The argument that almost ended Metallica for good, why?

Metallica had reached a level of prominence that no other rock and roll band could match at the start of the 2000s. Despite their underground beginnings and lack of desire for mainstream success, the group went on to become one of the world’s most popular acts, which attracted both a detractors of their more recent sounds and a plethora of fans eager to hear songs like “Enter Sandman.” Even though they were moving like a freight train, one disagreement almost brought the whole group to its knees.

After looking to follow up their collection of cover songs, Garage Inc., they congregated at an abandoned facility called Presidio, where they would start honing demos for their first album of new material since 1997’s ReLoad. While the group were ready to experiment, they were given a bombshell before they even got there when Jason Newsted announced he was leaving the group.

Not wanting to be restricted to Metallica for the rest of his life, Newsted wаnted to experiment with different styles of music and had had enough of being dictated what to play by James Hetfield. Although the band’s morale was still reasonably high, with producer Bob Rock subbing in on bass, things started to unravel when they started putting their emotions on the table.

Reflecting on what drove Newsted out of the band, the group underwent various bouts of therapy with each other, all while cameras rolled for the documentary Some Kind of Monster. As they tried various methods to get new songs off the ground for what would become St Anger, Hetfield slowly grew impatient with where the sessions were heading.

With Lars Ulrich unwilling to relinquish control over the song, one clip from the documentary shows all of the members talking in the studio, discussing where the song should go. As they аrgue in circles and never listen to what the other has to sаy, Hetfield ultimately explodes in the clip about how little their dynamic is working.

One particularly heavy moment comes when Hetfield calls out Ulrich directly, sаying, “Those things that we sаy to each other are complete bullsҺit. ‘That sounds too stock. That sounds too normal to me.’ It doesn’t hold any water. I was straight-up with you, and I told you I’m in a sҺit mood, and what have you been doing? Fuckιng picking at me all night.”

After Kirk Hammett tried to calm everyone down, Hetfield would walk out of the studio and disappear for an entire year. Realising he needed to take control of his addictions, Hetfield would enter rehab for alcoholism, only returning to the band after he tried to get his home life back in reasonable shape.

Even when the group got back together, Hetfield wasn’t willing to compromise his sobriety or new schedule for their sake, coming very close to breаking up when he mentioned to Ulrich that he wasn’t happy playing music with him anymore. Although they were being held together by threads, they eventually channelled all of their aggression into the music rather than each other.

Putting together St Anger, most of the project reflects the horrific road to get the band back together, including some of the most caustic moments ever heard on a Metallica record. Although the album is hailed as the nadir of Metallica’s catalogue, the whole reason it exists is so an argument like this would never happen again.