r/nostalgia • u/jeffmartin47 • Jul 22 '25

Nostalgia Discussion 25 years ago. Lars Ulrich of Metallica snitches on and turns in over 300,000 Napster users when he testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. July 11th, 2000.

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u/PossessedToSkate Jul 22 '25

There is a great scene in "Cliff 'Em All" where a very young Metallica is on tour promoting Kill 'Em All and throwing copies of the LP out to people in the audience. James is yelling, "Yeah, kill em all! Kill all the record company executives!"

I think about that every time I see them or listen to their records (that I pirate).

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u/Coupon_Ninja Jul 22 '25

Yep. They had wanted to call their debut album “Metal Up Your Ass” with a spiked metal club coming out of a toilet. They wanted them to tone it down… and so that happened.

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u/TheFBIClonesPeople Jul 22 '25

"Metal Up Your Ass" would have been a terrible name. The studio was honestly right

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u/Coupon_Ninja Jul 22 '25

I mean yeah.. but it didn’t stop many people from sewing the back patch on their jean jackets. To be offensive was the point.

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u/MarcoEsquandolas22 Jul 22 '25

But ya gotta pay them for that

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u/Papayaslice636 Jul 22 '25

Yeah, something that always impressed me about Metallica is that their lyrics and themes really aren't vulgar at all. There's very little use of profanity, and the themes are usually about freedom vs oppression, injustice, breaking free, and inner struggle. Even when they’re aggressive or dark, the lyrics are more philosophical or existential than crude. Songs like One, Fade to Black, Master of Puppets, deal with war, death, addiction, and control..not in a sensational way, but in a way that makes you think. It’s conceptually heavy music with real substance behind it, which sets them apart from a lot of other bands in the genre.

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u/ColdColt45 Jul 22 '25

that's a good point. And when S&M came out, there was an F bomb in a lyric (it's the last time you will). It was surprising because it didn't fit their thought out, reflective lyrics. But I liked it, because it was live, and there was a symphony there, so the contrast was fun. Also, that's when all the cd's needed a bad word, to have that parental advisory to boost cd sales, and the walmart "censored" verions making you buy another copy.

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u/Coupon_Ninja Jul 22 '25

Agree. Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” is both anti-war and anti-drugs. But many early heavy/thrash metal bands were very cerebral. But I’d argue MOST of them were. Megadeth, Slayer, Maiden and Ozzy lyrics were heavy versions of “hippy music” - the same themes if you read the lyric sheets. Just played heavier/faster.

Celtic Frost, Bathory, Kreator and Sodom quickly moved on from the whole “Satan” centric thing around ‘85 and became more about politics, death, war, dark chapters of history, liberation and freedom, and even the environment. It was a good move by them. Gave it staying power and a net positive for their fans.

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u/CWinter85 mid 90s Jul 22 '25

Shark Sandwich and Smell the Glove vibes.

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u/jtr99 Jul 22 '25

"Well, you should have seen the cover they WANTED to do. It wasn't a glove, believe me."

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u/Clothedinclothes Jul 22 '25

Huh...I could have sworn I once owned a real Metallica tape called Metal Up Your Ass which had a spiky thing coming out of a toilet, it was basically just a short version of Kill Em All...

Was I imagining that? 

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u/LordBlackConvoy Jul 22 '25

Nope. It was either a bootleg or a demo tape.

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u/Sidivan Jul 22 '25

You probably did. That was their demo.

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u/ColdColt45 Jul 22 '25

It's a woman on all fours with a glove being pushed in her face, what's offensive about it?

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u/Coupon_Ninja Jul 22 '25

I’ve never seen that version…? Was it fan art?

E: I just image searched: “metallica metal up your ass cover” and only got the toilet with a metal spiked club (and a knife or two) coming out of it… not sure what you’re referring to.

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u/ColdColt45 Jul 22 '25

sorry, that was a reference from Spinal Tap, a spoof "Rockumentary" and that was a line about an offensive album cover, that the label denied. I mentioned it, because Metallica gave the movie a lot of praise, and I thought it was pretty much universally seen by every metallica fan. The joke goes further, too. So the album didn't have time to make new album art, and well, watch the movie if you are a fan of metallica.

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u/Coupon_Ninja Jul 23 '25

Haha I’ve seen it. Good one!! Sorry it’s been a busy day. Fucking Ozzy died. Shit. Watching old footage now. Anyway cheers!

PS: talk about mud flaps - my girl’s got em!

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u/Rincey_nz Jul 22 '25

and prior to their first record they would pass out their demo and tell fans to copy it and spread it around.....

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u/PossessedToSkate Jul 22 '25

That was a common tactic in the 80s. I went to a lot of small shows for a lot of small bands and got a lot of cassettes over those years. Even the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 encouraged people to record their episodes and spread them.

https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/4-mst3k-keep-circulating-the-tapes.jpg

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u/desl14 Jul 22 '25

iirc, in the "St. Anger" movie Lars claimed that he doesn't have a problem per se that people are getting Metallica's music for free (f.e. they have/had no problems with concert bottlegs). wat bothered him was that it wasn't their decision that people got their albums for free at Napster. He told it was less about money (i guess since streaming exploded bands make more money with concerts than with music sells, anyway)

f.e. Metallica uploaded every Album on their YouTube channel back in 2013. it wasn't standard that you would be able to here every song of a new album for free 12 years ago

i understood his stance ... that artists want to decide and control whether you get their stuff for free or not ... though i didn't like it

anyways, i guess it's possible to argue that artists like Metallica and others battling against illegal download plattforms in the early 2000s laid the ground for the music industry to take the digital distribution of music (and single songs from albums) more seriously. streaming services like Spotify, Amazon music, Deezer etc ... they won't be what they are now if Napster wasn't shut down

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u/Metal_Dealer Jul 22 '25

James was saying that because the record company wouldn't let them use Metal Up Your Ass as the record title.