Metallica's Best Song Ranked + My Wild Montreal Riot Experience!

What is the greatest Metallica song of all time? 🤘 In today’s live stream, I’m diving into a classic 2011 Guitar World magazine to see if they got the #1 spot right.

I also share my personal experience being at the infamous 1992 Montreal Riot when James Hetfield was injured and Axl Rose walked off stage. It was complete chaos—cars toppling, fires, and 50,000 pissed-off fans. 🎸🔥

In this stream:

The wild story of the Metallica & Guns N' Roses Montreal Riot.
Reading the untold stories behind "Creeping Death" and other hits.
A look at some exclusive Metallica Vinyl Club collectibles.
News on Metallica’s residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas!
If you love hard rock and heavy metal history, make sure to subscribe! I'm doing these live every Thursday morning to talk shop, read vintage magazines, and rock out. 🤘

Let me know YOUR #1 Metallica song in the comments. 

Transcript

Happy Friday everybody. Hope you're all having a rocking time right now and that you're staying warm. If it's cold where you are and that you're staying cool if it's hot where you are. My name is PJ Pat. I really appreciate you clicking on this podcast and taking the time to spend a couple of minutes with me today.

And guess what? I just did my first ever live stream on YouTube. Can you believe that? I've had the channel for a long time now, but really start getting into the, its one lottery podcast, I'd say during the COVID era. So since 2020 until now, I've never done a live stream and I just decide to go for it.

Was I scared? Yes. Was I gripped in fear right before pressing record or start? Yes, I was. But you know what? It was totally worth it and I hope, uh, you enjoy it. This is the audio grab from that YouTube live stream. I [00:01:00] did. When was it? Uh, I believe it was yesterday. Yeah, yesterday morning. And, uh, if you haven't had a chance, check my YouTube page.

Please go visit it. You'll see all the visuals from all the podcast episodes that I do. It's called Rock with PJ Pat. So you could do a search there on YouTube, or I'm sure if you type in it's one as in the number one Louder podcast on YouTube. It'll show up. So hope you enjoy this one. I go through, uh, my wild experience of seeing that 1992 riot in Montreal firsthand.

Not sure if you remember, but GNR and Metallica did a co headlining stadium tour back in the early nineties. I was this shy, timid kid. And me and my buddies, we were there. That was actually my first concert, which obviously the first concert you never forget, but this definitely put a stamp to it and I never, ever will forget what happened.

And I go through that wild night when, if you recall, James Hetfield had burnt his hand and all the craziness that ensued after [00:02:00] that. Also, I read, uh, one of the articles from an old Guitar World magazine back in 2011 actually, that talks about, you know, that ranks all the Metallica. Songs from one to 100.

I'm a huge Metallica fan, and I read what is the number one song. So think about it. If you're a fan, think about your number one all time Metallica song before reading your article. That's what I did. And guess what? That article nailed it pretty much picked the number one song in my heart was the number one song from that article.

And you know. Hey, who am I to say I'm just a nobody, but all the experts from Guitar World picked that one song too, so I felt pretty good about myself. Anyways, hope you enjoy this one, and I'll rock with you on the next one. Today I'm gonna talk about Metallica. I'm gonna read a couple lines off this article.

And I got roped in like probably a lot of you with Enter Sandman. I was in high school at the time and uh, [00:03:00] obviously the Black album was monumental, not just for Metallica but for Metal in general. And that song and that whole album just roped me in. And then obviously like a lot of people, you learn about Metallica with the Black album, then you go check out all their back catalogs and you're blown away even more.

Yeah, thanks man. You know what? They um, uh, O'Mara, they announced, I'm not sure if you saw, but they announced, uh, that they're doing a residency in Las Vegas at the sphere. You know, that big, huge dome in Las Vegas? Well, they're actually doing a residency. Um, if you can afford it, I most probably can't, but, uh, the tickets go on sale March 6th, so go check it out.

It will be fire. I know. Uh, my, my wife wanted to go see no doubt at the sphere, and when she went to go check it out, each ticket was like $4,000. So I don't know if that was after market price or not, but, [00:04:00] um, let's hope it's not that much. But man, I am dying to see. Yeah, I know, right? Um, I'm, I'm dying to see them.

