I readily admit, I can't speak for Cliff Burton. He's dead, I didn't know him, and I'm not in any way related to him. But if anyone knows if he's rolling in his grave or not, it's me. Why?

I'll tell you why. For one, I'm a genius. My opinion has more validity than yours.

For two, I'm an expert at all things Metal.

Cliff Burton was all things Metal. He could play his instrument well. He talked the talk, but also walked the walk. And when Metallica played live, when everyone else got off the stage, he would stick his arms out straight forward in two fists. He was cool.

Metallica started off a Heavy Metal band. You could call them Thrash or Speed if you like. That's fine. Those are subcategories of Heavy Metal.

After Cliff died, Metallica went downhill. Garage Days Revisted was okay. And Justice for All was also okay. The Black Album was barely okay. None of those compared even close to their masterpieces when Cliff was alive - Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets.

I noticed something wrong immediately when I heard The Black Album. For one, there were zero fast beats. For another, you just don't spend thirteen months in the studio on a Heavy Metal album unless you have a symphony behind you like Nightwish. I don't even think Nightwish spent that long on any of their albums.

After The Black Album came Load. That was enough. I still got that horrible image in my head of Metallica clean cut with more makeup than Poison used to wear singing some alternative crap on Alternative Nation.

After the song, Kennedy went up to some stupid alternative chick and asked "is Metallica alternative?" The stupid alternative chick replied "yeah, I think Metallica are alternative." Enough said.

What ever happened to "following our instinct not a trend?" Here is Metallica following the latest trend, and musically, it was one of the worst trends in modern history.

I heard they're still putting out albums. They had one recently that had no guitar solos. Following the latest trend again, Metallica?

Cliff Burton is rolling in his grave. Until of course, he heard the new Manowar album. When Joey DeMaio was asked what he thought about Metallica, he responded "I'm sorry, I don't listen to country music." Manowar is cool.