Kirk Hammett the phenomenal global success of The Black Album eroded the much-valued "intimacy" between Metallica and some of their longtime fans .
Looking back at the making of the 1991 album and its aftermath, in a conversation with Kerrang! writer Paul Travers , the guitarist acknowledges that, in ascending to the top of music, Metallica inevitably alienated some of its longtime supporters. And he says he understands why their big leap forward left some Metallica followers feeling abandoned and betrayed.
“Suddenly, we were thrown into a different league, where we were playing with Guns N' Roses and U2 , and it was very strange,” Hammett recalls. “It was great, because we were raising the flag of heavy metal, we were bringing our kind of music to a lot of people who hadn’t heard it all over the world,” he said.
“But at the same time, many of our core underground fans thought they were losing us. And I can understand that. When a band goes from selling a million albums to suddenly selling 12 million albums, the feeling of intimacy with the band starts to wear off. That feeling of intimacy with our core fanbase kind of eroded,” he explained.
He also points out that at the same time, they discovered another type of audience that loved what they were doing. In this way, Metallica understood that these new fans were ready to listen to and absorb the rest of their musical catalog.
Hammett also spoke about fan reactions to Metallica's fifth album, which is getting a major reissue by the band's label, Blackened Recordings , on September 10th, in the new issue of Classic Rock , which is already on sale.
“We had a negative reaction,” he admits. “'They're not as heavy as before, they're radio-friendly, little kids are listening to Metallica. What's going on? Where's my thrash metal band?' For us, we made a great album with great songs, why don't you like it?” he said. “Do we care? We care for maybe five minutes.”