Do i think Metallica sold out? Not at all... selling out would be iuf they changed their music style to simply gain popularity/record sales. Mind you... the were VERY popular after Master of Puppets CD was released. My thought is that Dave Mustaine's involvement with the band GREATLY influenced their style... and perhaps that involvement took James, Lars, and Cliff in directions they would have otherwise not have gone. Remember also that Jason Newstead's style greatly slowed down in Metallica as well. Hearing him play in Flotsam & Jetsam... the stuff he played was much harder and faster than anything he played while with metallica. Another guess is that Metallica wanted to explore new avenues of playing... King Nothing has some basslines that aren't all that difficult to play... but nonetheless I find them as artistic as Ian's Bass lines in The Rage. Selling out is such an overused term in the music industry. Another thing to remember is that Judas Priest had some various changes to music over the years. the Turbo CD is still very enjoyable to listen to... but I really loved hearing it played without the synth guitars in the Live in London CD. Remember that Heavy Metal is Music and therefore a form of art... there are no rules... and just because an album can be made to sound commercial... doesn't mean it's a sellout album... even Megadeth had Countdown To Extinction and Youthanasia CDs to prove that point. The true trick to being a musician is being able to step out of the box and try new ideas, and I know cause I play bass myself and even playing stuff like Lynyrd Skynyrd can be enjoyable to play at times. I don't personally think that any particular music "sucks" cause that would only cause me to get narrow-minded. Sure there are thiungs i don't quite like myself, but i wouldn't put the music down simply because my taste differs with it. I simply enjoy as much as I can. one thing i would like to see however in the tabs library is some of Ian's stuff... i think that songster.com posts are WAAAAAY off with a lot of songs.
