.
Hetfield as the most important member! Ha! I merely scoff at the idea.
Lets see………Kill ‘Em All, Ride, and Master. All done with Cliff. And Justice used many riffs made when Cliff was still alive.
Your right, Hetfield all the way. I mean, Cliff didn’t come up with those crazy awesome riffs in Load and Reload.
Seeeeeeeeeeeeent Ainnnnngurr ‘ron mahhh nekkkkkk!!!!!!
except how to sing,i ilke cliff but jesus,him saying bass solo take one doesnt make him most important
I say Mustaine. If it weren’t for him getting kicked out, Metallica would be like it is today. In fact, it would probably be Megadeth
Vote for McGovney!!!
yikes,who holds killing is my business,peace sells and so far so good up there with anything from the first 5 years of metallica?…..thats right only dave and maybe gar’s urn
LOL its obviously Cliff Burton everyone knows that
None of the albums without Cliff come close to being as GREAT as the ones with him.
CLiff!!! You can see a steady decline of awesomeness since his death and a Burton Bass solo is better than anything Hetfield could put out. He was one of the best bass players alive. No doubt.
Bob Rock
Iamthelaw i think you mean nekkkkkk-aahhhh!!!!!!
How come Rick Rubin isn’t a choice? He’s in metallica right?
Well, if we’re talking about who was the most influential member, as in who influenced the most important Metallica decisions, this one’s easy.
MONEY.
Wait, I don’t see that one on the poll.
Poll’s broken.
Dr. Phil Towle (from Some Kind of Monster)
What about Bob Rock? Ha!
Mustaine or Burton for sure they are they only ones who help write some bad-ass songs
Basically all of Kill Em All was Dave Mustaine then when Cliff died metallica went down the spiral
My vote is for Mustain. Even though he wasn’t in the band long, he wrote most of the songs on Kill Em All and, Metallica has been using Mustain’s riffs for almost the band’s entire career.
im with kevin; plus if they didnt release kill ‘em all metallica wood have been just another thrash band
the best member is obviously dave mustaine; i should know because i traveled back in time and told dave that if he ever met a guy named james hetfield or lars ulrich to just leave them alone and i told him to make his own band and do whatever he wanted.
i came back to present time (aka 3 years ago) and metallica didnt exist and the heaviest form of music was “incubus” (relating to this times music) and they werent very popular and everybody liked country and rap music and the world was in more of a depression than the great depression.
after learning that i went back in time and i shot myself before i told dave about james and lars and came back and everything was better.
because of dave mustaine, we live in a wayyyyyy better world (and the economy is unbelievable according to the non-metallica world) and have awesome music
Who’s Metallica?
Lol at the guy who vote for Robert Trujillo.
HETFIELD IS (was) GOD
Man, it must be a slow news day around the mansion…
(and yes I voted, like a sucker)
1. Hetfield.
2. Mustaine– w/o him, there wouldn’t be metallica today as we know it.
3. Lars– founder, etc.
4. LOL AT THE ONE PERSON WHO PUT TRUJILLO HAHAH HE’S MY FAVE TOO!
Anybody who puts Mustaine above the guys who were in it for the long haul is delusional. Congratulations, fantasyh!
Cliff.
That’s the end of that
The question here is MOST IMPORTANT, not who’s your favorite. To look at it another way, who from the band could you least afford to remove from the equation?
That answer is quite obviously Hetfield. He’s not my favorite, but he’s the least dispensable. There is no Metallica if he’s not there.
Hetfield. I know it’s the boring answer but if anyone can explain why he IS NOT, please feel free to do so because nonobdy has yet.
Important in terms of what? Important to Metallica? Undoubtedly Hetfield. Cliff Burton is the most revered… because he died before he could piss anyone off like Lars and James did. Jason Newsted has the most credibility. Because he left when things got too ridiculous. Mustaine is a legend in his own right. He doesn’t need to keep the Metallica link going, but he seems to have trouble sometimes SHUTTING UP. You *could* say that Trujillo is important because he’s breathed new life into the dying corpse.