Uh, we'll see. We'll see. I mean, I could probably. Justify maybe 500 bucks to go see them. Um, but uh, we'll see. I know that in 2027 tool, it will be having a residency in Vegas. Which, uh, what do you say, dude? My dream is to see Maka live one day. You haven't seen him? Uh, dude, go check him out, man. If, if you can, I know.

Tickets, theses are expensive. They're not like what they used to be. I saw, I saw them. I've, I've probably like six times now. From high school till now, and they always put on a fucking phenomenal show. One of the best live shows ever. Now they have the budget for it. You know, they're huge band, right? So they have all the pyrotechnics, they have all the, all the screens and all this stuff.

So it's, it's really a feast, not only for the ears, but for the eye as [00:05:00] well. Actually, if you wanna know, if you wanna hear about my story, if you're interested, um, uh, did you hear about when, um, uh, Metallica was touring with Guns N Roses and Faith Nomar was opening up with them? Did you hear about this whole riot in Montreal anyways?

Uh, I was in Montreal when that happened. I was actually at the show, so, um, they had, so, uh. No you haven't. Okay. So this was in like, uh, early nineties. Early nineties. They did this, uh, co headlining tour with GNR, right? And it was like a stadium tour only. And they went all throughout North America. I was one of the lucky ones.

I actually lied to my parents. I, I told 'em, I was like a, I was gonna go see a pop show or whatever, and, uh, I was so excited with my buddies to go see them. They played at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. And, uh, faith No More opened for them. Fucking phenomenal. And then Metallica came on. They were, they came on first for GNR and such a phenomenal show at the time.

I knew every single Kirk [00:06:00] Hammett Lick and um, they did the show and then it was Fate to Black, right in the middle of Fate to Black. Uh, they ba pretty much stopped the song, right? And they rushed off stage and everyone was like, what the hell's going on? So we actually thought it was part of the act. So we started clapping, clapping and just waiting for them to continue the song.

'cause they literally stopped like right in the middle of the song and, uh, waited, waited, clapped, and then stopped clapping, waited, and then the house lights came on at the Olympic stadium. And then you see Jason, Kirk and Lars come up stage, come up to the mic and Lars. Tells the crowd that they cannot continue the show because James has burnt his arm off on stage and they had to rush him to the hospital.

And, um, you know, they came up with all these videos, uh, highlighting, uh, that that tour. And I remember on video James said that yeah, he actually missed his cue where he was supposed to stand. You know, there was an like an ex on stage and he missed it. And so basically he was a little too close to the [00:07:00] fireworks and it just pretty much burnt the left side of his arm.

To a point where they did not, um, cancel the tour, but they had a, another, uh, guitar player, uh, play for him and he was like in a cast for the rest of the tour. But yeah, that was a crazy story 'cause um, right after that, so that, that was unfortunate. Right. And so we waited, like, I gotta say, an extreme amount of time for g and r to come on after they took forever to set up.

So we at least 45 minutes, man, at least. Yeah. He said it was the worst pain of his life. Yeah. When he got burnt, right? I, I don't doubt it. So, you know, we were kind of like super sad and, and you know, kind of like, oh man, you know, like we paid all this money and, you know, 45 minutes at the Metallica set, they take off, right?

Uh, so we waited for 40, at least 45 minutes. I kid you not, it was like an extreme amount of time and we were like starting to get pissed. That's how long it took. GNR is set up and, [00:08:00] um, so GNR comes on right? Freaking phenomenal. They start the show with, it's so easy, I think, and we're just going crazy, you know, Axel's running around and stuff and, and, you know, uh, all damage was, was repaired, you know, all the fans were, were going nuts.

And then, like, after the fourth song or something like that, Axel just plops his ass right in the middle of the stage. I forgot what song it was, but only like slash Duff and all the musicians were still playing a song. Axl stopped singing. He just sat his ass down and like had his arms crossed like this and we're just like, oh my God, what, what?

