Any band that’s had any measure of success will undoubtedly have had significant press coverage including traditional print media, and the internet. And while most of that literary content stems from interviews, it’s a true measure of success when the story itself turns into a book. Take a look at any bookshelf in any book retailer worth their salt and there’s bound to be a plentiful supply of books on most musical groups that have attained success on a worldwide scale. And it isn’t limited to mainstream rock and pop acts either, with the hard rock/metal scene well represented with tomes dedicated to names such as AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses and Queen.
But surprisingly enough, Metallica, who are unquestionably the biggest metal act to have ever emerged from the Bay Area scene, have quite a few books written about them – yet few are hardly what you would call in-depth or must have efforts for Metallica diehards.
That was until now.
Two years after the release of the critically acclaimed Led Zeppelin biography When Giants Walk The Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin, renowned/legendary music journalist Mick Wall has finally unveiled his latest book Enter Night – Metallica: The Biography.
With the book finally hitting the shelves, I caught up with Wall at home in Oxfordshire (U.K.) to talk about the challenges he faced in putting a fresh spin on what is now quite a familiar story, why he chose to begin the book at the tragic and darkest chapter in Metallica’s illustrious career, and to find out why Wall would take on the daunting task of tackling Metallica given that almost every aspect of Metallica’s long and storied career has already been well documented.
“Well, there’s a couple of reasons really why I decided to write a book on Metallica,” begins Wall. “The first reason is that I think it’s unusual for a group of such stature as Metallica to have never really had a serious book written about them. There have been some decent books, but they’re essentially fan books, and they generally join up the dots for you from album to album. That’s all well and good, and absolutely fine, but what I wanted to do was try and tell the story from the point of view of someone who isn’t necessarily a huge fan. Someone who doesn’t let them off the hook or forgive them their sins, but tries to understand the more mature aspect of their story, and presents the reality of their story. As is in the case of Led Zeppelin’s story, no-one is all good, no-one is all bad, and no band does nothing but make amazing albums. They make duds, they become selfish, they become full of avarice, they admire themselves too much sometimes, and at other times they hate themselves too much. And the second reason, to be completely honest with you, after writing the Led Zeppelin story, I was looking for a great story to tell. And I think Metallica have that great story.”
There’s no denying that Metallica is one of the biggest metal acts in the world. And while some may question the quality of band’s releases from throughout the storied career when compared to the likes of the others that make up “The Big 4” (Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax), Wall insists that it’s the story that’s important, and not the music.
“They’ve just finished touring over here with the so-called ‘Big 4,’ notes Wall. “All of those bands have made some truly fantastic albums, and all of them have interesting stories, but they all pale into insignificance compared to Metallica. None of them have had the extraordinary courage and sheer arrogance to try and achieve what Metallica wanted to achieve. I mean Metallica was the first by leaving the whole thrash metal thing behind and become bigger than Bon Jovi, which was an extraordinary feat in itself. It was an idea of utter madness, and such a ridiculous suggestion back in the late ‘80’s. But somehow, they managed it. And then in the ‘90’s with the shift into grunge era, and the general wiping out of all the Metallica-like generation of bands, they then did something even more audacious and insane, and that was get even bigger and more successful.
“By the tail end of the ‘90s, they were quite self harmful when they tried to reinvent themselves as a band of the ‘90s. I mean they put on make-up, they had body piercings, and Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich were now kissing each other in public, which only sent James Hetfield insane. They were also bullying the new boy Jason Newsted. The only thing Newsted ever got out of Metallica was rich. He got no respect, and he was never treated as an equal. In 15 years, he got exactly three co-song writing credits on what happened to be their three least interesting tracks. And in the end he walks out in a state of dreadful anger and bitterness, which then causes the band to kind of explode.
“At the same time, you have the whole Napster thing,” he continues. “Even as it was happening, everybody knew it was a dreadful mistake. Metallica suddenly looked like the sheriff of Nottingham, and Napster looked like Robin Hood. It really was a case of stealing from the rich to give to the poor. It didn’t matter who was right or who was wrong, images of Ulrich in a courtroom trying to sue three hundred thousand of his fans just stunk to high heaven. And in a lot of ways, they’re still living it down. But then of course you get this fantastic story arc where they do the St. Anger album, which kind of resolves all the issues. It’s probably their least enjoyable album. I know many Metallica fans, many serious musicologists and writers who get very angry about that album. It’s very contentious. They really, really don’t like it. Many really do dismiss it entirely. You can see in the book just how much people hate that album. Even the band doesn’t play anything from it any more. And yet for me, it was the last great musical statement they ever made. For me, it’s a work of art. It is fairly un-listenable, but then so is Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed. It really is a work of art. And then of course you get this latest album Death Magnetic. It’s so crowd-pleasing, and ticks all the boxes with its ‘going back to their roots’ kind of vibe, you can’t but feel that it might as well be a pop record. It’s a fantastic journey they’ve been on, and that’s what I was looking for – a great story to tell.”
Interestingly enough, Wall begins the book on September 27th, 1986, the night the band’s tour bus had an accident while travelling through the Sweden countryside by night, which tragically took the life of bassist Cliff Burton.
“What I dislike about books is that most start out with ‘Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Lars Ulrich…’. I always want to, as much as possible, parachute the reader right into the action from the word go. And for me, the absolute key event in the Metallica story is the death of Burton. It could have gone either way for them at that point. It really could have been the end of the band, but in actual fact, it was the making of the band. I felt that on a symbolic level, a practical level, and on every level you could possibly think of, the death of Burton actually is the beginning of the story of Metallica. So therefore I thought a good place to start the journey was on that rotten cold morning in September 1986 when the most important and knowledgeable musician in the band actually dies.”
Any band that’s had any measure of success will undoubtedly have had significant press coverage including traditional print media, and the internet. And while most of that literary content stems from interviews, it’s a true measure of success when the story itself turns into a book. Take a look at any bookshelf in any book retailer worth their salt and there’s bound to be a plentiful supply of books on most musical groups that have attained success on a worldwide scale. And it isn’t limited to mainstream rock and pop acts either, with the hard rock/metal scene well represented with tomes dedicated to names such as AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses and Queen. 
