Metallica: Back to the Front

Metallica Store
Written By: Matt Taylor
Foreword by James Hetfield – Afterword by Ray Burton
Released: August 16, 2016
276 pages
Publisher: Insight Editions

Metallica’s tell-all about the Master Of Puppets album and subsequent tour is presented with the same meticulous attention to detail and professionalism as every other project they’ve put their mind to…. except that Lulu album…

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Introduction:

You already know it’s coming, but….
… your mind keeps hoping somehow it doesn’t.

Metallica: Back to the Front starts with a date — September 27, 1986 — and a nuanced description of a Swedish countryside. It talks about how a car traveling those roads can feel detached from time and space… and then it focuses in on Metallica’s tour bus traveling the same roads. It’s at this point that almost any reader will know what’s coming. It kind of hit me like a shock when I realized they were opening with one of the most tragic events in Metallica’s history, but I prepared myself for the inevitable. The thing is, it didn’t come. Matt Taylor and Metallica don’t use Cliff Burton’s death to simply provide a shocking way to open the book. Instead, the subsequent series of events are presented almost like a movie. There are beautifully detailed descriptions of the countryside, the tour bus, and its occupants. Funny stories and observations come in from various people that were around during that time period, and it all feels so real. The attention to every little detail from the bus layout, to the internal temperature, to the temperament of everyone on the bus makes it feel like you’re in the bus too; a silent knowledgeable observer.

Every so often the narrative will focus on a specific individual on the bus. It will describe the unique items that occupy that person’s cramped personal space, the things that embody their personality and quirks, and then it will seamlessly transition to their childhood. This is where we learn what makes every band member tick and what kind of emotional baggage each one was carrying. It doesn’t just come from the mouths of band members themselves either, there are observations and memories from members’ mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and even childhood friends.  Slowly the focus moves away from their formative years as children and teens, and towards all the major moments that eventually lead them to Metallica. Metallica: Back to the Front does this with every member of the band, and even makes time to introduce us to other occupants of the bus: friends, roadies, and even their new bus driver. The thing is, the story still doesn’t rush into the ending we all know is coming. The build from each band member’s past to their exact present riding in that bus is separated by more and more details surrounding the ride on that fateful morning. There’s also an abundance of quotes from just about everyone that was on the bus. This transition from the present to the past and slowly back again helps to continue to build anticipation for a moment that should have never come.

Have you ever watched a movie for the second or third time, and so you know something terrible is about to happen, but despite there being no way to change the movie your mind keeps trying to find ways to hope that maybe it will be different this time? That’s how it was reading the introduction of Metallica: Back to the Front. My mind kept hoping maybe this time Cliff picks a different bunk or maybe the book won’t even mention the actual accident and in a way maybe that means it never happened. It’s stupid. It’s illogical, but so is human nature. Of course, after introducing every member, outlining their lives, and seamlessly integrating all the major Metallica milestones leading up to September 27, 1986, it happens. Again, the level of detail and quality of writing makes you feel like you’re there in the bus…. and Cliff is dead. Lives were changed in an instant. The band found themselves broken and back in the states. If this was a movie this is the point where it would fade to black…

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Back to the Front:

an album that was bigger and more bombastic than the last….
… with a fridge stocked full of the shittiest beer on the planet.

… and fade in back at the beginning of the Master of Puppets creation cycle. After the thirty-nine page introduction, the narrative-style is replaced by random stories and an abundance of pictures. This change simultaneously makes the final two-hundred thirty-two pages much less gripping, but also much less daunting to get through. Essentially, after the introduction Metallica: Back to the Front goes from being built like a novel to built like a scrapbook; just little snippets in time with some memories attached. This change to a more casual delivery doesn’t make the book any less interesting, though. Throughout Metallica: Back to the Front, there are literally hundreds of pictures taken during the Master of Puppets time. There are the obligatory performance shots, the near-constant pictures of the band in various states of inebriation, and even funny/amusing shots such as James Hetfield running around in 80s short-shorts. For die-hard fans, there are also photos of the original hand-written lyrics with lines crossed out, and the words we all know today scrawled off to the side.

In addition to the massive amount of pictures, there are also a massive amount of stories to go along with them. There’s producer Flemming Rasmussen talking about how much the people at the studio hated Metallica when they recorded Ride the Lightening because they thought the band was too fast and noisy. Flemming loved them from the start, of course, and was excited about doing Master of Puppets. There’s also stories from the various shows Metallica played during the time leading up to recording Master of Puppets.  It was during this period the band started to experience actual success; which didn’t blend well with their hard partying lifestyle. There’s the time James Hetfield and his friends got trashed and demolished a trailer meant for George Michael (he ended up having to change in a car). There’s another time James threw the mic stand into the crowd and knocked someone out (it was subsequently the first time the band got themselves sued). Essentially, the Metallica shenanigans during this time period were cheeky and fun, not cruel and tragic (which would make them not really shenanigans at all). Of course, no book from the classic Metallica era would be complete without a whole lot of stories about Cliff Burton.

As most people already know, the band freely admits that Cliff, “was certainly the most accomplished musician in the band.” Cliff was the one that came up with all the crazy harmonies, and was able to fuse various parts of songs in a way that felt seamless. Even James (known for being pretty stubborn) would defer to Cliff if he felt strongly about something stating, “I’d go up against Lars and pretty much anyone else, but with Cliff I just felt there was no need. He was so well respected that I’d think, Man, if he really thinks this, it must be right.” There are photos of Cliff in his iconic flared bell-bottoms, and story-after-story of his laid back attitude towards just about everything besides music and staying true to his own image. There’s a photographer musing about how Cliff refused to take pictures in regular jeans because he was absolutely against anything appearing ‘staged’ while at the same time being excited to take pictures sitting in the garbage behind a club they had just played — “They were happy to do that, which I never quite understood.”

In addition to all the side-stories and reminiscing, there’s also quite a bit of detail about the actual recording of Master of Puppets. There’s all the gear talk, studio settings, thought processes, and mind-sets that went into the making of the album. For most people that don’t really care to dig into the personal side of Metallica, this is where the interesting information is. Fortunately for them, there is plenty of information about the creation of what most people feel is Metallica’s pinnacle. A lot of attention is given to Metallica’s tour with Ozzy Osbourne, as well. This time period is special for a number of reasons. As the tour went on the band could physically witness their popularity growing, as the crowds become less-and-less about Ozzy, and more about Metallica. Really, no stone is left unturned in Metallica’s effort to make sure anything and everything of note (and some things that are just amusing) is included in Metallica: Back to the Front.

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Final Words:

If you were hanging out at an old friend’s house and they decided to bust out the photo albums and start telling stories of the good old days – that is Metallica: Back to the Front in a nutshell. Yes, there is an extended narrative intro, but after the introduction, flipping through Metallica: Back to the Front is like flipping through an old photo album while someone sits over your shoulder delivering the stories. It’s the type of book you can browse for just a few minutes at a time or in one extended sitting. Metallica: Back to the Front is loaded full of awesome photos from back in the day, plenty of amusing and anecdotal stories, and is built in a way that is easy to take in very small increments. Highly recommended for  anyone even a  little curious about that particular time in Metallica’s history.

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To order Metallica: Back to the Front, please visit the Metallica Website or an online retailer for your region.

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