As long as metal has been a thing, no one was really saying that Metallica were the heaviest band in the world.
Even though they used to go hard on some of their classic material in the ‘80s, the whole thrash scene was pretty much a competition to see who could “outheavy each other”, with James Hetfield having to compete with the likes of Kerry King and Dave Mustaine for some of his more caustic riffs.
It’s all about perspective though, and the guys in Motionless in White have a soft spot for the tail end of their ‘80s material.
During a recent podcast, frontman Chris Motionless talked about some of his favorite Metallica projects, singling out And Justice For All as his favorite for its more abrasive sound, saying “I mean, the whole record is — in my opinion — their darkest, heaviest, most angry record.”
It’s not hard to see why either, considering this was James Hetfield entering what he called the band’s ‘CNN era,’ making songs that were meant to be contrary to the broken system that he was seeing in America at the time.
Outside of the project as a whole though, Chris was quick to point out his favorite Metallica song being ‘The Shortest Straw’ and would love to cover it, saying “I would absolutely do my favorite Metallica song ever, which is ‘The Shortest Straw’ from ‘…And Justice For All’.
That is, in my opinion, one of the more angrier, if not the angriest Metallica song. That song, to me, just has some sort of aggressiveness that just sunk its teeth into me. It’s my favorite, and I would love to cover it.”
Considering their fandom for some of the more aggressive Metallica stuff, their inclusion on Metallica’s recent Blacklist project covering songs from their self-titled Black Album makes sense, covering ‘My Friend Of Misery,’ which seems to have one foot still trailing back into their classic thrash sound.
This entire record felt like Metallica reaching their angriest heights yet, but for people wanting more of this kind of metal, they were in for a surprise just one album later.