Or you could say, fuck it, it’s Metallica, who gives a shit? I used to worship them, like every teenage metalhead in the 80’s/90’s… but then they betrayed us all by cutting off their hair and releasing CRAP. Talk about Unforgiven, the song that just won’t die… I still haven’t forgiven them.
I voted for Hammett. He’s the least douchey.
Cliff was the man for sure though. Even Newstead was better than the other 3.
Someone has to have cryogenically frozen Burton cells right? Clone ‘em up!!
Most Important is Mustaine, but my favorite is Cliff. RIP :(
I voted for Mustaine (just to piss the fanboys off), but kudos to whomever voted for Trujillo. Or Hammett for that matter.
Most people seem to agree upon Hetfield, Burton & Mustaine (I voted for Burton).
Which seems to really mean…. the first Three Metallica Albums put everything else they’ve done to SHAME!
I think its hilarious how noone gives a shit about Lars although hes been there all along.
My vote went for Mustaine.
“nekkkkkk-aahhhh!!!!!!”
hahahaha
The “metal” in the name Metallica circa Kill ‘Em All was from Cliff Burton. It also died with him. These guys become tools of MTV, and also lent their most soul deadening attempt at songwriting to a Tom Cruise shampoo commercial masquerading as a feature film,. Then they just became tools. Now with Lars Ulrich admitting to have downloaded their new album…well, I won’t ruin the irony for you on that one. I wonder if he took his dad’s advice and deleted that too?
Alright well i voted Hetfeild cuz he gave the band their voice. When you hear a metallica song you immediatly know its metallica just cuz of james voice. HOWEVER i also agree with those who chose Cliff cuz metallica did seem to go to shit after he died. For those who icked Mustaine i must disagree. He did write some solid riffs and songs for metallica but i dont think WITHOUT mustaine there’d be NO metallica
In all seriousness, I’d vote for Fleming Rasmussen, the producer of three of Metallica’s top four greatest albums: RTL, MOP, & …AJ4A.
Corey has a very good point.
Cliff is by far the most important. He was a few years older than the others and taught them how to put a song together. His bass play was amazing. Name another bass player who can even attempt to play Anesthesia(Pulling Teeth). Cliff was the foundation Metallica was built on. PERIOD
uh dave mustaine, cos they used his riffs.
and in case you forgot, dave mustaine invented thrash :P
Fuck it
John marshall
Best two goddamn shows in their touring history.
I wasnt there, I was but a sperm’s dream, but I heard good things.
anyone who says “burton” is a retard
Lars, bitches. The shitter Lars gets, the shitter Metallica gets.
Everybody knows a band is only as good as their drummer.
Everybody knows that james and lars were for a good period of time the main composers of the band, and lars is the most important, i think because he is the business man, the money man, kinda a managament dude :O
of course james is important too, he is the frontman …
METALLICA IS JAMES AND LARS PLUS 2 OTHER GUYS :)
…what an absolute farce this band has become. Almost as bad as Lars’ pitiful ‘drumming’ style.
How the mighty have fallen!
I vote for the drummer from Slipknot, he showed us what Metallica would sound like with a good drummer (when Lars ‘fell ill’ at Donnington, or wherever)
Who is in the very very very most of the credits in any metallica song?????
Mr. James Alan Hetfield.
Except in Anesthesia, he is in EVERY SINGLE METALLICA SONG CREDIT, and not only cuz he is, with lars, the one who decides what to cut and what to let in every song. That is why Lars is n the most of the credits, but James is thre cuz he is the one who writes the 90% of the riffs, the rythms, etc etc. So, that should mean something.
I mean, ofcourse Cliff & Dave were important. Dave was and is a great guitarrist and frontman, he showed in MetallicA (credited in 6 songs) and in MegadetH. Cliff was the most influencial, cultured and musically talented member ever in MetallicA.
But the true is that without’em, MetallicA never stopped, MetallicA kept growing up, no matter what happened, changing, evolutioning, and we all know that without James, MetallicA would’ve never exist as the HUGE GIANT OF METAL it is now a day.
