The Metallica evolution

David Renzi

Friday, Jan. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

In the course of its 15 years, Metallica has evolved from a band enamored of speed and not much else to a band enamored of speed and a lot of other stuff -- haircuts and dress suits being the latest and most visual.

Jason Newsted, the group's newest member with just over 10 years' service, says that careful listeners can trace the musical evolution to the group's second album, 1984's "Ride the Lightning."

"It's been pretty easy to see," he says. "We've been fortunate to put everything on tape every few years as we go. That's been very helpful."

But the bassist is quick to point out that the foundation of the band -- the Black Sabbath inspiration, the speed-metal inclination -- is still intact.

"We've just added to it," says Newsted, speaking from a tour stop in Albuquerque, N.M. "It's like a menu. When we started out, there wasn't much to choose from. You could pick this fast one, this faster one and this fastest one. 'Ride the Lightning' added that much more. Then we started to do experimentations with sounds, the purity of sounds, and as the years went by we grew.

"Now that this album is out," he says, referring to "Load," the band's sixth studio album and first in five years, "our menu is about five or six pages. It's got everything, and there's a lot to choose from."

Most Metallica fans point to "Metallica," the band's fifth album, as the turning point. Spawning such undulating, slow-motion hits as "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters," it's a wonder they didn't suffer deceleration trauma.

"Load," featuring the self-explanatory cover art by Andres Serrano, picks up where "Metallica" left off.

"There's more Lynyrd Skynyrd type of rock 'n' roll and fewer bashing-guitar parts," Newsted says. "It's more music with a groove. It's one of those things that came along because in the studio we're into experimenting and coming up with new things."

But he assures that Metallica is still as heavy as ever in concert and promises that its edge will never go away. They're just applying it differently.

"A lot of people confuse heavy with fast," Newsted says. "But it can be fast and light. It takes a lot more than playing fast to make it heavy. It's much more difficult to play a slow song and not let it get away."

If its new look and sound weren't enough of a shock, Metallica also accepted an offer to headline last summer's Lollapalooza, an alternative rock tour, confounding its fans again.

To the band, however, "it was just another touring festival outdoors in the States in the summer," Newsted says. "That's our forte. It wasn't the big deal everybody made it into, with this, 'Who's alternative and who isn't.' It didn't matter. It was great. There was very little negativity. If anything, we won over some new fans."

Metallica's only stipulation for joining the tour was the inclusion of country star Waylon Jennings, whom Newsted describes as a hero of James Hetfield, the band's vocalist and chief songwriter along with drummer Lars Ulrich. Kirk Hammett is the band's guitarist.

"They've become pretty good friends over the last couple of years," Newsted says of Hetfield and Jennings. "They have a lot of mutual respect."

Newsted said the tour organizers asked for the band's input into what other groups they'd like to see on the other stages.

"We all have different music we like to listen to besides our collective favorites, so we all made suggestions. James suggested Waylon and Tom Waits. Waylon happened to be a name we came up with and we all voted on."

Now that's really heavy.