Metallica’s James Hetfield Laments The Failure Of ‘Through The Never’

There was a time when it seemed like Metallica could do no wrong. Of course, when they did happen to make a misstep, it seemed like the band was able to shrug it off and come back with something bigger and better that made their fans forget about the misstep.

However, when Metallica released their film, “Through the Never,” in 2013, it seemed like the 3D venture was an exclamation point on a series of missteps that were plaguing the band.

When Metallica released St. Anger in 2003, there were a lot of fans and critics alike that collectively scratched their heads. Jason Newsted, who had been the band’s bass player since 1986, left Metallica after James Hetfield effectively barred him from having involvement with any music project outside of Metallica. Hetfield decided to kick it to rehab when his wife threatened to kick him out of the house if he didn’t mend his Alcoholica lifestyle. Metallica’s management, Q-Prime, also brought in a big money counselor and motivational coach to try to bring at least some stability back to the flailing band. If that wasn’t enough drama and chaos for Metallica to be involved with, while all of the above was happening, a documentary film crew was following the members of Metallica around trying to make a movie.

Somehow, it all worked. James got better. Metallica started playing again. The band made an inspired choice in hiring Robert Trujillo as their new bassist, and things were back on track.

Until St. Anger came out.

Ask a Metallica fan for their list of favorite Metallica releases, and there are very few who will have St. Anger at the the top of their list. It’s not that the album is terrible, by any means, but Metallica’s 8th EP just feels disjointed from the get-go, as if it was put together in the midst of the band going through some major rehabilitation, which it essentially was, of course.

Metallica moved on from St. Anger and released Death Magnetic in 2008. Once again, it seemed as if Metallica had shrugged off a misstep, and moved on to something bigger and better. Death Magnetic was the antithesis of St. Anger. The longer songs were back. James apparently realized he was — and is — one of the best rhythm guitar players in the world and exercised his ability to play complicated riffs at mind-boggling speeds. Metallica remembered that another of their members, Kirk Hammett, is a lead virtuoso and should be allowed to (gulp) solo. The lyrics were straight-up Hetfield, and once again, all seemed right in Metallica world (even if the production on the album was a tad too loud).

Hot on the heels of the success of Death Magnetic, Metallica made another misstep in its collaboration with legendary rocker Lou Reed. Metallica is fantastic. Lou Reed is fantastic. As such, the collaboration sounded interesting on the surface. However, the result of the collaboration, the album Lulu, was anything but, sounding like a metal band practicing riffs in a garage while some crazy man outside was yelling incoherently. Again, if you just listen to the riffs that Metallica is playing, they’re pretty great. If you just listen to Lou Reed’s spoken word poetry, it’s definitely interesting. When you put the two together, not so much.

Fast-forward to Metallica’s next venture, Through the Never, a full-fledged 3D film to be released in theaters. Fans were hoping that Metallica’s film would be a breakthrough comeback after the dismal release of Lulu. Fans were hoping that the film wouldn’t be a typical “concert movie,” and it wasn’t. It also wasn’t good.

In the end, Metallica pumped quite a bit of money into the film and they didn’t make it back. From all aspects, it seemed like Through the Never suffered from the same problems that Lulu did. It was a great concept, but it didn’t succeed. Something that may have plagued both projects was that in both cases, someone didn’t want to say “no.” It’s hard to believe that when Metallica was listening to the songs on Lulu that they didn’t realize just how terrible it was. The only conclusion I can think of is that no one in Metallica wanted to say “no” to Lou Reed. Reed was a rock icon. An elder statesman. Instead of risking a relationship with Reed, Metallica gave in to the madness.

The same thing may have happened to Metallica on Through the Never. The four band members were all key in writing the stories that surrounded what was happening at the concert in the film. Even though a lot of those stories didn’t make a lot of sense and came off as disjointed, I have the feeling that no one wanted to say “no” to Metallica. They let it ride, and they lost a lot of money.

Now, James Hetfield is speaking out about Through the Never. In Metallica’s So What fanclub magazine, the Metallica front man lamented the film.

“It’s very bittersweet, the whole movie bit. We put a lot of money, time and effort into it, and how awesome we thought it was, and how ‘wow, this is pretty unique’ we felt about it, at the end of the day, was its downfall. It was not so much a concert film, not so much an action drama, it was somewhere in the middle; it just fell right down the crevasse. It disappeared. And it was sad to see that.”

James went on to wonder if the film fell victim to early online reviews.

“…management said — and I agree with this; it makes total sense — that Hollywood is about perception. Hollywood is about rumors spreading and things like that, so if someone tweets, ‘Hey, the movie’s great,’ if that spreads, then it helps. A lot of people don’t go to movies because of reviews, I guess… I don’t understand that so much.”

Metallica was rumored to have taken about a $15 million hit on the film. James said that a lot of fingers were pointed when that happened, at management, at the distributors, etc. However, in the end, Metallica realized they only had one person – or entity – to blame.

“We really took a giant risk on this. Maybe we should’ve thought a little more about it. Building that stage – there was a lot of money put into that thing. But at the end of the day, it’s on us. It’s our fault! We agreed to it, and there you go. So we’ve learned a lesson.”

Metallica is reportedly in their HQ recording studio hard at work on their new album.

[Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images]