And for those of you who say that Load, Reload & St.Anger are not as good as the first 5 albums, i think we all agree that a lot of the most emotionals, personals, and summing up, best lyrics of MetallicA can be founded in L&R, with all that pain James was suffering cuz of his dad’s death, remebering his childhood, his mom death by cancer, etc etc.
And St.Anger is full of that angry he was feeling at that time. Some very very very personal albums.
So go on “Papa Het”!!
BTW, also he wrote the most part of DM with Rob, and DM is just a great album one more time, its not their best album ever, but nobody can say it is a bad album at all.
And it’s beside the point but I vote for Lars as Metallica’s most overlooked member – both physically and because he was much more involved in the arrangement of songs (including the classics) than he’s been given credit for by the shit drummer witch hunters.
I know because I was there.
I vote Lars, ’cause I think he is most responsible for turn them into the huge pile of douche that Metallica has become
James. But maybe if Cliff didn’t die, who knows? This guy has something special, really.
sem dúvidas é james hetfield, o cara superou tudo e tds pela banda, pq ele tem o metallica como familia e uma forma de expressar seus sentimentos, mas é claro que cada um tem sua importância na banda.
I’M BRAZILIAN, KISS !
Mustaine: composed most of Metallica’s best stuff and followed doing it out of Metallica
Mustaine era endiabrado e quando se juntou ao James formaram uma dupla insuperável…
ridiculo… como kirk pode ter mais votos que lars?
sem duvida sem o empenho e a atitude de lars junto com a musicalidade de james a banda naum teria chegado em lugar algum!
soh pq cliff morreu o pessoal coloca o cara lah em cima pffff
meu voto eh pro lars
fuck all you gaytards that didnt vote mustaine or burton, they were the masterminds of true metallica
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Satan.
No seriously, be honest people: if that band means something, it’s just because of Mustaine
it’s obviously trujillo. how could it not be?
I Think was Cliff because the best albuns were very influenced by him, and his music. Hetfield is very important too, but, the albuns who Hetfield & Ulrich were the mean composers, were weak albuns. Sorry, they’re not so good.
I voted for Mustaine. Mustaine’s influence was felt heavily in the albums immediately following his release from the band. You have to go off of what was good when the person was with the band or influencing it, and Mustaine just takes the cake. When Mustaine’s Metallica riffs and influence were used up, their music began to go on a steep decline with TBA, Load, and Reload.
In second I think it’d be Cliff. All three albums Cliff was around for were fantastic, and the second he died Metallica was never the same. …AJ4A is not Metallica’s best album. It’s not worthy of being placed with the first three; people just do so to better separate TBA from he rest of them. The truth is, …And Justice For All is not all that great, One aside.
It say most IMPORTANT , not talented or cool or any other word you want to throw in there, Lars made Metallica and I would say that is pretty important and it is well documented that he was the drving force after Cliff was taken from us, so the answer to said question can ONLY be Lars and no one else. deal with it!
Well… Dave Mustaine white 3 musics in Metallica, in my oppinion musics exellents. Go Metallica… Back Jason please. =/
SOMEBODY TELL THESE GUYS TO GIVE IT UP!!! WHY IS METALLICA STILL AROUND AFTER THEIR FAKEASSES TRIED TO PUSH SOME BULLSHIT COUNTRY ROCK KRAP …NOW WHAT… THEY STILL GOT DA WORST DRUMMER IN DA WORLD AND SINGER ASWELL… FUCK, THEM 2 SHOULD OF DIED INSTEAD OF CLIFF!!
Mustaine of course.
He “left” Metallica before the end of the band in 1992.
what r u people sayin????
Mustaine is just credited in just 6 fuckin MetallicA songs, he was just in te band for a year and he keeps earning money by saying james & lars were bad with him. I like MegadetH too, but bullshit like this just drives me crazy. Kirk’s & James’ styles are completely diferent from Dave’s, do u think that cuz he taught’em the spider-riff then he deerves all the credit for MetallicA’s success???
