(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Tue 21 October 2025 21:30, UK
There was a strange moment in the early 1990s when grunge and metal seemed like two opposing forces. At this point, Metallica frontman James Hetfield embraced the tide.
Culturally, the appeal of grunge is obvious. Genres and subcultures like punk and hard rock might have provided an outlet that was faster-paced, more commanding and straight-up aggressive, like a literal mob fest on the streets filled with angry voices who just wanted to be heard. But grunge came along with a more defeated resignation. Still angry, but far more disillusioned with the prospect of better times.
Its popularity also meant a decline in other spaces. Hard rock, for one, suffered as grunge took flight, with more people buying into the way grunge addressed all of punk’s signature themes, like oppression, capitalism, consumerism and prejudice, but through a seemingly more authentic lens. Nirvana was an obvious ringleader, but Soundgarden also had a heavy hand in shaping it into a more influential movement.
For someone like Hetfield, vocals were a major selling point. Think of any leading grunge band – Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam – all of them boasted impeccably good singers, their voices almost standing out as singular, powerful devices in their own right, carrying the emotional crux of the songs before you’ve even had a chance to dive deeper into the lyrics.
When he was once asked to name the greatest singers of all time, Hetfield listed all the usual suspects, like Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne, along with Soundgarden’s very own vocal force, Chris Cornell. Soundgarden, generally speaking, had a significant impact on the sound of Metallica. Particularly during the creation of albums like The Black Album, Soundgarden was a foundational touchpoint that both Hetfield and Kirk Hammett used as major references.
Hetfield once said that the band, and the way Cornell sang, taught them the fundamental elements of song dynamics and how to shapeshift the vocals to fit around arrangements and vice versa. “What we had learned about a different way of songwriting from Soundgarden was you play one riff through the whole song, and the singer just goes all over the place and for that to work,” he explained to Q Prime and MX2 Media.
He went on: “You actually have to have a really good singer like Chris, but that was very, very intriguing to us. ‘King Nothing’ makes sense in that. It was one of the first ones right after the Black Album, cause it was. It was a nod to ‘Sandman’.”
As someone who’s always felt drawn to his own “darkness”, Hetfield also likely identified with many grunge stars, like Cornell, and how they translated their hardships into art. He even commended it after Cornell passed away, highlighting how much of his artistry came from the darker corners of his mind, and how that tragedy will always be a part of his legacy.
It’s also what eventually made Metallica one of the greatest rock bands of all time; their ability to take complicated, oftentimes heavy emotions and make them feel accessible. But in a way that’s also rarely polished, like an open book presenting all the different facets of life itself. And if you can reflect that in vocal performance alone, that’s where the gift truly comes from.
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