Nothing Else Matters

Okay, this is where I admit to my being a HUGE fan of Metallica. Many can’t see it in me and many have no idea why I am but to me good music is good music and in my opinion Metallica makes good music. I think that point is made emphatically with their beautiful opus entitled “Nothing Else Matters” off of their largest selling album “The Black Album”. Going platinum 15 times this album was the shot heard around the world and it catapulted the band into the stratosphere and everyone knew who they were. James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, and Jason Newsted were no longer a local garage band playing in dive bars, this album had them playing arenas all over the planet. It was my favorite album replacing their earlier masterpiece “Master of Puppets” as my previous favorite and my favorite song on The Black Album was of course “Nothing Else Matters”.

Lilting guitars playing a beautiful melody is how the song opens and it’s damn near hypnotic. Backed by strings conducted by the late Michael Kamen lead singer James Hetfield sings the lyrics for the disenfranchised and the outcasts of the world. The song is an anthem for those who don’t fit into what society deems as acceptable but the lyrics are all about empowerment. Just be you no matter who you be and if you live that way everyday then nothing else matters. The song swells and builds and the song actually has a Pink Floyd feel to it at one point thanks to the strings until the crunching guitars come storming in changing the entire complexion of the song turning it into the rocker it was destined to be all along. The guitar solo played by Kirk Hammett is scalding and the orchestral strings pull this song together brilliantly.

This is the kind of song you don’t expect from a metal band and it’s that kind of song that you let someone hear when they say “I don’t like metal”. It falls into that category of songs that can change how someone feels about a particular genre of music and even if you don’t like metal, you can’t help but like this masterpiece. Wouldn’t you agree?