What's happening here? Um, he gets up. Uh, insults a crowd, throws the mic down and then takes off. And after that, like the whole band took off and then it was complete chaos After that, I remember, uh, the guy beside me had a GNR shirt almost immediately to a t to a Q. Took his shirt off, took the lighter, started burning his.[00:09:00]

Right. Um, oh, so why did Axel take off? You know what, there's, I know that time there was like a lot of, um, controversy around Axel at the time. He was being a spoiled brat at the time, and even like di other cities, he kind of did the same thing. And, um, there were rumors. I remember one of the rumors at the time was that he did not want to play any cities that started with the letter m.

So m from Montreal, right. And so even before the show, people were kind of anxious about it. I dunno, he, the rumors were like he was seeing a psychologist or, and, and he got kind of screwed up. And so, uh, there was always that aura around Axel, especially around that time where he would show up late. I know, right?

Um, God knows why he would do that. He would just freaking spoil brat. That's, that's at the end of the day, that's, that's what it was. I'm not sure how much money they had to pay back. Um, you know, 'cause I think, I think the law is like if you, if you play for a certain amount of time. [00:10:00] Um, and let's just say you, you went a show or whatever, um, as long as you pass that time limit, then you have, you don't have to pay anything back to the promoter or whatever.

Um, so I'm not sure what the hell happened with GNR, but I, I'm telling you, it was like early in the show, it was like. Third or four songs. So I'm pretty sure they had to pay a substantial amount back to the promoter 'cause they didn't hit that limit. But anyways, um, so he takes off, the band takes off, and immediately all chaos breaks loose.

And I was in like high school, right? So, uh, still like timid kid at the time. So me and my friends were just freaking out. Like the, uh, the fans rushed the stage. Um. Yeah. Yeah. We were, we were like this, this was my, I think it was like my first concert ever. Um, I saw Pink Floyd. After that, shortly after that at the Big O.

But this was my first concert ever. So I was like freaking out. Um, and at all the, like the fans rush stage, they destroyed all the [00:11:00] equipment on stage. I remember that. Just like toppled everything. And at the Olympic stadium, when you go see like a, a, a band, um, to that size, like there's these chairs, right?

Like, you know, the general admission chairs all like on the floor, right? And I think they're kind of nailed down. Um. And so you can't really move 'em, but, but all the fans destroyed all the chairs. Like they, he, they just like, I don't know how they moved them, but they like bent 'em, um, and just like threw 'em on a stage, started throwing chairs on the stage.

Um, and then back then in the nineties and the early nineties, the expos. If you're a baseball fan, the expos are doing really well. That's when they had like the pinstripe uniforms and they were doing really well. And so, um, a lot of the fans also destroyed the expos store at the Olympic stadium, so they kind of rushed us.

So broke all the glass. Vandalized it took, took all this stuff, um, you know, caps, shirts, ev, anything that you can grab and then just took [00:12:00] off. And then so we're like, whoa, that's kind of crazy. And then we, as we walked outside, I've never seen as many police officers in my life. Uh, in riot gear. There was all these like horses.

Police officers with the whole gear, the shields, the batons, and the way the Olympic stadium in Montreal is set up is that there, there's a stadium, but then um, around the stadium, there's all these, like these major streets around the stadium. So picture like, I think it fits like 50, 50,000 people at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

Picture 50,000 people pissed off. Pissed off teenagers leaving the stadium all at once, right? So guess what happened? They started freaking toppling cars. Burning cars. And imagine if you're, I felt so bad for the, the drivers or the, uh, just, just on the streets. So imagine like you're waiting for the red light.

On a street and there's hundreds of kids stomping on your car [00:13:00] crossing the street, you know? Yeah. It was, it was complete chaos. Police were everywhere and, uh, me and my buddies, we, we were just like sitting on the grass and just watching the whole debauchery. It was like hell on earth. 'cause there's fire smoke going on, police and fights going on.

It was absolutely crazy. And I remember James Hetfield saying, um, that, uh, in, in the video saying that, you know what, like that was very unfortunate what happened to him. But Axl really could have saved the day, you know? Um, and instead Axl just chose to be a little biatch and, uh. Have a, have a hissy fit, but he really could have, because once GNR started, all of that stuff was forgotten.

