10 WORST Metallica Songs Ever

Metallica are probably the most celebrated band in the history of heavy metal. Not only were they able to cross over into the mainstream, but they also exposed a whole new audience to the heavier side of rock and roll. Even with all their accolades though, not everything the band has touched has turned to gold.

As the years have gone on, the kings of thrash metal have had more than a few missteps that many long-time fans would rather forget. Whether it be from the "Sell Out" years in the 90's to their more experimental material in the 2000's, these guys have gotten a fair bit of scorn for the musical travesties they have given the metal community. The music may hold up, but the actual songs are far too haphazard to justify being on a Metallica release.

For as awful as some of these cuts are, it doesn't mean you should cut Metallica out of the all-time greats. The band's early material has remained untouched and has even gone up in stature when compared to the pitfalls of their later work. While it's impossible for a band to hit the bullseye every single time, Metallica are certainly better than these tunes.

For most Metallica fans, the post Black Album era of the band is where things start to get a bit fuzzy. Starting with the followup Load, Metallica started to take their sound in more mainstream directions that no one had heard from them before. While there were some great songs across this record, other times a song like "2X4" delves into boring territory.

On the surface, the actual song isn't too bad, with the riff having a bit of a bluesy edge to it. You wait and see what the song's going to lead up to, but then you end up waiting for a full 5 minutes and then the song ends. Granted, some things on the song are a bit left of center, with the chorus having a vocal effect that makes the band look like an off-brand version of Alice in Chains.

When looking back on this record, the band actually called it "2X4" based on the fact that the song's structure is 2 riffs repeated 4 times each. It's definitely cool to see the band's writing process in action, but knowing how lazy the title was thrown together actually explains a lot. Load is criminally underrated by Metallica fans, but the results of this bluesy jam is a half-finished Metallica song that somehow got the full album cut treatment.