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Metallica · S1 E2
The Mustaine Years
Dave Mustaine on lead guitar, volatile chemistry, and the drinking that will end it all
A garage in Norwalk, California, 1982. A 20-year-old guitarist named Dave Mustaine plugs in, plays a riff faster and meaner than anything Lars and James have ever heard, and the room goes quiet.
"The Unforgiven" (Metallica, 1991). A song about someone who never forgives and is never forgiven. Decades later, Dave Mustaine would say getting fired from Metallica was the wound that never healed. This song could have been written about him.
The Fastest Hands in LA
Dave Mustaine doesn't audition for Metallica. He shows up, plays, and the decision is made before he finishes his first solo. He's technically faster than anyone in the LA metal scene, writes riffs that are both vicious and melodic, and has a stage presence that makes James Hetfield look shy.
Sources
Joel McIver, "Justice for All"
VH1 Behind the Music
So What! magazine
TAP TO REVEAL: Which Metallica songs did Dave Mustaine actually help write?
“Dave was unbelievable on guitar. But the drinking, the fighting... it was too much.”
— Lars Ulrich, Playboy, 2001
The Unforgiven, Metallica (1991)
The song opens with a processed guitar line designed to sound ancient and weathered, a deliberate contrast to the heavy chorus that follows. Producer Bob Rock layered James's vocal to sound both vulnerable in the verses and furious on the chorus. Listen for how the song keeps building but never fully releases the tension, mirroring the feeling of a grudge that never goes away. This was the first of three "Unforgiven" songs spanning 17 years.
Sources
Bob Rock interviews
Rolling Stone
The Mustaine Era
The Four Horsemen, Metallica
From Kill 'Em All (1983). This song started life as "The Mechanix," a Mustaine composition the band reworked after firing him. They slowed it down, rewrote the lyrics, and added a melodic middle section that Mustaine's version never had. Listen to this and then listen to Megadeth's "Mechanix" on Killing Is My Business. Same skeleton, completely different animals.
The Four Horsemen, Metallica (1983)
Compare these lyrics to Mustaine's original "Mechanix" and you'll see how much the band rewrote. The imagery shifted from speed-obsessed thrash to something darker and more biblical. Two versions of the same song, two completely different bands.
What band did Dave Mustaine go on to form after being fired from Metallica?
The band is playing faster than anyone in LA, and the underground is starting to notice. Next: a demo tape called No Life 'Til Leather spreads through the mail like a virus, and Metallica becomes the most traded name in the tape-trading underground.
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