The fans were just so into it. And, uh, man, we were just loving it. Uh, to this day, I'll, I'll never forget that night. Anyways, that's, uh, my Metallica riot store for you. But anyways, if you're a Metallic [00:14:00] fan, I'm not sure if you're a a fifth member or not O'Mara, but. Um, it's free to join. Um, I've been a member for many, many years now, and before they used to do these, um.

They used to have these, uh, uh, a vinyl club. And so they used to come up with like exclusive members only vinyls that you can get. So you can't really get this at the store. So this is like one of them where they, they released, you know, uh, black End 2020. Oh yeah. This is like an acoustic, they did an acoustic version of Black End.

Um, they did a cover of Allison Chain's Wood, so really cool, uh, vinyls that they used to release like this, this another. Really, uh, uh, um, loved item that I have. Metallica live at House of Vans London 2016. Check this out. So this is, uh, one of the vinos you can only get as a Metallica Club member. Check this out.

Look at that. Huh? Is that so cool? Um, they, 'cause they [00:15:00] actually purchased, um, a vinyl manufacturing plant. Believe it or not, that's how much money they have. They actually purchased one and they started pumping these out as a, you can become a vinyl club member. Unfortunately, they stopped, so we can't get that.

We can't really get this anymore, which is really unfortunate. I guess it costs too much. I'm also a Pearl Jam. Huge fan, as you can see from my posters, and, uh, is a Pearl Jam member as well. And Pearl Jam actually had also a vinyl club where they sent, uh, you can, you know, buy these exclusive members only vinyl.

So pretty much similar to what Metallica was doing, but they both stopped that. So I, I'm guessing it was like too expensive for them to maintain. Um, but obviously Metallica still comes out with vinyl versions of their, of their album, so I'm guessing they still, they still own that plant. But anyways, that, uh, leads into, uh, this one right here.

I wanted to read you a short, uh, article, at least what the number one [00:16:00] song is. Aren't you really dying to know what the number one song is? So check this out. Guitar World, this was released back in 2011. Greatest Metallica songs ranked from one to 100. The untold stories behind the Music with James Hadfield, Lars Eurich, and Kirk Hamit.

Check this out. So. What would, actually, before I read it, if you're a a Metallica fan, I personally want to see if they got the number one song right. 'cause I do have a number one song of all time. Uh, what is your number one song before I, I read this. Do you have one? Let me know in the comments. I love to know.

Uh, even just like when you got into Metallica, you know, was it in the Black Album days or were you like an old school fan? Fate to Black. Yes. Fate to black. That's one of my all time favorite songs. And unfortunately that's a song as I mentioned that when Kurt burnt his hand, it was during Fate to black.

Um, I knew that. As you can see, I [00:17:00] played guitar. I've been playing guitar since high school and I knew that Solo Note for Note Fate to Black Love that song. Um, but my favorite song of all time. And they actually did get it right. So lemme put my old man glasses on here. But their number one song is.

Creeping death? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. That would've been my number one pick for sure. Obviously after the Black album, I went to discover, uh, ride the Lightning, which is one of my all time favorite albums. And obviously, like, as you know, that is an amazing album. And I remember I, I must've listened it, no joke, like.

Over 10,000 times right now. Um, I, uh, in high school, like I said, I got into it in high school. I probably listened to ride the lightning, the, the, the creeping death, [00:18:00] sorry, creeping death. The song itself, like at least twice going to school, uh, on my Walkman at the time, and twice coming back. So four times a day for like two years straight.

So you do the math, but, uh, let's check this out. Look at, look at this old school pick. I mean, fuck. Look at these guys. So amazing. All right, let me just read this quick article, what they say about the number one Metallica song, creeping Death Ride, the Lightning, written by James Hadfield, Lars Urich Cliff Burton.

May he rest in peace and Kirk Hammett. All right. Yes, there are more ambitious songs than the Metallica ra, but none surpass Creeping Death for Pure Propulsion and Economy of Structure. As anyone has ever attended a Metallica concert knows the breakdown section of this. Ride The Lightning Classic with its gang vocals.

Die, die, die. Refrain, and Audience Sing-Along is the climax of the show. [00:19:00] Absolutely. One day Romero, when you go see them live. You will know what that means. The power of the bridge was evident to Metallica front end, James Hetfield, even before the song had become a live staple. When we did the crunchy die, my uh, sorry, die by my hand breakdown part in the middle.