MetallicA’s best songs & albums came later with RTL, MOP & AJ4A. At that time, Dave did KIMB, PSBWB, SFSG, RIP, albums u could only listen to 2 or 3 songs per album cuz the rest of the songs were COMPLETE CRAP. The Black Album kicks Cryptic Writtings, Youthanasia & Countdown to Extintion asses anyday. And Risk is not better than L&R. Ok, St.Anger is way worst than The World Needs a Hero & The System Has Failed, but then MetallicA came back to the #1 of thrash metal with DM, which beated UA once again. And all of this happened WITHOUT MUSTAINE!!!!
James Hetfield, can you imagine metallica without him?
of course, Cliff and Dave were important in the band history, but James and Lars could go on with the band without them (they didnt do anything better than they did before when Cliff was alive, but they didnt give up)
I think that the most important member is James Hetfield, just because Cliff is not alive.
If Cliff was alive, of course would be the most important member.
Mustaine licks balls. He is an over-rated piece of trash. The songs that he wrote, and there really aren’t that many, all have the worst solos of the first 4 classic albums. Plus, without being in Metallica Mustaine would have just been some worthless junky who never put out anything important anyway… oh wait, he still is.
Mustaine of course.
He “left” Metallica before the end of the band in 1992. [2]
Cliff Burton!
Fuckin bass guitar player!!!
\m/
Of course James Hetfield is the most important member of Metallica. But it doesn’t mean that the others must be despised. Through Metallica’s career, James has been helped by many members or ex-members. We have to consider this: Any Metallica song that you listen to, he wrote the whole song or many parts of it. So, how can we vote in others guys if he has written all the songs?
Well let’s see, when Metallica HAD Cliff Burton, they were awesome… when he died, they started sucking. There’s your answer right there. Even though I admit there’s a few okay songs on the Black Album and AJFA. But Burton was the musical mastermind behind old Metallica. And that’s the truth.
I vote Cliff Burton.
a) He is a splendid bass player.
b) He seemed to have more balls and had he been around now they would not have changed their sound which, btw is fucking ballocks now.
c) Anesthesia – You cant even make out that it is a bass solo, its so damn good.
My second choice would have been Mustaine.
a) He is a stronger guitarist than James and Kirk put together. Megadeth songs are a lot more harder to play than metallica songs.
b) He is like a rabid dog on a leash. He just cant wait to rip out a new asshole in Kill em All… there is not ONE song on that album that anyone can label as a bad song.
c) To the guy who claims he is credited on only six songs. Look up Ride the Lightening and Master of Puppets. He has been credited there too.
Its amazing that his band still captures our fascination. Fucking money hungry whores!! I feel sorry for Rob Truijlo, but just like any other employee, he is getting paid to play and not to write. What a shame.
Oh…. And to the guy who voted for Rob…. hahahahahahahaha…..
I think there should be a poll for best to worse Metallica album or Slayer for that matter. Ofcourse its not rocket science but it would still be fun.
Dr. Phil Towle (from Some Kind of Monster) ²
It was funny hehehe
To the guy called “WTF!”:
Mustaine is credited 4 times in KEA (4horsemen,JITF,Phantom Lord & Metal Militia) and 2 times in RTL (RTL & Ktulu) so, as i said before, 6 times. He is NOT CREDITED IN ANY M.O.P. SONG!
And about Trujillo, dude, after Hetfield, Rob is the one who wrote the most of DM stuff, and DM is a great album. He even wrote some guitar parts, he helped in the intro of TWJYL, he wrote the killer bass riff in TEOTL, he did some the “spanish guitar transitions” of TDTNC, the intro and several guitar parts in ANL… I mean, everything he suggested to the band, finally did it to the album, so, i think he is not just an employee, he is part of the band, and with time he will become an important part of the band. This album showed us his potential as musician, the next one will confirm him as a reality in metal music, and in the future his good work will become him a legend for all MetallicA fans, as both Jason and (mostly) Cliff were…
@ balltongue:
My bad, buddy. I looked it up again and you’re right about Mustaine’s credits on the songs.
