Alex Skolnick Calls Metallica The Only 80s Thrash Band That Wins Mainstream Success

James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo, Metallica personnel (Instagram @photosbyjeffyeager)

JAKARTA - Guitarist Alex Skolnick without hesitation called Metallica one of the best bands, not only in the thrash metal realm, but also in the mainstream realm.

Skolnick tried to revisit Metallica's early works in 1980, and reflect on how the work was able to last for three and a half decades

"Metallica found a way to make their music very popular, but they really broke away from the environment they appeared in," Alex Skolnick said as a guest on the recent Riffhard podcast.

"And it's brilliant what they do, but they're really the only ones who can achieve mainstream popularity. They end up being one of the biggest bands in the world," he continued.

The Testament guitarist mentioned several bands in the 1980s that were popular in metal, but their achievements were not like Metallica, which was able to penetrate the mainstream market.

"It didn't get any mainstream attention, other than an hour on MTV on Saturday night where they're going to play some videos," he said.

Furthermore, Skolnick said, Metallica's achievements could at least be approached by the bands afterwards. In the 2000s era, several bands were able to reach markets beyond metal.

"And then after you had the bands playing at Ozzfest, for example, the personnel who were a few years younger than me, such as Lamb of God, Slipknot and beyond, they managed to reach a fairly large audience and are still doing it," said Skolnick.

So, next to such groups, if we play the songs we have from the past, it doesn't sound outdated for a reason. While you can play a number of songs from that time period, late 1989's, which was very popular, which is played regularly on MTV and played on the radio and is a little more commercialized, interesting and more image-based.