10 Times Metallica Did Whatever The Hell They Wanted

There’s no two ways about it, Metallica had been spiralling for some time in the run up to Jason Newsted’s sudden departure in 2001. Citing myriad personal and creative reasons for his exit, including the suffocating control the band exerted, the bassist’s decision was just one of many setbacks caught under the unblinking camera lens for behind the scenes documentary Some Kind of Monster.

The film follows the band as they record their eighth studio album, the critically mauled St Anger. Showcasing the creatively barren recording sessions, the search for a new bassist and, most notably, Hetfield’s three month departure for rehab, the documentary reaches its zenith upon Hetfield’s return.

As a therapy sessions rises to boiling point, with Hetfield forbidding work on the album in his absence, Ulrich sums up the ego driven tension between the two that had been simmering since Kill ‘Em All and launches a screamed expletive at the frontman, less than six inches from his face. The future of the band very much held on by a thread.

Whilst contemporaries treated the choice to record therapy sessions as ‘not very Metal’ to say the least, Some Kind of Monster has been rightly regarded as a brave and fascinating look at the struggle of maintaining one of the world’s biggest bands. A landmark for rock documentaries to come, this may just have been the work that saved Metallica’s career.