But I will have to disagree with you on your comment about Rob. No doubt his bass playing is solid, all respect to the guy, but if you’re saying that Death Magnetic was a good album then thats not much of a compliment to Rob coz DM sucked donkey’s balls. Most of the songs seem uninspired. There is actually very little so called power/heavy riffage in the album. The songs dont have any chunk to them. They all sound so “twangy” and James’ voice by no means sound “metal” anymore. I know he damaged his vocal chord in 1991 but come on! If you listen to KEA and then listen DM you cant even make out its the same singer.
I am not a Metallica hater. In fact the very first heavy metal song I heard was way back in ‘89 when I heard One. It blew me away. This band is the reason I got into metal. But DM, I am sorry to say, is a not their come back OR return to form as people make it out to be. In all probability it consists of a bunch of songs from their music bank which they might have created over the years and just decided to put them together with a little re-arranging.
@ WTF!
Well my man, so what do u want’em to do???? When they did AJFA, everyone tought it was bad cuz doesnt sounded like their older albus, the same with Black Album, and then the same but 100′000 times bigger with L&RL…
I mean, ofcourse DM is not RTL, MOP or AJFA, but those albums will never come back, masterieces comes only once per life, and metallica did 3, they won’t do an album as good as those ones. But what they can do now, is come closer to that thrashy sound than to the Load, ReLoad & by the mos that St.Anger weird sound.
That’s what we gotta espect’em to do, and i think DM is a proove that they r trying yo come to the good way again.
And ofcourse James doesn’t sounds lke in KEA, cuz he is almost 30 years older man! it’s a matter of age, time doesn’t forgives anyone. U & me we don’t sound the same now than when we were teenagers, and we wont sound, look, think or act the same now than when we become old men dude… But we r not a metal singers, we didnt played hundreds of thousands of gigs during our life. James did it, he should have had a voice trainer, he should had done his vocals exercises, but for 10years he took not care at all for his voice or throat, untl it blew up 18 years ago, losing his great voice. He fucked it up man, it’s his fault, blame on him, no one but he is the guilty.
I mean, just like any other physical skill, control of the voice, including, power, range, quality, pitch control is a skill that can be developed.
The best trained singers have such developed technique that they sound like they were born with it, but often weren’t.
The singers that end up being the best in the long run are the ones with the most dedication and hard work.
Someone born with natural ability may start 20 steps ahead of you, but that is not much in a marathon that is 30 miles.
All abuse comes from specific technical flaws:
-For example, if you don’t have enough air to support a note, you strain and rub your vocal chords together.
Obviously, this will cause vocal damage. If you or me try to sing like Axl Rose screaming, yea we WILL damage our voice. But a strong agressive powerful voice that is TRAINED always seems to have more impact than someone screaming.
When you just scream with no training, you sound like every other person that makes up for their lack of voice or vocal control by screaming.
May sound cool in the studio, but the stories of stars that tried to keep this up on the road are many.
Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden or James had major vocal problems from touring. Then they then went to vocal training to get back their voice and learn how to sing without destroying themselves.
They both recovered much of his voice (u can c it for james in Load & Reload) but after that James did hard alkohol & other drugs again, he didnt care about his exercises, and he fucked up again. Bruce keeps sounding pretty good.
A well trained singer can sing 3 hours a day 365 days a year and sound better every day…
But anyway, that’s the past, now a day he is trying to fix his voice, he can’t do throat surgeon for his vocals chords poblem, it’s not a problem like KoRn’s Jon Davis or Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, these singers did laser throat surgeon and they could fix their vocals chords.
They had luck, but they also have a lot of vocal work.
The only thing James can do is do his “vocals warms up” every day, and taking care of his throat every single day of his life, but IN MY OPINION all these cares will be only so he doesn’t loses his voice.
I mean, if he doesn’t do these things, his problem will only get worse and worse with time, that’s his fate. So, we should understand he will never sound like in AJFA or Black Album anymore. Lets wish he will get a lil of his voice back in the next years…
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