Thrash metal megastars Metallica almost didn't record "Nothing Else Matters," but the smash hit song has gone on to write music history for three decades.
Lars Ulrich (l), James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo of Metallica perform in 2021Image: Amy Harris/Invision/AP/picture alliance
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The Vienna Boys Choir covered it. So did the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Motörhead frontman Lemmy.
US folk-rock singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers was one of several artists, such as pop star Miley Cyrus — supported by Elton John on piano and Yo-Yo Ma on cello — as well as Darius Rucker and the US band My Morning Jacket who covered the song in 2021 for the 30th anniversary of Metallica's "Metallica" album.
Metallica's defining power ballad "Nothing Else Matters" has been interpreted live about a thousand times, and more than 110 covers have been recorded.
"I think of Metallica as being a pop band,” Bridgers told Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in 2020. "A lot of metal is just metal to be metal — but Metallica write real songs."
Metallica started with a bang in the early 1980s but were delivering soulful ballads a decade later Image: Gene Ambo/MPI/Captital Pictures/picture alliance
Hetfield hesitant to play song about a girl
Written by singer and guitarist James Hetfield in 1990, "Nothing Else Matters" was was an epoch-making song.
But the Metallica frontman never believed that it should be recorded in the first place. "At first, I didn't even want to play it for the guys," he told Mojo music magazine in 2008.
"It's absolutely crazy: That was the song that I thought was least Metallica, least likely to ever be played by us, the last song anyone would really want to hear," he told the Village Voice weekly a few years later.
The frontman had to be persuaded to include the song on the 1991 album "Metallica," also known as "The Black Album" because of its packaging. "Nothing Else Matters" was then released as a single on April 20, 1992.
"It was a song for myself in my room on tour when I was bumming out about being away from home," he said. "It's quite amazing; it's a true testament to honesty and exposing yourself, putting your real self out there, and taking the risk."
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'One of the best songs ever written'
Carried by an acoustic guitar, the slow ballad would certainly have surprised fans of one of the world's biggest metal bands. But it's melodic appeal also exposed the band to a much broader audience, and was one of the first power metal ballads to get commercial radio airplay.
That appeal was summed up by pianist and pop music legend Elton John when passing judgment on the band during an interview on the Howard Stern talk show last year.
Cyrus (second from right) with Metallica, promoting her cover of "Nothing Else Matters"Image: Avalon/Photoshot/picture alliance
"It's a song that never gets old," John said about performing on the covers album "The Metallica Blacklist" with Miley Cyrus.
"And playing on this track, I just couldn't wait," he said. "The chord structure, the melodies, the time changes — it's got drama written all over it."
Hetfield and his Metallica co-founder and collaborator for 40 years, Ulrich, were on hand to receive the praise.
"You can't really define them," John said.
"They're not a heavy metal band," he added. "They're a musical band. Their songs aren't just heavy metal. They're beautiful songs."
Metal: From niche music to mass phenomenon
Like all varieties of rock music, metal found its way from the underground to the mainstream over the years.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Heimken
The origins
Like all rock styles, metal has its roots in the blues. The hard rock bands of the 70s, including Led Zeppelin (photo), Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, can certainly be described as the pioneers of the genre. They all played driving drums, psychedelic guitar solos and riff-based songs.
Image: Imago Images/Everett Collection
New wave of British heavy metal
Bands like Motörhead not only delivered hard rock, but also the right image. Long hair, leather clothes, tight jeans, studded bracelets and symbols such as iron crosses, spiked helmets and fantasy creatures found their way into the metal world. With the "new wave of British heavy metal" and its figurehead Iron Maiden (photo), metal moved from the underground into the stadiums.
Image: Imago Images/Mary Evans Archive
Genres and subgenres
Metalheads love family trees. When heavy metal got faster, it was called speed metal. Punk influences led to thrash (pictured above: Slayer singer Tom Araya). There is also death metal, black metal, power metal, Viking metal and many other genres and subgenres. Ten-minute songs? Overtone singing? Bagpipes? Just about everything is allowed in the metal world.
Image: picture-alliance/Eventpress/Darmer
Flirting with pop
Metal first met pop in the 1980s. Bands like Mötley Crüe (photo) or Skid Row wore flashy spandex instead of jeans, jewelry to emphasize their well-defined muscles — and carefully styled their hair with lots of hairspray, which is why these bands were often labeled as "hair metal." Instead of the dark lyrics typical of metal, their songs were mostly about sex or partying.
Image: Imago Images/ZUMA Press/M. Weiss
Mingling with Satanism
Ignited churches and murders in the Norwegian black metal scene caused an international sensation in the 1990s. The entire metal scene, which combines completely different styles and attitudes, was repeatedly taken into custody due to these incidents. Until well into the 2000s, "concerned citizens" called for the ban of certain bands. In this image: black metal band Mayhem, in 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/CITYPRESS 24/T. Dokken
The Big Four
Four of the most successful metal bands of the 80s met regularly in various combinations: Metallica (picture), Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth played concerts and tours together every few years and filled stadiums with tens of thousands of fans. Metallica's "Black Album" from 1991 paved the genre's way into mainstream radio stations with its tender-hearted hit "Nothing Else Matters."
Image: picture-alliance/Jazz Archiv/I. Schiffler
A mass phenomenon
Almost 50 years after it developed, metal culture is well integrated into society. The metal greeting, the sign of the horns, is a hand gesture used by bank employees, elementary school teachers or senior citizens to say: "That rocks!" In some of its subgenres, however, metal still has the drive of its early years — as the subversive, dark heart of rock music.
