10 Most Un-Metal Songs By Major Metal Artists

2. Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

When Metallica went in to record the Black Album, they had a much different agenda than what they were doing back in the '80s. Compared to the mammoth exercises on albums like Master of Puppets, Bob Rock helped push these thrash legends to write more radio-friendly material, which meshed well with metal on songs like Enter Sandman. However, the song that left metal fans scratching their heads was Nothing Else Matters.

Written around a goof James Hetfield did while sitting on his couch, the eventual construction of this song was the first full-blown ballad that the thrash genre had ever seen. As opposed to the other softer songs like Welcome Home and Fade to Black, this was practically a full constructed pop song that just happened to have the name Metallica associated with it. Despite many long time fans feeling betrayed, this is what ultimately broke Metallica into the mainstream, showing that they were about more than just songs to bang your head against the wall to.

Along with earning them some nods from the music community, this also sparked a relationship with arranger Michael Kamen, who wrote the orchestral arrangements and even conducted the orchestra when Metallica eventually went the classical route on S&M almost a decade later. Though thrash might not be considered a genre for the faint of heart, this is the one salvo that most entry-level metalheads can hold their lighters up for.