Their newer stuff just sucks; just the same old bland crap over and over again. Regardless of how quickly I change the station when I hear them start to play (unless it's "One", which is still one of my favorites), their older stuff still should still keep them afloat from sinking into the Hall of Shame.

Hotel283 and minkeydude both make valid points. On the other hand, I think their past accomplishments should be considered as a mitigating factor in their current "shame." I'll let them by with a '3'.

After 2000? Try a little earlier. Enter Sandman was the beginning of the end, the first commercial album. Anybody who had listened to them prior to that album didn't anymore. Moreover, Metallica's early success was due to the album sharing (and let's face it, taping) of their indie stuff by the underground group of fans that supported them. They not only knew it was happening, they encouraged it - guess they were smart enough to measure the value of money versus the value of publicity - and this was the proto from of file sharing and had been going on for decades. This being the case, Metallica looked like the worst kind of hypocrites and corporate shills when they crusaded against file sharing. As if the embarrasing decline in the quality of their music wasn't enough. On a similar note, I think people should still download music files. The only people complaining about it are the ultra-rich precord companies that want to get ultra-richer. I'll give them their due, they market their fascism well, any business that can pass Britney Spears or Mariah Carey off on the public as talented can surely make file sharing look like the devil's handiwork. However, if we could all hear the voices of small bands or musicians whose careers benefited from Napster or other file sharing services I bet they would say THANK YOU. The internet should be free and unregulated. Whats scares me is the censorship being imposed on the internet now may very well pervade other forms of media in the near future. Don't think so? Well, the governments of Canada and the US implemented income tax as a temporary - TEMPORARY - measure to help pay for WWI. Can you imagine not paying your income tax now? Even slaves get used to slavery.

These guys, the Champions of Metal, the epitome of metal, decide to cut their hair sometime in the late 90's and start putting out alternative garbage. However, this is excusable in my book - they clearly won every category of their music genre and were looking to make a change, however poor it might have been. What really got me was their striking opposition to the likes of Napster. I understand that they have a problem with people getting music for free. But why did they lead the way and become the spokesmen for this movement? Cmon, you guys are supposed to be rockers - leave the whining to Clay Aiken. Multi-millionaires who are in the decline of their fame and fortune do not need to go out in a blaze of crying and complaining.