History YMMV / Metallica

** For band members, Cliff Burton, in spades.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC9aXKqrEvE This]] song was the face of mainstream heavy metal in 1982-83. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB8OvPtf_d0 This]] is Metallica's first song.

* NeverLiveItDown: ''St. Anger'' is still to this day treated as the worst album ever made by the band by a lot of the fans, with the internet refusing to let Lars forget about the infamous drum sound he used on that one album. No-one is going to let James forget "I am the table" either.

* HilariousInHindsight: Subverted; ''Guitar World'' published a fake review of ''Kill 'Em All'' after ''Metallica'' was released:
-->"''What is this crap? The guitars sound like rusty chainsaws and the singer barks like he wants to be let outside to chase a cat. This band has a huge underground buzz, but [[ItWillNeverCatchOn they're not going anywhere]]. I'll stake my entire reputation on that. Jeff Gilbert; [=GW=].''"

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: While ''72 Seasons'' was very well-received overall, there were a number of fans who found it to be too much of a retread of the prior two Metallica albums, relying too heavily on well-worn Metallica tropes to really be an essential listen.

* "YMMV/KillEmAll"

*** Kirk's penchant for using pentatonic scales in his solos has also become a recent meme to see when analyzing his playing. Especially after his infamous solo from ''Lux Æterna''.

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: ''Guitar Hero: Metallica'' is considered by many to be the single best entry in the ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' franchise. The best since Harmonix left the series, at least.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Averted mostly, they show up in the top 5 of any list of the best heavy metal bands, but occasionally people forget just how heavy they were when they came out.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC9aXKqrEvE This]] song was the face of mainstream heavy metal in 1982-83. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB8OvPtf_d0 This]] is Metallica's first song.
** To further emphasize just how heavy Metallica was at the time, check out this sample of ''Rolling Stone''[='=]s [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/and-justice-for-all-19881103 review]] of then newly released ''...And Justice for All''.
--> "''Thrash'' is too demeaning a term for this metametal, a marvel of precisely channeled aggression. There are few verse-chorus structures, just collages done at Mach 8."

* [[MemeticBadass Memetic Villain]]: Dave Mustaine. On any videos of concert mishaps, expect Dave to be blamed (jokingly, of course).
** The band themselves for their feud with Napster, which helped put the infamous DMCA-related music copyright laws into place.

* ContestedSequel: Legitimately every album, with the possible exceptions of ''Load'' and ''[=ReLoad=]'' (because they're basically a double album released separately) and ''Lulu'' to everything, because (nearly) everyone hates it. Even '''''their first album''''' is one.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: ''St. Anger'' is widely considered the band's worst album by fans, but something observed among critics ([[CriticalDissonance who were polarized, but overall considerably less incensed than audiences]]) is that many of the album's more infamous failings can be found in some form on their much more acclaimed albums. ''...And Justice For All'' had a notoriously shoddy mix where the bass was almost nonexistent, and James doesn't exactly have a spotless record regarding lyrics, with [[{{Narm}} over-the-top and unintentionally goofy lines]] permeating the entire Metallica catalogue. What made the difference for those previous albums was that Metallica were able to play to everyone's strengths and help outshine their negative qualities with great overall songwriting and energy -- when ''St. Anger'' rolled around, the band was notoriously dysfunctional and barely able to work together, resulting in the album's conspicuously more disconnected and confused construction.

*** Even funnier is that the second it switches to generic tune, it cuts ''right to Lars'', who was the main driving force of the Napstar lawsuit.

** Several. Some fans only like their first three albums claiming the band died with Cliff and disliking the more progressive metal sound for ''...And Justice for All''. Some only listen to their first 4 albums, calling [[ItsPopularNowItSucks sellout]] on anything post-Black Album. Some fans include The Black Album as canon but dislike their [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks their change in style]] for the albums after that. Some like ''Load'' and ''[=ReLoad=]'' but dislike ''St. Anger'' (and some like ''Load'' but not ''[=ReLoad=]'', although these days the inverse is more true). Some listen to anything they put out. Some of any of the aforementioned consider ''Death Magnetic'' to be [[WinBACKTheCrowd a nice recovery]] and more like their pre-Black Album work, and some have blacklisted it [[LoudnessWar due to poor audio quality]]. ''Hardwired... to Self-Destruct'', while getting an overall good reception from fans, had a fair amount of dissers, [[http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-08-19/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-the-best-reactions-to-the-new-metallica-song particularly about its advance singles]]. Even ''Lulu'', which seemingly everyone hated, has its defenders, and there are those who have predicted that, like Music/LouReed's ''Music/{{Berlin}}'' (and, for that matter, the Music/VelvetUnderground's works), it will end up being VindicatedByHistory twenty years down the line.

* FaceOfTheBand: James, due to being the lead singer, and Lars, for infamously suing Napster.

** There are even fans who insist that Metallica was at its best when [[Music/{{Megadeth}} Dave Mustaine]] was lead guitarist, despite the fact that Dave was only in the band for a year and never played on any of their albums. Obviously there aren't a lot of these people because they would have had to have seen the band live when Metallica was still an unknown band playing heavy metal clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but they do exist.

** In terms of albums, both ''Music/MasterOfPuppets'' and ''Music/RideTheLightning'' have become this within the metal community. ''Kill 'Em All'' and ''...And Justice for All'' aren't too far behind either.

*** This is all true about Jason, but Kirk did say something to the effect that ''St. Anger'' was in a sense Jason's vision for where the band would go, but he was the "sacrificial lamb" for that to happen. Presumably, though, he wanted it without the outlandishly terrible sound.
*** To be fair, Music/{{Metallica}} ''has'' stated that, while a change in musical styles would've definitely happened with or without Cliff, it probably wouldn't have been a shift to blues based alternative (as was the case in the mid-'90s). It would've likely been a shift to a more progressive style of heavy metal akin to bands like Music/DreamTheater.

* CapcomSequelStagnation: While ''72 Seasons'' was very well-received overall, there were a number of fans who found it to be too much of a retread of the prior two Metallica albums, relying too heavily on well-worn Metallica tropes to really be an essential listen.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: While fans will argue about the exact dates, it's widely agreed that the late '90s to mid-2000s were a really rough time for Metallica. After the smash mainstream breakthrough of [[Music/MetallicaAlbum the Black Album]] set up [[ToughActToFollow a very high bar]], ''Music/LoadAndReLoad'' were heavily divisive due in part to [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks straying away from the band's traditional thrash sound to experiment with other genres]], while ''Music/StAnger'' was widely panned for its even worse mix and unfocused songwriting. On top of that, [[ItsPopularNowItSucks the band had become steadily dismissed by purists as being mainstream sellouts]], with the mainstream fanbase they had built up also beginning to turn on them for other reasons, including [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil Lars' controversial legal crusade against Napster]]. It wasn't until 2008's ''Death Magnetic'' that the band [[WinBackTheCrowd re-established some of their credibility]] (though ''Lulu'' certainly tested it), and while it's widely agreed that the band will likely never return to the heights seen in the early '90s, the more positive reaction to ''Death Magnetic'', ''Hardwired... to Self-Destruct'', and ''72 Seasons'' stake a firm end to their nadir period.