Metallica: 10 Best Songs You Haven't Heard

For nearly forty years, Metallica have established themselves as one of the cornerstones of modern music.

The Bay Area thrash icons have such an extensive back catalogue that fans of any genre would at least recognise some of their work. "Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters", "The Memory Remains", "Fuel", and even their knack for covers like "Whiskey in the Jar", The Met have a far-reaching grasp over the music industry, always wanting to experiment and explore new horizons, often in spite of what their core fan base is after.

It is this adventurous approach by Metallica and their want to often just have fun with their music, that has lead to them almost having a back-up discography exclusively consisting of rarities. While the fan base will pick out their favourites from the studio albums (often split between their early Kill 'Em All to ...And Justice for All thrash heyday and the hard rock/thrash revival run of The Black Album to 2016's Hardwired... to Self-Destruct) there is a bountiful treasure trove of hidden secrets in the Metallica archives.

To really get to the back of the sofa of Metallica's music, we are avoiding the main studio albums, sticking to b-sides, one-off singles, compilations and various other sources to find the best songs you're not listening to.

Legendary outfit The Kinks released this absolute bop in 1964 and it has since become known as a staple of The Kinks' back catalogue as well as an Neanderthal-level rooted link to punk rock and heavy metal, owing to the song's use of power chords.

While Ray Davies was tasked to write a song that was set to challenge the Beatles, brother Dave wrote the now iconic riff more influenced by the British rhythm and blues explosion of the time, later saying "'You Really Got Me' [is] such a pure record, really. It's a love song for street kids."

The song has been covered or adapted by over 100 different artists since it's release, including the likes of Van Halen, Iggy Pop, Oingo Boingo, David Essex, and even by members of The Kinks themselves in solo performances. In the case of Ray Davies, he enlisted the members of Metallica for his 2010 collaboration album See My Friends.

While the song largely remains the same structurally, it does feature a signature Met' crunch in the tone, Kirk Hammett doing Kirk Hammett things to the solo, vocal trade-offs between Ray and our lord and saviour James Hetfield and the obligatory "ye-ah!" from same.