While reflecting on the ’80s metal scene and talking about Metallica and Mötley Crüe, Dave Mustaine of the Los Angeles, California act Megadeth makes the very interesting claim that both acts were “pretty similar.”
While chatting with Heavy Consequence recently, Mustaine took part in a conversation about metal subgenres. The frontman talks about the nuances of subgenres, what it means for something to be “pop,” and more. But among the points he brings up, one that stands out big time is his views on glam.
Among the comments he expresses about the genre, Mustaine talks about glam alongside thrash metal, using Metallica and Mötley Crüe to illustrate his points.
When it comes to these two acts, Mustaine believes they were “pretty similar,” comparing what Mötley Crüe were doing early on in their career to what Metallica was doing early in theirs.
Earlier in the conversation, Mustaine expresses that “The whole thing with glam and thrash at the time, metal had so many different factions and splinters that had taken place in the very beginning. We were all heavy metal.” Later on, he goes into more detail about glam and thrash, sharing the following:
“Let’s boil it down to its least common denominator. Let’s look at the first two albums by Mötley Crüe and Metallica. You can’t really say that the first Mötley Crüe record [Too Fast for Love] didn’t have some metal tracks on it – because ‘Take Me to the Top’ or ‘Live Wire’ had the same kind of real fast right hand picking like James [Hetfield] and I were doing. And when Vince [Neil] was first singing and James was first singing, their voice was very similar in the registry where it was at. They both sang really high.”
Mustaine goes on to add:
“But I think that if you would have taken those two songs and had Metallica record them, they would have been heavy as fuck. Probably would have stayed pretty similar because we were doing a lot of copy songs. And so, when you take a band that is dressing up, wearing high heels, wearing leather, wearing makeup, using hairspray, belts and chains and big hoop earrings and jewelry and fingernails painted and stuff like that, and start getting way into mascara, lipstick, foundation, all that kinda shit, that’s somebody’s impression of what a rock star is supposed to look like. I promise you, if you go up to a guy who’s dressed up like that, who has that kind of an image, and, and you say, ‘What is this image that you’re going for? What would it be described as?’ They would say they’re a rock star. And I think if you go to a little kid and you said, ‘What is this?’ They would say, ‘You’re a rock star.’ Not that ‘You’re glam.’”
What do you think of Dave Mustaine’s points about Metallica and Mötley Crüe?