10 Artists That Changed With One Song
6. Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
The biggest hurdle that metal fans have to clear with Metallica are the ballads. As much as some diehard fans might want to lose their minds to Whiplash and Creeping Death, songs like Fade to Black and Welcome Home Sanitarium gave us a different side than we were used to seeing from the thrash legends. While those were still metal songs, Nothing Else Matters was the first time they merged into easy listening territory.
Starting as a guitar figure that James Hetfield fiddled around with when he was bored, this was almost close to hair metal territory, being a road dog song about missing the one you love back home. Despite Hetfield not wanting to show it to the band, the song turned up on one of their demos and became a contender on The Black Album. Adding in an orchestra and beautiful clean guitar, this was the song that no one could have expected from a thrash metal band, leading to some metalheads dismissing it in disgust.
Throughout the Black Album though, this was the sound of change, turning Metallica from one of the best underground bands to an act that might be able to take the entire genre mainstream. As much as Metallica may have lived and died on playing some of the most ferocious metal imaginable, no one can touch you once you let yourself be this vulnerable.