Metallica: Top 50 Songs

Metallica Top 50 Songs

Heavy metal group formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. James Hetfield (vocals) and Lars Ulrich (drums) have been with the group since the beginning. Dave Mustaine was an early member (rhythm guitar: 1981-83) before forming Megadeth. He was replaced by Kirk Hammett (1983-present). Cliff Burton (1981-84), the original bassist, was killed in a bus crash on September 27, 1984. He was replaced by Jason Newsted (1986-2002) who was replaced by Robert Trujillo (2003-present). For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry. Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists. Spotify Podcast: Check out the Dave’s Music Database podcast The Best of Metallica, 1983-2023 based on this list. Debut: April 18, 2023, at 7pm CST. New episodes based on Dave’s Music Database lists are posted every Tuesday at 7pm CST.

Awards:

Top 50 Songs Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards. Songs which hit #1 on various charts are noted. (Click for codes to charts.) DMDB Top 1%: 1. Enter Sandman (1991) 2. One (1988) DMDB Top 2%: 3. Nothing Else Matters (1991) 4. Master of Puppets (1986) DMDB Top 5%: 5. The Unforgiven (1991) DMDB Top 10%: 6. Turn the Page (1998) #1 AR 7. Fade to Black (1984) 8. Until It Sleeps (1996) #1 AR DMDB Top 20%: 9. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1984) 10. The Day That Never Comes (2008) #1 AR 11. Sad But True (1991) 12. The Unforgiven II (1997) 13. I Disappear (2000) #1 AR 14. No Leaf Clover (1999) #1 AR 15. Hero of the Day (1996) #1 AR 16. The Memory Remains (1997) Beyond the DMDB Top 20%: 17. Cyanide (2008) #1 AR 18. Wherever I May Roam (1991) 19. Whiskey in the Jar (1998) 20. St. Anger (2003) 21. Battery (1986) 22. Fuel (1997) 23. My Apocalypse (2008) 24. Creeping Death (1984) 25. Hardwired (2016) #1 AR 26. Seek and Destroy (1983) 27. Frantic (2003) 28. King Nothing (1996) 29. The Unnamed Feeling (2003) 30. Lux Æterna (2022) #1 AR 31. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (1986) 32. All Nightmare Long (2008) 33. Broken, Beat, & Scarred (2008) 34. Die, Die My Darling (1998) 35. Harvester of Sorrow (1988) 36. Bleeding Me (1996) 37. Mama Said (19960 38. Jump in the Fire (1983) 39. The Four Horsemen (1983) 40. Atlas, Rise! (2016) #1 AR 41. All Within My Hands (2020) #1 AR 42. Stone Cold Crazy (1990) 43. Better Than You (1997) 44. Moth into Flame (2016) 45. The Ecstasy of Gold (2007) 46. Fight Fire with Fire (1984) 47. Some Kind of Monster (2003) 48. Spit Out the Bone (2016) 49. Ain’t My Bitch (1996) 50. Now That We’re Dead (2016) Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Metallica Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” First posted 4/14/2003; last updated 4/18/2023.

Metallica released Master of Puppets

Master of Puppets Metallica

Released: February 24, 1996 Charted: March 15, 1986 Peak: 29 US, 41 UK, 52 CN, 33 AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 0.3 UK, 10.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: metal

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Battery [5:13] (8/5/86, --) Master of Puppets [8:36] (7/2/86, 35 US, 22 UK, 32 CN, 19 AU, 21 DF) The Thing That Should Not Be [6:36] Welcome Home (Sanitarium) [6:27] (10/30/86, --) Disposable Heroes [8:17] Leper Messiah [5:40] Orion (instrumental) [8:27] Damage, Inc. [5:32] Total Running Time: 54:47 The Players: James Hetfield (vocals, guitar) Kirk Hammett (guitar) Cliff Burton (bass, backing vocals) Lars Ulrich (drums)

Rating: 4.387 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Master of Puppets “was the realization of all the promise Metallica, and thrash metal music in general.” GW However, the album’s true testament is that it has been “hailed as a masterpiece by critics far outside heavy metal’s core audience.” AMG “On their final recording with bassist Cliff Burton (who would die in a tour bus accident) they reinforced everything good about heavy metal (the velocity of the playing, the emotional release of the vocals) while undermining at least a few of the cliches.” TL “Metallica fully recasts metal as thinking-person’s music” TM by expanding “metal’s ritualistic pummeling with music of impressive, even daunting, intricacy.” TM The group effectively plays “metal as modern-day classical music, offering up harmonically and structurally complex arrangements that convey a stunning range of ideas and emotions.” GW Thematically, the album focues on “the concept of power and abuses thereof.” AZ “Welcome Home (Sanitarium) is from the point of view of an institutionalized inmate and Disposable Heroes is the perspective of a soldier.” AZ “They also got in digs at…head banging conformists” TL and “primal, uncontrollable human urges” like rage and drug use, such as in the “unmistakably anti-drug” TL title track. “This eight-song album clocks in at over an hour, which makes it all the more impressive that not one moment on this recording is boring.” AZ “The arrangements are thick and muscular, and the material varies enough in texture and tempo to hold interest through all its twists and turns.” AMG Like predecessor Ride the Lightning, the album was produced by Flemming Rasmussen, who had previously engineered works by Cat Stevens and Bert Jansch. His only “previous heavy-metal production experience lay with Rainbow’s Difficult to Cure (1981), but his uncluttered style is perfect for the visceral assault of Metallica.” TB It is “thrash metal’s finest moment” GW and has even been called “the best heavy metal album ever recorded; if it isn’t, it certainly comes close.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Steve Huey AZ Amazon.com review by Genevieve Williams GW Guitar World 50 Greatest Guitar Albums (2/19/2009) TM Tom Moon, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008). Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. TB Thunder Bay Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. (2005). Page 231. TL Time Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Albums by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light (11/13/06). UT USA Today, Top 40 Albums – the USA Today Way (12/5/2003). WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/24/2012; last updated 11/30/2022.