The Metallica Series

The title piece in this series is from the song of the same name, on the album of the same name, by Metallica. This album was released in 1988 and was the band’s fourth album. The song speaks to the corruption within the criminal justice system, where greed outweighs compassion in the scales of justice. 

For this assemblage, the artist modified a 3-D print of Lady Justice. She has her standing on a pile of skulls, and her scales of justice are imbalanced with money and a human heart. She is housed within a wood and glass clock case, which represents the polished appearance of the US criminal justice system. As a literal reference to the song, she included apathy as a stepping stone.

Just as they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Metallica writes that truth and freedom are also subjective. Also on the And Justice for All album, this song was written when the band was reading about the blacklisting that took place during the Cold War’s “Red Scare.” This song describes how freedom is limited by those with power that dictate what can and cannot be said or done. 

The artist deconstructed a patriotic wall décor, and reassembled it to house the face of a screaming man. The man’s screams have been silenced with a ball gag she sculpted. She added a question mark to the words that already were written on the item, making the statement of “Land of the Free” into a question.

Also from the …And Justice for All album, Blackened is a song that addressed nuclear war. It was written at the end of the Cold War, where the threat of complete devastation of the planet by nuclear war was ever present. 

The artist stained an old crate black to house the planet earth, which was once a ceiling light. A small bulb inside illuminates the earth’s blue glow. A simple plumb bob dangles precariously above it, representing the nuclear missile that will subsequently destroy the earth. The background is a sign, reminding us all of the nuclear fallout that will occur after the earth is blackened by nuclear war.

This song was on the Master of Puppets album in 1986. The band borrowed the term “disposable heroes” from the book, Fahrenheit 451. It is used to describe “using soldiers as cannon fodder” in wartime situations like the trenches of WW I. 

Rather than explicitly portray military cannons, the author instead chose a circus cannon for this piece. She intermixed circus elements with those of war, so that it becomes difficult to distinguish the two. A circus can be seen as a frivolous source of entertainment and profit that exploits its human and animal workers, in much the same way that war can. She wanted to represent the chaos of war with the nonsensical chaos of a circus, to stimulate thought about the necessity of war.

This less known song is from their 1996 album Load. The song speaks of a man that wants to be “king” and have everything, without regard to anything else. This speaks to materialism and the drive for power that many people have. Join our community of crafters and share your projects, ideas, and inspiration. We love to see what our customers are creating, and we're here to support you every step of the way.

The artist wanted to build on that theme of striving towards material gain and its meaninglessness. Materialism can have people figuratively spinning in circles without every achieving anything. So, for this piece, the art is mounted on a bearing that allows it to spin. The basis of the piece is a Monopoly board, since it signifies the meaningless quest for accumulating wealth. At its center, is a chess king, atop his pile of “riches.” 

From the 1986 album of the same name, Master of Puppets is a song about drug addiction. Lead singer, Hetfield, has explained that this song describes the point at which the drugs are in control of a person’s life. 

Although the drug referred to in the lyrics seems to be cocaine, the artist chose prescription opioids as the drug that is the master of this puppet. Opioid abuse is leading to massive social issues, and the root of the issue is in prescription drug misuse. For this interactive piece, housed in an old Double-Cola crate (which is a nod to the artist’s town of residence), one can lift the two outer bottles to control the marionette’s arms.

This song tells the story of a wounded soldier, similar to Dalton Trumbo’s book and movie “Johnny Got his Gun.” The man has lost his sight, speech, hearing, touch and most ways of communicating. His mind is trapped inside a body that does not function other than to keep him alive. In the book, Johnny communicates by tapping Morse Code with his head. He asks to be put on display to show the world the horrors of war.

The artist took a very abstract approach to this piece. Rather than using a human form, she chose a clock to represent the soldier. The clock is missing its hands and its face, and it is housed in a cage. This is in reference to the song’s lyrics of “body my holding cell.” The military dog tags provide the one touch of realism to the assemblage, reminding the observers that the subject is a soldier. The tags are imprinted with the total number of American casualties of war since 1776 (as of July 2021).

The title of this song and album was inspired by a line from Stephen King’s book, The Stand. The person was on death row, awaiting electrocution, which he referred to as waiting to ride the lightning. 

The artist wanted to represent the horror of innocent people being put to death by the state. She chose the cherub to represent those innocents, repainting his eyes to look frightened. A piece from a flashlight, along with a sparkplug represent the electric chair, and the cell is the housing of an old doorbell. The pipes from the doorbell can be interpreted to symbolize the chimes of a death knell.

This song, from 1996’s Load album, tells the tale of a troubled young man that was teased by the other children. He then uses a gun to retaliate against those that harmed him. 

Although this song was written before the Columbine school shooting and the subsequent tragedies at schools all over the country, it does seem to speak to a bullied child seeking vengeance by shooting his peers. 

The artist chose to build on this theme of school shootings by creating a simple assemblage filled with vintage items. The box is constructed from salvaged pallet boards. The background is a chalkboard, next to a text book from the 1930’s. Along with a ruler, sits a vintage toy gun that represents the actual guns that are now more common in schools than actual chalkboards. 

This song from the “And Justice for All” album was written after the band began reading about the blacklisting during the “Red Scare” in the 1950’s. During this point in the Cold War, the US government was fearful of communism spreading throughout. They began identifying people that expressed communist views or belonged to the Communist Party, and blacklists were published that sought to destroy the livelihoods of those persons. Most famous among them was the Hollywood Ten, who were artists in the film industry that were forced to work under pseudonyms due to being on one of the blacklists.

Since some members of the Hollywood Ten were Oscar winners, including Dalton Trumbo (author of Johnny Got His Gun), the artist wanted to represent that glamour of old Hollywood in this sculpture. The red represents not only the red carpet of Hollywood, but also the Communism that was so feared. Metallica described this as a witch-hunt, so the artist hung photos of the men from tiny nooses, as if they were lynched for their ‘crime” of sharing a different viewpoint. The photos all appear to be covered with ice and snow. This is a nod to another Metallica song, “Trapped Under Ice,” that describes loneliness and isolation. These men had their careers frozen and were alienated from the lives they had once known