He recalls, I sat in the control room after we did all the gang vocals and everyone was just going nuts. No shit. In addition, creeping death derived much of his impact from the fact that Hetfield dons a role of the Lord himself to retell the story of the Old Testament book of Exodus, quoting almost directly from scripture, Hetfield warns that he will creep across the land killing firstborn man, and during a very persuasive six minutes, the medal God convincingly becomes the one God.

Definitely. He's definitely the God of medal. I could tell you that James Hetfield Woo Hetfield would mature as a vocalist and [00:20:00] develop his trademark gravitas, heavy growl on the band, subsequent masterpiece, 1980 six's, master of puppets, but as youthful how on the Ride the Lightning and his predecessor, 1980 three's Kilo Mall, has an urgency and electricity that would not be recaptured.

The song's choice Selection of riffs and next snapping tempo are of course the other key elements to these selections. Inimitable Fury, the hammering open figure ensures that the listener's ears are fully at attention by the time the galloping verse riff with its ominous half step. Trills kicks in the sustained power chords that underpin the chorus.

This was allegedly the last album on which head field used a pedal in front of a Marshall to create his signature crunch tone explode out of the milestone and provide a sudden release. League guitarist, Kirk Hammond solos are equally electrifying using modal filigrees and [00:21:00] jazzy arpeggios. Learned from one time teacher, Joe Satriani.

Yeah, that's right. He was Joe Saturate. Taught Kirk Hammond to push on the boundaries of the song's Harmonic Center. This is the sound of a young band full of piss and vinegar firing on all cylinders, subtly be damned. And while Metallica's music certainly continued to evolve over the years, whether it ever got any better than this is open to debates, man, I gotta say still, I'm not so sure if, uh, it, it ever got better than that creeping death all time out.

Oh, here, ology. So for, I think for all you guitar players out there. Creeping death. Uh, they got a section here for the creeping death solo. Uh, Kirk Hammett says I use my mid seventies Gibson flying v and a boss SD one Super overdrive pedal through James' Marshall, which was a late seventies, 1959, super lit, super lead modified by Amp guru [00:22:00] Jose Aaron.

Uh, Aaron Dondo. The first part was pretty much improvised what. Our engineer, Fleming Ra Mucin, suggested I double track the solo to make it sound richer. However, I still had to play this small fill at the end, a four bar break with four accents afterward. I thought of an exercise that I used to practice where I would play these four note diminished chords.

I just play that over the accents and I worked out nice. Well, hell yeah. I worked out more than nice, Kurt, man, you're soloing, I'd say. There you go. That's, uh, hopefully you got entertained by that. Talking about ri uh, creeping death, that classic album, ride The Lightning. I'm not sure if you're a Mega Death fan, but, uh, mega Death just released their latest album.

Go check out what you haven't. I think it's one of their best since dystopia. If you didn't like dystopia, it's one of their best since, uh, euthanasia. Yeah. Great. Awesome. Amira, thanks so much. Um, and uh, they [00:23:00] actually do, Dave Masine actually does. A version of Ride the Lightning, believe it or not. Did did you know that Dave Muston actually wrote Co-wrote Ride The Lightning?

So that's why he was, uh, cool with doing that on his very last album. Apparently This is me, uh, mega. That's very last album. So if you did not check it out, go check it out specifically, uh, ride the Lightning Song. Um, I actually dig it a lot because he actually speeds it up a little bit. He does it a little bit faster than AKA does it, and so it sounds pretty cool.

Go check it out. But, uh, yeah. Alright, well hopefully you're entertained here. You know what, let me send you off. I gotta go, but let me send you off by rocking out with you and, um, hopefully we'll see you at the next one. I'm gonna try to do these, uh, live once a week, probably Thursday mornings like this, and, uh, I'll probably whip out an article.

Uh, or two like I do on my, it's one louder podcast. Go check it out if you haven't. It's one louder podcast. I come in and read Guitar Magazine, so if you're a guitar player [00:24:00] as well, I read a lot of the guitar players, go check it out. But until next week, I'm rocking you out.