Picking a single Metallica song as your favorite is a pretty daunting task, so narrowing it down to three may make things a bit easier. Disturbed‘s David Draiman took on the challenge after wishing James Hetfield a happy birthday on social media.
“Happy birthday to one of my idols,” Draiman wrote in the post, which featured a picture of him with Hetfield, who turned 60 today (Aug. 3).
Metallica have released 11 studio albums over their career so far, with the most recent being this year’s 72 Seasons. They also put out a few EPs, a cover album (1998’s Garage Inc.) and a collaborative album with the late Lou Reed, Lulu, in 2011. In sum, they have a very extensive catalog of songs.
In the replies to Draiman’s post with Hetfield, the singer was asked by metal podcaster Mitch Lafon whether he thinks “Blackened,” from Metallica’s 1988 album …And Justice for All, is the band’s best song.
“False lol,” the vocalist responded, adding that he thinks “Master of Puppets,” “Creeping Death” and “Fade to Black” are their three best songs, in that order. Thus, it seems that Draiman is a bigger fan of Metallica’s earlier material, since two of the songs are from Ride the Lightning and one is, obviously, from Master of Puppets.
In fact, the Disturbed frontman spoke in detail about how much he loves Ride the Lightning back in 2016 during a segment with Kerrang!.
“The power, the complexity, the aggression… there’s so many things that would attract anyone to Metallica. I think that they’re the prime example of a metal band,” he said, adding that “Creeping Death” was a special song to him as a kid especially because of its Jewish references.
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“‘Fade to Black’ just [has] this amazing construct, the song that defied the definition of what Metallica was perceived to be at the time. I love it,” he continued.
It’s also easy to see why Draiman named “Master of Puppets” his No. 1. According to Setlist.fm, it’s the band’s most-played song ever, and it even entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time last summer after it appeared in the season finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things. It’s the kind of song that transcends time.
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