5 METALLICA Songs That Have Nothing to Do With HEAVY METAL, Yet WORKED BRILLIANTLY

Say heavy metal and Metallica instantly comes to mind. Since the early ’80s, the band carved out the sound, fury, and attitude of a genre that lives off shrieking guitars and bone-rattling drums.

But across shifting lineups and haircuts, Metallica occasionally traded riffs for reflection, and somehow didn’t lose the room.

One obvious turning point? Nothing Else Matters. The 1991 ballad exposed James’s soft underbelly to the whole damn world. He wrote the lyrics on tour, missing his girlfriend, with zero intention of writing a love anthem. Yet that’s exactly what happened.

The track’s gentler touch did more than just balance out the Black Album; it helped sell it by the truckload. Turns out even metal bands can get mushy without tanking their reputation.

Jump to Load (1996), and Hetfield decided to twist the knife even deeper with Mama Said. Acoustic guitars soaked in country and folk tones gave the backdrop for him to unpack his tangled feelings about his late mother, who passed when he was still a teenager.

The lyrics spill guilt, defiance, and a long list of things left unsaid. Anyone expecting steel riffs got a gut-punch instead.

A year later, Reload (1997) kept the reflective mood going. Enter Low Man’s Lyric, a track that ditched personal grief and instead told the story of a down-and-out drifter with nothing left but regret.

The song stretches past seven minutes, crawling through layers of strings, hurdy-gurdy, and whispered percussion. It’s the kind of piece where the quiet hits harder than any guitar solo ever could.

And for anyone still pretending Metallica had a one-lane sound, Tuesday’s Gone pulled the rug out. On Garage Inc. (1998), they rounded up a bar-band dream team (members of Alice in Chains, Corrosion of Conformity, Faith No More, Primus) and turned the old Lynyrd Skynyrd song into a porch-jam fever dream.

Harmonica, bonfire vibes, zero thrash. It wasn’t trying to prove anything, and maybe that’s why it stuck. It just sounded good.

Then in 2020, the band circled back to The Unforgiven III during the S&M2 concert with the San Francisco Symphony. The original already leaned away from the band’s usual heaviness, but the orchestral version? Pure cinematic drama.

James delivered vocals over sweeping arrangements like a man who’s lived every lyric. A track once written off as “filler” became one of the show’s most genuinely affecting moments.

Whether out of heartbreak, boredom, boldness, or sheer curiosity, Metallica has always known that heaviness isn’t just about distortion. These five songs, first highlighted by Metal Hammer, prove that even the loudest giants can pull off something tender without losing the plot.

That’s probably why they’re still massive. Not because they never change, but because they know how to.

Check out the five songs below 👇

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