Metallica To Be Two-Bassist Band at Hall Of Fame: Reconciles With Ex-Bassist

Even the metal band that declared “Kill ’Em All” can forgive and forget. When Metallica takes the stage Saturday at the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, Billboard reported, the group will be joined in performance by its former bassist Jason Newsted, above, who quit the band in 2001. Mr. Newsted, who was hired by Metallica in 1986 to replace Cliff Burton, who died in a tour bus accident, said he had received the invitation to reunite with his old band mates from the drummer Lars Ulrich. Mr. Newsted quit Metallica to perform with acts like Echobrain, Voivod and the Ozzy Osbourne Band. He was replaced by Robert Trujillo, who is also expected to perform.

Metallica, which will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2009, was formed almost 30 years ago and quickly became one of the most proficient and influential outfits in American heavy metal.

Metallica's music was athletic in the mid-‘80s, crazy with grim, loud ornament: the frontman James Hetfield's death-fantasy lyrics, songs within songs, strafing and high-pitched guitar solos. But it didn't stay that way. Almost from the start progress equals integrity was an article of faith for the band. Each of its evolutions seemed to challenge hardcore metal's cult values of speed and power and emotional guardedness.

There was one apostasy after another: ballads, acoustic-guitar sections, the banning of guitar solos, the cutting of hair. Finally the group hired a performance coach -- a therapist, more or less -- who played a major role in ''Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,'' the 2004 documentary about the band's near-breakup and mending.

Some Metallica fans say the band hasn't been any good since the Black Album (1991), which inflated its music into a plush sort of darkness, with shorter songs and bigger melodies. Yet others say it hasn't been any good since ''Load'' (1996) and ''Reload'' (1997), which moved still further from Metallica's baseline metal identity, throwing aside the guitar player Kirk Hammett's peacockish, modal guitar solos for slow-and-easy riffs.

Then there was ''St. Anger,'' in 2003: it seemed to confuse almost everyone. Metallica's second bassist, Jason Newsted, had quit, and the album radiated anxiety.

The documentary film detailed the band's woes: Mr. Newsted's leaving; Mr. Hetfield's 10-month departure for rehab, not only to treat his alcoholism but also his rage, which had led to blackouts; the hiring of the coach-therapist; and the making of ''St. Anger.'' It shows the band members acting like lords and like children. Mr. Hetfield and the drummer Lars Ulrich are almost personality opposites: one tight lipped and traditional, the son of a truck-driver (Hetfield); one manic and progressive, the son of a Danish tennis pro and jazz critic (Ulrich).

The band has since cooled out, rebonded and gone back on the road with a new bass player, Robert Trujillo, a sweet-tempered man and a powerful musician. But the film left you wondering whether Metallica had become irredeemably decadent, and whether a kind of steady, low-grade irritability had been its motor. Interestingly, the band members have not distanced themselves from the film. Answering questions about their history, they refer to it almost as if it were an album.

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