Independent Perspective News - Interview with James Hetfield

They have a 22-year career now and they make fortunes circulate. And they still hold the title of most powerful band of the planet.

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How much did your physical recovery affect this record?

It affected it completely. It has to do with how we feel: happier, settled, willing to play together. Let me tell you something: the better we feel, the heavier and stronger Metallica sounds. And I'm definitely feeling better. A lot better.

He repeats the idea so as to state clearly the group's paradox: more happiness brings more power and more anger. Because if you think that the lyrics composed by this optimist, recovered, back to family life Hetfield can be more docile, you just don't get the Metallica drive. James wrote a song like St. Anger, a strange six-minute hit overflowing rage. And as the album closes it repeats, literally, "Kill, kill, kill them all, I'll give you my hands and my strength to do it".

I guess now these ideas are about getting out the anger, like a catharsis. The album's concept is based on a religious matter. The Saint Anger is what's helped me. It's what gives you the strength precisely not to use violence. To me, this is a way to show the world your weaknesses and the fact that you're as vulnerable as everybody else.

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When do you feel more like a normal person, and when more like a celebrity?

For a long time, my whole head was working around the band, the wish to become a star, to be more and more important every day. And actually you know, lately I've only felt myself when I'm waching TV, with my children. And I wonder: am I James who wakes in the morning or am I that legend everybody talks about, the leader of Metallica and who has 40 thousand people waiting for him...?

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