Pop Screen finishes 2023 with a movie that could not be less stock to our ears – Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Granted unprecedented levels of access to the world’s biggest heavy metal band, the directors of the Paradise Lost trilogy made a raw documentary about a band somehow staying together and making an album despite unprecedented personal turmoil. The punchline: the album they make is St. Anger, perhaps the most reviled album in their back catalogue (or at least the most reviled one that doesn’t feature Lou Reed).
Join Aidan and Graham for this exploration of the lifestyle and indeed deathstyle of the metal legends, including diversions to talk about Lars Ulrich’s feud with Napster, which type of dad James Hetfield is and the vexed question of whether Metallica are actually good. We also discuss the band’s history and former members, their decision to hire a group therapist to get them back together and, of course, that infernal snare drum sound.
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