The release of The Metallica Blacklist – a lengthy compilation of artists who have covered Metallica 's Black Album – has been generating a lot of buzz. After a comment by Elton John that almost brought tears to James Hetfield Corey Taylor had something to say about one of the album's tracks , appearing on the new release with a cover of "Holier Than Thou".
Knotfest.com host Ryan J. Downey , Taylor revealed the importance of “Enter Sandman” in his career and compared it to a Led Zeppelin (transcription via Blabbermouth ). “One of the first songs I learned to play on guitar was ‘Enter Sandman’ because that was the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ or ‘Smoke On The Water’ of our generation,” he said. “It’s one of those riffs that I like to call the Guitar Center virus. Anyone who frequents a Guitar Center is playing ‘Sandman,’ ‘Crazy Train,’ ‘Smoke On The Water,’ ‘Stairway,’ or ‘Whole Lotta Love’… You have these intro riffs where you think, ‘Ah, I get it!’”
“When I was getting better at guitar, I sat down one day and listened to Metallica’s first four albums and started digging and learning all those riffs. And it became kind of a language you could speak with other musicians when you were playing together for the first time. If you started playing ‘Blitzkrieg’ or ‘Ride The Lightning’ and they followed along, you knew they were above average because you don’t just learn the riffs; you learn the tone and just go for it. It was almost like an initiation, in a weird way; you knew how to do it. I’ve played Metallica in almost every band I’ve ever been in; it’s always been there,” Taylor concludes.
Corey Taylor's love for Metallica is nothing new. In August, the Slipknot named Master Of Puppets (1986) the perfect heavy metal album and said that the album's only flaw is being "too short." Meanwhile, Slipknot is getting closer to finishing their new album, the successor to We Are Not Your Kind (2019), and Corey has already debuted his new mask on stage .
READ ALSO: Metallica members read terrible (and funny) reviews of the 'Black Album'; check it out
